General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: B-Dienst Successes
Posted by:
Funkmeister
()
Date: June 25, 2008 08:16AM
Hello!
Very interesting question, why the B-Dienst isn't so known like the Ultra.
Perhaps it is because the Ultra, and the Allies in general, won, and the B-Dienst didn't?
But, it is important to say that the B-Dienst actually was excellent service, with all limitations they had. They had chain of radio intercept stations, and also chain of direction-finding (D/F) stations.
Also, it is obvious that the Kriegsmarine knew very well that the Allies could to broke their messages, enciphered by the Enigma. because of that, the Kriegsmarine introduced one more rotor, and their Enigma machines had four rotors, instead of the original three.
So, why the Ultra won?
Very simple, they won because they took one important step forward in codebreaking- mechanical codebreaking!
It is wrong when some sources describe the Bombe, the Ultra codebreaking machine, as the first computer. The Bombe wasn't computer, because it hadn't memory or any program.
But, Alan Turing and the others realized few weak points of the Enigma, for example the cribs and that no one letter couldn't be enciphered as itself, and after some time they made the Bombe.
The Bombe helped that German messages could be deciphered in the real time, when it was useful. Of course, the messages could be deciphered without the Bombe, but too late to be very useful. because of that the Germans introduced the fourth rotor, to enlarge delay in the Allied codebreaking.
The Germans hadn't such machine, they did manual codebreaking, and sometimes they succeeded. Also, they used standard measures in the Signal Intelligence, like analysis of radio traffic. The analysis consisted of studying of quantity of the Allied radio traffic, the frequencies used, number of the call signs and length of the particular radio messages, and the Germans got some informations by this kind of the Signal Intelligence.
Even more, the Germans sent some radio intercept operators aboard their submarines, in order to intercept and partly process radio communications of the Allied convoys in the Atlantic. They intercepted radio telephony traffic between ships in the Allied convoys, on 2.4 MHz. The German radio interceptors aboard the submarines succeeded to obtain some information from the intercepting, but of local, tactical level. The informations they obtained were about number of the Allied ships in one convoy, number and activities of the airplanes in the escort, etc.
Of course, the Allied convoys, escort ships and airplanes used simple codes, and it was relatively easy for the German interceptors to broke it, but again- it was of tactical level and not very valuable on the strategic level. On the other hand, it was very danger decision to send such experts aboard submarines, when they could be captured. Some of them actually were captured by the Allies, and the Allies came into the knowledge about the B-Dienst, from their interrogation.
So, we can say that the main difference between the Allied and German codebreaking was in the Allied mechanization of the process.
By the way, the first computer used in codebreaking was the Colossus, used by the British in codebreaking of the German Lorenz cipher- brilliant invention indeed!
Best regards!
Funkmeister
Very interesting question, why the B-Dienst isn't so known like the Ultra.
Perhaps it is because the Ultra, and the Allies in general, won, and the B-Dienst didn't?
But, it is important to say that the B-Dienst actually was excellent service, with all limitations they had. They had chain of radio intercept stations, and also chain of direction-finding (D/F) stations.
Also, it is obvious that the Kriegsmarine knew very well that the Allies could to broke their messages, enciphered by the Enigma. because of that, the Kriegsmarine introduced one more rotor, and their Enigma machines had four rotors, instead of the original three.
So, why the Ultra won?
Very simple, they won because they took one important step forward in codebreaking- mechanical codebreaking!
It is wrong when some sources describe the Bombe, the Ultra codebreaking machine, as the first computer. The Bombe wasn't computer, because it hadn't memory or any program.
But, Alan Turing and the others realized few weak points of the Enigma, for example the cribs and that no one letter couldn't be enciphered as itself, and after some time they made the Bombe.
The Bombe helped that German messages could be deciphered in the real time, when it was useful. Of course, the messages could be deciphered without the Bombe, but too late to be very useful. because of that the Germans introduced the fourth rotor, to enlarge delay in the Allied codebreaking.
The Germans hadn't such machine, they did manual codebreaking, and sometimes they succeeded. Also, they used standard measures in the Signal Intelligence, like analysis of radio traffic. The analysis consisted of studying of quantity of the Allied radio traffic, the frequencies used, number of the call signs and length of the particular radio messages, and the Germans got some informations by this kind of the Signal Intelligence.
Even more, the Germans sent some radio intercept operators aboard their submarines, in order to intercept and partly process radio communications of the Allied convoys in the Atlantic. They intercepted radio telephony traffic between ships in the Allied convoys, on 2.4 MHz. The German radio interceptors aboard the submarines succeeded to obtain some information from the intercepting, but of local, tactical level. The informations they obtained were about number of the Allied ships in one convoy, number and activities of the airplanes in the escort, etc.
Of course, the Allied convoys, escort ships and airplanes used simple codes, and it was relatively easy for the German interceptors to broke it, but again- it was of tactical level and not very valuable on the strategic level. On the other hand, it was very danger decision to send such experts aboard submarines, when they could be captured. Some of them actually were captured by the Allies, and the Allies came into the knowledge about the B-Dienst, from their interrogation.
So, we can say that the main difference between the Allied and German codebreaking was in the Allied mechanization of the process.
By the way, the first computer used in codebreaking was the Colossus, used by the British in codebreaking of the German Lorenz cipher- brilliant invention indeed!
Best regards!
Funkmeister
