A STREETCAR NAMED CORONADO

Flashback to 1947 when a streetcar ran down the center of Orange avenue.

Fifty years ago music sensations the Beatles changed our world forever.

 By: Lynne Harpst Koen

I was raised an only child in an ultra conservative household. I learned to appreciate all types of music from a very early age. My Dad was a professional musician, and Mom loved most types of music. On any given day our stereo would be blasting Perry Como, Sinatra, Andy Williams, All Things Classical, and on Saturdays, always Opera. It was the early 1960’s. There was one type of music never ever played in our household, and that was “Rock & Roll” I took classical piano lessons. I had no idea there was even such a thing as Rock music! 

Then, in the summer of 1965, everything changed. I was sent to Honolulu to spend the summer with the family of my beloved babysitter, Pearl. Their family lived in Navy housing at Pearl Harbor. The atmosphere there was completely opposite from my tiny little life in Coronado. I was a very shy child, but I quickly became aware that this place was Camelot for kids! Pearl had two daughters. Her younger daughter Caroline was my age. Together, Caroline and I ran all over the place visiting families, hanging out at the beach, just being kids having fun. This new freedom was incredible! It was pretty close quarters there, so there wasn’t much privacy. Kids don’t care about things like that anyway. Everybody kept their windows open, and nobody locked their doors. 

Every day, the older girls would be blasting their transistor radios. The music was wild. I loved walking down the streets hearing the fast, pounding drums and wild guitars. It was my very first taste of Rock! The music would echo off the buildings and I really couldn’t get enough. I started learning the names of some of the groups. There was one group in particular that all the girls were ultra crazy about-The Beatles! Whenever a Beatles song came on the radio, the already loud music would be turned up to the maximum limits. I learned the songs and sang along. I became a Beatles fan! 

Then one day there was a huge commotion there in Navy housing. All the teenage girls were running around screaming hysterically, jumping up and down, hugging each other in excitement. The Beatles were coming to Honolulu! It really was a wild phenomenon, one that I’d never before seen or will ever see again. It was like these girls were possessed. The energy was so powerful! We little gals just watched from a safe distance, careful to keep out of the way. Fact of the matter is, The Beatles were not scheduled to come to Honolulu. You won’t find that last minute concert on any recorded docket. I think the spontaneity was definitely part of the whole frenzy. And a frenzy it was! It was the first time in my life I’d ever witnessed a “Crowd Mentality” I didn’t understand it then, but I certainly knew there was something extra special about this band. I could actually feel history in the making.

I feel so very blessed to have been at the right place at the right time. Whenever I think back to that incredible summer I still have instant recall of all that immense energy! Of course, once a Beatles fan, always a Beatles fan. They’re still my favorite band of all time. I feel like I had an extra special “initiation” to their music. 

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f or future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling’s. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. 

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then? 

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.

Karien passed away peacefully at home in Coronado on July 7, 2013 after a courageous battle against cancer. She was surrounded by family and loved ones.

Karien was a dynamic woman who had an adventure-filled life. Born in South Africa, Karien was an entrepreneur and educator from the time she was a teenager – running her own ballet school at only sixteen years of age.

Following college, Karien became a kindergarten teacher and worked with under-privileged student populations. After having her own children, Karien shifted into business, owning and running hotels. 

In 1982, Karien established Club 16 – a nationwide South African club for young women where they could learn about themselves, ask questions about boys, attend workshops and more. In 1984, Club 16 organized the first Youth Parliament meetings to ever be held in South Africa – an opportunity for young women to raise their voices in politics. Their introductory meeting was held in the Pretoria Parliament Building and was televised across South Africa.

Karien immigrated to the United States in 1989. She and her children became active members of the Coronado schools and community. Karien worked in sales until launching IPSA (International Placements Services of America) – a firm specialized in college counseling services for international students. With her hard work and dedication, countless students lives have been completely changed by an opportunity to study and live in the United States.

Karien was also the founder of The Club 4 Me, an etiquette training program and club for young boys and girls. Karien was never happier than working next to the kids while teaching them how to be well behaved in her Little Miss Manners sessions.

