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There were two entirely different types of Nazi messages that were decoded at Bletchley Park during World War II: Enigma and Lorenz.

This photo shows the more widely-known Nazi Enigma encoding/decoding unit. It was used to encrypt and decrypt Morse Code messages. It was portable, using only a few flashlight (torch) batteries to power the lettered lights in the center.

The operator used the letter keys to enter one letter and then he wrote down which letter was lit up. The code wheels at the top and the patch panel on the front of the machine established the letter scrambling for that month, week or day (depending on how often the code was changed). After he had entered each letter of the message and written down the corresponding encoded letters, the operator sent the resulting message via radio, keying each letter using Morse Code.

British operators at short wave receivers at a variety of sites around Britain intercepted the radio messages and meticulously wrote down the meaningless letters of the Nazi messages. The messages were all sent to Bletchley Park via several different mediums (telegraph, teleprinter, motorcycle courier, and mail).