Re: Typex in the Navy?

--- Ian Walker <ianwalker-iISbEiSP9V1LonROPQ/[email protected]> wrote:

> During the Churchill weekend, in the Bombe area at BP, I was asked by a 
> visitor if the British Typex machine was used on board ship by the Navy. 
> Can anybody shed any light on this?

If you can get hold of it, Ralph Erskine's article on this topic addresses this
question in fascinating detail:

Ralph Erskine, "The Admiralty and Cipher Machines During the Second World War:
Not So Stupid after All." Journal of Intelligence History 2(2) (Winter 2002).

Erskine says, "In the result, Typex, as such, only served on board fleet
flagships and, for combined operations, landing ships headquarters, and never
entered service on other ships. Instead, Typex was only used in ships as the
basis of the British end of the British-American Combined Cipher Machine."

The reason for this, Erskine argues, was the slow production of Typex. (The
Admiralty had been previously accused by some writers of "stupidly" refusing to
adopt cipher machines).

-- Matt

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com

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