Karien will be remembered with great love as a mother, wife and friend; for her boundless heart, her strength, her ability to care for others and make them feel at home; for her kindness and her loving touch; for her love of children; for her vitality and larger-than-life energy; for her acceptance of every challenge in life; for her beauty and for her grace.

She adored her three children, valued her friends, and loved beauty.

Karien is survived by her daughter Elloise Bennett (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); her daughter Lecinda Bennett (New York, NY); her son Austin Bennett (Coronado); and her husband, Bruce Bennett (Coronado.)

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider making a donation to the Team Bennett Relay for Life team (more information at: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/teamkarienbennett) or support Karien’s passion for education by donating to Coronado Schools Foundation.

CSF donations can be mailed to CSF, 201 Sixth Street, Coronado, CA, 92118 with “Karien” noted on the memo line or submitted online by clicking here with “Karien” in the comments section.

An organization in Jasper is training dogs to help people suffering from severe diabetes control their blood sugar.

Trainers say the work these dogs do could be the difference between life and death for some diabetics.

“Drey’s Alert Dogs” are trained to paw at a diabetic person when they can smell that their blood sugar is below 80 or above 180.  

Currently groups of children are participating in a volunteer program at Drey’s called “Kids for Diabetics” socializing the puppies.

Kenyatta Carter’s son has been a volunteer for the past couple of weeks and just yesterday one of the dogs made a startling discovery about her son.

“If we wouldn’t have been here I probably never would’ve known that he was a diabetic,” said Carter, “and the dogs alerted me that he was diabetic.”

There are Drey’s diabetic alert dogs helping people all over the US from California to Florida to Ohio.

About Stand Down

What is a Stand Down?
In times of war, exhausted combat units requiring time to rest and recover were removed from the battlefields to a place of relative security and safety. Today, Stand Down refers to a community-based intervention program designed to help the nation’s estimated 200,000 homeless veterans “combat” life on the streets. 

 or send us a check made payable to Veterans Village of San Diego, 4141 Pacific Highway San Diego, CA 92110. 

VVSD organized the nation’s first Stand Down in 1988. Since then, the program has been widely replicated nationwide. Today, more than 200 Stand Downs take place across the country every year. “The program has become recognized as the most valuable outreach tool to help homeless veterans in the nation today,” according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. 

Stand Down’s philosophy is a hand up, not a hand out. The hand up is made possible each year by the dedication of thousands of volunteers and numerous sponsors. 

When you arrive via train to the little Taiwanese village of Houtong, you will be greeted by a sign emblazoned with an odd bedfellows picture of a monkey, a miner, and a cat standing on a bridge. The village was originally called Hou Dong, which literally translates to “monkey cave,” in honor of a troupe of wild monkeys once inhabiting a nearby cave. The miner represents the once all-important coal mining industry that dominated the local economy until the 1970s. The cat represents the new saving-grace cat-based economy that has revitalized this small community after the decline of the coal industry. And the bridge is what connects Houtong by train to the rest of the world.

During its most prosperous decades, Houtong mines produced about 220,000 tons of coal, the biggest yield of coal in a single area in Taiwan. Such abundant coal resources beckoned people to migrate to Houtong, and at its peak, the community boasted 6,000 residents. But then demand for coal began to dwindle and the economy started to waver. As always the story, the young people left town to find opportunities elsewhere – and sadly many animals, especially cats, were left behind. By the 1990s only a few hundred older residents, along with an odd assortment of abandoned pets, were left in this remote little village.

When all appeared to be lost and with no hope for the future, life in Houtong took an unexpected turn. Taiwanese cat lover and photographer, Chien Pei-ling, decided it was the community’s responsibility to take care of the abandoned cats and organized a team of volunteers to provide for the village felines. Pei-ling created a blog, posted photos and videos of the cats online and asked for help from the outside world. The response was overwhelming (although not surprising as we all know now that the internet loves cats) and help came in not only for the cats, but in the end for the people of Houtong.

With the blog and the constant stream of cute cat photos from Houtong, people began taking the historic railway to the village and hanging out with the cats. More raves on more blogs, more great cat photos and soon Houtong became a mecca for cat lovers and photographers. Now, the funky old mining town centers around the 100 plus kitties that roam the streets as local heroes — not to mention the thousands of tourists that now come every weekend!

