h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

U-571 is on the box tonight.

And yet again, there are lots of British people in my immediate acquaintance who are whinging about how historically inaccurate it is, because the Americans didn't capture the Enigma machine, the Brits did.

Could I officially request all the aforementioned people to remove their heads from their posteriors right now please. The Enigma machine was captured by the Poles (with a little help from the French). They just passed it on to us when they'd finished with it. If there's one thing worse than self-important Americans, it's self-important British people. They just don't have the breeding for it.

B

As if it wasn't bad enough that it has Jon Bon Jovi in it...

Well technically speaking it was the British who captured the Naval version of whole bang-shoot. Yes the French and the Poles were involved in capturing the army version which were the earlier versions of the kit.

However the fact remains that not a single American was involved in the capturing or deciphering of the codes. And hence, the film is historically incorrect

I thought it was captured by a crossword boffin from Bletchley, who grabbed it from a low-flying u-boat?

RF

The naval version, to my recollection, was actually captured by some neutral Scandinavians who decided to pass it our way.

B

That was jolly decent of them, wasn't it?

And German u-boats are invulnerable to German depth charges. I wonder how they tested those depth charges? If they know they're useless, why bother?

RF

Umm, my memory suggests that HMS Bulldog captured a complete Enigma machine from U-110....

so who fabricated the little bit at the end of the film where it writes up who captured what?

very nasty thing to do that, as most people will be conned into thinking that was true ...

Well, your memory actually suggests nothing of the sort Kerr, given that you were born some 40 years after the event.

Bulldog had a mission plan to capture the naval Enigma. Unfortunately it was never carried out. The one the RN acquired was salvaged from the Baltic by a boatload of Swedes (I think), much to the embarrassment of both warring factions.

B

Okay then "my memory of half paying attention in history class". Better?