Establishment
After the ''1901 to 1918
The Navy news service (german: Nachrichten-Abteilung) was an educational and news analysis service of theOrganisation
Before the First World War, the organisation of the Naval Intelligence Service was as follows: In the Naval Staff, there was a single naval officer: Kapitänleutnant Braune, who was responsible for all questions and problems of the intelligence service, and establishment of the naval signals intelligence network. The department soon grew in size to four members, despite Tirpitz's continued obstructions. It had three heads during its 18 years in existence. The executive head of the unit was Fritz von Prieger. The administrative heads of the news department of the Naval Staff of the Navy were:Operations
Recruitment
The primary target of the News Service was the BritishDay-to-day operations
On the eve of the First World War, N had established a global "war intelligence system" (''Kriegsnachrichtenwesen'' or KNW) which was intended to provide a flow of intelligence on foreign naval movements in the event of war or heightened tension. In practice, the system proved a failure. Britain cut Germany's overseas cables in August 1914, cutting off contact between N and many of its operatives abroad. In 1915 the ''Admiralstab'' instructed most of its overseas agents to discontinue their activities. In addition, the German navy's operational plans changed so frequently that it made it almost impossible to undertake long-term intelligence-gathering. In 1914 there was no organised radio reconnaissance in the German Imperial Navy, but only a radio monitoring service – B service (Interwar period (1919 to 1939)
The Nachrichten-Abteilung came to an end in 1919 after theOrganisation
Central Office
The MND (German: Marinenachrichtendienst, English:Naval Communication Service) led the organisation, as they apparently had proved during the war. Staff was provided by Rear Admiral Adolf von Trotha. Under the command, naval intelligence officers at the coast radio and marine signal stations ran the message service. On the big ships, one of the radio rooms was established for the radio monitoring service. Each radio room was equipped with a radio direction finder, so that radio messages of other navies could be absorbed from there. The management of the MND was undertaken Lieutenant Martin Braune from 30 October 1919 until 28 April 1920. In 1915 Braune had been working withThe development of the wireless has been such that you can get the direction of one who speaks and go for him; so that the German daren't open his mouth. But if he does, the message is in cypher; and it is the elucidation of the cypher which is one of the crowning glories of the Admiralty work in the late war. In my time they have never failed once in that elucidation.In 1921, a former
At the beginning of September 1914, the German light cruiser SMS ''Magdeburg'' was wrecked in the Baltic. The body of a drowned German under-officer was picked up by the Russians a few hours later, and clasped in his bosom by arms rigid in death, were the cipher and signal books of the German Navy and the minutely squared maps of the North Sea and theNaval Intelligence realized that mere changes to codes would not be enough, and set of a fundamental process that resulted in profound changes in the organisation and operations of the naval intelligence service in Germany and hastened the introduction of the Enigma Cipher Machine. From 1921 to 1925, the service was temporarily moved to theHeligoland Bight The Heligoland Bight, also known as Helgoland Bight, (german: Helgoländer Bucht) is a bay which forms the southern part of the German Bight, itself a bay of the North Sea, located at the mouth of the Elbe river. The Heligoland Bight extends .... On 6 September The Russian NavalAttaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...came to see me. He had received a message fromPetrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...telling him what happened, and that the Russian Admiralty with the aid of the cipher and signal books had been able to decoded portions at least of the German Naval Messages. The Russians felt as a leading naval Power, the British Admiralty out to have these books and charts. Prince Louis, Of Battenberg the First Sea Lord">Prince Louis of Battenberg">Prince Louis, Of Battenberg the First Sea Lord, received the documents]
He will change Mob. case the radio name and all key agents, It's gained a lot if it does not change the individual systems. This possibility, however, can be denied to a certain degree, because all experiences and the enemy a serious threat to its own messaging service created when he (...) wants to introduce completely new key systems in the event of mobilization.So, they remained confident that the slump in the opposing key procedures in the event of an emergency would be maintained. Quite differently, however, the naval staff evaluated the security of their own key medium. In a presentation in March 1938 by Lieutenant Commander (German: Korvettenkapitän) Fritz Bassenge:
All key systems and combinations hat aredevised by man and antherefore also again to be solved by manIf however, the traffic is based on the codes of secret key machines, a backtracking on the plaintext message is
Possible only with so huge usage anoutlay In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in whic ...of staff and so many available transmission equipment, numerous available radiogram material, that there are limits to the practical implementationf decipherment F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist .../blockquote> Bassenge stated it was important that the good results with the remote control key "M" towards all foreign states remained secret, because by the introduction of mechanical keys at the opponent radio reconnaissance would be more difficult with unpredictable consequences.