To capitalize on the constant throng of cat-loving visitors, the entrepreneurial villagers started baking and offering pineapple cakes in the shape of cats, as well as selling a creative array of cat-themed trinkets. Furthermore, the enthusiasm for all things kitty-cat resulted in a cat-themed footbridge (ears at one end, tail at the other) as well as cat road signs, whimsical cat murals and charming little wooden cat houses, where the felines can seek refuge in inclement weather. The footbridge also now has a royal cat walk for the cats to come and greet the trains which the cats now know come loaded with visitors bearing gifts of fish and rice.

Pei-ling is delighted with how one little community has been saved by being compassionate: “In the decline and fall of this remote village, we have built up a model of peaceful relationship between people and animals to show the bright side of human beings. We kindly treat these little animals with an attitude of respect for life. Our love for animals has turned the street cats into a tourist resource. This is a positive direction of a virtuous cycle, and will encourage more people to love cats and animals.”

I cannot help but reflect how this wonderful story from Houtong has been a win-win for everyone — the cats, the villagers, the tourists and Pei-ling, who later published a book of her Houtong cat photos and then won first prize at a photo competition held on the Japanese Island of Tashiro-jima, where cats are also treasured. I love the fact that a random act of kindness, combined with human ingenuity, has created happiness and joy for so many.

CRAZY LIVING ROCK

The fact that this sea creature looks exactly like a rock with guts is not even the weirdest thing about it. It’s also completely immobile like a rock — it eats by sucking in water and filtering out microorganisms — and its clear blood mysteriously secretes a rare mineral called vanadium. Also, it’s born male, becomes hermaphroditic at puberty, and reproduces by tossing clouds of sperm and eggs into the surrounding water and hoping they knock together. Nature, you are CRAZY.

Self-sexing vanadium-secreting intestine-rock thing is actually calledPyura chilensis (terser, though less descriptive), and it’s found off the coast of Chile and Peru. Locals eat it raw or in stews, and non-locals describe the taste as “bitter” and “soapy” with a “weird iodine flavor.” Sort of what you’d expect from a meat-rock, I guess? Maybe that’s the vanadium, a mineral also found in crude oil and tar sands — creatures like P. chilensis can have up to 10 million times more vanadium in their bodies than is found in the surrounding water, for no obvious reason.

Scientific American has more about P. chilensis, including its weird reproduction, which carries the charming euphemism of “selfing”:

P. chilensis can often be found in densely packed aggregations of thousands or small handfuls of just a few, or they can be found on their own — in which case they must reproduce asexually, as there is no way of them moving to find a mate. This means P. chilensis is hermaphroditic, with the gonads of both a male and a female that can release eggs and sperm simultaneously to meet as a fertile cloud in the surrounding water. If the sperm-egg collisions are successful, they will produce tiny tadpole-like offspring that will eventually settle onto a rock to grow into the adult form.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be looking more carefully at rocks in the future. Also possibly trees and dirt. Who knows what apparently inanimate objects might be filled with innards and holding perverse “selfing” orgies right in front of our noses? Thanks for keeping us on our toes, nature.

Red bananas, also known as Red Dacca bananas are a variety of banana with reddish-purple skin. They are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana. When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color.

The red-lipped batfish or Galapagos batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) is a fish of unusual morphology found on the Galapagos Islands in depths of 30m or more. Red-lipped batfish are closely related to rosy-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus porrectus), which are found nearCocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica. This fish is mainly known for its bright red lips.

Batfish are not good swimmers; they use their highly-adapted pectoral fins to “walk” on the ocean floor. When the batfish reaches maturity, its dorsal fin becomes a single spine-like projection (thought to function primarily as a lure for prey). Similar to the anglerfish, the Red-Lipped Batfish has a structure on its head known as illicium. This structure is employed for attracting prey.

The American Robin (Turdus migratorius), also known as the Robin or Common Robin, is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin^[2] because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast

The Western Bluebird is one of many migratory visitors to Strawberry Field. 

Underwater photographer Sarah Lee uses a technique known as “duck diving” to capture these stunning photos of surfers in Hawaii. Surfers “duck dive” under the water to avoid incoming waves so they can get further out to sea.

