Technology and Intelligence-Gathering in World War II
Often in war, what happens behind the scenes is just as important as what happens on the front lines.
War is not only about fighting epic battles. The capacity to outmatch your enemy with technological advancements and intelligence gathering techniques is as important as the size of the army or fighting skills. A determining factor in World War II was the industrial and technological capacities of the Allies that were able to overpower the Germans.
However, history books often focus on maps with countries colored in with their faction and arrows pointing towards the major troop movements. Whether it is new technologies like the Enigma Machine or the usage of spies to acquire information and depict the enemy, all of them are important to gain the upper hand.
Technology for Intelligence Gathering
Both sides encrypted their messages to avoid the interception of information by the enemy. On the same note, both sides knew how important was to intercept this information. That is why the Allies dedicated a lot of effort in developing technologies, such as the Enigma Machine or the radar, to intercept and decipher the enemy's messages to get the upper hand.
Bletchley Park
The British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, established a wartime base at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. This is where top-secret work was carried out by the Government’s Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) to decipher the military codes used by Germany and its allies.
One of the main tasks of the men and women at Bletchley Park was in cracking the ‘Enigma’ code. The Enigma was a type of enciphering machine used by the German armed forces to send messages securely.
Enigma Machine
The machine (of which several varying types were produced) resembled a typewriter. It had a lamp board above the keys with a lamp for each letter.
The operator pressed the key for the plaintext letter of the message, and the enciphered letter lit up on the lamp board.
The machine contained a series of interchangeable rotors, which rotated every time a key was pressed to keep the cipher changing continuously.
This was combined with a plugboard on the front of the machine where pairs of letters were transposed; these two systems combined offered 103 sextillion possible settings to choose from.
One of the most influential people that worked in breaking the “Enigma” code was Alan Turing.
Alan Turing
Alan Turing was a mathematician born in London in 1912. Before the Second World War broke out, he was already working part-time for the British Government’s Code and Cypher School.
In 1939, Turing took up a full-time role at Bletchley Park. The main focus of Turing’s work at Bletchley was in cracking the ‘Enigma’ code. Turing played an important role in inventing the machine known as the Bombe
This device helped to significantly reduce the work of the code-breakers. From mid-1940, German signals were being read at Bletchley, and the intelligence gained from them was helping the war effort.
Turing contributed significantly in the work being done at Bletchley Park, and his Bombe machines sped up the breaking of certain types of enemy ciphers.
His work specifically on decrypting German Naval Enigma contributed to the Allies’ success in the Battle of the Atlantic, allowing vital supplies to arrive in Britain from North America in time for D-Day in 1944.
Radar
In the 1930’s, British scientists and engineers developed a new equipment called Radio Detection and Ranging (also known as Radar), which used radio waves to detect objects beyond the range of sight. This new equipment would play a major role during the Second World War.
By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, a chain of early warning radar stations, called Chain Home (CH) stations, had already been built along the south and east coasts of Britain. Radar could pick up incoming enemy aircraft at a range of 80 miles and played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain by giving air defences early warning of German attacks.
Radio waves were used to detect an object at a distance by transmitting a burst of radio energy and measuring the time it takes for the ‘echo’ caused by hitting the object to reflect back to the receiver. The height and bearing, or direction of flight, of targets can also be identified.
Espionage and Strategic Tactics
The development of new technologies was not the only way to learn about the enemy's tactics. Espionage and deception are tactics that rely more on creativity and craftiness than technological capacity. Spies represented a real threat and played a major role during World War II. The FBI even made a poster to spread awareness of possible spies in the US. As we are going to see next, one of the major victories of the Allies, D-Day, was successful thanks to a deception strategy known as Operation Fortitude.
Operation Fortitude
As a crucial part of their preparations for D-Day, the Allies developed a deception plan to draw attention away from Normandy. A D-Day deception plan was codenamed Operation ‘Fortitude’ and consisted of two parts:
‘Fortitude North’ was meant to fool the Germans into thinking that the Allies would launch an attack on Trondheim in Norway.
‘Fortitude South’ was designed to convince the Germans that an invasion would occur north-east of Normandy in the Pas de Calais.
As part of ‘Fortitude South’, the Allies created the fictitious First US Army Group (FUSAG), an imaginary force ‘based’ in south-east Britain comprised of 11 non-existent divisions (150,000 men).
This also helped give the impression that the invasion force was larger than it was. Fake radio traffic and decoy equipment – including inflatable tanks and dummy landing craft – mimicked preparations for a large-scale invasion aimed at the Pas de Calais.
The remarkable success of Fortitude South is reflected in German belief in the existence of FUSAG as late as August 1944, two months after the D-Day landings.
As a result, the Germans kept vital units away from the main fighting front in Normandy, because they were still expecting a second, larger invasion in the Calais area.
Operation Fortitude South saved thousands of Allied lives and helped to ensure that a firm foothold was established at the beginning of the liberation of Europe.
Double agents and spies delivered false information to reinforce the deception both before and after the Normandy landings. The most famous of these agents, Juan Pujol Garcia (‘GARBO’), invented a network of imaginary agents who were supposedly supplying him with information on Allied preparations.
Juan Pujol ('GARBO')
Before D-Day, Pujol invented no fewer than 27 sub-agents, each with full life stories. Each one of these agents provided Pujol with the information that he would later report.
However, he invented this information and wrote impressive-looking reports in such a way that even if they did not include game-changer information, they appeared to be legitimate. He often received praise for his reports.
In January 1944, the Germans told Pujol that they believed that the Allies were preparing for a large-scale invasion of Europe and that they looked to him to keep them informed of developments.
Between January 1944 and D-Day, over 500 radio messages (four transmissions a day) passed between GARBO and Madrid who in turn re-transmitted them directly to Berlin. The reports, which came from all parts of the GARBO network, disguised the status of the OVERLORD preparations.
On June 9, D-Day +3, GARBO sent a message to the German High Command, pointing out that the First US Army Group had not yet moved from South East England. GARBO reported authoritatively that the purpose of the "diversionary" Normandy landings was to help ensure the success of the forthcoming assault on the Pas de Calais.
The Germans accepted this claim as accurate and kept two armoured divisions and 19 infantry divisions in the Pas de Calais in anticipation of an invasion, giving the Allies time to establish their bridgehead.
Even if the Pas de Calais’ invasion never came, Juan Pujol’s reputation among the Germans was enhanced by the whole D-Day affair. He was awarded the Iron Cross from the Germans and later, the MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Great Britain. One of the few people that got awarded by both sides.
Conclusion
The Second World War is as much a war about infantry and tanks then about radio and spies. The war showed how crucial technology was to a successful military campaign. What would’ve happened if the Allies never cracked the Enigma Code? What would’ve happened if the British did not use radio as decisively as they did in the defense of the British Isles? What would’ve happened if Operation Fortitude failed to divert the Germans to the Pas de Calais? What would’ve happened if Juan Pujol was found out? All these what-if scenarios prove just how pivotal intelligence, espionage, and deception were to end the war. As the 21st century continues, the importance of technology and intelligence has grown exponentially since the Second World War. Now more than ever, a fundamental understanding of how these factors can expedite the end of a conflict is all too important.
