How many Enigma machines are there left?

How many Enigma machines are there left in the world? This is a question frequently asked at my Enigma presentations. It is impossible to answer this precisely, as nobody knows.

There is no obligation on the owner of an Enigma machine to register it in any way – it’s not, after all, a transmitter – but fortunately, the late David Hamer decided years ago to keep records of all the machines he heard about, both those owned privately, and those in museums and other public collections.

Obviously, such a list can’t be complete (I know of several Enigma machines which are not listed, and there are almost certainly many more) but it’s the nearest thing we have to a worldwide catalogue at present. As more Enigma machines are being discovered, and as it’s unlikely that a significant number of the machines listed have subsequently been destroyed, the list understates the number of survivors, rather than the reverse. Nevertheless, analysing the list produces some interesting results.

Numbers of known Enigma machines that still exist

• 318 Enigma machines left TOTAL
• 284 Enigma machines issued for use in or before WW2
• 34 Enigma machines that played no part in WW2
• 186 3-rotor Army/Air Force machines left
• 63 4-rotor naval Enigma machines left

The most recently available version of the list shows 318 Enigma machines, of which 34 played no part in WW2, leaving 284 machines issued for use by Germany in or before the war.

These can be further subdivided into different types: for example 186 are standard 3-rotor Enigma machines of the sort used by the Germany Army and Air Force, and 63 are 4-rotor naval Enigma machines (adopted on 1 February 1942).

So the list enables us to answer the original question, by saying that, roundly, perhaps around 300 WW2 machines survive, of which about 1 in 5 is a 4-rotor naval machine.

However, as well as identifying the type of each machine, the list also includes the serial numbers of each. Every Enigma machine carries an individual serial number, which is not only stamped into the metal base (inside, and only visible when the rotors are removed), but also engraved into the rotors (including the reflector rotor) and included in the data shown on a metal label mounted centrally in front of the keyboard.

The case itself may also carry a small metal or plastic number plate. The label in front of the keyboard may give additional information about which manufacturer made the machine and when. This data can be used to provide an estimate of how many machines were made, even though the serial numbers are not members of one continuous series of numbers.

The numbers are prefaced by a single upper case letter (there are 6 of these), which can be correlated with the machine type or user. For example, all naval machine numbers, whatever the model, are prefaced by ‘M’, for ‘Kriegsmarine’. Examining the numbers, and making some realistic assumptions, suggests that about 37,000 machines might have been made, of which at least 284 (less than 1%) survive. As noted above, about one fifth of the survivors are 4-rotor naval machines.

These conclusions must necessarily be tentative, but in the absence of original German records, they are the best we can do. They also suggest that published (unsubstantiated) estimates that there were as few as 20,000, or as high as 120,000 machines, are wide of the mark.

Following David Hamer’s death last year, other experts have volunteered to maintain and update the list. I’ll revisit this subject if any amendments are necessary.

If you’d like to learn more about the fascinating Enigma machine story, and play with one of these iconic machines yourself, you can attend one of my Enigma machine events or book me for your own.