Bletchley Park will be unveiling its newly commissioned display case for the first time on Sunday 5th September at 12.30, at the Enigma Reunion (the annual reunion of Codebreakers at Bletchley Park). The case has been specially designed to display all of Bletchley Park’s unique collection of WW2 Enigma code machines, some of which have never been on display before. It will also feature a new, and very rare cipher machine, the SG41 being loaned by GCHQ.

This specially designed case has been funded by West Bletchley Council and Milton Keynes Community Foundation, both strong supporters of Bletchley Park.

Simon Greenish, Director of Bletchley Park, said, “This generous funding has enabled us to finally display our whole collection, in not only a secure environment, but in a professional manner allowing the public to get the best view of what is possibly the largest collection of Enigma machines on public display.”

The SG41 is the last cipher machine developed by Germany during WWII. It never found favour being more complicated to set and operate than an Enigma machine, and it was less mechanically reliable. The SG41 was introduced at the end of the war in 1944, and was so secure it even defeated the code breakers at Bletchley Park.

Admiral Canaris, Head of the Abwehr, realised that Enigma coded messages were possibly being read by the Allies, so he commissioned this much stronger machine. Fewer than 500 SG41’s were produced making this a very rare machine. It is believed that fewer than ten are known to have survived.