Operation "Ultra", or the Story of how the Poles with the British "Enigma" hacked. 4 part
The previously mentioned Rudolph Lemoine (a participant in the recruitment of Schmidt, who had leaked part of Enigma's secrets to France) fell into the hands of German counterintelligence for the first time in 1938, but was released for lack of evidence. In France, Lemoine was believed that he had been kept under interrogation in Nazi dungeons as a flint, but contacts with Schmidt were still forbidden. After the Germans seized the French archives of the General Staff and the police, which were "prudently" left on a platter for the invaders, Schmidt faced the threat of exposure. An analysis of archival documents showed that the Enigma leaks came from the cipher bureau of the Ministry of Defense of the Third Reich and the Research Department of the Ministry aviation. Several employees fell into suspicion at once, who initially worked in the cipher bureau, and later in the Research Center. Among them was Schmidt, but then it was not possible to calculate it, but the Gestapo attacked the track of Lemoine and began to actively search for him. They managed to arrest him only in 1943 in the southern part of France. Why the British did not evacuate such a valuable carrier of information about leaks associated with Enigma remained a mystery. Lemoine split rather quickly, and on March 17, 1943 in Paris began to testify, including about Hans Schmidt. The German "mole" was quickly captured, but due to intercession by the Reichsmarschall German Goering, they did not begin to be brought to justice.
Colonel-General Rudolf Schmidt, whose career derailed due to the betrayal of his brother
The fact is that Hans-Tilo Schmidt was the brother of Colonel-General Rudolf Schmidt, to whom his brother’s treachery had broken his entire military career — he was accused of insanity and dismissed. Hans Schmidt, according to some reports, was allowed to commit suicide in jail in 1943 year. Lemoine remained in German custody until the end of the war and died in the 1946 year. The most interesting thing is that the information about the regular “overflow” to the adversary’s Enigma data did not sow in the leadership of Nazi Germany any doubt about the strength of the main encoder. A series of upgrades, the constant change of keys - and the military elite calmed down.
Meanwhile, in the French manor Fusen in the south of the country there was a small deciphering center, which for some time was located on the territory unoccupied by the Germans. The French and Poles worked here, they did not earn much success, but were aware of some of the features of what is happening in Bletchley Park. The German special services missed the opportunity to open the British program Ultra as well. When in November 1942, Hitler made a decision to completely occupy France, the cryptanalysts from Fusen had time to destroy both the equipment and the documentation, going to the illegal position. The British, in turn, were worried about the carriers of secret information about the hacking of the Enigma, located outside the country, and did not constitute attempts to evacuate them.
Heinrich Zygalsky
So, 29 January 1943, Mariann Rezhevsky and Heinrich Zygalsky were able to illegally cross the French-Spanish border and through Portugal to get to Albion. But not everyone was so lucky. In February, X. NUMX was arrested by A. Palltah, who was actually the first to create a copy of Enigma in Poland, and in March, the Nazis took a group of Poles, which was Guido Langer, at the border with Spain.
Guido Langer in his youth.
From left to right: Polish Lieutenant Colonel Guido Langer, French Major Gustav Bertrand and British Captain Kenneth "Pinky" Mac Farlan (October 1939 - May 1940)
The Germans were in the hands of almost the entire group, able to reveal the maps regarding the developments regarding the "Enigma", but ... First, Palltah had fake documents, so the Gestapo did not know who they tied. Secondly, Palltach and his associate E.Fokchinsky died under the Allied bombs in the Sachsenhausen 18 camp on April 1944. Another prominent Polish cryptanalyst Jerzy Rozitsky did not come into the hands of the Gestapo - he died in the year 1942.
Jerzy Rozitsky
The remnants of the group of Langer and his most for a long time the Germans held in one of the concentration camps, also not knowing who was in their hands. But in March, through certain channels, the German counterintelligence was able to “identify” such valuable prisoners, and endless interrogations began. It is surprising how naive the Germans were at the time: the Poles managed to confuse them and convince them that cryptanalytic successes in pre-war Poland were very modest. 5 January 1944, the Nazis arrested the most Gustav Bertrand, the main coordinator of the program of hacking "Enigma" in French intelligence. And again, the Germans blundered and believed in the tales of a seasoned intelligence officer - Bertrand convinced the occupants of their willingness to cooperate. For solidity, he even sent an encryption to the British "Center" with a request to meet with a liaison. German counterintelligence planned to tie him in contact with Bertrand, but even here the prisoner fingered them, insisting on the cancellation of the operation. Say, the French underground immediately uncover the plans of the Nazis, and everything will go to ashes.