Intercept stations
In 1920, the naval radio stations used by Radio Intelligence to monitor foreign naval radio traffic consisted of the following: On the North Sea coast,Borkum Borkum ( nds, Borkum, Börkum) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist. Geography Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems stra ...,Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelms ...,Nordholz Nordholz is a village and a former municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Wurster Nordseeküste. It is situated approximately 25 km north of Bremerhaven, and 12 ...,List A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby uni ...and at Falshöft,Neumünster Neumünster () is a city in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. With more than 79,000 registered inhabitants, it is the fourth-largest municipality in Schleswig-Holstein (behind Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg). History The city was f ...,Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ..., Arkona, Swinemuende,Pillau Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, ...in the Baltic. The geographical location of the intercept stations were considered unfavorable for the most efficient operation, in particular when bearings were taken that proved less than accurate. Initially, newly recruited operators were untrained, but continuous monitoring soon sharpened operational practices. During the early years, processes remained unchanged. The operational and organisation use of the stations changed later, with Wilhelmshaven, Swinemuende and Kiel being reassigned with only one station, at times only 1 Bereich being available for B-Dienst. A Bereich was the name of a monitoring unit consisting of one operator, and 1 or two receivers, i.e. a minute intercept station. Operational tasks of the intercept stations were assigned based on the metrics: geographical location, their size and equipment and the quality of reception in the short, medium and long wave band. Interest was focused not only on normal tactical targets (traffic sent from enemy ship maneuvers or training), but radio traffic dealing with orders and reports Main Intercept Station ''Navy Radio South'' was eventually created, placed under a commanding officer and consisted of 3 Bereich. In 1925, a plan was executed to create an interception station (Codename:''MNO:Sued'') as far southwest as possible, to monitor theMediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th .... A station was created in the village of Villingen-Schwenningen in the Black Forest, as thedemilitarized zone A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...(Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhineland ...) area was not found to be suitable, i.e. camouflage provisions. Conditions were found to be not suitable and in Autumn 1926, the ''MNO:Sued'' subsequently moved close to the town ofLandsberg am Lech Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech) is a town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg am Lech. Overview Landsberg is sit .... When conditions changed, i.e. lack of the need for camouflage, ''MNO:Sued'' moved to a specifically constructed facility atLangenargen Langenargen is a town in the district of Bodensee in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Sports Langenargen is an ideal venue for sports such as sailing. The town's location on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) provides smooth waters ..., close toLake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ..., which was tested to ensure excellent bearing and reception conditions were excellent. By 1936, the importance of linking the stations with the Main Intercept Station by the teletype was known. Initially the general Navy teletype net was used to link coastal stations andBerlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ..., but gradually a specialized Radio Intelligenceteletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...net was created to link all the stations. The time it took for a signal to be gathered, decoded and analysed was reduced to thirty minutes. During the 1920s, the same signal were sent to Berlin by post. The increase in speed led to the redesign of the staff facilities at B-Dienst, so that the operations department plotting room were directly connected to the updating of charts After Austrian Anschluss in 1938, an Intercept Station was established outside the town of Neusiedel am See, for tracking Russian naval radio traffic in theGulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...and theBlack Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, .... Within the network, existed not only a teletype net, but a bearing net, which could be accessed from telephone anywhere in network. Stations were classified as either regional or main intercept stations. Stations were equipped withlong wave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...and in some stations,short wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...direction finding Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio stat ...sets. In peacetime there was practically no difference in each type of station. In times of war, it was the responsibility of so-called Regional Major Intercept stations, those stations at Neumünster, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel and Swinemuende, to keep naval commanders informed of all relevant information specific to their area. In 1942, Naval Radio Intelligence and Naval Radio Station was dropped The intercept stations were re-designated as Navy Main Bearing Station. Prior to the war, the stations were assigned to the following tasks: : Normally, no monitoring tasks were allocated to naval units, except those ships undergoing long cruises. These sometimes received ''special orders'' to perhaps monitor the traffic of the US navy or the Japanese Navy, and also the UK and French navies. Monitoring of UK naval traffic close to home supplemented the coastal station traffic, whereas monitoring of distant nations naval traffic, e.g. the USA navy, only provided results of superficial value, but good enough to produce a pamphlet entitled ''Radio Communications and Traffic in the US ("Funkwsen U.S.A")'' By 1939, B-Dienst was able to employ 36 watching stations
=Direction finding
= Large scale radio direction finding (abbr. RDF) was not employed in B-Dienst until the 1930s. The Unit radio reconnaissance operation in 1937–38 had a central control centre inBerlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ..., three other control centres (North:Neumünster Neumünster () is a city in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. With more than 79,000 registered inhabitants, it is the fourth-largest municipality in Schleswig-Holstein (behind Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg). History The city was f ..., middle: Soest, South:Langenargen Langenargen is a town in the district of Bodensee in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Sports Langenargen is an ideal venue for sports such as sailing. The town's location on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) provides smooth waters ...), four main bearing radio sets (Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelms ..., Flensburg, Swinemuende,Pillau Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, ...) and eight targeting stations along the North and Baltic Coast (Borkum Borkum ( nds, Borkum, Börkum) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist. Geography Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems stra ...,Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a ..., Arkona, Darss, Falshöft,Ustka Ustka (pronounced ; csb, Ùskô; german: Stolpmünde) is a spa town in the Middle Pomerania region of northern Poland with 17,100 inhabitants (2001). It is part of Słupsk County in Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is located on the Slovincian Coast on ..., Memel,Windau Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see #Other names, other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population ...). In March 1939, the B-Service observed a total of 36 radio traffic areas, including 14 British, 10 French and 10 Russian. When decoding, theB-Dienst The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, t ...had 20 radio key process desks, of which 7 were English, 5 were French and 4 Russian. To understand the efficacy of the cryptographic service, in 1938, theB-Dienst The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, t ...managed to decipher about 80% of tactical signals, immediately from a French naval exercise being conducted at the time. Around 4000 people were involved in radio intelligence during the period of world war 2. The stations themselves were in remote coastal locations for maximum security and freedom from interference by otherelectro-magnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...sources. For successful direction finding, a minimum intercept angle of 15° between two bearing bases was necessary. By stretching a line between Borkum and List, composing the base of a triangle and simultaneously the chord, a circular direction finding coverage could be made over the North Sea. At its maximum, the coverage could direction-find the Royal Navy'sHome Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the Fi ...which was located atScapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay an .... At that range, a measurement accuracy of ±1° attributed to both stations, would have put location to within an accuracy of around 35 km diameter circle.