SAGE STALLONE MURAL

Echo Park, CA, on Sunday, May 5th at 11:00 am muralist Ruben Soto will be unveiling the mural of Sage Stallone who passed away in July of 2012 is the oldest son of Sasha Czack and actor Sylvester Stallone. The 20 feet long by 9 feet high mural of Sage Stallone will be across from his father Sylvester Stallone on Glendale Boulevard under Sunset Blvd overpass in the Echo Park community of Los Angeles, CA. The mural is a tribute to Sage by Ruben Soto who was a personal friend of the Stallone Family.
This special project will give everyone an opportunity to be part of the tribute to Sage Stallone. Mr. Soto is inviting everybody to be part of this giant spectacular mural and document the progress of this historical masterpiece. “This mural is the final face of the 9 faces from the “Eyes Mural” that has many faces of people that effected Mr. Soto’s life such as Sage & Sylvester Stallone, Dick Clark, Kent Twitchell, Mr. Soto, his daughter and others. This is an opportunity to get up close and personal to his face” states Mr. Soto.

Mr. Soto has been a huge fan of Sylvester Stallone who been an inspiration to him in his own life and artwork. Ruben was motivated from Stallone’s personal experience as filmmaker in Hollywood and has produced and directed his own story of growing up in Echo Park. “I want to pay a tribute to this very talented actor that we all love,” admits Ruben.

At age 49, he is living like there is no time for tomorrow. He’s a single father of a seventeen year old daughter, an electrician for the City of Los Angeles, a muralist, playwright, and he just finished a movie called “Willoughby” (www.willoughbythemovie.com).

While many cities are working to curb feral cat populations through spay-and-neuter programs, there’s one place where cat numbers continue to grow and the locals encourage it.
Tashiro-jima is a small island in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, that’s home to more catsthan people. Better known as “Cat Island,” it has about 100 permanent residents – most of whom are over 65 years of age – and hundreds and hundreds of cats.

Also see: ‘Rabbit Island’ attracts pet-loving tourists despite its dark past

During the 1800s, Tashiro-jima was popular with fisherman who would stay on the island overnight. The cats would follow them to the inns and beg for scraps, and over time, the fishermen developed a fondness for the cats and began interpreting their actions as predictions about weather and fish patterns.

They believed that feeding the cats would bring them wealth and fortune, a belief that continues today.
According to local stories, one day when a fisherman was collecting rocks to use for his nets, a stray stone fell and killed one of the cats. The fisherman buried the cat and created a shrine. Today, there are at least 10 cat shrines in Miyagi Prefecture.

There are also 51 cat-shaped monuments, as well as cat-shaped buildings – complete with “ears” on the roof – that dot the island.

Tashiro-jima is accessible by ferry, and many of the island’s cats are friendly and will approach visitors in search of scraps or head scratches. Dogs are prohibited from entering the island, according to a 2009 article in the Sankei News.

The Coronado Clarion invites all charities and worthy causes to add  websites/events link to this page.

Al Graham  (Editor)

http://www.breastcancer.org

http://www.lls.org

http://www.leukemiafoundation.org

We know that paleontologists liked The Beatles when paleontologists named Australopithecus afarensis “Lucy” because Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing as they examined her bones at their dig site. Today, we’ve learned that paleontologists are into The Doors too when paleontologist Jason Head announced the name of a newly discovered lizard as Barbaturex morrosoni, after Jim Morrison’s lyric in the song Not to Touch the Earth, “I am the lizard king, I can do anything.”

A lizard the size of a German shepherd once roamed Myanmar, a new fossil analysis reveals.

The lizard, one of the largest ever known, has been dubbedBarbaturex morrisoni in honor of The Doors’ singer Jim Morrison, who once wrote a song that included the lyrics, “I am the lizard king/I can do anything.”

“This is a king lizard, and he was the lizard king, so it just fit,” saidJason Head, a paleontologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who led the study and gave the ancient lizard its musically inspired moniker.

A lizard of unusual size

In modern times, most lizards are much smaller than the mammals that share their environment. The few exceptions, such as the gigantic and toothy Komodo dragon, live in places where there are few mammals around (Komodo dragons are found on isolated Indonesian islands, for example).

