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the British cracked Enigma in 1941, and from then they were able to completely destroy the 300-400 German u-boats, because they were intercepting and decrypting
by justanotheranon 6y ago
the British cracked Enigma in 1941, and from then they were able to completely destroy the 300-400 German u-boats, because they were intercepting and decrypting u-boat radio traffic, so they always knew where the u-boats were going. The only reason the Allies allowed the u-boats to continue winning small victories was to preserve the illusion that Enigma was still secure to prevent the Germans from switching to another cipher system. So when you see depictions of exciting historical battles against u-boats, keep in mind that it was not a level playing field due to the strategic advantage of superior SIGINT by the Allies.
- valuearb 6y agoIIRC 75% of U-Boat crew members were killed in action during WW2.
- vmh1928 6y agoThe book "Marching Orders" by Bruce Lee tells the story of Magic intercepts of the Japanese military and diplomatic code and reviews the daily summaries read by Marshall and other US leaders in the context of what was happening in the war at that time The point of the book, c.1995, was that signals intelligence played a huge role, but unknown role, in influencing the actions of the U.S. and U.K. And that without understanding what the leaders knew there is a tendency to overestimate their skill / leadership ability.
- pgreenwood 6y agoAnd Poland cracked Enigma in 1933, and then shared their techniques and Enigma clones with the British in 1939!