Operations
Offensive operations
In late 1919, Wilhelm Tranow reconstructed Britain's enormous Government Telegraph Code which was used by theAdmiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Tra ...to carry reports about warships. Later in the 1920s it used the broken code to enable the Germans to track Britishgunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...activity on theYangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow .... During the interwar period, gathering signal intelligence from foreign shipping started from about 1925, when training exercises resumed after the war. Signals interception was split between tactical intercept gathering from shipping and strategic signal intercept from coastal intercept stations. Monitoring of large foreign shipping exercises, usually involving dozens of ships, tended to be unfocused and rudimentary in terms of objectives and process with significant outlay in terms of cost by B-Dienst. Observations could span several weeks or months and involve dozens of staff. Only ship movements were recorded at all times. French naval shipping was considered the primary target and by mid 1926, their disposition, operation and tactical aspects were studied. During 1932, a much clearer and focused effort was undertaken by B-Dienst to watch the totality of the British and other forces naval exercises, instead of the intermittent observations that happened during the 1920s. Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and French shipping was also continually observed. Radio frequencies could not be monitored indefinitely due to lack of resources, as shipping maneuvers could not be known in advance. In 1935, theAnglo-German Naval Agreement The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June 1935 was a naval agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany regulating the size of the ''Kriegsmarine'' in relation to the Royal Navy. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement fixed a ratio whe ...was signed between Britain and Germany, which enabled Germany to break theTreaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...restrictions and increase the physical size of their Naval forces. The signing of the Treaty signaled a relaxation in the use ofNaval attachés A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...attached to German embassies. Such an Naval attaché stole French naval charts inParis Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ..., enabling B-Dienst to follow French shipping maneuvers to a much greater accuracy and extent. When new charts were introduced byFrench Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in th ..., B-Dienst were able to quickly reconstruct them, due to having the original charts, and the Wilhelm Tranow cryptanalysis unit, who considered French Naval codes easy to break. By this time, B-Dienst had sufficient resources to enable British and French naval deployments to be analysed in immense details. An initial synopsis would be produced after an exercise, followed by a detailed reports, running to hundreds of pages including charts and analysis of shipping maneuvers. In mid-1935,Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ..., who still consideredBritain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...a potential ally, ordered the whole naval staff to redirect their operational readiness planning againstFrance France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...and ordered the main code breaking effort at ''B-Dienst'' to transfer to France. For the newly formedKriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with th ..., who considered their major potential opponent being Britain, viewed the order with suspicion. Tranow, who laughed when he heard the order, stated:I don't want to delve into high policy, but I want to say one thing: You know the English report their worldwide ship movements through these codes. Suppose their Mediterranean Fleet pours through the Straits of Gibraltar, and moves in to the Atlantic, or the Channel or even into the North Sea. Don't you want to know this in advance?The Kriegsmarine reconsidered their position and allowed Tranow to continue, in violation of Hitler's order. From 1938 onwards, the British Admiralty was now considered the primary target, as B-Dienst grown enough to have sufficient resources and personnel to undertake the task. During the 1934 to 1936 period, detailed observation of land based British carrier and fleet engagement exercises and destroyer escort duty were studied in minute detail and analysed.ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...signals were also observed for the first time, although not understood. Global movements of oil worldwide were also observed for the first time. In September 1935, Tranow and his unit made a major advance in breaking theRoyal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...'s most widely used code, the 5-digit Naval Code (German Code Name: München (Munich)), using the method of comparing the routes of a merchant vessel, which were published in Lloyds Weekly Shipping Reports (Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...), with the coded reports. By 1939, French cyphers were comprehensively broken with four naval codes being comprehensively read by Tranow on a regular basis.
