German code breaking in World War II German code breaking in World War II German code breaking in World War II achieved some notable successes cracking British Naval ciphers until well into the fourth year of the war, but also suffered from a problem typical of the German armed forces of the time: numerous branches and institutions maintained their own cryptographic departments, working on their own without collaboration or sharing results with equivalent units. This led to duplicated effort, to a fragmentation of potential, and to lower efficiency than might have been achieved. There was no central German cryptography agency comparable to the British Bletchley Park facility.
Enigma machine Enigma variant was a four-wheel unsteckered machine with multiple notches on the rotors. This model was equipped with a counter which incremented upon each key press, and so is also known as the "counter machine" or the "Zählwerk" Enigma. Enigma machine G was modified to the "Enigma I" by June 1930. Enigma I is also known as the "Wehrmacht", or "Services" Enigma, and was used extensively by German military services and other government organisations (such as the railways) before and during World War II. The major difference between "Enigma I" (German Army version from 1930), and commercial Enigma models was