'Italian Ultra'

[Franek Grabowski]

It makes me wondering, we all know about Ultra intercepts, but I am wondering if there are any intercepts of Italian communications available?

[Nick Beale]

There are intercepts of Italian Naval traffic, certainly.

I don't know anything about the period 1940–43 (I've never looked at it) but I suggest browsing the National Archives online catalogue, in the HW series of files.

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Italian Magazine "Storia Militare" has published two articles about this subject, both written by Alberto Santoni, in the november 2006 and july 2007 issue.
Main sources for WW2 are HW.21 series of files: several exemples are given in the text.

Gianandrea

[Schenck]

There are some intercepts in one of AIR51 series microfilm rolls. Brief notes on flights, types, destinations and times, I'll try to find the reference.

[Bruce Dennis]

Besides those already mentioned, there is quite a lot of translated decrypted material from Italy at the National Archives, Kew on microfilm in the DEFE series. There may be a mixture of decrypts from different sources, but it should be possible to tell from the individual message which were Enigma and which came from other lower-grade transmissions.

The files are:

DEFE 3/832 to 870, TELEPRINTED TRANSLATIONS OF DECRYPTED ITALIAN NAVAL TRAFFIC. JUNE 1941-SEPTEMBER 1943 plus DEFE 3/893 1941 June-1942 Nov 19.

Although I cannot remember specific file numbers, I am pretty sure some of the ‘Cairo’ series of translations also included some from Italian sources.

Hope this helps,
Bruce

[Franek Grabowski]

Thanks, so at least there is something, though it looks navy related. I am interested in RA operations in Tunisia, so does anyone know if there is anything on the subject and of what quality?

[Bruce Dennis]

Franek, I am pretty sure the RA never used an Enigma type machine. If anyone knows better, I would be interested.

Bruce

[veltro]

AFAIK, I agree completely with Bruce.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Bruce Dennis

Franek, I am pretty sure the RA never used an Enigma type machine. If anyone knows better, I would be interested.

I can only remember reading that the Navy used a less complex version of ENIGMA (no "Steckers", I think) and that breaking it enabled to Royal Navy to surprise them at Cape Matapan.

[Franek Grabowski]

Well, I mean encoded w/t messages with daily reports. Perhaps there was no Enigma but I cannot believe everything went by a snail mail.