Gustav Bertrand with his wife.
As a result, Gustav Bertrand generally fled from the Germans, contacted the Resistance and canceled the meeting with the liaison. Such an easy release could not pass unnoticed in the eyes of British intelligence, especially since the scouts were strained more than ever before - they were preparing major disinformation about the landing site of the Allied forces in Operation Overlord. And if we assume that Bertrand passed all the work on deciphering "Enigma", then all the radio games with the Germans went to the cat's tail. As a result, Gustav was transported to England, but until the end of the landing operation in Normandy, he was kept under house arrest. After the success of Overlord, all charges were dropped, Bertrand was reinstated, and he quietly retired in 1950.
The current state of the museum complex in Bletchley Park
Feature of Operation Ultra was a regime of legendary secrecy, but the British eventually had to share with their allies their achievements in decryption. The first to be expected were the Americans, who at the end of 1940 found out about the existence of the program and a couple of months later sent their specialists to England for training. It is noteworthy that the game was not one-on-one - US cryptanalysts brought with them the best practices for decrypting the Japanese “purple” encryption machine. We can say that the British all the time collaborating with the Americans gritting their teeth shared the results of their work, but they did this not because of natural greed, but fearing leaks from the frivolous Yankees. Special obligations were made from American specialists regarding non-disclosure of information about the Ultra - it was allowed to share only with the leaders of the army’s decryption services and fleet. Winston Churchill was one of the main adherents of expanded cooperation with the Americans, in many ways his aspirations were contrary to the opinion of the British secret services. One of the motives for a full exchange of information with the USA was the overseas ally’s mood for independent decryption of Enigma. Of course, the Americans with their potential would have succeeded quite quickly, but then the British priority would have melted away, and relations could have deteriorated. As a result, from the end of 1942 all the information from Bletchley Park went through a separate channel to the American intelligence services. Moreover, the UK handed over to the United States all the details of the Bomb device, and they established their own production of these machines, having the opportunity to independently decrypt the radiograms of the Germans. The result was an interstate structure for decoding Enigma with two think tanks - already at that time the German cryptographic industry had no chance of survival. Such work has also borne fruit in the form of technical innovations - in a series in 1942, advanced decoders went by the name of “Spider” and “Bronze Goddess”. Enigma’s American decoding could also be labeled “top secret” - Franklin Roosevelt personally oversaw the operation, and Eisenhower did not share the source of information even with his closest subordinates. England helped the United States with its “brains” not only in decryption - at the end of 1942 Alan Turing was sent to America to help his colleagues assess the strength of the SIGSALY encoder.
Separate page stories Operation Ultra has become a collaboration with the Soviet Union and numerous exposures of agents of the German special services operating in the territory of the allies.
Colonel-General Rudolf Schmidt, whose career derailed due to the betrayal of his brother
The fact is that Hans-Tilo Schmidt was the brother of Colonel-General Rudolf Schmidt, to whom his brother’s treachery had broken his entire military career — he was accused of insanity and dismissed. Hans Schmidt, according to some reports, was allowed to commit suicide in jail in 1943 year. Lemoine remained in German custody until the end of the war and died in the 1946 year. The most interesting thing is that the information about the regular “overflow” to the adversary’s Enigma data did not sow in the leadership of Nazi Germany any doubt about the strength of the main encoder. A series of upgrades, the constant change of keys - and the military elite calmed down.
Meanwhile, in the French manor Fusen in the south of the country there was a small deciphering center, which for some time was located on the territory unoccupied by the Germans. The French and Poles worked here, they did not earn much success, but were aware of some of the features of what is happening in Bletchley Park. The German special services missed the opportunity to open the British program Ultra as well. When in November 1942, Hitler made a decision to completely occupy France, the cryptanalysts from Fusen had time to destroy both the equipment and the documentation, going to the illegal position. The British, in turn, were worried about the carriers of secret information about the hacking of the Enigma, located outside the country, and did not constitute attempts to evacuate them.
Heinrich Zygalsky
So, 29 January 1943, Mariann Rezhevsky and Heinrich Zygalsky were able to illegally cross the French-Spanish border and through Portugal to get to Albion. But not everyone was so lucky. In February, X. NUMX was arrested by A. Palltah, who was actually the first to create a copy of Enigma in Poland, and in March, the Nazis took a group of Poles, which was Guido Langer, at the border with Spain.
Guido Langer in his youth.
