Prehľad šifier používaných na Slovensku počas druhej svetovej vojny: 2. časť – diplomatické šifry

Overview of ciphers used in Slovakia during the WW2: Part 2 – Diplomatic ciphers

Autor: ANTAL Eugen – GROŠEK Otokar – ZAJAC Pavol

ANTAL, Eugen – GROŠEK, Otokar – ZAJAC, Pavol: Prehľad šifier používaných na Slovensku počas druhej svetovej vojny: 2. časť – diplomatické šifry

ANTAL, Eugen – GROŠEK, Otokar – ZAJAC, Pavol: Overview of ciphers used in Slovakia during the WW2: Part 2 – Diplomatic ciphers.

Vojenská história, 24, 3, 2020, pp. 95-108.

In this article, we focus on the ciphers used by Slovak diplomacy in the years 1939 - 1945. An important part of this study is also an overview of various problems related to encryption at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies. From the available archive documents, we found that the basic hand cipher that was used throughout the Second World War was „cipher XQ“. This cipher was subsequently renamed in 1940 to „cipher R“. A weaker hand cipher C was used in the first years of World War II in addition to the XQ (R). Embassies also used cipher machines (produced before the war in former Czechoslovakia), which were borrowed from the Ministry of National Defense. Due to the large error rate and constant problems with the use of the machines, they began to replace it in 1943 by machines Kryha. From the available documents, we found that there were various problems with using encryption in embassies throughout the Second World War. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to solve these problems gradually by means of various circulars and regulations, unfortunately without much success. Deficiencies were also present at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs encryption department.

Keywords: Military history. Slovakia. WWII. Historical ciphers. Cryptology. The years 1939 – 1945.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.69809/vojhist.2020.24.3.6

Ročník: 24 | Číslo: 3/2020 | Stránky: 95-108