A grid of internet-linked home computers has been successful in cracking some elusive WWII German ciphers. The codes resisted the best efforts of the celebrated Allied cryptographers based at Bletchley Park during the war. The project, named M4, in honour of the M4 Enigma machine that originally encoded the ciphers, uses a combination of brute force and algorithmic attempts to crack the codes.

Unencrypted and translated into English, the message suddenly comes to life:

"Forced to submerge during attack. Depth charges. Last enemy position 0830h AJ 9863, [course] 220 degrees, [speed] 8 knots. [I am] following [the enemy]. [barometer] falls 14 mb, [wind] nor-nor-east, [force] 4, visibility 10 [nautical miles]."

A check against existing records confirmed that the message was sent by Kapitanleutnant Hartwig Looks, commander of the German navy's U264 submarine, on 25 November 1942.