Cryptanalysis In World War II

In 13 economical and clearly written chapters that rely mainly on secondary accounts and published documenta-ry collections along with some archival sources, Daigler covers the key specifc topics of the intelligence war in the broad areas of espionage, covert action, and coun-terintelligence: the Boston Mechanics spy ring and the British penetration agent in its midst, Benjamin Church; martyr-spy Nathan Hale; France’s sub rosa provision of essential military aid; Benjamin Franklin’s propaganda and other covert activities as “chief of Paris Station”; George Washington’s intuitive grasp of the intelligence business and his clever use of deception and disinforma-tion to choose the right moment to strike at while keep-ing away from the always stronger

ULTRA was a code name for information collected from enemy signals during World War II. Brigadier Bill Williams, a top British intelligence adviser, credited ULTRA with providing the military with intelligence that would ensure defeat of the Germans. Though this claim is an exaggeration, ULTRA certainly was an important factor in the triumph of the Allies over the Germans and Italians (“Axis”) during World War II. The insight it provided into the Axis’ strategies and plans played an important role in battles on water, land, and in the air. The existence of ULTRA allowed for the British to curb the continued domination of the Germans across Europe by using their own communication system against them.

In the final two years of the Second World War, Canadian operations was astonishing from the simple growth and expansion of the RCN, working alongside Britain to engage in and manage convoy protection. Canada’s naval contribution was essential over U-Boat attacks on shipping, and because of such undertakings, Canadian naval officers conducted an ultimately successful campaign to have Canada’s efforts in the Battle of the Atlantic acknowledged by the creation of an independent Canadian command in the northwest Atlantic. In December 1942, Canada successfully won an administrative battle to gain responsibility for the distribution of all intelligence concerning convoys under Canadian control, and because of complex additions to the Enigma machines

Gordon Prange, the distinguished historian, noted that “Midway was a positive American victory not only the avoidance of defeat.” General George Marshall, the U.S. army Chief of Staff, in his comments on the victory, perhaps said it best: “As a result of cryptanalysis we were able to concentrate our limited forces to meet there naval advance on Midway when they otherwise 3,000 miles out of place.”

Communication was, and is, necessary in all wars, especially in World War II. Messages between troops were attempted often, however, when strived, the translation was disrupted by German Militia trying to acquire information about American troops’ location and battle plans. During World War II, The United States allied forces utilized American Indians from the Navajo tribe, to hypothesize, fabricate, and execute, a government cipher for communicating between military forces that would remain undecipherable until legally released by military officials.

How pivotal was the role of Ultra in the outcome of WWII in the European theater? Stephen Ambrose, a historian wrote that “the most important intelligence work in war is

The Battle at Midway was a critical turning point of the war in the Pacific during World War II. Attribution to American success is in direct relation to their ability to conduct signal collection and crypto-analysis leading to the battle. The elimination of this capability from consideration during the preparation for this battle will drastically influence the outcome. Through critical reasoning and battle analysis, this paper will determine the level of effect of the capability. The analysis will also seek to understand the change in outcome as a result of this change to history. The product of this analysis will be a thorough understanding of the importance of intelligence capability to United States success during World War II.

Battle of the Atlantic happened during 1943 between the British and the Germans. The British managed to make their way to the mid-Atlantic gap and did introduce the Very Long-Range Liberators. The Portugal allowed the British to use their airbases in the Azores. The United States of America also started helping the British by launching more ships than the Germans U-boats. This made the Germans ship to sink and destroyed. And the Germans were not able to replace more of the U-boats. The RAF was able to achieve it aim of destroying U-boats with the aid of radar, and bombing shipyards within Germany. The Enigma decoding technology also played a role with coding machine and code books to destroy three-quarters of U-boat crewmen. The British won the Battle of the Atlantic. This made the Germans to protect the European coasts from the Allied attack.

The two sources used in the essay are For Better or for Worse: The Marriage of Science and Government in the United States and The war in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay by Harry A. Gailey will be evaluated for their purpose, value, and limitations. The essay focuses on how the developments of the radar affected the naval radar use by US during World War II. I will discuss how the ideas of the radar came about in Europe and later moved to the US. The essay consists of analysis of how it was used to aid the US on the battlefield against the Japanese and how it was developed

In 1943 it was very obvious that the allies were winning this war. They had destroyed many of Germany’s U-boats. The technology was advancing in the United States, which made it easier for them to find the U-boats and avoid them or destroy them. The wikipedia foundation wrote “This change was the result of a combination of the sheer numbers of Allied ships at sea, Allied air power at sea, and technological developments in anti-submarine warfare. These had been introduced over the period; these came to fruition in May, with devastating results,” (Wiki).

The tactics called the wolf pack attack, the surfaced attack, and the gun deck attack allowed the German navy to destroy the Allied convoys quickly and successfully. Although the German navy did not win the Battle of the Atlantic, they were still able to sink approximately 3000 Allied ships by the end of the war with German

World War II was a war of many victories and losses. A battle for constant control of territories, that was ushered by greed and corruption. With this comes the persistent need to find an advantage over the enemy, and during this time Germany became the front runner in innovations and technology. This intelligence showed by the Germans had the allied forces in a scramble to help propel them on top of the battle again. In hopes of success, through desperation the United States had managed to put together a top-secret task force. However this was not the typical task force that the United States was know to specialize in, until the early 1940 's. This task force was hand selected to specialize in tricking the German forces, specifically in the art of Deception. Through the use of these technologies given to them, these brave soldiers used their skills in sonic, radio, and visual deception, to help lead the allied forces to victory. Later called the Ghost Army of the War, these American 's were essential in deceiving the German forces.

Furthermore, Smith opines that “[i]t seems highly likely that without someone as assertive and publicity-conscious as Donovan in the crucial position of ‘American intelligence director,’ the larger and more experienced British intelligence and covert organizations would simply have coopted American shadow warfare operations in the course of World War II,”

During the course of the Second World War the Allied and Axis power engaged in a war of espionage, that cemented the need for counter Intelligence and espionage units in a country’s arsenal. Due largely to the effectiveness of MI5’s Double Cross System in its deception of the Abwehr (German Intelligence Agency during World War 2) and the successful nature of operation fortitude. As well as German Spymaster Admiral Wilhelm Carnaris’ disbelief in Hitler’s Ideologies, the British had a victorious outcome in the intelligence war. In the battle for supremacy effective counter espionage played a larger role in the Britain’s success.

Though the Germans did utilize the enigma coding machine, which was an amazing feat of engineering, they didn’t, however, use intelligence operations with the same intensity that the Allies did. On the contrary, the British contributed a substantial amount of their time conducting intelligence operations. They focused mainly on the cracking of the German enigma codes, hoping that they would be able to predict the nearly unpredictable nature of the Blitzkrieg tactic. If the British SOO could intercept and decode information on German troop movements and objectives, then countering the superior tactic would become less daunting. This would have helped enormously in the invasion of France where the Germans baited a majority of the Allied troops to the north, with their invasion of the low countries, only to have that vacuum created in the Ardennes to be later exploited. The British, in an attempt to break the German enigma code, undertook Operation Ultra. The operation was headquartered at Bletchley Park and employed some of the most intelligent British citizens available, for example, Alan Turing. They were slowly able to crack the enigma code to give substantial information, which would help a great deal in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North African Campaign, later the Normandy invasion. Without Operation Ultra, the tide of war may have stayed with the Germans. Perhaps the U-boat