![]() The SOE required agents to re-transmit any "indecipherable" messages with coding errors or other garbling. More than one agent would be nabbed during or shortly after making one of these radio broadcasts. In some cases, agents had to transmit multiple times a week at preset times of day using one of two preset frequencies. The SOE made things even easier for the Germans by handcuffing its own radio operators. Fewer available frequencies meant the Germans had an easier time finding and tracking the frequencies SOE operatives were using. The SOE made matters easier for the Germans by building radios that only had a few crystals (each crystal allowed the radio to transmit on different frequency). In fact the Germans could, since their Funkabwehr counter-intelligence service had vans with radio direction-finding gear that could be used to triangulate the source of clandestine radio operators. As we'll, see these assumptions would have knock-on effects.Īt one point, the SOE told agents the Germans couldn't track their radio transmission. ![]() SOE officials underestimated the difficulty of using their balky radios (which could only transmit Morse code) and overestimated the skill of the hastily-trained radio operators they dropped into Occupied Europe. What specifically were Marks and others worried about? Well, there was plenty. The was the marvellous and terrifying part of SOE in its adolescence: it was pitted and and pockmarked with improbable people doing implausible things for imponderable reasons and succeeding by coincidence." "No matter which country section I visited, everything was in short supply except confusion, and it was easy to mis-assess country section officers because the constant need for improvisation made it difficult to distinguish the few who understood their job from the majority who didn't. In his memoir Between Silk and Cyanide, Leo Marks recalled the chaotic and inept nature of SOE at the height of the war: The Special Operations Executive was often sloppy and amateurish in how it ran agents, often with lethal consequences. The famous Bombe codebreaking computer was based on a prewar design the Poles had been using to decipher Enigma messages. The Poles, not the British, were the first to break Enigma (partly with the help of intelligence acquired by French-run agent Hans-Thilo Schmidt). However, British intelligence efforts have also become somewhat overrated in popular history.īritish failures and the contributions of others to their successes have become forgotten. The British achieved many intelligence and counter-intelligence coups, during WWII to be sure. The British and the Soviets were both incredibly adept in this brand of spying, but I think the British were the most integral to understanding and tracking comings and goings of mainland Europe throughout the war. It's hard to argue against the supreme effectiveness of British intelligence operations, particularly their human intelligence operations. The depth to which the Atomic research projects were penetrated by the USSR is mind boggling, and no doubt a major influence on the rampant paranoia of 'Red' spies during the McCarthy era. While the Soviets were no slouches, I'd argue their best intelligence coups did little to help win WWII so much as help the Soviets compete at the onset of the Cold War. MAGIC was integral to winning the war in the Pacific. Pretty much from the onset of the war American intelligence officers were playing the Japanese for fools and Japan's opposing intelligence operations were horrifically bad. American signals intelligence likewise was superb. Instructions and advice on how to best do an AMA. ![]() Want to do an AMA or know someone who does? Message the mods! Comments should be on-topic and contribute.ĭiscussions are limited to events over 20 years ago.If a post breaks one of our rules or guidelines you will be informed about it. So it is perfectly normally for your post to not show up in the new listing. Feel free to submit interesting articles, tell us about this cool book you just read, or start a discussion about who everyone's favorite figure of minor French nobility is!Īll posts will be reviewed by a human moderator first before they become visible to all subscribers on the subreddit. r/History is a place for discussions about history. Join the r/history Discord server to chat with other history enthusiast!
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