Man in court over Enigma machine theft

British servicemen captured the encoding machine from a Nazi U-boat

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A 57-year old man appeared in court on Monday to face charges in connection with the theft of an encoding machine used by the Nazis during World War Two.

Dennis Yates was charged with blackmail and receiving stolen goods. He was granted bail by Milton Keynes magistrates' court and is scheduled to return to court on January 15, a court official said.

The once top-secret Enigma communications device was stolen from a museum display cabinet in April.

In October the machine was sent by post to BBC television presenter Jeremy Paxman, who handed it over to police. But vital pieces of the machine are still missing.

Enigma was the name given to the German military coding system used to direct ships, submarines and armies on all fronts of the Third Reich's battle to dominate Europe.

Only three Enigma encoding machines exist, each one worth around 10,000 pounds. But their historical significance in considered far greater than their monetary value.

Police say the recovered machine is missing three rotors -- vital parts of the device which scrambled the letters of a message into code at the sending end, but allowed the message to be decoded by another Enigma machine on the receiving end if its rotors were correspondingly set.

During World War II, allied intelligence agents obtained several of the devices, allowing them to decipher secret messages and, in the words of then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, shorten the war by two years.

In October, shortly before the stolen machine was posted to the BBC, a ransom note for 25,000 pounds ($35,600) from someone claiming to be writing on behalf of "The Master" was sent to Bletchley Park museum, where the machine had been on display.

The note also contained a threat that the machine would be destroyed if the money was not paid before a deadline.

The museum said it had agreed to pay the ransom but the money was never handed over.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Man charged over Enigma machine theft
November 19, 2000
Stolen Enigma machine 'posted' to journalist
October 17, 2000

Codes and Ciphers in the Second World War

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