A RARE piece of wartime history will be demonstrated in the North-East next month.
One of the few surviving original German Enigma encoding machines will be the centrepiece of a lecture in Middlesbrough.
Dr Mark Baldwin will be giving the talk on one of the Second World War's best-kept secrets, the British codebreaking establishment at Bletchley Park.
Another prized Enigma machine, stolen from Bletchley Park earlier this year, turned up in the post of BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman earlier this week.
It is extremely rare to see one in action.
Dr Baldwin said: "The work of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park is generally recognised to have shortened the war by two years.
"It was hugely important in almost every sphere of the war, from the Battle of Britain to the war in North Africa and in particular the war in the North Atlantic.
The lecture has been organised by the Institute of Electrical Engineers, which has members throughout the region.
Chairman Mark Lewis said: "There aren't many Enigma machines left and, certainly, I've never heard of one coming up here before."
The lecture is at 6.30pm on Wednesday, November 1 at the Cleveland Scientific Institute, Corporation Road, Middlesbrough
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