Here are more thoughts from JUDE STACKPOLE PhD (1334-1990) and the theory that the U-Boat codes were NOT broken by Bletcheley Park, but were in fact sold to the British code-breakers by some as yet unnamed high ranking Kriegsmarine or Abwehr officer. JUDE writes:

"The 'official' version of the breaking of the ENIGMA code is plausible - barely, I think. I suspect it could have been done that way using today's technology (SUPER COMPUTERS) and that is undoubtedly how codes are broken by the NSA (National Security Agency) and its contemporaries m other countries.

"Considering though that the most advanced computers, or their equivalent, of that era 1939-1945, had the equivalent calculating power of one of today's toss away business card calculators without memory - it wasn't likely. The story of using the 'bombes' is quite analogous to the theory of giving an infinite number of monkeys typewriters on the presumption that sooner or later one of them will start writing Shakespeare.

"The ENIGMA technology was old hat, and in fact had been widely patented prior to World War II. No great mystery in the equipment and in fact all the major powers of the world used that or similar equipment including the United States.

"A fundamental difference between the two major types of equipment seems to have involved that which produced hard copy already typed output, and those that used a flashing light to indicate the output. I understand there were ENIGMA machines that could produce hard copy but I do not recall seeing any photographs of one.

"The basic make-up of the ENIGMA machine involved 26 sets of plug-in connectors to be wired in a pre-arranged sequence, and a number of code wheels - generally two to four each with 26 contact points on it. One wonders why the digits 0 through 9 were not included since that would have expanded the number of possible permutations considerably, however .....

"If you are working with only two wheels and the set-up plugs you already have a possible 17,576 initial settings. If you add the third wheel that raises to 456,976. The fourth wheel brings the initial permutations to 11,881,376.

"That's a lot of possible starting combinations whether you're dealing with two, three or four wheels. What seems to be overlooked is that unless one had the key, the initial settings for each and every day were different and in order to decode any day's messages you had to find the key for the day hit or miss, in other words, work through all 17, 76 or 456,976 or 11,881,376 possible combinations.

"All things being equal, if, given sufficient time to decode various intercepts, by the time they were decoded, the information would be of little value - all ancient history. Think about it."

(HARRY's NOTE - I think you can see that, without having the codes in your possession AND the keys for the day, there is no way that Bletcheley Park or any other code-breaker could have cracked the TRITON U-Boat code for years. It is a good indication that perhaps these codes really WERE sold to the British. But by whom? And why? You KNOW that CAP'N CLOAK 'N DAGGER will indeed have more on this in subsequent issues of our KTB Magazine. If any other researchers have anything on the compromising of the TRITON codes, please feel free to jump in with your information as well. Let's work on finding the ANSWER!)

Memories from Otto

More of the letter from ADM OTTO KRETSCHMER (122-LIFE-1985)

"I am glad that in the KTB you are taking up the most important subject of ULTRA. It cannot be understood by anybody why our Naval and Armed Forces High Commands were so stupid not to understand the writing on the wall', as every Cadet already learns that no code in the world is ever safe. For us in captivity it soon became quite clear that the ENIGMA code had been broken.

Donitz' suspicions were always wiped off the table by the High Command. This makes me think that this decision always was a traitorous action of the political opposition in the Armed Forces, mainly in the intelligence and communications organizations.

"Please keep this subject alive in the KTB and so bring some more light into this matter and maybe eventually you can present the solution.

" Captain Heinz Bonatz in his book 'DIE DEUTSCHE MARINE-FUNKAUFKLARUNG 1914-1945' states that on 7 June, 1941 a conference at U-Boat HQ had taken place with result that the use of active radio by submarines was regarded as dangerous, but that there were no definite signs of ENIGMA decoding by the enemy apparent, as the greater number of suspicions could also be explained by other means. Bonatz was the head of the Naval Intelligence Organization."

More Jude and Ultra

Jude and Ultra [KTB 104]
Jude and Ultra [KTB 105]
Jude and Ultra [KTB 106]
Jude and Ultra [KTB 107]
Jude and Ultra [KTB 108]
Jude and Ultra (End) [KTB 109]