Enigma

Akelei. What have you got there?

Claire?

- Move up. - Thank you.

Roast mules go topsy-turvy.

Ten letters ending in "T".

- I'm hopeless at this. - Me too.

"Somersault."

Bletchley.

It's a walk.

I know.

I've been here before.

This bus for Yardley...

This bus for...

Hello? Yes. I'll try that extension for you.

Please hold the line.

I'm just putting you through.

Yes, you're through.

- Mr Skynner? - Come in.

It's been a pleasure, sir.

I never wanted you back.

Logie says he needs you.

Well...

he's got you.

Conference in half an hour. And keep your mouth shut.

You're only there for show.

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. You do look bloody terrible.

- We missed you, Tom. - I know why you want me back, Guy.

You've lost the crown jewels, haven't you? You've lost Shark.

We got a call from one of the intercept stations in Scarborough.

And they started picking up a single word broadcast on the hour, every hour...

coming out of U-boat headquarters in Sainte-Assise.

- In Morse? - No, it was a human voice.

- Akelei. - Meaning what?

- It's a flower. - I know it's a bloody flower, Guy.

Aquilegia. Columbine. But what did it mean?

It meant, "Change the weather code".

The Germans have switched their U-boats to a new code book, and we're blacked out again.

Is that why the Yanks are here?

Skynner's in a panic.

They want to take over his empire.

Here comes our team.

- You! You! - Hello.

- You in the Royal Navy? - Oh, I'm sorry.

- Only for a day or two. I mean, actually on a ship. - What was your ship?

Look, I can't be expected to remember every little thing.

Sorry.

Welcome to Bletchley Park, sir.

Three convoys left New York in the past week...

and are presently at sea.

Convoy SC 122.

Fifty merchant ships carrying fuel oil, tanks...

iron ore, bauxite, also meat, sugar and wheat.

Convoy HX 229 departed New York on Monday.

Forty merchant vessels carrying explosives, manganese...

timber, powdered milk.

Convoy 229-A left New York on Tuesday...

carrying steel, timber, powdered milk.

I don't want a shopping list. What's the total?

One hundred and forty-one merchant ships, gross tonnage just under a million tons.

- Plus cargo of another million. - And where are the U-boats?

A submarine tracking rumour had three U-boat packs operational...

in the North Atlantic as of 00 hundred Thursday...

here, here and here.

Midnight Wednesday?

- So where are the U-boats now? - I'm afraid I have no idea.

I thought that was why we were here. Our intelligence has been shut off.

You're telling us that the largest assembly of merchant shipping...

we've ever sent across the North Atlantic...

is now steaming towards the largest concentration of U-boats...

the Germans have ever put in the North Atlantic...

and you don't know where the hell the goddam U-boats are?

- Gentlemen, if I may... - Shut up.

What are our convoys making, hmm?

Something over 220 miles a day.

Well, I'd say we have four days, maximum...

before the convoys come in operational range of where you last had the enemy.

So, Leonard, this blackout...

will it be over in four days?

Uh, it's possible.

Yes, well, all things are possible, Leonard, but is it likely?

Is it likely that you can break this code, this, um... What'd you call this?

This Shark? Before our convoys come in range of the U-boats.

- We'll give it every priority. - Yes, I know damn well you'll give it every priority, Leonard.

- That's not the question. - Well, sir, as you press me, yes, I think we may be able to do it.

Is that what you all believe?

Um, well, I suppose you could say we know more about Shark now than we did the last time.

If Guy thinks we can do it, I would certainly respect his opinion.

And you?

You don't seem to have much to say.

Tom Jericho. He's the one who got us into reading Shark. If there's anyone alive...

Can you break Shark again in four days?

Have you any idea what you're talking about?

Tom's been on sick leave for the last month, so I don't think he's fully in the picture...

Enigma is a very sophisticated enciphering machine...

and Shark is its ultimate refinement...

so we're not talking about "The Times'" crossword.

It weighs 26 pounds, battery included...

and goes anywhere.