B. morrisoni lived in a different world. About 36 million to 40 million years ago, the lizard outweighed the mammals that shared its mangrove forest home in what is now Myanmar. It was a gentle giant, with teeth designed for shearing vegetation, not slicing flesh.

The lizard fossils were first collected during expeditions in the 1970s, but they sat unanalyzed in a museum collection for more than 30 years until Head and his colleagues decided to study them. [6 Strange Species Discovered in Museums]

The jaw of B. morrisoni sported a series of ridges that suggest the animal had some sort of throat décor such as a skin flap. The lizard might have looked something like the bearded dragons seen in pet stores today — except instead of growing to be a foot or so long (30 centimeters), the ancient lizard would have been about 6 feet (1.8 meters) from nose to tail, Head said. It would have weighed about 68 pounds (30 kilograms).

“This was a really huge plant-eating lizard, much bigger than anything alive today,” Head told LiveScience.

Komodo dragons can grow 10 feet long (3 meters), but they eat meat.

Warm world, big lizards

The lizard king discovery helps clear up a mystery about why lizards don’t grow as large today as they once did, Head and his colleagues found. No one knew whether large plant-eating lizards are scarce today because they simply can’t compete with mammals or because they’re limited by modern-day temperatures. Lizards are ectothermic, meaning they rely on environmental heat to keep their body temperature up.

The Eocene epoch, when B. morrisoni lived, was much warmer than today. Based on the size of the lizard and the metabolism it would need to get that large, Head and his colleagues estimate that global average temperatures were 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees Celsius) higher than today.

“This was a greenhouse world,” Head said. “There was no ice at the poles. There were higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” trapping heat.

In this hot environment, the lizard king outgrew the plant-eating mammals in its ecosystem as well

as many of the meat eaters, Head said. That growth ability suggests the presence of mammals is not keeping lizards down today; it’s likely lower global temperatures.

“When we had these very warm climates in the past, we had much different ecosystems, and reptiles could compete with mammals much more successfully,” Head said. Plants may have also flourished more readily in this steamy climate, providing more food for the herbivorous lizards.

The findings, reported today (June 4) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveal how ancient ecosystems can hold up a mirror to modern ones, Head said.

“Paleontology is really vital for understanding not only where we’ve come from, but where we are now, and where we’re going in the future,” he said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

 I have been lucky enough to call Coronado my home for all of my fifteen years.  Part of being a Coronadan, I’ve come to realize, is understanding and appreciating the small idiosyncrasies and uniquities that make this town our own.  Namely,  I think that the Sandman adds a special vibe to Coronado with his artistic contributions that better Coronado in an authentic way.

My running routine generally takes me down the Boardwalk by the beach.  In between the Hotel del Coronado and the Shores, there is a small, asphalt lot where beachgoers park their cars in a roundabout fashion.

As I approach this parking lot, I generally slow down partially to be watchful of cars, but also to look out for the Sandman’s new artwork, or even the Sandman himself , as he frequently uses this land as his canvas.  This artwork ranges from political messages (he brushed “I still love Romney” in the sand the day after Obama won the election)  to American flags, from smiling faces to simple words (“Love”) scripted in the sand-created cursive  —  I can’t even begin to wonder how the Sandman goes about sculpting sand so artistically in a two-dimensional way.

Though I’ve yet to engage in a conversation with him, Coronado’s Sandman, has this uncanny ability to uplift my spirits through his art in a nuanced way on days that are hectic or stressful or difficult.  Because of developments in technology, social media, and overall reliance on electronics to live, the speed at which we live our lives drastically accelerated, and often we are so focused on Instagram pictures or Facebook statuses that we can’t look up (or down to the asphalt) to enjoy what is around us.

As a community, I think we need moments like this — moments just to slow down in a parking lot adorned with the sand art and appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful and unique place.  Although I am aware of certain controversies that have surrounded the Sandman in the past years, I think he is an invaluable asset to our town.  In personal experience, I haven’t seen anyone – Coronadan or tourist – view his art without a smile.  He is, and will be for years to come, a Coronado legacy.

So thanks, Sandman, for brightening up my day when I run.  Thanks so much for being a signature character to the Coronado culture.

