was a gentleman who worked in the german cipher bureau, hans schmitt, he had once been a wealthy man, he lost all of his business because of the great depression, now he was destitute, his older brother got him a job as a humble government clerk at the cipher bureau, and hans decided to do something to enhance his financial situation. he contacted an agent of the french secret service, he said i've got some secrets about enigma i'd like to sell. how much money can you give me. bertrand said how does $20,000 sound in french franrs, and the exchange was made and bertrand because he talked with the poles before, forwarded the information to them. the poles eventually over time are able to discern how the process works and to begin to break enigma messages. once you do that, though, you've got to turn it into a 24-hour operation so that you can develop real time intelligence. they really didn't get the chance to do that because their country was invaded in 1939. but it is worth noting it was the poles that had the breakthrough. now, after two years they were able to make to it a place cal