Enigma rotor details - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article contains technical details about the rotors of the Enigma machine

Enigma machine

An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...

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Understanding the way the machine encrypts requires taking into account the current position of each rotor, the ring setting and its internal wiring.

Physical design of rotors

Exploded view of an Enigma rotor			Three rotors in sequence
	notched ring marking dot for "A" contact alphabet tyre plate contacts wire connections pin contacts spring-loaded ring adjusting lever hub finger wheel ratchet wheel

Rotor electrical view

The rotor offset

In order to understand the effect of rotation on the rotors we demonstrate this by some examples.

As an example, let us take rotor type I without any ring setting offset. You can see that an A is encoded as an E, a B encoded as a K, and a K is encoded as an N. Notice that every letter is encoded into another.

In the case of the reflectors, we take Wide B where an A is returned as a Y and the Y is returned as an A. Notice that the wirings are connected as a loop between two letters.

When a rotor has stepped, you must take into account the offset to know what the output is, and where it enters the next rotor.

If for example rotor I is in the B-position, an A enters at the letter B which is wired to the K. Because of the offset this K enters the next rotor in the J position.

With the rotors I, II and III (from left to right), wide B-reflector, all ring settings in A-position, and start position AAA, typing AAAAA will produce the encoded sequence BDZGO.

The ring setting

The ring settings, or Ringstellung, are used to change the position of the internal wiring relative to the rotor. They do not change the notch or the alphabet ring on the exterior. Those are fixed to the rotor. Changing the ring setting will therefore change the positions of the wiring, relative to the turnover-point and start position.

The ring setting will rotate the wiring. Where rotor I in the A-position normally encodes an A into an E, with a ring setting offset B-02 it will be encoded into K

As mentioned before these encodings only happen after the key is pressed and the rotor has turned. Tracing the signal on the rotors AAA is therefore only possible if a key is pressed while the rotors were in the position AAZ.

With the rotors I, II, III (from left to right), wide B-reflector, all ring settings in B-position, and start position AAA, typing AAAAA will produce the encoded sequence EWTYX.

Rotor wiring tables

This table shows how the internal wiring connects the right side of the rotor (with the springloaded contacts) to the left side. Each rotor is a simple substitution cipher. The letters are listed as connected to alphabet order. If the first letter of a rotor is E, this means that the A is wired to the E. This does not mean that E is wired to A. This looped wiring is only the case with the reflectors.

Terminology

The reflector is also known as the reversing drum or, from the German, the Umkehrwalze or UKW.

**Rotor Wiring**
Rotor #	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`	Date Introduced	Model Name & Number
IC	`DMTWSILRUYQNKFEJCAZBPGXOHV`	1924	Commercial Enigma A, B
IIC	`HQZGPJTMOBLNCIFDYAWVEUSRKX`	1924	Commercial Enigma A, B
IIIC	`UQNTLSZFMREHDPXKIBVYGJCWOA`	1924	Commercial Enigma A, B

Rotor #	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`	Date Introduced	Model Name & Number
I	`JGDQOXUSCAMIFRVTPNEWKBLZYH`	7 February 1941	German Railway (Rocket)
II	`NTZPSFBOKMWRCJDIVLAEYUXHGQ`	7 February 1941	German Railway (Rocket)
III	`JVIUBHTCDYAKEQZPOSGXNRMWFL`	7 February 1941	German Railway (Rocket)
UKW	`QYHOGNECVPUZTFDJAXWMKISRBL`	7 February 1941	German Railway (Rocket)
ETW	`QWERTZUIOASDFGHJKPYXCVBNML`	7 February 1941	German Railway (Rocket)

Rotor #	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`	Date Introduced	Model Name & Number
I-K	`PEZUOHXSCVFMTBGLRINQJWAYDK`	February 1939	Swiss K
II-K	`ZOUESYDKFWPCIQXHMVBLGNJRAT`	February 1939	Swiss K
III-K	`EHRVXGAOBQUSIMZFLYNWKTPDJC`	February 1939	Swiss K
UKW-K	`IMETCGFRAYSQBZXWLHKDVUPOJN`	February 1939	Swiss K
ETW-K	`QWERTZUIOASDFGHJKPYXCVBNML`	February 1939	Swiss K

