I found a WWII movie for yinz to watch.

[JimPghPA]

Years ago I read the book "Silk and Cyanide" which was a very good book about Bletchley Park and code breaking during WWII. If you have not read it, I recommend it, though the beginning of the book is a little slow read, once you get into the details later in the book you learn a lot about how things happened back then.

When I heard a review on TV today about a movie called "The Imitation Game" it reminded my of the book "Silk and Cyanide" and I had to find out if it was available on my cable, and it was for free. While there were some topics in the movie that I do not care for, in general it is a very good movie that shows what went on with the British and code breaking during WWII, and how important a secret it was, and the extremes they went through to keep it a secret to get the most use out of it to win the war.

If you are into understanding the strategies the Allies and in-particular the British had to use back then I recommend you watch it.

 

[Saleen0679]

I remember watching the movie when it came out. I thought it would be dull and boring but it was good.
Another good book on the subject is The Codebreakers by David Kahn. Dry but interesting reading.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by JimPghPA
Years ago I read the book "Silk and Cyanide" which was a very good book about Bletchley Park and code breaking during WWII. If you have not read it, I recommend it, though the beginning of the book is a little slow read, once you get into the details later in the book you learn a lot about how things happened back then.

When I heard a review on TV today about a movie called "The Imitation Game" it reminded my of the book "Silk and Cyanide" and I had to find out if it was available on my cable, and it was for free. While there were some topics in the movie that I do not care for, in general it is a very good movie that shows what went on with the British and code breaking during WWII, and how important a secret it was, and the extremes they went through to keep it a secret to get the most use out of it to win the war.

If you are into understanding the strategies the Allies and in-particular the British had to use back then I recommend you watch it.

I have watched the movie and thought it good , although I did not care for the parts that brought out Turing's homosexuality . Go ahead and flame me . I am a dyed in the wool Red Neck .

I thought it a marvel they ever broke the codes !

 

[Rand]

when I saw Yinz I knew it was pittsburgh lol.

 

[csandste]

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Yinz

I'm 75 years old, but that's a new one for me. Remember having a presenter at a meeting who was getting his doctorate at New York University? and was writing a dissertation on the speech patters in St. Charles which are apparently different than the speech patterns in St. Louis across the river. Regional speech patterns are, unfortunately, disappearing all over the country.

I am richer for knowing about yinz in my old age.

Is Pittsburgh (like St. Louis) the kind of town that when they ask you where you went to school, they're talking about high school? If no one moves in or out, that question tells all you need to know about a person. Unfortunately it also means that you can live there for fifty years and still be an outsider.

My apologies for hijacking (or around here, carjacking) the thread.

 

[JimPghPA]

I just got back home and am watching Midway, haven't seen it in several years, but watched it many times in the past, several times with my dad who was trained to be a bombardier in WWII but the war ended before he was shipped over-seas. Midway is another great example of how important inelegance and code-breaking was. And it is still likely very important today.

I can't remember if it was in the book Silk and Cyanide, or if I saw it once in a TV WWII documentary, but I remember that there was a destroyer Captain who knew that the Germans had the Egigma machine and that each German sub had one on-board. The Allies were depth charging German subs and sometimes one of them would surface and surrender and the German crew would leave the sub and the sub would sink because the Germans set a self district charge to scuttle the sub so the Allies could not get it. So this U.S. Captain trained an elite group of his men to quickly board any German sub after the German crew left it, and to recover an Egigma machine. His crew succeeded in capturing an Egigma machine from a German sub. The problem was that the Allies already had an Egigma machine, and when Allie Command who found out about the capture of the Egigma machine by this Captain they wanted to throw the book at him, because they were concerned that the Germans would find out that one of their Egigma machines had been captured. I think the Allies had to quarantine the German sub crew for the remainder of the war because they had seen the U.S. elite crew successfully board the sub and retrieve the machine.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Not the same exact story, but the movie U-571 deals with capturing a German sub for the purpose of gaining access to the Enigma cipher machine. The plot is fictional, but it's a decent movie, nonetheless, especially if you have a good home theater sound system.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted by JimPghPA
when Allied Command who found out about the capture of the Egigma machine by this Captain they wanted to throw the book at him, because they were concerned that the Germans would find out that one of their Egigma machines had been captured. I think the Allies had to quarantine the German sub crew for the remainder of the war because they had seen the U.S. elite crew successfully board the sub and retrieve the machine.

That story is similar to the capture of the U505 sub that is on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. "US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King considered court-martialling Captain Gallery because he towed U-505 instead of sinking it after capturing the code books.[29] The submarine's crewmen were isolated from other prisoners of war, and the Red Cross were denied access to them. The Kriegsmarine finally declared the crew dead and informed the families to that effect, and the crew were not returned until 1947." .....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-505

I would imagine that they did this a lot.

Of interest: https://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/u-505-submarine/ .... I toured the sub while on field trips in elementary school circa mid-60's. The museum was free back then.

 

[JimPghPA]

doitmyself, it may very well be that the capture of U505 is what I was remembering, I am not sure. Maybe it was the capture of the code-book, not the Egigma machine that I was trying to remember. I do remember that it was interesting that the Captain was in trouble because of the possible breach of security from him making the capture. This is a prime example of the necessity of following a chain of command, and not over-stepping ones authority. Although sometimes the slow response of red tape to get the proper command the information, and get the information back, did require independent thinking, which was something various Allied command shined at, and German and Japanese commanders lacked. I remember the WWII movie where the Germans were about to capture the important American fuel dump intact and the few Americans realized they had to "burn it all" without orders from above, before the Germans captured it intact.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by Rand
when I saw Yinz I knew it was pittsburgh lol.


Stop being so nebby.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

doitmyself, it may very well be that the capture of U505 is what I was remembering, I am not sure. Maybe it was the capture of the code-book, not the Egigma machine that I was trying to remember. I do remember that it was interesting that the Captain was in trouble because of the possible breach of security from him making the capture. This is a prime example of the necessity of following a chain of command, and not over-stepping ones authority. Although sometimes the slow response of red tape to get the proper command the information, and get the information back, did require independent thinking, which was something various Allied command shined at, and German and Japanese commanders lacked. I remember the WWII movie where the Germans were about to capture the important American fuel dump intact and the few Americans realized they had to "burn it all" without orders from above, before the Germans captured it intact.

Battle of the Bulge that happened. We were badly over run and out gunned by our weak armed Sherman tanks against the King Tiger German killing machine tanks. Two things, we ran them out of fuel and they were so heavy they sunk in mud and could not travel the same roads our little brave Shermans could. The best thing that happened was the US auto industry could pump out hundreds of Shermans and get them to the battle fields while it took Hitler forever to get his superior monster tanks to the front battle lines.