Gwido Langer Lt . Col . Karol Gwido Langer ( 2 September 1894 in Zsolna , Austria - Hungary – 30 March 1948 in Kinross , Scotland ) was chief of the Polish General Staff ' s Cipher Bureau from at least mid - 1931 . Life . Langer was born in Zsolna , Upper Hungary ( today Žilina in Slovakia ) but spent his childhood in Cieszyn , where his family came from . By then , according to Polish military historian Władysław Kozaczuk , the Bureau had been formed by merger of the Radio Intelligence Office and the Polish - Cryptography Office . Langer remained at the head of the Cipher Bureau and its successor field agency until the latter was effectively disbanded in November 1942 upon the German occupation of southern France ' s Vichy " Free Zone . " Major Langer had on January 15 , 1929 , after a tour of duty as chief of staff of the First Infantry Division , become chief of the General Staff ' s Radio Intelligence Office , and subsequently of the Cipher Bureau . As the Cipher Bureau ' s chief , Langer was ultimately responsible for Polish cryptography ; Polish military - intelligence radio communications ; radio intelligence and tracking down of clandestine enemy intelligence radio transmitters operating in Poland ; Russian - cryptogram interception and decryption ; and German - cryptogram interception and decryption . Langer ' s Cipher Bureau has become famous for having in December 1932 broken the German Enigma cipher and read it until the German invasion of France in May – June 1940 , and perhaps after that . In March 1943 , as Lt . Col . Langer , his deputy , Major Maksymilian Ciężki , head of the prewar " B . S . - 4 " ( the Bureau ' s German section ) , Lt . Antoni Palluth and civilians Edward Fokczyński and Kazimierz Gaca were attempting to cross from German - occupied France into Spain , they were betrayed by their French guide and captured by the Germans . Interrogated about work on Enigma , Langer " decided [ to ] mix truth with lies , and [ . . . ] present my lies in such a way that they had the veneer of truth . " He told the Germans that before the war the Bureau had sporadically solved Enigma ciphers , but that during the war they had no longer been able to . Langer advised the panel of his interrogators that , since Major Ciężki knew more about the subject than he , they should summon Ciężki . " They agreed , and Ciężki managed to convince them that the changes [ that the Germans had ] made [ to the machine and its operating procedures ] before the war made decryption during the war impossible . " The two Polish officers thus succeeded in protecting the secret of Allied Enigma decryption , thereby enabling Ultra to continue doing its vital work for Allied victory . After Langer and Ciężki had been liberated by the Allies and had reached Britain , Langer was crushed to find himself blamed for his men ' s capture by the Germans . He died at the Polish Army Signals camp at Kinross , Scotland , on 30 March 1948 and was buried in a cemetery at Wellshill , Perth , Scotland . His grave was marked by a standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone . On 1 December 2010 his remains were exhumed , following a request by his daughter Hanna Kublicka - Piottuch . On 10 December his remains received a full military funeral provided by the Polish army , following which they were reinterred at the Communal Cemetery in Cieszyn , Poland . His new gravestone is of black granite and describes his involvement with the cryptanalysis of the Enigma cipher .