Operation "Ultra", or the Story of how the Poles with the British "Enigma" hacked. 3 part
The first person of Great Britain, Sir Winston Churchill, receiving information from Bletchley Park, could not always share it even with members of the cabinet of ministers. In fact, Churchill allowed only the head of the army intelligence and the head of the Intelligence Service to use the decryption materials. Even the appearance of the very name “Ultra” is still covered with darkness - there are only versions, according to one of which the British simply didn’t seem to have enough classical “secret” and “top secret” necks.
At the beginning of the program, the information flow from the think tank was small and it was relatively easy to ensure its non-disclosure. But when the specialists in Bletchley Park started working at full capacity, it became more difficult to cope with the secrecy regime - inevitably someone would have let it slip, and the Germans who stuffed the island with their agents could suspect that something was wrong. In this regard, the recipient of any information on the "Ultra" could not send it to anyone or, God forbid, copy. All actions related to the program should be issued in the form of combat orders or decisions without reference to the decoded radiograms. So, on the idea of the British, it was possible to divert the suspicions of the Germans about the source of intelligence. Direct actions on the battlefields of the Second World War, based on decoded German radiograms, must first be masked.
And actions at sea were no exception. For example, in the autumn of 1942, the British Navy systematically sent German convoys to the bottom, delivering Rommel, a desert fox, to his African corps. The attacks were planned on the basis of intelligence from Bletchley Park, but the sailors were forbidden to be beaten "in the forehead" - a winged reconnaissance aircraft was sent to the sky before each combat exit of ships and aircraft. The unfortunate Nazis should have had the impression that they had sunk them after all from detection from the air. But one of the German convoys was destroyed in full fog, and it would be naive for the British to refer to aerial reconnaissance. I had to put a whole theatrical performance, according to the scenario of which, Chief of Intelligence Service Stuart Menzies sent a radio encryption to some mythical agent in Naples, who allegedly “leaked” the German convoy. Of course, the text was encrypted very primitively - the Germans eventually easily fell for this trick, writing off the loss of ships to a traitor. There is even a version that because of such a focus, the Nazis removed the entire leadership of the port of Neapolitan, from which the convoys were sent to their deaths.
The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk on the basis of Enigma interception data, but it was carefully hidden.
With the help of Enigma radio intercepts, the British fished out very valuable information about the location of the Scharnhorst battleship. He was sent to the bottom, but in all sources a random English boat was designated as the culprit for finding the German ship. Winston Churchill, it seemed, was the one who suffered the most about Ultras secrecy and demanded that none of the program recipients had the right to expose themselves to the danger of captivity. Many senior officers associated with Bletchley Park could not take part in hostilities at all. At the same time, analysts from the Ministry of Defense had to keep up with the personnel of radio interception stations, of which there were many. The military rightly thought that if the specialists worked blindly, in the end someone would spill the word about the ever-growing volume of intercepted messages. In addition, the content of the interceptions did not reach the station employees either: they generally believed that the Enigma ciphers could not be decoded. It could also cause unnecessary fuss. Therefore, the radio operators informed about the extreme importance of the Ultra program, added a salary and reminded them of their loyalty to the royal family.
British Coventry - the most famous victim of the unprecedented secrecy "Ultra."
However, at times it was necessary to pay for the secrecy regime with the blood of the British civilian population. The Nazis called the barbaric bombing of the British Coventry 15 on November 1940 by the Nazis an "act of intimidation." They bombed 437 with planes that dropped 56 tons of incendiary bombs, 394 tons of land mines and 127 parachute mines that killed several hundred people, destroyed an aircraft factory and reduced the output of British military aircraft by 20%. At the same time, the Germans lost only one (!) Aircraft. Hitler was so pleased with the success of the Luftwaffe that he promised to "coventrise" the rest of Britain. The usual episode of the world massacre? But in Bletchley Park they knew in advance about the upcoming air attack and warned the leadership on time, but Winston Churchill considered that in order to save the Ultra regime, an aircraft factory and civilians could be sacrificed. A little later, Roosevelt, a secret man, said: “War makes us increasingly act like a god. I do not know what I would do ... "
Leslie Howard died on 1 on June 1943 of the year along with passengers on flight No. 777 London-Lisbon. The rescue of the aircraft by the British intelligence services could reveal the success of the Ultra.
