Estonian signals intelligence service
The signal intelligence agencies of small nations usually receive little to no attention from historians, mostly due to the lack of primary sources. The Estonian sigint agency monitored Soviet traffic...
View ArticleThe unfortunate Henry W. Antheil and the State Departments strip cipher
During WWII the high level cryptosystem used by the US State Department was the M-138-A strip cipher. Unfortunately for the Allies this system was regularly solved by the codebreakers of several Axis...
View ArticleBritish report on German armor piercing projectiles
The very interesting report ADM 213/951‘German steel armour piercing projectiles and theory of penetration’ is available from World of Tanks forum user Daigensui.From page 19 onwards there is a review...
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I have uploaded TICOM report DF-116-K ‘The German intercept station in Sofia’ - 1948, written by Wilhelm Flicke.Available from my Scribd and Google docs accounts.
View ArticleThe German intercept station in Sofia, Bulgaria
The German High Command’s deciphering department – OKW/Chi intercepted radio traffic from various stations both in Germany and abroad. Stations in neutral countries operated covertly, so as not to...
View ArticleMore Seabourne reports available
Randy Rezabek of TICOM archive has uploaded more Seabourne reports. The new ones cover cryptanalysis in the German AF, the OKW Radio Defence Corps and the Signal intelligence Service of the Luftwaffe.
View ArticleInconsistencies in TICOM reports
At the end of WWII the Western Allies were able to arrest and interrogate many German codebreakers. In addition the archives (or parts of them) of several German signal intelligence agencies fell into...
View ArticleGremlins sighted in wartime Sweden!
There is said to be a race of creatures called the Gremlins. In their original form these creatures are cute and cuddly. However if you give them food after midnight or if you throw water at them they...
View ArticleWhen real life turns into comedy
The NSA and GCHQ intercept and record all communications in order to protect ‘the people’ from evil terrorists. The Guardian reveals that these agencies are intercepting the communications of players...
View ArticleUpdate
I added information on the German exploitation of the codes of British liaison officers sent to occupied Yugoslavia in The secret messages of Marshall Tito and General Mihailović.
View ArticleSoviet signals intelligence and the German Enigma cipher machine
From the mid 1930’s the German Armed forces started using the plugboard Enigma as their main crypto system. The Enigma has received a lot of attention from historians since the solution of this traffic...
View ArticleAustralian tanker’s criticism of the T-34 tank
Site antipodean armour has uploaded the report ‘Centurion Tanks in Korea - Report by Lt J Brown RNZAC March 1952’ (originally found through world of tanks forum user Babui).This report deals with the...
View ArticleUS Chungking embassy message
I’ve written a lot about how the M-138-A strip cipher was used (and misused) by the US State Department during WWII. Time for a challenge! The following message was sent from the US embassy in...
View ArticleOverview of 2013
I think I’ve written some very interesting essays this year. I covered WWII cryptology, wrote about spies and intelligence operations, presented detailed statistics about various aspects of WWII and...
View ArticleMore stories in the news on NSA spying
Several new documents have been released on the NSA spying saga:NSA's Secret ToolboxNSA Tailored Access Operations unitEdward Snowden Christmas messageRSA paid by NSA to cripple crypto-securityNSA...
View ArticleThe end of privacy?
In his televised address Edward Snowden said: ‘A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. It will never know what it means to have a private moment to itself, an unrecorded,...
View ArticleAbwehr agent Marina Lee and the Norway campaign
The main event that shocked the world in 1940 was the defeat of the Franco-British Alliance in May ’40. However the Battle of France was not the only military campaign of the year. Norway had become a...
View ArticleAcknowledging failures of crypto security – British, Soviet and American...
In the course of WWII the Anglo-Americans were able to gain information of great value from reading their enemies secret communications. In Britain the codebreakers of Bletchley Park solved several...
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