Eighty-Two Letters

Quick answer: How was an unbroken 1941 Enigma message finally decrypted?

Message 172, an 82-letter German radio message from July 10, 1941, resisted a group of retired cryptographers in Norway, England, and Germany for twenty years. On September 14, a Bloomberg product coach named Carter Leffen asked an AI program to try, and per the essay it was read in about ten hours.

In the German federal archives in Freiburg sits a radio message form filled out in pencil on July 10, 1941, somewhere east of the Latvian border: eighty-two capital letters in blocks of five, logged as message 172 and never read. For twenty years a small group of retired cryptographers in Norway, England, and Germany worked the folder. They read the message after it and most of the others. Number 172 wouldn't give. John connects it to his April visit to Bletchley Park, where he watched a reconstructed Bombe turn its bronze drums in Hut 11A, the way young Wrens ran it behind blacked-out windows in 1941. Then, on September 14, a Bloomberg product coach named Carter Leffen sat down on a Sunday and asked an AI program to try. John's takeaway is for all of us: there's a folder like that in your life, the family letters or the unasked question, and the excuse just expired. And to the quiet keepers of those folders: keep going.

Why it matters for leaders: New tools reward the people who show up with a question, and they depend on the people who kept the records.

Q: Where is the original message kept?

A: In the German federal archives in Freiburg, on a pencil-filled radio message form from east of the Latvian border.

Q: What did John see at Bletchley Park?

A: A working reconstruction of the Bombe in Hut 11A, the machine Wrens operated in 1941 to help break Enigma settings.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/eighty-two-letters

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation