Ultra - Sources of Intelligence

Sources of Intelligence

Most Ultra intelligence was derived from reading radioed enemy messages that had been encrypted with various cipher machines. This was complemented by material derived from radio communications using other methods, such as radio traffic analysis and direction finding. In the early phases of the war, particularly during the eight-month Phoney War, the Germans could transmit most of their messages using land lines and so had no need to use radio. This meant that the British Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park were allowed some time to build up experience of collecting and starting to decrypt messages on the various radio networks. Initially, German Enigma messages were the main source, with those of the German airforce predominating, as they used radio more, and their operators were particularly ill-disciplined.

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