Papers please
Would you like to be a passport control officer in a totalitarian country? Who wouldn’t right? Well now you’re in luck! You can buy the finished game here or play a beta version here.Glory to Arstotzka.
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I added the following:1). In Italian codebreakers of WWII:The main advantage from reading British naval codes was gained by learning of their plans to attack Italian convoys to N.Africa. In those cases...
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German AFV losses in the Eastern Front
I’ve gone through the German tank and self propelled gun losses in the East here. The document I used had been posted at Axis History Forum but I also found it in ’Waffen und Geheimwaffen des deutschen...
View ArticleMore information from ‘It Wasn’t All Magic’
The recently released United States Cryptologic History: ‘It Wasn’t All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis, 1930s – 1960s’ has some interesting information in pages 266-7 regarding the...
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German 80mm Photophone - Carl Zeiss Lichtsprechgerät
One interesting communications device used by the German Armed forces during WWII was the photophone. This was a device that used light waves to transmit speech over long distances.The photophone...
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The mystery of the Forschungsamt
The Air Ministry’s Research Department - Reichsluftfahrtministerium Forschungsamt was one of the major intelligence organizations of Nazi Germany. During the period 1933-45 the Forschungsamt monitored...
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I added information from FMS P-038‘German Radio Intelligence’ and ADM 223/505 ‘Cypher security and W/T (Wireless Telegraphy) deception’ in The Slidex code.Also added a summary of ‘British intelligence’...
View ArticleUS intelligence budget
The Washington post has a nice article on the US secret intelligence budget. I found it strange that humint gets more money than sigint. What happened to you NSA? You used to get all the money…
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Added a file from TICOM D-69 ‘Correspondence between OKW/CHI and intercept stations’ in US military attaché codes of WWII.
View ArticleUnanswered questions of WWII cryptology
So far i’ve covered many interesting cases of WWII signals intelligence and codebreaking but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some mysteries that require more research.What are they?1). US State...
View ArticleNSA cryptanalytic breakthrough
The Guardianhas published more information on the NSA global surveillance program. This time it’s about NSA’s ability to intercept and decode a big part of global internet traffic.According to these...
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The State Department’s strip cipher – no clear cut answers
The compromise of the State Department’s strip cipher by Axis codebreakers in WWII was one of the worst failures of Allied crypto security. However this case has not received the attention it deserves...
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Book review – Luftwaffe test pilot
During WWII both the Allies and the Axis were able to capture equipment used by the other side. This equipment (tanks, planes, artillery, rifles etc) was thoroughly tested in order to ascertain its...
View ArticleNSA impersonating Google?
The plot thickens… NSA and GCHQ might have been able to spy on people by impersonating Google. According to motherjonesthey used a "man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack". Think of that next time you’re...
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WWII Myths – Multitude of German AFV types
Something that is mentioned often online and in popular history books is that the Germans built too many different types of armored vehicles during WWII. If only they had concentrated production on a...
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Greek radio stations 1940
An interesting file can be found in the British archives, folder HW 40/195 ‘Selected correspondence from the archives of OKW/CHI’.In 1940 the Lauf and Treuenbrietzen stations that intercepted foreign...
View ArticleNSA spying and the threat of terrorism/spying/cyber war etc etc
Ever since the former NSA employee Edward Snowden revealed the extent of NSA’s and GCHQ’s internet spying there has been a backlash against the secretive and obviously unlawful operations of NSA and...
View ArticleStarving Britain into submission – a flawed strategy?
During WWII the Germans tried to take advantage of the fact that Britain was dependent on imports of raw materials and foodstuffs for its economy to function. The U-boats tried to sink as many merchant...
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Another nail in the T-34’s coffin
The well known Soviet T-34 tank has been called the best tank of WWII in countless history books. I have presented a very different picture of its capabilities and performance here. I’ve also written...
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Mister David A.Salmon - The State Department’s master of ciphers
So far I’ve presented lots of interesting information on the compromise of the State Departments strip cipher during WWII. The M-138-A strip cipher carried the most important diplomatic traffic of the...
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