Luftwaffe deciphering of Allied air force codes.

[tcolvin]

Since 1972, when Winterbotham revealed what had gone on in BP, historians of WWII have had to take Ultra into account.

But British ciphers were also compromised for much of the war. Vast losses occurred at sea in 1943 because the RN was lax about following up information from the Americans and BP that B-Dienst were reading RN codes, and introduced the unbroken Typex only late in 1943.

B-Dienst would also have broken RAF codes for much of the war, and possibly USAAF ciphers as well.

I would be interested if anyone knows, or has speculated, about the operational consequences in the air war of Allied cipher insecurity, and what practical benefits the Luftwaffe obtained from it.

Tony