"Triple enciphered"?

[subskipper53]

Hello,

I'm new on this site, but I'm no newbie at sub simulators. Silent Hunter III was my first and favorite subsim, an incredibly accurate and historically detailed sim.

But now for my question, and it's a doozy for me!

Das Boot is my all-time favorite movie. I could watch it over and over again. But, recently, after discovering the Enigma Flotilla and the Enigma simulator you guys use, and after gaining a basic understanding of the encryption method, i remembered one scene from the movie. And i'm unsure whether this is possible or not.

When U-96 receives its orders to make way for La Spezia, the 2WO commented it was "triple enciphered."

Hmmm . . . :hmmm:

How is that possible, if at all?

[dfscott]

I'm not 100% certain, but triple encryption generally refers to encrypting a message three times with three different keys. So, you'd take your message, encrypt it with one kengruppen, then take the output of that and encrypt it again with a different kengruppen, etc. At least that's the way triple DES (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_DES) encryption works.

[subskipper53]

Ah, i see! Thanks for the reply!

I wish you and everyone else Good Hunting!

:salute:

[dfscott]

No problem and good luck to you as well!

[Dragunov]

The message in the movie was tripple encrypted.
(This is also described in the book)
This is usually a highly important message for the kaleun.
After the first decryption the message is not readable and needs to be decrypted by an officer (2WO).
After his decryption the message is still not redable and needs to be decrypted a third time.
This decryption is done by the Kaleun.

[dfscott]

The message in the movie was tripple encrypted.
(This is also described in the book)
This is usually a highly important message for the kaleun.
After the first decryption the message is not readable and needs to be decrypted by an officer (2WO).
After his decryption the message is still not redable and needs to be decrypted a third time.
This decryption is done by the Kaleun.

Thanks for the clarification, Dragonov!

Made me think of Crimson Tide -- not exactly the same situation, but it reminded me of the three officers arguing...