Sincerely,

Harper Collinson

Years pass by and our kidneys are filtering the blood by removing salt, poison and any unwanted entering our body. With time, the salt accumulates and this needs to undergo cleaning treatments and how are we going to overcome this?

It is very easy, first take a bunch of parsley or Cilantro ( Coriander Leaves ) and wash it clean
Then cut it in small pieces and put it in a pot and pour clean water and boil it for ten minutes and let it cool down and then filter it and pour in a clean bottle and keep it inside refrigerator to cool.

Drink one glass daily and you will notice all salt and other accumulated poison coming out of your kidney by urination also you will be able to notice the difference which you never felt before.

Parsley (Cilantro) is known as best cleaning treatment for kidneys and it is natural!

ULTRA vs. ENIGMA

Of all the Allied weaponry and equipment, there was nothing more crucial than the top-secret British project called Ultra. Its mission was to intercept and decipher coded messages sent by the Germans. The catch was, the Germans were using the most challenging code ever developed, appropriately named Enigma.

THE NAZI ENIGMA

The Enigma was meant to be the Nazis’ ultimate weapon. It was a cypher machine, designed to produce the ultimate code. Inside it was a system of electrically connected revolving drums, on which letters of the alphabet were placed. When a letter was typed, it was assigned a random letter value. F. W. Winterbotham, one of the founders of Ultra, described the Enigma like this:

A typewriter fed the letters of the message into the machine, where they were so proliferated by the drums that it was estimated a team of top mathematicians might take a month or more to work out all the permutations necessary to find the right answer for a single cypher setting; the setting of the drums in relation to each other was the key which both the sender and receiver would no doubt keep closely guarded. (Winterbotham, 11)
With Enigma at their disposal, the German submarines were able to sink devastating amounts of Allied shipping between 1940 and 1942. Top secret plans were freely sent through Enigma. They were totally confident that the Enigma code could not be broken.

THE FORMATION OF ULTRA

After the Nazis created their invincible cypher machine, they proceeded to mass-produce them in 1938. A Polish mechanic carefully kept track of the parts of the Enigma he was making. From this, he was able to discover that the Nazis had been working on their cypher machine. He got word to the British through the Polish Secret Service, and the British managed to smuggle one out of Poland.

Marian Adam Rejewski [ˈmarjan reˈjefski] ( listen) (16 August 1905 – 13 February 1980) was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany. The success of Rejewski and his colleagues Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski jump-started British reading of Enigma in World War II; the intelligence so gained, code-named “Ultra“, contributed, perhaps decisively, to the defeat of Nazi Germany.^{(Note 1)}

While studying mathematics at Poznań University, Rejewski had attended a secret cryptology course conducted by the Polish General Staff‘s Biuro Szyfrów (Cipher Bureau), which he joined full-time in 1932. The Bureau had achieved little success reading Enigma and in late 1932 set Rejewski to work on the problem. After only a few weeks, he deduced the secret internal wiring of the Enigma. Rejewski and his two mathematician colleagues then developed an assortment of techniques for the regular decryption of Enigma messages. Rejewski’s contributions included devising the cryptologic “card catalog,” derived using his “cyclometer,” and the “cryptologic bomb.”

Five weeks before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Rejewski and his colleagues presented their results on Enigma decryption to French andBritish intelligence representatives. Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Polish cryptologists were evacuated to France, where they continued their work in collaboration with the British and French. They were again compelled to evacuate after the fall of France in June 1940, but within months returned to work undercover in Vichy France. After the country was fully occupied by Germany in November 1942, Rejewski and fellow mathematicianHenryk Zygalski fled, via Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar, to Britain. There they worked at a Polish Army unit, solving low-level German ciphers. In 1946 Rejewski returned to his family in Poland and worked as an accountant, remaining silent about his cryptologic work until 1967.

From this, the British Secret Service were able to understand how Enigma worked, but were unable to break the code. They set up headquarters at Bletchley Park, along with dozens of expert mathematicians, cryptographers, and even chess champions. Teamed with the best computer technology at the time, these cryptographers were responsible for solving the Enigma. They would spend months analyzing the code, trying to unlock its secret. It was an incredible strain, and some of them suffered nervous breakdowns trying to solve it. But with millions of lives at stake, they knew they had no choice. They would either break the enigma code, or witness a German victory.

