Obituary Cdr Alec Dennis, captured Enigma machine and codes

In the Telegraph here

"Commander Alec Dennis, who has died aged 91, captured the first documents and code books for a German Enigma machine when a lookout on the destroyer Griffin off Norway in April 1940 spotted a trawler with a large painted Dutch flag. .......With the documents recovered from the sea and another found in Polares giving the procedure for setting the scrambler of an Enigma machine, Alan Turing was eventually able to read Enigma at Bletchley Park." [which had not been done before]

In other words, a very important capture.

Later in the war he commanded the destroyer HMS Valorous, aged 26.

 

Lize, all lize I tell ya,

I know because I saw the movie U-352 and it was the Americans that captured the enigma machine. :rambo:

 

There's many a true word spoken in jest and this remains a bone of contention for many. According to American movies, I'm not even sure the Brits participated in the Second World War except for the occasional snooty, cowardly officer attached to a US Unit. The Brit soldiers were all nasty sadists during the War of Independence too. At least the US forces have more respect for us than their movie makers do.

(Wiki link - Total UK WWII deaths 450,400. Total US WWII deaths 418,500.)

 

Total Red Army deaths about 6 million!

 

Re: Obituary Cdr Alec Dennis, captured Enigma machine and co

I do agree with you, but in fairness how much of a mention does the Soviet Union get here or in the US for having over 13% of it's population killed or Poland with 16% against less than 1% of the UK population.

In Russia little mention is made of the Western Allies part in the second world war and each country seems to tell the story from their own point of view, without much acknowledgement of the others!

Not that any of this excuses Hollywood re-writing history!