'Italian Ultra'

[Bruce Dennis]

There was a large volume of encrypted traffic intercepted, and a team at Bletchley Park dedicated to Italian traffic. This source was of great value to the British in North Africa, especially the transport arrangements which frequently included detailed lists of supplies requested and cargoes dispatched.

The majority of the high grade Italian Army and Air Force traffic was (a) book code and (b) superencyphered one-time pads, similar to the German Offizer system. The standard encyphering equipment for naval messages was a commercially produced variant of an early Enigma produced by a firm called Hagelin, also used later in the war by the Italian SIS. It appears that German liaison officers assigned to the Italian Navy sometimes had their own Enigma machines and communicated with the Luftwaffe as well as the Kreigsmarine.

There are undoubtedly some Italian non-Enigma messages in the DEFE files, but you will have to look at the index at the beginning of each roll to see the contents.

Bruce

[Schenck]

Thu full reference of microfilm roll with some intercepts of Italian AF R/T is AIR51/296.