Defensive operations
=Introduction of the Enigma
= The biggest operational fact that could be taken from the Naval Intelligence Service during the interwar period was discovering after the end of the First World War that German Naval Communications cyphers and associated encrypted messages had been so comprehensively deciphered and for such a long period of time by British Intelligence. The service realized a profound change in the way it undertook secret communications was required. The Navy cast around for new way to encrypt communication and realized they had been offered a new method 5 years before in the spring of 1918, when an inventor calledArthur Scherbius Arthur Scherbius (30 October 1878 – 13 May 1929) was a German electrical engineer who invented the mechanical cipher Enigma machine. He patented the invention and later sold the machine under the brand name Enigma. Scherbius offered uneq ...had demonstrated a sample multi-rotor machine (Rotor machine In cryptography, a rotor machine is an electro-mechanical stream cipher device used for encrypting and decrypting messages. Rotor machines were the cryptographic state-of-the-art for much of the 20th century; they were in widespread use in the 1 ...) to Naval staff. His chief point regarding the device during the demonstration was the impracticability of solving the message even if the enemy had the device.Kahn 2012 p. 38 He stated in his memorandum:The key variation is so great that, that without knowledge of the key, even with the available plaintext and ciphertext, and with the possession of the machine, the key cannot be found, since it is impossible to run through 6 billion (seven rotors) or 100 trillion (thirteen rotors) keys otor starting positionsThe Naval staff examined the machine and found that it "afforded good security, even if compromised". They decided not to pursue it, instead recommending that the Foreign Office could evaluate it, for perhaps diplomatic traffic. But incidentally the Foreign Office was not interested either. The price of a 10-rotor machine, measuring a 12 by 5.5 by 4.75 inches was ℛℳ4000 to ℛℳ5000 (Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...s) or about $14,400 to $18000 in 1991 dollars. Taking a second look at the Enigma Machine and possibly evaluating a number of other machines, including the entirely unsuitableKryha In the history of cryptography, the Kryha machine was a device for encryption and decryption, appearing in the early 1920s and used until the 1950s. The machine was the invention of Alexander von Kryha (born 31.10.1891 in Charkow, Russian Empire, ..., they formally began negotiations with Arthur Scherbius company, Chiffriermaschinen Aktien-Gessellscaft, and started production of Enigma machines for the Navy in 1925. The machine produced for the navy was not the commercial model, but had a different alphabetic keyboard as opposed to a Qwerty layout. The rotor wiring was different as well. Only three rotors could be used at a time, with five supplied, providing a greater choice of keys, hence security. Instead of twenty-six contacts, the Naval Enigma had twenty-nine; adding to the alphabet was three umlaute characters, ä, ö, ü and hence encrypted messages contained umlautedcodewords In communication, a code word is an element of a standardized code or protocol. Each code word is assembled in accordance with the specific rules of the code and assigned a unique meaning. Code words are typically used for reasons of reliability, ....Kahn 2012 p. 45 The Navy worries about espionage meant that only officers, who were considered honourable and less prone to corruption, were allowed to set rotor positions. Another security measure implemented to stop the possible solving of Enigma messages, by using a technique calledsuperimposition Superimposition is the placement of one thing over another, typically so that both are still evident. Graphics In graphics, superimposition is the placement of an image or video on top of an already-existing image or video, usually to add to t ...was ensuring that the rotor starting positions were far apart. This was to stop the enciphering clerk from making up a starting position that was not random, for instance AAA or ABCABC. These were listed in an attached booklet. The last security measure implemented at the time, was classifying messages by grade, i.e. general, officer, staff, with fewer cryptographic resources available to personnel the further down the rank hierarchy, and progressively more power cryptography the higher rank you were. By the start of 1926, the machine and its associated key processes were put into service as Radio Cipher C (German: Funkschlüssel C), and it came with a 23-page service manual.
=Defensive operations: rearmament years
= During theGerman re-armament German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out in Germany during the interwar period (1918–1939), in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent Germ ..., the Navy continued to evaluate the Enigma and its key processes. A study by Lieutenant Henno Lucan, second radio officer on the battleship SMS ''Elsass'', reported that the Naval Enigma met neither modern physical or cryptographic security. During this time, the Army (Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...) suggested that the Navy use the Army Enigma. The Army's Enigma had the plug board ( Enigma machine#Plugboard) which increased the number of enciphering circuits by 2 to 3 billion, and of course lost 5,213 starting positions.Kahn 2012 p. 49 In February 1930, Naval Command requested thatB-Dienst The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, t ...investigate the report and the Army Enigma, and they stated on 21 June that it "offered considerable greater security". In August 1934, having worked through the huge Naval bureaucracy for four years, the Navy (Reichsmarine The ''Reichsmarine'' ( en, Realm Navy) was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the '' Reichswehr'', existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the '' ...) approved the decision. An additional security measure was added however, in that the new Naval Enigma was to have seven rotors. The new machine was called Radio Cipher M (German: Funkschlüssel M) and the instructions stated that rotors I, II and III were to be used when communicating with the Army, rotors IV and V stay in reserve and that rotors VI and VII be used when the Navy had to send messages to itself.Kahn 2012 p. 50 In early 1939, the Navy recalled rotors VI and VII and cut a second notch in the alphabet rings. Notches now stood next to H and U. Each notch now caused the left rotor to move one position when the notch reached a certain point in the rotors revolution. Rotors I to V and later rotor VIII each did this once in a revolution. This shortened the period but also reduced the chance of a superimposition attack.
