#OnThisDay Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union invades Poland, in accordance with the secret provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact….
Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski, the man who broke the Nazis' "unbreakable" Enigma cipher, had fled Warsaw & found refuge in Eastern Poland. When the Soviets invade, he & 2 young colleages flee again, this time to Romania…
@OrenNahari @MilHistNow
#War_Of_Shadows
Exploiting the chaos at the border, master codebreaker Rejewski & his colleagues evade internment by the Romanians & reach Bucharest.
There they ask the British embassy for help…
@calder_walton @SarahAWildman
An overwhelmed British official tells them to come back the next day. Desperate, they turn to the French embassy. French intelligence knew the Polish codebreakers…
#War_of_Shadows
The French embassy gives the 3 Polish codebreakers passports, visas, and tickets. Rejewski & colleagues board yet another train—this time across the southern rim of Europe, through Yugoslavia and Italy to France...
@dovalfon
Poland is doomed, but its secret weapon - Marian Rejewski - has escaped with his life...
The refusal of help by a British official in Bucharest, though, means that Britain loses the potential services of Polish codebreakers. The British don't fully know what they've lost…
Because British codebreakers can't believe Rejewski broke Enigma on his on. They're sure he received a stolen Enigma machine. …
The full consequences of this mistake are unknowable. It's possible that they would have to be measured in British ships sunk in the Atlantic while Bletchley Park struggles with the tougher German navy version of Enigma. ...
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