Henri Braquenié (12 December 1896 – 14 December 1975) was an
interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
French Air Force
The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...
officer and
cryptanalyst
Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...
.
Braquenié was born in Paris to Charles Louis Braquenié and Jeanne Louise Debard. He attended, with French Major Gustave Bertrand and another French Army officer, the 9–10 January 1939 Paris meeting of French, Polish and British
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...
officers convened to discuss progress (none had occurred in France or Britain) on
decryption
In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...
cipher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...
s.
Braquenié also participated with Bertrand in the trilateral 25 July 1939
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
meeting at which the Polish Cipher Bureau disclosed its achievements in breaking Enigma ciphers (since December 1932).
During the period of the
Phony War
The Phoney War (; ; ) was an eight-month period at the outset of World War II during which there were virtually no Allied military land operations on the Western Front from roughly September 1939 to May 1940. World War II began on 3 Septembe ...
(6 October 1939 – 10 May 1940) Braquenié served as deputy to the French chief, Bertrand, of "
PC Bruno
''PC Bruno'' was a Polish– French–Spanish signals–intelligence station near Paris during World War II, from October 1939 until June 1940. Its function was decryption of cipher messages, most notably German messages enciphered on the Enigma ...
," the Franco-Polish radio-intelligence and
cryptology
Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gener ...
center outside Paris.
On 3–7 December 1939 Braquenié accompanied the chief of the Polish cryptologic team, Lt. Col. Gwido Langer, to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...
. At Bletchley, Braquenié established the procedures for mutual
teleprinter
A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point and point- ...
exchange of information, especially of solved daily Enigma
keys
Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to:
Common uses
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message
* Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument
* Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock
* ...
. In 1975, shortly before his death, he disclosed that, to ensure the absolute security of the information exchanges, the allied cryptologic services used Enigma itself as their cipher. Braquenié, personally responsible for the Bruno-Bletchley correspondence, followed the standard procedure of padding messages with innocuous verbiage, and habitually closed them with a "''Heil Hitler!''"
Following France's capitulation in June 1940, Braquenié evacuated south to unoccupied,
Vichy France
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
with other Bruno staff, and subsequently served at the "
Cadix
''Cadix'' was a World War II clandestine intelligence center at Uzès, in southern France, from September 1940 to 9 November 1942. During this period southern France was under the control of Vichy France and not occupied by Nazi Germany. At ''C ...
" center that was then established near
Uzès
Uzès (; ) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Uzès lies about north-northeast of Nîmes, west of Avignon, and southeast of Alès.
History
Originally ''Ucetia'' or ''Eutica'' in Latin, Uzès wa ...
, not far from the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
.
He died in
Passy, Haute-Savoie
Passy () is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is part of the urban area of Sallanches.France, Death Records, 1970–2018 '
References
*
Władysław Kozaczuk
Władysław Kozaczuk (23 December 1923 – 26 September 2003) was a Polish Army colonel and a military and intelligence historian.
Life
Born in the village of Babiki near Sokółka, Kozaczuk joined the army in 1944, during World War II, at B ...
, ''Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two'', edited and translated by
Christopher Kasparek
Christopher Kasparek (born 1945) is a Scottish-born writer of Polish descent who has translated works by numerous Polish authors, including Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Marian Rejewski, and Wł ...