[ad_1]
Axel Heimken / Getty Images
Florian Huber, a research diver, kneels in front of the Schleswig-Holstein archaeological office as he hands over the Enigma cipher machine, which he found in the Baltic Sea, next to the machine.
A team of divers made an incredible discovery when they found a Nazi encryption device, an Enigma machine, at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The group, divers from the World Wildlife Fund searching for abandoned fishing nets to remove, thought they had found an old typewriter before realizing they had found something much rarer.
“I have made many exciting and strange discoveries in the last 20 years. But I never dreamed that one day we would find one of the legendary Enigma machines, ”underwater archaeologist Florian Huber told Reuters.
Enigma machines were used by the Nazi army to send secret messages, but the code was cracked by British cryptographers led by Alan Turing, helping to turn the tide of WWII.
READ MORE:
* German / US spy owned encryption company used by allies and adversaries
* Alan Turing revealed as the new face of England’s £ 50 note
* The 100-year mystery about a famous war photo
* An American code-breaking couple invented the ‘Purple Machine’ cracking in WWII
* The 10 best spy and cold war museums in the world
In May 1945, some 50 Nazi submarines, called submarines, were intentionally sunk near where the device was found in an effort to avoid handing over the ships to the Allies after the Nazis surrendered.
“We suspect that our Enigma went overboard in the course of this event,” Huber said.
Axel Heimken / Getty Images
Florian Huber, a research diver, kneels in front of the Schleswig-Holstein archaeological office as he hands over the Enigma cipher machine, which he found in the Baltic Sea.
The Nazis ended up sinking more than 200 of their own submarines in the Baltic and North Seas before the end of the war.
The divers said that although the Enigma machines can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, theirs will be donated to the Schloss Gottorf Archaeological Museum in Schleswig, Germany.
-New York Daily News