=Security
= Physical security of the Enigma machinery and other communications equipment was critically important to Naval Command. In January 1930, it conducted a survey amongst it four major units that stated:a surveillance of the machine and the rotor box, more comprehensive than before, articularly on smaller vesselsis planned... A sharp supervision of personnel who have access to the machine is necessaryNaval Command noted to all staffs that it intended to ensure the machine was secured with a lock instead of a just a lead seal Staff reported back on security arrangements. The commander of the battleship SMS ''Hessen'' stated that the machine was "housed in a specially prepared, lockable cabinet of the cipher desk, in the radio shack... The rotor boxes are kept under a secret lock in the office of the radio officer". Other officers wanted to keep the lead seal. A memorandum on espionage, was sent around by the Defense Ministry ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) on Personnel Security on 15 October 1934. This stated:During a change of position..., a non-commissioned officer and a private of a communications battalion left, through negligence, the cipher machine and the hand cipher in the field. The loss was noticed by them upon arrival in their new position, but the cryptographic material was not found in the place where it was lost. A civilian had taken it and delivered it to the mayor of a neighbouring village within half an hour.The same memo included a summary of persons executed for treason and betrayal of military secrets, 148 in 1933, 155 for the first seven months of 1934. Several other people were discovered to be negligent during that period, including Radioman Second Class Egon Bress of the Fourth Torpedo Boat Half-Flotilla who was arrested in February 1934 for taking photographs of Enigma and hundreds of cryptographic documents for his own uses. TheKriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with th ...considered physical security important, but how the machine was used, was also critically important. Poor practice was corrected on an ongoing basis. On 9 January 1932 Radioman Kunert, located at the Baltic naval base inKiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ..., made a fundamental mistake when he transmitted both the enciphered and plain message to anybody who was listening. This was considered a violation of the ''grossest sort''. After that incident, an additional training program was implemented that illustrated the kinds of errors and their consequences that could be produced to break key security protocols. Another area of concern, was of course, theft, betrayal and accidental comprise. It did not worry about the capture of a single Enigma, but it did worry that a seizure at the same time as a list of current machine settings and the booklet of indicators would enable detailed investigation at least until the duration of the list and booklet settings existed. The Navy started to print document in water-soluble ink. The ink was red, the paper pink, being a form ofblotting paper Blotting paper, called bibulous paper, is a highly absorbent type of paper or other material. It is used to absorb an excess of liquid substances (such as ink or oil) from the surface of writing paper or objects. Blotting paper referred to as b .... Worried about water exposure of ships, two copies of cryptographic documents were kept, in enclosed envelope.Kahn 2012 p. 54 The last security measure put in before the start of World War II, was a system that should be put in place, should all the Enigma system; the machine, the list of current settings, Rotors, the booklet that stated the rotor starting positions and indicators, and theBigram A bigram or digram is a sequence of two adjacent elements from a string of tokens, which are typically letters, syllables, or words. A bigram is an ''n''-gram for ''n''=2. The frequency distribution of every bigram in a string is commonly used fo ...tables, be lost or stolen. The method, which was often memorized by the cipher clerk, was to change the rotor order and the ring positions. The clerk would add 3 to the key lists Rotor number, so when Rotor II was to go into the left hand position, Rotor V would go in instead, and thus the clerk would set alphabet rings on the successive rotors respectively 4,5,6 places. Thus the key lists ring positions KYD would be set to ODJ. A special cue word would initiate these changes, the first of these were called Aldebaran. So the clerks notebook would contain ''Aldebaran, R 3, L 456'' in which R stood for rotor and L for letter. With these security practices in place, the Kriegsmarine assumed it had a secure communication system. A central Monitoring Centre was established at the start of the war, it submitted a report to Naval Command, that it should consider keeping communications to the minimum and stated "because our cipher systems are not to be viewed as 100 percent secure". Naval War Command rejected the report, particularly in the light of the fact that AdmiralKarl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz; ; 16 September 1891 24 December 1980) was a Nazi Germany, German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Gov ...was planning to introduce a technique that which he learned in the First World War, in which once a submarine encountered a convoy, it would break radio silence to report the position of that convoy, thereby enabling the British admiralty to direction-find the U-boat and monitor its encrypted communications
Liaison
