imitation game movie

[William Donzelli]

I do not know much at all about the intricacies of British military
contracting, but for the US stuff...

> It's well documented.  Production initially stopped at 96, but then the
> British asked the US to make 50 more specifically to work on the Naval
> Enigma, but by the time 25 more were built and in service, there was no
> need for more.

NEVER trust government contract or production documentation 100
percent. Maybe not even 50 percent. And I mean the primary source
documentation!

I do not mean some sort of conspiracy cover up nonsense (although with
sensitive stuff like crypto, one has to wonder), but just the super
chaotic nature of the era.

During the war, contracts were very often hastily written, sometimes
after the production started, were often extremely vague. Contracts
were routinely breached (but in a good way, but sometimes not) when
some general screamed for more gizmos made yesterday. Contracts were
also routinely extended and supplemented, so historians have to be
careful if they have the entire history of a contract, or just a
piece. They also need to know all the intricacies of the system,
knowing the difference of a contract and an order, and how the
accounting and serializing works, and then realizing that production
was often faster than the paper trail it made. Lots of things that are
not supposed to exist because of a cancelled project or contract did
see the light of day, and likewise, lots of things that supposedly
were made simply vanished. And then there are plain old typos. Many
more than you might expect!

I am not trying to beat you up or anything, just issuing a warning. I
have been a World War 2 era military radio and radar collector for
some 25 or so years (and now getting out of it - trade old radar stuff
for old computers? Ha!), and have seen just how fucked up it really
was. Never trust the numbers!

--
Will