Sunday, March 14, 2010

Day 197 March 15, 1940

Alan Turing’s development of the Polish "cryptologic bomb" yields the British Bombe at Government Code and Cypher School, Bletchley Park, England. The first working Bombe (named "Victory"), manufactured by the British Tabulating Machine Company at Letchworth, Hertfordshire, goes operational decrypting daily settings on the German Enigma machines.

The Finnish Parliament ratifies the Moscow Peace Treaty by 145 votes to 3 (52 abstentions, including Prime Minister Voionmaa who is traveling from Moscow and can not vote).

Emphasizing the global nature of the growing conflict, Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Kanimbla (a converted Australian passenger ship) impounds Soviet steamer Vladimir Mayakovsky carrying American copper to Germany in the Sea of Japan. She will be taken to Hong Kong, handed over to the French and sailed to Saigon, Vietnam arriving on 1 April. http://www.navy.gov.au/w/index.php/HMAS_Kanimbla_%28I%29

At 7.30 AM in the Bay of Bengal near the Nicobar Islands, British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle is damaged when a 250 pound bomb explodes in the bomb room in an operational mishap (14 lives lost). HMS Eagle will be repaired and refitted in Singapore, leaving 9 May for the Mediterranean.

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