Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

C H U R C H I L L A N D I N T E L L I G E N C EGolden Eggs: The Secret War, 1940-1945Part I: Britain and AmericaChurchill used secret intelligence on a global scale, freely shared it with the Americans, andmade it count in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Cabinet’s unanimous decision to aid Greecein 1941 would not have been made were it not for the Enigma decrypts.M A R T I N G I L B E R TCOLOSSUS: the world’s first electronic, programmable computer, above,was vital in the preparation of Churchill’s “Golden Eggs.” Commencing in1994, a team led by Tony Sale began reconstruction of a Colossus atBletchley Park. Right: Mr. Sale supervises the breaking of an encypheredmessage with the completed machine. (MaltaGC/Wikimedia)Churchill became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940.Twelve days later, on 22 May, the codebreakers atBletchley Park broke the Enigma key most frequentlyused by the German Air Force. This was the hourlytwo-way top-secret radio traffic between the combinedGerman Army, Navy and Air Force headquarters at Zossenand the commanders-in-chief on the battlefronts.Included in the newly broken key were the top-secretmessages of German Air Force liaison officers with theGerman Army. The daily instructions of these liaison officersincluded targets, supply and, crucially, details ofshortages such as aviation fuel.In the desperate days of late May and early June1940—when the British Expeditionary Force was beingevacuated from Dunkirk—daily decrypts indicated the positionand intentions of the German field formations as theyturned towards the sea. Even with delays in decrypting individualEnigma messages taking, at that time, up to six days,this was an indispensable benefit in guiding the continuationof the evacuation to the last possible moment.As the German air Blitz on Britain intensified inAugust and September 1940, fears of invasion mounted.On 11 September Churchill received details of an Enigmadecrypt that suggested that invasion plans were being made._______________________________________________________________________________________________________The Rt. Hon. Sir Martin Gilbert CBE was named the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill following the death of Randolph Churchillin 1968, and has now published almost as many words on his subject as Churchill himself. “Official” is something of a misnomer, sincehe was never told what to write or what position to take on any aspect of the story. Winston S. Churchill, with eight narrative volumesand sixteen companion or document volumes, and more to come, is the longest biography ever published. It is now being reprinted infull by Hillsdale College Press, which offers all volumes so far published at affordable prices. See: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/freedomlibrary/churchill.asp.Sir Martin is an honorary member of The Churchill Centre and has been a contributor to Finest Hour for nearlythirty years. For further information see http://www.martingilbert.com.FINEST HOUR 149 / 20