General Discussions  
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII. 
Go to: Forum List•Message List•New Topic•Search•Log In•Print View
RE: German Codebreaking
Posted by: Roy Prince ()
Date: March 19, 2001 11:54PM

<HTML>I have no doubt the Germans were able to read a lot of the Allied Codes. We had a master book in the radio room (Mersigs- Merchant Ships Signals) with supplements which changed the code from time to time. I remember one convoy conference controller being very dramatic and saying Doenitz had the master copy on his desk but not the supplements. Decoding seemed a relatively simple job which we did after copying radio traffic and then destroyed both pieces of paper. I doubt if it was anywhere as near as difficult to break our code compared to breaking the Germans. As an aside to code books, a seventeen year old cabin boy on a British Ship managed to get his hands on one of the books and took it ashore in Lisbon. Neutral ports were very active in that kind of business. The cabin boy was caught, taken back to Britain and executed in very short order. Being a traitor was a lot more dangerous in those days.
</HTML>

Options: Reply•Quote


Subject Written By Posted
German Codebreaking Frank Blazich 03/19/2001 03:20AM
RE: German Codebreaking Marc Haldimann 03/19/2001 07:15PM
RE: German Codebreaking Roy Prince 03/19/2001 11:54PM


Go to: Forum List•Message List•Search•Log In
Your Name: 
Your Email: 
Subject: 
Spam prevention:
Please, enter the code that you see below in the input field. This is for blocking bots that try to post this form automatically.
  ******    **     **        **  **              ** 
 **    **   ***   ***        **  **              ** 
 **         **** ****        **  **              ** 
 **   ****  ** *** **        **  **              ** 
 **    **   **     **  **    **  **        **    ** 
 **    **   **     **  **    **  **        **    ** 
  ******    **     **   ******   ********   ******