The Enigma machine. The Germans have thousands of them.

What's it do?

It turns plain-text messages into gobbledygook.

Then the gobbledygook gets transmitted in Morse.

At the receiving end, there's another Enigma machine to turn it back into the original message.

Press the same key any number of times, it will always come out different.

- And you have one of your own. - Courtesy of the Polish Cipher Bureau.

So what's the problem?

Problem?

The problem is the machine has 115 million million million ways of doing it...

according to how you set these three rotors and how you connect these plugs.

And that's Shark.

No. No, no, no. This is the one we can break.

Shark is enciphered on a machine with a fourth rotor specially developed for U-boats...

which gives it about 4,000 million billion different starting positions.

And, uh, we've never seen one.

Holy shit!

I haven't understood a word.

Can somebody give me a straight answer to a straight question?

- Will this blackout definitely be over in... - Nobody can say definitely, sir.

Yes or no?

- No. - Thank you.

So it isn't over in four days. When will it be over, hmm?

Hmm? Hmm? You.

Well, all I have to measure it by is how long it took last time when Shark first came in.

- And how long did it take? - Ten months.

Well, this is a great day for Adolf Hitler.

Ten months?

But you did break it?

Yes.

- How? - I'm afraid I can't tell you that.

I think it's time we...

I think it's time I got back to London.

It's not just a million tons of shipping. It's a million tons of shipping every week!

It's our capability to supply Russia, to support the army in North Africa...

to invade Europe and drive the Germans out.

- It's the whole fucking war. - Sir.

Satisfied? Now, send the stupid bugger back to where he came from.

Don't waste a match.

Back to Mayfair?

No.

How many people knew about the German weather code...

how important it was to us?

A dozen, maybe. Why?

Make me a little list?

What are you doing here, Mr Wigram?

You think there's a spy in Bletchley Park?

I'm Cave. Naval Intelligence.

I'll be liaising with the admiralty. They've given me an office in your hut.

I'm ultra-cleared.

- What does that mean? - That means I know how you broke Shark, in principle.

You used a captured copy of the German Navy's weather code book.

Gave you a pretty good idea of what their weather signals were supposed to be saying.

Can I see it?

Midnight, two days ago, the Germans changed to a new book.

- So we lost that crib. - Well, why do you think they did that just then?

Don't know.

And the other one?

Short signal code book.

The U-boats employ it for reporting their position, course and speed.

Unfortunately, if you don't know where the U-boat is or what it's doing...

the short signal code book isn't much help as a crib.

Two men died saving those little books...

from a sinking submarine.

Fasson and Grazier.

We caught the U-boat on the surface in the eastern Med.

The sub went down when they were inside trying to bring out its four-rotor Enigma.

November '42. I was in destroyers.

It was my last ship.

Bletchley is the lucky number in this war.

- One and six, please. - One and six.

Here you are.

Girls, guess I'm off.

- See you later. - Yes, I'll see you later.

Miss Wallace?

Mr Jericho. When did you get back?

Just today. How, uh... How are you?

How am I?

Yeah, all right. How is she?

She's... She's Claire.

- Well, will you tell her? - If I see her.

She hasn't been sleeping at home the last two nights.

Sorry.

Good morning, sir.

- Worrying about your babies? - Puck.

Thomas.

So, they say you're not crazy any more.

- It thinks it's found a possible. - It thinks?

- Why not? - Been in the hut?

- Come on. Get it over with. - No, I'm fine, Puck.

Sure, you are.

Hey, Betty, wait for me!

Gentlemen, we have a ghost.

Tom, how the hell are you?

- Well. Very well. - Have you escaped, or what?

- I thought this was the asylum. - How are you?

- Good. - Bloody hell!

- How's the revolution, Alec? - Coming along, comrade. Coming along.

- T... T... T... - Yes, it's me.

I, uh... I want to see all the Shark traffic we haven't been able to break.

- In at the deep end. - Why not?

- Yes, why not? - Have you got yesterday's Porpoises?