Last year I visited the seaside site of Marconi’s original receiving station, most of which has been lost to the ravages of the sea. This year, I visited the Marconi Museum in Chatham and learned more. This was the origin of the American company RCA. There was much literature about the German encryption system, Enigma, used during the war and the station’s role in message interception for encryption. From reading a recent book, I learned that the big Enigma breakthrough came when a German U-Boat captain scuttled his vessel rather than have it captured. In the lifeboat he realized the Enigma machine remained on the ship, and he swam back to the vessel to retrieve or destroy it and drowned in the process. The unit was recovered, leading to the system’s riddle being solved by the Allies. I gained interest in Marconi from reading the excellent book by Erik Larsen called “Thunderstruck”, a book I highly recommend.
