Enigma code veteran tells all on video

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2004 01:05

A MAN who helped to break the intelligence codes used by the Germans in the Second World War has made a series of videos about his experiences.

Kennedy McConnell, 83, was one of hundreds of people employed to try to crack the clever Enigma codes used by the German military.

Now, with the help of a film-maker, Mr McConnell, who lives in Dundee, has produced five illustrated talks, using slides, to reveal how the codes worked and how they were broken.

During the war Mr McConnell worked as an electrical technician at a secret satellite station at Eastcote, west London.

For about five years he developed and maintained machines known as Bombes, created to identify the codes.

The breaking of the Enigma codes is recognised by historians as cryptography’s greatest success and is thought to have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Since 1996, Mr McConnell has toured Scotland giving talks about his wartime experiences. He has also donated some of his lecture notes to the Imperial War Museum in London.

Mr McConnell has about 50 copies of the videos and yesterday donated a set to Dundee Central Library.

He said: "I was fed-up seeing all these documentaries about Enigma and the Bombes which were wrong, so I decided to tell the inside story of how it was. My health is failing now, and last year I decided to make the videos so they could be a permanent record of events. I introduce it and thereafter there are slides and photographs."

The videos run for a total of 30 hours and were filmed in Mr McConnell’s living-room by a local film-maker, Colin Cosgrove.

Mr McConnell was responsible for repairing the Bombe machines when they broke down while trying to intercept the Enigma codes.

"Once the Bombe started running, it got through 17,000 messages in 18 minutes. It was crucial that we kept the Bombes working, as important information could be lost," he said.

The technicians at Eastcote were working in tandem with cryptographers based at Bletchley Park, north of London.

David Kett, of Dundee Central Library, said: "The videos are key documents of national importance, and we are very pleased that Mr McConnell has decided to make them publicly available in this way."