From left to right: Polish Lieutenant Colonel Guido Langer, French Major Gustav Bertrand and British Captain Kenneth "Pinky" Mac Farlan (October 1939 - May 1940)
The Germans were in the hands of almost the entire group, able to reveal the maps regarding the developments regarding the "Enigma", but ... First, Palltah had fake documents, so the Gestapo did not know who they tied. Secondly, Palltach and his associate E.Fokchinsky died under the Allied bombs in the Sachsenhausen 18 camp on April 1944. Another prominent Polish cryptanalyst Jerzy Rozitsky did not come into the hands of the Gestapo - he died in the year 1942.
Jerzy Rozitsky
The remnants of the group of Langer and his most for a long time the Germans held in one of the concentration camps, also not knowing who was in their hands. But in March, through certain channels, the German counterintelligence was able to “identify” such valuable prisoners, and endless interrogations began. It is surprising how naive the Germans were at the time: the Poles managed to confuse them and convince them that cryptanalytic successes in pre-war Poland were very modest. 5 January 1944, the Nazis arrested the most Gustav Bertrand, the main coordinator of the program of hacking "Enigma" in French intelligence. And again, the Germans blundered and believed in the tales of a seasoned intelligence officer - Bertrand convinced the occupants of their willingness to cooperate. For solidity, he even sent an encryption to the British "Center" with a request to meet with a liaison. German counterintelligence planned to tie him in contact with Bertrand, but even here the prisoner fingered them, insisting on the cancellation of the operation. Say, the French underground immediately uncover the plans of the Nazis, and everything will go to ashes.
Gustav Bertrand with his wife.
As a result, Gustav Bertrand generally fled from the Germans, contacted the Resistance and canceled the meeting with the liaison. Such an easy release could not pass unnoticed in the eyes of British intelligence, especially since the scouts were strained more than ever before - they were preparing major disinformation about the landing site of the Allied forces in Operation Overlord. And if we assume that Bertrand passed all the work on deciphering "Enigma", then all the radio games with the Germans went to the cat's tail. As a result, Gustav was transported to England, but until the end of the landing operation in Normandy, he was kept under house arrest. After the success of Overlord, all charges were dropped, Bertrand was reinstated, and he quietly retired in 1950.
The current state of the museum complex in Bletchley Park
Feature of Operation Ultra was a regime of legendary secrecy, but the British eventually had to share with their allies their achievements in decryption. The first to be expected were the Americans, who at the end of 1940 found out about the existence of the program and a couple of months later sent their specialists to England for training. It is noteworthy that the game was not one-on-one - US cryptanalysts brought with them the best practices for decrypting the Japanese “purple” encryption machine. We can say that the British all the time collaborating with the Americans gritting their teeth shared the results of their work, but they did this not because of natural greed, but fearing leaks from the frivolous Yankees. Special obligations were made from American specialists regarding non-disclosure of information about the Ultra - it was allowed to share only with the leaders of the army’s decryption services and fleet. Winston Churchill was one of the main adherents of expanded cooperation with the Americans, in many ways his aspirations were contrary to the opinion of the British secret services. One of the motives for a full exchange of information with the USA was the overseas ally’s mood for independent decryption of Enigma. Of course, the Americans with their potential would have succeeded quite quickly, but then the British priority would have melted away, and relations could have deteriorated. As a result, from the end of 1942 all the information from Bletchley Park went through a separate channel to the American intelligence services. Moreover, the UK handed over to the United States all the details of the Bomb device, and they established their own production of these machines, having the opportunity to independently decrypt the radiograms of the Germans. The result was an interstate structure for decoding Enigma with two think tanks - already at that time the German cryptographic industry had no chance of survival. Such work has also borne fruit in the form of technical innovations - in a series in 1942, advanced decoders went by the name of “Spider” and “Bronze Goddess”. Enigma’s American decoding could also be labeled “top secret” - Franklin Roosevelt personally oversaw the operation, and Eisenhower did not share the source of information even with his closest subordinates. England helped the United States with its “brains” not only in decryption - at the end of 1942 Alan Turing was sent to America to help his colleagues assess the strength of the SIGSALY encoder.
Separate page stories Operation Ultra has become a collaboration with the Soviet Union and numerous exposures of agents of the German special services operating in the territory of the allies.
- Evgeny Fedorov
- wikipedia.ru, reading.club
- Operation "Ultra", or the Story of how the Poles with the British "Enigma" hacked. 1 part
Operation "Ultra", or the Story of how the Poles with the British "Enigma" hacked. 2 part
Operation "Ultra", or the Story of how the Poles with the British "Enigma" hacked. 3 part
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