Liaison with other German Signals Intelligence organisations, although described as close, was somewhat different. In the 1920s there was little organisational liaison between the different signals intelligence agencies. What was exchanged tended to be on minimal terms. Relations did exist between certain individuals notably Wilhelm Tranow of B-Dienst and Dr.Erich Hüttenhain Erich Hüttenhain (26 January 1905 in Siegen – 1 December 1990 in Brühl) was a German academic mathematician and cryptographer (Cryptography) and considered a leading cryptanalyst in the Third Reich. He was Head of the cryptanalysis unit ...of the Reichswehrministerium/Chiffrierstelle cipher agency, (early OKW/Chi) by exchanges between individual team members which tended to be on a like-for-like basis. In the 1920s there was some cooperation withPers Z S The Pers Z S was the signals intelligence agency of the German Foreign Office (german: Auswärtiges Amt) before and during World War II. It consisted of two cryptologic sections. Pers Z S was the cryptanalytic section which was called ''Special Ser ..., the Cryptanalysis Department or Signal Intelligence Agency of theGerman Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...(German:Auswärtiges Amt) but the relationship was tinged with animosity, as Pers Z S isolated itself from the German intelligence community. Although attempts were made to revive the relationship in 1940, nothing came of the relationship. Both the OKW/Chi and B-Dienst believed that the Finnish cipher bureau, which was formed in 1924, did good work withWilhelm Fenner Wilhelm Fenner (* 14 April 1891 in Saint Petersburg † after 1946) was a German cryptanalyst, before and during the time of World War II in the OKW/Chi, the Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, working within the main crypt ...of the OKW/Chi visiting the Finnish cipher bureau unit on a fact finding visit in 1927. B-Dienst had substantial links with the Finns, and started training them in 1935. The Finns has purchased aSoviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...Code from the Japanese which was used in the Baltic to read Russian Naval traffic in 1937. B-Dienst also became involved with theLatvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...ns and laterEstonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...ns who passed raw Russian intercepts to B-Dienst, in near real time using a special code, disguised to read as domestic traffic. In 1932, the Italian Regina Marina (Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' (" ...), signal intelligence unit,Servizio Informazioni Segrete The Servizio Informazioni Segrete (Secret Information Service, SIS) was the intelligence service of the Royal Italian Navy. SIS was instrumental in moulding Italian Army's operations during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Battle of the Med ...made contact with B-Dienst to ask for help with intelligence sharing, with B-Dienst explicitly wanting French naval intercepts from theMediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...and a relationship was established in Spring 1933. In April 1933, Tranow and others traveled toRome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...to exchange material through the German naval Attaché. But the relationship soured due to Italy's role in the Stresa Front agreement. In 1936, the Italian Regia Marina made a further attempt, when bothAdolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...andBenito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...required cooperation between the military intelligence agencies of both nations, but B-Dienst was not part of this agreement until 1936 and B-Dienst considered the Italian unit to be complete amateurs. In 1935, Dr. Erich Hüttenhain visitedMadrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ..., prior to the start of theSpanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli .... B-Dienst and the Abwehr conducted further visits with Senior Specialist Mueller of OKW/Chi Subsection V5, French and English translator Rudolf Trappe of the OKW/Chi and other personnel with a view to establishing intercept stations on theIberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...nearFerrol Ferrol may refer to: Places * Ferrol (comarca), a coastal region in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain * Ferrol, Spain, industrial city and naval station in Galicia, Spain ** Racing de Ferrol, an association football club * Ferrol, Romblon, municipality in ...and on theCanary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ..., to observe British and French naval exercises in theMediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th .... The operation by B-Dienst was hoping to achieve experience in long-distance communications but operations inSpain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...did not achieve expectations, principally due to the difficulties of integrating Spanish Intercept Stations into the B-Dienst network. It was hoped a B-Dienst radio supply network (German:Etappendiesnt) could be used to integrate the non homogeneous networks, but the service was only used briefly. After the Spanish Civil War started, B-Dienst made substantial effort to read Republican Naval communications. No cooperation with theLuftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Force)—known before October 1916 as (Flyer Troops)—was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-language sources it is usually referred to as the Imperial German Air Service, alt ...was known to exist, but became possible with theLuftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...signals intelligence unit (Luftnachrichten Abteilung 350 The Luftnachrichten Abteilung 350, abbreviated as ''OKL/Ln Abt 350'' and formerly called the (german: Oberkommando der Luftwaffe Luftnachrichtenabteilung 350), was the Signal Intelligence Agency of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, before an ...) after 1939. Cooperation with theWehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...signals intelligence units, as opposed toCipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht The Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (german: Amtsgruppe Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbindungen, Abteilung Chiffrierwesen) (also ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Chiffrierabteilung'' or ''Chiffrierabteilung of the High Command of the W ...(Abbr. OKW/Chi) cipher bureau, brought no perceptible results due to the different types of intercept the two systems were set up to collect. Relationships with the Forschungsamt (Abbr. FA), whose intercept model was based on domesticwiretapping Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitori ...was based on few common interests and yielded little. Unlike the OKW/Chi, B-Dienst did not lose staff to the FA when Abbwehr Gruppe IV/B-Dienst liaison officer, Hans Schimpf, took over the Forschungsamt atHermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...'s invitation, which soured relations.
