The computer that helped the Allied countries win World War II looks like a huge building block in a small room.
At least that's what can be seen in the images released this week by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) of “Colossus,” the computer used to decipher several codes that helped the Allied countries win World War II.
The images show the size of the computer, which celebrates its 80th anniversary in the UK this year.
And they are evidence of how one of the devices considered by several experts to be the first digital computer in history was constructed.
Although its existence has been suspected since wartime, the truth is that the British government only released full details of Coloso in the early 2000s.
We recommend
5 women leading outstanding technology companies in Latin America
The “Google Killer”?: What advantages does the technology giant have in the race for artificial intelligence?
What's really happening at OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT descending into chaos after firing Sam Altman
“It will be millions of years before a machine can fly” and other spectacularly wrong technological predictions
This computer was put into operation in the first months of 1944 with the idea of deciphering the encrypted codes intercepted by Nazi agents.
By the end of the war it was estimated that around ten computers were involved in this work.
About ten computers made up the Colossus program. Photo: CROWN COPYRIGHT
And it wasn't just any computer: Equipped with 2,500 valves, it was almost two meters high.
Implementation required a team specialized in the internal circuitry of the new machine.
Most of the people who specialized in operating this computer were from the Women's Naval Service (WRENS).
In fact, one of the images released this week shows the women of WRENS working on Coloso.
In the dark
GCHQ also revealed plans of how Colossus was built, a letter referencing “alarming German instructions” that was intercepted by the computer, and an audio clip in which the computer's operation can be heard.
The existence of the Colossus program only became known in the early 2000s. Photo: CROWN COPYRIGHT
Coloso's numbers show its importance: almost 63 million German messages were decrypted by 550 people working on this computer.
Perhaps one of the most important achievements was helping Hitler “take the bait” with the lie that D-Day would take place in June 1944 over the French city of Calais rather than in Normandy, where it eventually took place.
According to various historians, this computer reduced the scale of the war and saved many lives.
But beyond its implications, engineers and codebreakers working on the Colossus program had signed secrecy documents, so its actual existence was unknown for decades.
The program was not officially announced by the British government until the beginning of the new century.
Most of Coloso's operators were women. Photo: CROWN COPYRIGHT
After the war, eight of the ten computers that made up the program were destroyed.
In fact, Tommy Flowers, the engineer who designed the computer, was ordered to hand over all of the Colossus documentation.
Attempts to keep it secret were so successful that Bill Marshall, a former GCHQ engineer who worked on Colossus in the 1960s, said he had no idea what role the computer played in wartime.
Andrew Herbert, chairman of the board of trustees of the Bletchley Park-based National Computing Museum, said the release of the images was another opportunity to celebrate the lasting impact of Colossus.
The plans show what the computer designs looked like. Photo: CROWN COPYRIGHT
“From an engineering perspective, Colossus was an important precursor to the modern electronic digital computer,” he said.
“Many of those who used it at Bletchley Park became important pioneers and leaders of British computing in the decades after the war, often leading the world in their work,” he added. (JO)