Rotor #	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`	Date Introduced	Model Name & Number
I	`EKMFLGDQVZNTOWYHXUSPAIBRCJ`	1930	Enigma I
II	`AJDKSIRUXBLHWTMCQGZNPYFVOE`	1930	Enigma I
III	`BDFHJLCPRTXVZNYEIWGAKMUSQO`	1930	Enigma I
IV	`ESOVPZJAYQUIRHXLNFTGKDCMWB`	DEC 1938	M3 Army
V	`VZBRGITYUPSDNHLXAWMJQOFECK`	DEC 1938	M3 Army
VI	`JPGVOUMFYQBENHZRDKASXLICTW`	1939	M3 & M4 Naval (FEB 1942)
VII	`NZJHGRCXMYSWBOUFAIVLPEKQDT`	1939	M3 & M4 Naval (FEB 1942)
VIII	`FKQHTLXOCBJSPDZRAMEWNIUYGV`	1939	M3 & M4 Naval (FEB 1942)

Rotor #	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`	Date Introduced	Model Name & Number
Beta	`LEYJVCNIXWPBQMDRTAKZGFUHOS`	Spring 1941	M4 R2
Gamma	`FSOKANUERHMBTIYCWLQPZXVGJD`	Spring 1942	M4 R2
Reflector A	`EJMZALYXVBWFCRQUONTSPIKHGD`
Reflector B	`YRUHQSLDPXNGOKMIEBFZCWVJAT`
Reflector C	`FVPJIAOYEDRZXWGCTKUQSBNMHL`
Reflector B Thin	`ENKQAUYWJICOPBLMDXZVFTHRGS`	1940	M4 R1 (M3 + Thin)
Reflector C Thin	`RDOBJNTKVEHMLFCWZAXGYIPSUQ`	1940	M4 R1 (M3 + Thin)
ETW	`ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ`		Enigma I

Technical comments related to Enigma modifications 1939-1945.

Swiss K

In 1941 it became known to the Swiss that some of their Enigma traffic was being read by the French. It was decided to make some design modifications.
One of the modifications consisted in modifying the wheel stepping on the Swiss Army machine. The slow, left-hand wheel was made stationary during operation while the second wheel stepped with every key stroke.
The third wheel and the UKW would step in the normal fashion with Enigma stepping for the third wheel.
The stationary but rotatable left-hand wheel was meant to make up for the missing stecker connections on the commercial machine.
Swiss Army Enigma machines were the only machines modified. The surviving Swiss Air Force machines do not show any signs of modification. Machines used by the diplomatic service apparently were not altered either.

Turnover positions

In this table the turnover point of each rotor is listed. For more details on how the rotors move, please check the Stepping motion section and the remarks on double-stepping in the Enigma

Enigma machine

article.

Rotor	Notch	Effect
I	Q	If rotor steps from Q to R, the next rotor is advanced
II	E	If rotor steps from E to F, the next rotor is advanced
III	V	If rotor steps from V to W, the next rotor is advanced
IV	J	If rotor steps from J to K, the next rotor is advanced
V	Z	If rotor steps from Z to A, the next rotor is advanced
VI, VII, VIII	Z+M	if rotor steps from Z to A, or from M to N the next rotor is advanced

Normalized Enigma sequences

In the following examples you can observe a normal step sequence and a double step sequence. The used rotors are (from left to right) I, II, III, with turnovers on Q, E and V. It is the right rotor's behavior we observe here (turnover V).

Normal sequence:

AAU — normal step of right rotor
AAV — right rotor (III) goes in V—notch position
ABW — right rotor takes middle rotor one step further
ABX — normal step of right rotor

Double step sequence:

ADU — normal step of right rotor
ADV — right rotor (III) goes in V—notch position
AEW — right rotor steps, takes middle rotor (II) one step further, which is now in its own E—notch position
BFX — normal step of right rotor, double step of middle rotor, normal step of left rotor
BFY — normal step of right rotor