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This Web page contains information and documents that are related to our article “Spanish Enigma: A History of the Enigma in Spain” by José Ramón Soler Fuensanta, Francisco Javier López-Brea Espiau, and Frode Weierud and that was published in Cryptologia Volume 34, Issue 4, October 2010 , pages 301‐328. The author’s version is available here.
Most of the documents here are from the TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee)
collections T 1715, T1716, T1717 and T1718 that contain original documents from
Chiffriermaschinen Aktiengesellschaft (ChiMAG) and the later
company Chiffriermaschinen Gesellschaft Heimsoeth & Rinke (H&R).
The archive reference is ENIGMA Documents from Heimsoeth & Rinke.
Bestand Rückgabe TICOM, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts. Berlin.
Archive Signature: T1715, T1716, T1717 and T1718.
The first Enigma machines came to Spain with the German Condor Legion and they were all delivered through German government and military channels. The Condor Legion Machines are documented here.
The Enigma machines connected with Spain had special rotor wirings that where called Schaltung A to Schaltung F, Wiring A to F. Some of these machines are documented here: Schaltung A, Schaltung B and Schaltung F.
The only other channel for Enigma sales to Spain was through HISMA/ROWAK. The Spanish Gendarmerie, La Guardia Civil, wanted to buy a large number of Enigma machines from H&R. The development of this order, which never came to a successful end, is described in these documents: Guardia Civil and Helmut Schröder. A German business man and engineer, Karl Devantier, wished to represent H&R in Spain but this was refused by OKH referring to the monopoly that existed through ROWAK. A more successful sale was the delivery of three Enigma machines to the Batallón de Transmisiones de Marruecos, Ceuta in Spanish Morocco in January 1939. The sale took place via the German telecommunication company C. Lorenz in Berlin.
Some of the Enigma machines on Wiring B and that we believe were brought back to Germany from Spain were later rewired for use by the Croatian Home Defence Forces (Kroatischen Landwehr – Hrvatsko Domobranstvo). Documents referring to the Croatian Machines are described here.
Copyright:
All rights to original material described on these pages belong to
Frode Weierud, © February 2010
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