Less known is the tragic incident with the world-famous actor Leslie Howard, who also served in British intelligence. The operatives commissioned Howard to transfer an important package to one of the agents in Portugal and bought tickets for flight No. XXUMX London-Lisbon. However, the agents of the Germans conveyed the nuances of the upcoming journey of the actor to the Berlin leadership — this became known from the transcripts of Enigma. What did Churchill do? That's right, I did nothing, and the 777 June 1, the passenger DC-1943 Dakota, was shot down by a German fighter over the Bay of Biscay. Such a manner of sacrificing the lives of civilians for the sake of state interests has been characteristic of Winston Churchill since the times of the First World War. Similarly, the Lusitania cruise liner was sunk - the British knew about the impending attack in advance and could well warn the Americans. But, firstly, Churchill (the naval minister of that time) really needed the States to join the war, and, secondly, the successes of foggy Albion cryptanalyst should be known only at home. Churchill was so in the subject of secrecy of the operation "Ultra" that even in his post-war memoirs by inertia he did not say a word about it. In Great Britain, the results of using Bletchley Park's brains in decoding were very much appreciated. So, Marshal of the Air Force Slessor wrote: “Ultra” is an incredibly valuable source of intelligence data, which had an almost fabulous influence on the strategy, and sometimes even on the tactics of the allies. ” The commander-in-chief of the Western allies, Dwight Eisenhower, expressed himself most categorically: “Ultra” was the decisive factor in the Allied victory. ” On the other side of the “front” after the war, other assessments appeared, the German military historian Rover ornately wrote: “If we distribute all the factors that influenced the outcome of the battle on the Atlantic, in decreasing order of importance, then“ Ultra ”would be at the top. It was a manifestation of annoyance from the failure of the German "Enigma" or an objective assessment - we are unlikely to find out.
Mansion in Bletchley Park - this is where the British finally “hacked” Enigma.
Alan Turing.
Officially, the United Kingdom admitted only 12 January 1978 of the fact that Enigma was decrypted - from that moment on, Bletchley Park employees were allowed to talk about their involvement in such a significant business, without revealing all the details of the operation. Up to this point, the main brain of Ultra, the mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing, did not live. He committed suicide in the 1954 year after he was subjected to forced hormone therapy (chemical castration), which turned him into a walking vegetable. The death of a homosexualist who has done so much for the country, hunted by the British society, was one of the reasons for their modern “guilt complex” before the sexual minorities of Great Britain.
At the beginning of the program, the information flow from the think tank was small and it was relatively easy to ensure its non-disclosure. But when the specialists in Bletchley Park started working at full capacity, it became more difficult to cope with the secrecy regime - inevitably someone would have let it slip, and the Germans who stuffed the island with their agents could suspect that something was wrong. In this regard, the recipient of any information on the "Ultra" could not send it to anyone or, God forbid, copy. All actions related to the program should be issued in the form of combat orders or decisions without reference to the decoded radiograms. So, on the idea of the British, it was possible to divert the suspicions of the Germans about the source of intelligence. Direct actions on the battlefields of the Second World War, based on decoded German radiograms, must first be masked.
And actions at sea were no exception. For example, in the autumn of 1942, the British Navy systematically sent German convoys to the bottom, delivering Rommel, a desert fox, to his African corps. The attacks were planned on the basis of intelligence from Bletchley Park, but the sailors were forbidden to be beaten "in the forehead" - a winged reconnaissance aircraft was sent to the sky before each combat exit of ships and aircraft. The unfortunate Nazis should have had the impression that they had sunk them after all from detection from the air. But one of the German convoys was destroyed in full fog, and it would be naive for the British to refer to aerial reconnaissance. I had to put a whole theatrical performance, according to the scenario of which, Chief of Intelligence Service Stuart Menzies sent a radio encryption to some mythical agent in Naples, who allegedly “leaked” the German convoy. Of course, the text was encrypted very primitively - the Germans eventually easily fell for this trick, writing off the loss of ships to a traitor. There is even a version that because of such a focus, the Nazis removed the entire leadership of the port of Neapolitan, from which the convoys were sent to their deaths.
The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk on the basis of Enigma interception data, but it was carefully hidden.
