A 3D virtual simulation of the German World War II cipher attachment
New! Released 12th December 2022
Find Out More Run Virtual Lorenz 3D Try Paper LorenzDuring World War II, the German High Command required a fast and secure way of transmitting messages between themselves and the army commanders out on the battle fronts. C. Lorenz AG in Berlin created a set of cipher attachment machines, the Lorenz SZ40, SZ42A and SZ42B, which could encode messages directly from a teleprinter and transmit them via radio to a duplcate machine at the receiving end where the original message would be decoded automatically.
This website has an online simulation of the Lorenz machines so you can actually encipher and decipher secret messages, exactly as they did during the war.
What do I need to know to run it!A number of simulations are available of machines which ran both at Bletchley Park and in Germany during WW2.
Try your hand at running the Lorenz SZ42, Colossus, Enigma or a Turing-Welchman Bombe in 3D or some of our older simulations, Virtual Typex or Virtual Dragon.
The Lorenz SZ40/42 was a formidable cipher attachment used by the German High Command. Use the machine that Colossus was built to break.
A fully working, 3D simulation of the first electronic computer which broke the German Lorenz cipher during WW2 at Bletchley Park.
Enigma machines were a series of cipher machines developed in Germany between 1923 and 1945. The cipher was cracked initially by the Polish and then expanded on and broken daily at Bletchley Park. This is a fully usable 3D simulation of two models of Enigma.
The Hagelin M-209 is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II, though it remained in active use through the Korean War.
The Turing-Welchman Bombe was an electro-mechanical device used at Bletchley Park and its outstations during World War II to assist in breaking the Enigma cipher.
Don't have the computer power to run a Lorenz SZ42 in 3D? Try our original 2D version from 2017 instead.
The Dragon was built by the Signal Security Agency (SSA) at Arlington Hall, Virginia and was used at Bletchley Park to help break Lorenz codes. It was used to search for a crib (a guess at the text) within the cipher message.
Typex was a British cipher machine which used a very similar method of enciphering to Enigma. It was also used at Bletchley Park to decipher Enigma messages once the Bombes had found the day key.
We also have simulations of Virtual ERNIE, the Premium Bond random number generator, which was designed and build by some of the same engineers as Colossus, one of the first computers to be built in the UK designed by Alan Turing, the Pilot ACE, and a fully working 3D simulation of the ICT 1301 second generation computer.
E.R.N.I.E stands for the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment and is a hardware random number generator built in 1956 to find winners each month for the National Savings Premium Bond prize draw.
The Pilot ACE was one of the first computers to be built in the UK. Designed by Alan Turing, it's one of the earliest general-purpose, stored-program computers
A simulation of the ICT 1301 2nd generation computer, specifically serial number 6, named Flossie.
Look around by left-clicking and dragging on the background. Right-click (or shift-click) will move the camera and middle-mouse will zoom.
Alternatively, you can use the Change View buttons below to move to pre-set camera positions.
Try click/dragging up and down on the rotors or pressing the teleprinter keys.
Try opening the cover of the Lorenz by clicking the lock image then change the switches on the rotors.
Use the Prefs menu to change the model, settings etc.
Attempt to connect to other users across the internet or try to decipher some example pre-defined encrypted messages.
Check out the tutorials in the top menu on the Lorenz emulator page.
These will give you an idea on how the Lorenz SZ was used to send and receive messages or to set the machine for use.
A number of people I need to say thanks and tip my hat to...
www.TNMOC.org .. The National Museum of Computing where my obsession was sparked!
www.bletchleypark.org.uk .. Bletchley Park
Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum .. Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum
The Bill Tutte Memorial Fund .. "Bill Tutte achieved one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War Two by breaking the extremely complex Lorenz code without ever seeing the machine that generated it."Captain Jerry Roberts and all the codebreakers in the Testery. Without these people's code breaking skills and their daily breaking of the Lorenz wheels, Colossus would have been unable to function.
Frode Weierud's cryptocellar.org .. for his assistance answering questions and especially his site's Lorenz operating manuals!