However, in 1940, what seemed like the impossible finally happened. A few practice messages sent by the Germans in Enigma code were intercepted and deciphered. Although the actual contents of the messages were totally useless, Enigma had been solved. From this point on, the British were able to decipher the German messages one after another. To distinguish themselves from other cypher teams, the British team called itself Ultra.

Ultra was one of the most carefully kept secrets of World War Two. Only the people actually working with it knew of its existence. If the Germans found out that Enigma had been deciphered, they would change the code. Solving it once had been nightmare enough. Ultra did not want to go through it again.

For two years, Ultra proved itself to be vital to the Allies time and time again. Without it, the Allies would never have been able to win the war. During the Battle of Britain, Ultra saved Air Marshal Dowding and the Royal Air Force from defeat at Goering’s hands. Ultra intercepted German submarine transmissions, which revealed their locations, enabling Ultra to warn Allied vessels. In that same way, Ultra uncovered plans for Operation Sea Lion, a German invasion of Britain. Ultra Intelligence informed General Auchinlek, commander of the Allied forces in North Africa, of General Rommel’s position. This allowed Auchinlek to fight Rommel and the Afrika Korps by hitting them where they were the weakest. Eventually, Auchinlek stopped Rommel before he was able to enter Egypt. Otherwise, the Germans would have had total control of the Mediterranean (Winterbotham, 25).

ULTRA AND THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY

By February 1944, Ultra had worked with several Allied commanders, including Generals Eisenhower, Montgomery, and Patton-who used Ultra intelligence to “bust open the enemy every chance he had (Winterbotham, 122-123). This cooperation was essential to carrying out the Normandy invasion successfully.

In March 1943, Ultra discovered Hitler’s plans for a secret weapon in the works called the V1 flying-bomb (what they found out about it, such as location of the test-sites and results, has not been revealed yet). By April 1944, Hitler was preparing launch sites on the French coast. Ultra intercepted Hitler’s orders about establishing a headquarters near Amiens to control the V1 operation. The headquarters was named the 155th Flak Regiment. Colonel Siegfried Freiherr von Watchel was in command. That meant that “Overlord,” the Normandy invasion, had to take place as soon as possible (Winterbotham, 119-121).

In May 1944, Ultra intercepted a message from Watchel to General Heinemann, commander of the LXVI Corps (and administrator of the V1 headquarters), saying that fifty sites on the French coast were ready. That meant the Allied attack could not take place any later than June. It was a smart move. On June 6th, D-Day, Watchel was ordered to launch an all-out offensive with the V1s on June 12 (Winterbotham, 121).

A dispute between Hitler and his top generals, during the spring of 1944, would end up providing the most important clue about the German defenses at Normandy. Rommel wanted his panzer divisions directly behind the beach defenses. Hitler, who trusted Rommel’s judgement, went with his recommendation. But another general, Heinz Guderian, felt that the panzers would be wasted on the beaches. Hitler began to grow uncertain and suggested that the two generals talk it out. Guderian was backed up by General Geyr von Schweppenberg, who commanded the panzer group in France. Rommel adamantly refused to give in. He sent a message to Hitler, reinforcing his plans to have the panzer division behind the Normandy beaches. He felt that the superior Allied air power would severely hamper the movement of the tanks (Winterbotham, 125-127).

This gave everything away to Ultra. Rommel’s message revealed the locations of the panzer division on the Normandy beaches. Although Ultra did not receive Hitler’s response, now they knew what to be on the lookout for. Schweppenberg gave even more away when he personally asked Hitler to keep a majority of the panzers near Paris. Hitler’s response (which was intercepted by Ultra this time) was to keep four divisions, the reserve forces, would remain where they were, as an assault force. This made Overlord easier for the Allies. If Hitler had moved these divisions to the beach, the Germans would have overwhelmed the Allies at Normandy (Winterbotham, 127-128).

Ultra set the stage for the Allied victory in Normandy. They had done their part. Now it was the soldiers’ turn.

Works Cited

Winterbotham, F.W. The Ultra Secret. Harper and Row: New York, 1974

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