With the help of Enigma radio intercepts, the British fished out very valuable information about the location of the Scharnhorst battleship. He was sent to the bottom, but in all sources a random English boat was designated as the culprit for finding the German ship. Winston Churchill, it seemed, was the one who suffered the most about Ultras secrecy and demanded that none of the program recipients had the right to expose themselves to the danger of captivity. Many senior officers associated with Bletchley Park could not take part in hostilities at all. At the same time, analysts from the Ministry of Defense had to keep up with the personnel of radio interception stations, of which there were many. The military rightly thought that if the specialists worked blindly, in the end someone would spill the word about the ever-growing volume of intercepted messages. In addition, the content of the interceptions did not reach the station employees either: they generally believed that the Enigma ciphers could not be decoded. It could also cause unnecessary fuss. Therefore, the radio operators informed about the extreme importance of the Ultra program, added a salary and reminded them of their loyalty to the royal family.
British Coventry - the most famous victim of the unprecedented secrecy "Ultra."
However, at times it was necessary to pay for the secrecy regime with the blood of the British civilian population. The Nazis called the barbaric bombing of the British Coventry 15 on November 1940 by the Nazis an "act of intimidation." They bombed 437 with planes that dropped 56 tons of incendiary bombs, 394 tons of land mines and 127 parachute mines that killed several hundred people, destroyed an aircraft factory and reduced the output of British military aircraft by 20%. At the same time, the Germans lost only one (!) Aircraft. Hitler was so pleased with the success of the Luftwaffe that he promised to "coventrise" the rest of Britain. The usual episode of the world massacre? But in Bletchley Park they knew in advance about the upcoming air attack and warned the leadership on time, but Winston Churchill considered that in order to save the Ultra regime, an aircraft factory and civilians could be sacrificed. A little later, Roosevelt, a secret man, said: “War makes us increasingly act like a god. I do not know what I would do ... "
Leslie Howard died on 1 on June 1943 of the year along with passengers on flight No. 777 London-Lisbon. The rescue of the aircraft by the British intelligence services could reveal the success of the Ultra.
Less known is the tragic incident with the world-famous actor Leslie Howard, who also served in British intelligence. The operatives commissioned Howard to transfer an important package to one of the agents in Portugal and bought tickets for flight No. XXUMX London-Lisbon. However, the agents of the Germans conveyed the nuances of the upcoming journey of the actor to the Berlin leadership — this became known from the transcripts of Enigma. What did Churchill do? That's right, I did nothing, and the 777 June 1, the passenger DC-1943 Dakota, was shot down by a German fighter over the Bay of Biscay. Such a manner of sacrificing the lives of civilians for the sake of state interests has been characteristic of Winston Churchill since the times of the First World War. Similarly, the Lusitania cruise liner was sunk - the British knew about the impending attack in advance and could well warn the Americans. But, firstly, Churchill (the naval minister of that time) really needed the States to join the war, and, secondly, the successes of foggy Albion cryptanalyst should be known only at home. Churchill was so in the subject of secrecy of the operation "Ultra" that even in his post-war memoirs by inertia he did not say a word about it. In Great Britain, the results of using Bletchley Park's brains in decoding were very much appreciated. So, Marshal of the Air Force Slessor wrote: “Ultra” is an incredibly valuable source of intelligence data, which had an almost fabulous influence on the strategy, and sometimes even on the tactics of the allies. ” The commander-in-chief of the Western allies, Dwight Eisenhower, expressed himself most categorically: “Ultra” was the decisive factor in the Allied victory. ” On the other side of the “front” after the war, other assessments appeared, the German military historian Rover ornately wrote: “If we distribute all the factors that influenced the outcome of the battle on the Atlantic, in decreasing order of importance, then“ Ultra ”would be at the top. It was a manifestation of annoyance from the failure of the German "Enigma" or an objective assessment - we are unlikely to find out.
Mansion in Bletchley Park - this is where the British finally “hacked” Enigma.
Alan Turing.
Officially, the United Kingdom admitted only 12 January 1978 of the fact that Enigma was decrypted - from that moment on, Bletchley Park employees were allowed to talk about their involvement in such a significant business, without revealing all the details of the operation. Up to this point, the main brain of Ultra, the mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing, did not live. He committed suicide in the 1954 year after he was subjected to forced hormone therapy (chemical castration), which turned him into a walking vegetable. The death of a homosexualist who has done so much for the country, hunted by the British society, was one of the reasons for their modern “guilt complex” before the sexual minorities of Great Britain.
Information