Statistics
In the 1920s an intercept station would take 300 signals a month. In late 1934, thePillau Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, ...station collected nearly 1000 Polish and Russian signals. Between 1929 and 1932 the larger Main Intercept Station South received around 100 signals a day, by 1939 this had increased to 1000. In 1937, the 14 intercept stations intercepted 252,000 intercepts. By 1938, this had increased by 42,000 signals to 290,000. During this time, B-Dienst were working on seven British cyphers, five French cyphers, four Soviet and three Danish cyphers. By 1939, around 308,000 signals were being intercepted per day.
World War Two (1939 to 1945)
Organisation
Late in 1939, the Naval War Command came into being (German: Seekriegsleitung, English:Naval Operations) which split the various ''naval war staffs'' into departments, although the intelligence function had of course existed since the 1920s, in various forms. The Naval Intelligence Division was split in January 1940. The two units of Foreign Navies and Radio Reconnaissance now formed the Department of Navy Message Evaluation, later called (3/SKL). Their task consisted in the collection and analysis of information about foreign naval forces and fleet bases, positioning and composition of battle group (task forces), ship detection and location, ship building reports, technical data, estimates etc. The heads of this Department during the war years, were: * Captain Paul Wever (1 January 1940 to 21 June 1940) * Captain Gottfried Krüger (22 June 1940 to July 1942) * Captain Norbert von Baumbach (July 1942 to 28 June 1944) * Rear Admiral Otto Schulz (28 June 1944 to 17 July 1945) In June 1940, the Radio Reconnaissance broke away from 3/SKL, which was one of the chief forwarders of information into the Foreign Navies department. The Radio Reconnaissance successfully kept its independence as a separate and equal branch of the SKL during the war, and eventually swelled both in importance and size, to over 5000 people. The Foreign Navies department shrank in size in the early 1940s, and lost significant numbers of staff in later years. Possibly because of the lack of Fleet action, and inaccuracies in the statistical methods for measurement, the Department of Foreign Navies had a wholly negative impact on the German war effort The newly established Department of Naval Intelligence (2/SKL, later 4/SKL) was in January 1940 still within the Central Department (Operations) and the Mail Submission service. In June 1940, the Department of Naval Intelligence was detached from Central department. The Navy Message Inspection Service was dissolved in June 1941. The Navy intelligence took over its tasks, thus becoming the official group (4/SKL) and was divided into three departments: * Central Division (MND I) * Mail Submission Service (MND II) * Radio Reconnaissance (MND III) * Radar (MND IV) A further Department was the Radio Measurement service in October 1943. In June 1944 this became the Department of Navy Location ( Radar Research) service, later called Radar Research. The radar service was started in August 1943, in an attempt to stem the location ofU-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...s and included research on Allied non-radar location devices as well as radar. Instead the Department wire news service (MND IV) was annexed. From 1941 group heads of the Office of the MND were: *Konteradmiral ''Konteradmiral'', abbreviated KAdm or KADM, is the second lowest naval flag officer rank in the German Navy. It is equivalent to ''Generalmajor'' in the ''Heer'' and ''Luftwaffe'' or to '' Admiralstabsarzt'' and '' Generalstabsarzt'' in the '' ...Rear Admiral Ludwig Stummel – 1 January 1940 – 15 June 1941 * Vice Admiral Eberhard Maertens – 16 June 1941 to May 1943 * Rear Admiral Ludwig Stummel – May 1943 – 16 August 1944 * Rear AdmiralFritz Krauss Fritz Krauss (born 20 March 1898 in Chur, Germany, died 13 July 1978 in Großhansdorf) was a German naval officer, most recently a Konteradmiral in the World War II. Between 16 August 1944 – 22 July 1945, Fritz Krauss was Director of Department ...– 16 August 1944 – 22 July 1945 Head of the Department of Radio Reconnaissance, asB-Dienst The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, t ...was called throughout the war, was Captain Heinz Bonatz. Frigate Captain Hans Meckel was head of the tracking (English:Radar Research) (5/SKL) service. This is mentioned here because the location service was always a part of the naval intelligence service, but became a full Seekreigsleitug unit, when the department grew in size and importance as the war progressed. By the end of 1944, the German naval intercept service and related intelligence activities formed part of the division of Naval Communications, which in turn formed one of the six numbered Naval Operation Departments. * 1/SKL Operations Commanded by Rear Admiral Hans Karl Meyer * 2/SKL U-Boat Operations Commanded by Rear AdmiralEberhard Godt Eberhard Godt (15 August 1900 – 13 September 1995) was a German naval officer who served in both World War I and World War II, eventually rising to command the ''Kriegsmarine''s U-boat operations. Biography : ''This article incorporates informa ...