Delusions of Intelligence
Enigma, Ultra, and the End of Secure Ciphers

This book explores how the Allies achieved Signals Intelligence success in WWII, success which fostered the German blindness to Enigma's compromise.

R. A. Ratcliff (Author)

9780521855228, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2006

334 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.53 kg

'… is well written and accessible and is indispensable to any student of wartime intelligence. For the general reader, it is an excellent introduction to the topic of wartime code breaking.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

In 1974, the British government admitted that its WWII secret intelligence organization had read Germany's ciphers on a massive scale. The intelligence from these decrypts influenced the Atlantic, the Eastern Front and Normandy. Why did the Germans never realize the Allies had so thoroughly penetrated their communications? As German intelligence experts conducted numerous internal investigations that all certified their ciphers' security, the Allies continued to break more ciphers and plugged their own communication leaks. How were the Allies able to so thoroughly exploit Germany's secret messages? How did they keep their tremendous success a secret? What flaws in Germany's organization allowed this counterintelligence failure and how can today's organizations learn to avoid similar disasters? This book, the first comparative study of WWII SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), analyzes the characteristics that allowed the Allies SIGINT success and that fostered the German blindness to Enigma's compromise.

Introduction: the traitor in our midst
1. Enigma: the development and use of a new technology
2. Early triumph: German intelligence successes
3. Of no mutual assistance: compartmentalization and competition in German signals intelligence
4. The work of Station X: centralizing Allied cryptology at Bletchley Park
5. Protecting Boniface: Allied security, disguise, and dissemination of Ultra
6. The illusion of security: the German explanations for Allied successes
7. Determined answers: structural problems in German signal intelligence
8. A long-standing anxiety: Allied communications security
9. Enter the machines: the role of science and machines in the cryptologic war
Conclusion: ending the era of security.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]