July 19, 2026: Speaker Series: Cracking the Enigma - The Secret Battlefield of WW2
Join the Historic Park Foundation at historic St. Peter's Chapel, the oldest naval chapel in the nation, for an engaging presentation by author and cryptology historian Ralph Simpson.
World War I was the first war to make widespread use of radio communications, providing a tremendous advantage on the battlefield. However, the weakness of existing manual ciphers meant that secret messages could often be intercepted and decoded by the enemy. This vulnerability drove the development of increasingly sophisticated machine ciphers and marked the beginning of modern cryptographic warfare.
One of the most important innovations to emerge from this era was the Enigma machine, invented during World War I and among the first electrical cipher devices. Radio communications directly fueled the rapid evolution of cryptology and codebreaking—a technological arms race that continues today.
Date: Sunday, July 19, 2026 Time: 3:00 PM (Doors open at 2:30 PM) Location: St. Peter's Chapel 1181 Walnut Avenue Mare Island, Vallejo, CA
Tickets: Advance: $15 Advanced, $20 At the door (no membership discounts)