* 3/SKL Intelligence Commanded by Otto Schulz * 4/SKL Communications Commanded by Rear Admiral Fritz Krauß * 5/SKL Radar Research Commanded by Commander Meckel * 6/SKL Hydrography & Meteorology Commanded by Vice Admiral Otto Fein
TICOM reports
TheTICOM TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee) was a secret Allied project formed in World War II to find and seize German intelligence assets, particularly in the field of cryptology and signals intelligence. It operated alongside other Western Allied e ...reports received from Special Intelligence Branch OP-322Y1 by Captain J. S Harper, Captain U.S. Navy, Chief, Office of Operations, Training Division on 23 April 1952. * IR 95443 Subject: Historical Naval Radio Intelligence (B-Dienst) Date: 21 August 1951 * IR 94882 Subject: German Navy Radio Monitoring Service (B-Dienst) Date: 19 October 1951 * IR 94819 Subject: German Navy Radio Monitoring/Decipher Service (B-Dienst) Date: 20 October 1951 * IR 94821 Subject: German Navy Radio Monitoring Intelligence Service Date: 24 October 1951 * Serial B-99915 ComNavForGer Subject: Reports by Captain K. H. Bonatz on former German Radio Intelligence Personnel Date: 26 February 1952 * Serial 00510 U. S. Navat London. Subject: Germany, Navy, Communication, Personnel formerly Engaged in Intercept and Monitoring Activity. Date: 27 March 1952 * I-147: Detailed Interrogation of' Members of OKM 4/SKL III at Flensburg.
Citations
General bibliography
* Friedrich L Bauer: ''Die Komödie der Irrungen im Wettstreit der Kryptologen''. Vortrag vom 14. Dezember 2007. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: München 2008 (Abhandlungen, Neue Folge, Heft 176) * Heinz Bonatz: ''Die deutsche Marine-Funkaufklärung 1914–1945''. Wehr und Wissen: Darmstadt 1970. (Reihe Beiträge zur Wehrforschung Band 20/21. ISSN 0067-5253) * Heinz Bonatz: ''Seekrieg im Äther. Die Leistungen der Marine-Funkaufklärung 1939–1945''. E.S. Mittler: Herford 1981. * Ralph Erskine: "Enigma's Security: What the Germans Really Knew". In: Michael Smith and Ralph Erskine (eds.): ''Action this day''. Bantam Press: London 2001, pp. 370–385. * Helmuth Giessler: ''Der Marine-Nachrichten- und Ortungsdienst. Technische Entwicklung und Kriegserfahrungen''. J. F. Lehmann: München 1971, (Reihe Wehrwissenschaftliche Berichte Band 10. ISSN 0083-7822) * * Hans H. Hildebrand, Walther Lohmann: Die deutsche Kriegsmarine. 1939–1945. Gliederung, Einsatz, Stellenbesetzung. Podzun: Bad Nauheim 1956, Kapitel 32. * Hans H. Hildebrand: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine nebst Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945. 3 Teile. Biblio-Verlag: Osnabrück 2000 (Reihe Formationsgeschichte und Stellenbesetzung der deutschen Streitkräfte 1815–1990 Band 2). * * Werner Rahn: Warnsignale und Selbstgewissheit. Der deutsche Marine-Nachrichtendienst und die vermeintliche Sicherheit des Schlüssels M („Enigma") 1943/44. In: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 61 (2002), pp. 141–154 * Werner Rahn: Der Einfluss der Funkaufklärung auf die deutsche Seekriegführung im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg. In: Winfried Heinemann (Hrsg.): Führung und Führungsmittel. Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Potsdam 2011 pp. 15–56 * Rebecca Ratcliffe: "Searching for Security: The German Investigations into Enigma's Security". In: ''Intelligence and National Security'' 14 (1999) Heft 1 (Special Issue) pp. 146–167. * Rebecca Ratcliffe: "How Statistics led the Germans to believe Enigma Secure and why they were wrong: neglecting the practical mathematics of cipher machines". In: Brian J. Winkel (Hrsg.) ''The German Enigma Cipher Machine''. Artech House: Boston, London, 2005. * Jürgen W. Schmidt (Hrsg.): ''Geheimdienste, Militär und Politik in Deutschland''. Ludwigsfelder Verlags-Haus: Ludwigsfelde 2008. (Reihe Geheimdienstgeschichte Band 2). {{ISBN, 978-3-933022-55-4 * KKpt. Achim Teubner, März 1939, "zitiert bei Werner Rahn: Die Funkaufklärung in der Reichs- und Kriegsmarine 1919–1939". In: Heinemann, 2011 Naval intelligence Weimar Republic intelligence agencies Naval history of Germany Research and development in Nazi Germany Nazi German intelligence agencies Intelligence services of World War II