Post by Diarist on Mar 22, 2017 4:43:44 GMT 1
I haven't seen Roger Keyes for a while. "Where have you been hiding, Roger?"
"Hallo, Bob. Working on SOE Far East. Winston tells me that we are working on plans for Japan now that Europe is a lot quieter."
"Indeed we are. You're not the only admiral here today and he's Enigma cleared."
"Winston told me that too."
"We haven't told him everything about our Enigma project. Nothing will be said about the semiconductor research we are doing. Marian Rejewski is the Pole who's made huge progress in Warsaw." Winston arrived with President Moscicki. Alan Wilson, from Cambridge, was also here with Henry Tizard. "Good morning, gentlemen. You are just an observer here, Alan. We won't be mentioning anything about semiconductors. How many of your German colleagues are in Cambridge?"
"Two so far with one more arriving in April."
"Excellent." I saw Marian was talking to a couple of people from Bletchley so I joined them. This is when I first meet Alan Turing. Apparently Henry had kidnapped him from King's College, Cambridge. Marian introduced me. "Have you settled in, Marian?"
"Yes. I like it at Bletchley. What's going on here?"
"You'll soon find out. Alan, have you met Alan Wilson?"
"Yes, briefly. He works in an interesting field. I'm not quite sure how semiconductors will help us but I'm hoping for the worst."
"That's the correct attitude." I briefly said hallo to the Polish President before opening the meeting.
"Good morning, gentlemen. I'd like to remind all present that the subject matter here is TOP SECRET. No dissemination of information to anyone who is not a member of the Enigma group. Recent changes in Europe necessitate a change in our priorities and our course of action. Admiral Canaris is the Head of German Military Counter-Intelligence and he has been informed of our progress in deciphering the Luftwaffe's communications as well as how that was possible. We have already agreed to share intelligence concerning national security for both our nations. Our aim is to jointly design a new ciphering machine for us and our allies. That is the new priority. So my first question is whether it is possible to design an Enigma which won't allow shortcuts?
Second we need to concentrate on deciphering the codes used by three nations: Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States. While the latter is not considered an adversary they do have their own agenda and we need to know what they are planning. I'm not expecting answers today rather that we all understand the changes. Would you like to add anything, Secretary Churchill?"
"Yes I would. I welcome the new agreement with Germany and I would also like to officially thank President Moscicki for Poland's support. I totally appreciate the need for secure communications and I am convinced we have the right people to achieve this goal. Now I shall sit back, be quiet and hopefully learn something."
Alan Turing asked whether that means we no longer work on trying to decipher Enigma messages. "On the contrary. First we must presume that other nations have chosen to use the commercial Enigma as the basis for ciphering their messages. Second we need an independent section whose prime mission is to try to crack OUR Enigma messages. If successful our Enigmas will need to be upgraded to fix the loophole. The deciphering needs to be automated as much as possible too. There is lots to be done, Alan."
"Has progress been made in combining the multiple intelligence services in Britain?" Admiral Keyes asked.
"Progress has been made, and you should know that, but their is still a long way to go. It's a difficult path that we are travelling along."
Admiral Canaris was asked to elaborate on the German Enigma and how he envisages the extent of our cooperation. That took at least half an hour then we talked about the flow of documents. That needs to be improved. I made a note of it and made it a priority.
"It's not only how you receive the documents but what you do with the deciphered material afterwards. That needs to better coordinated."
Just before noon Winston reminded us that there are further meetings today so we need to conclude this one.
"I'd like to thank everyone for being here. We shall be in contact soon."
I had chance to tell Alan and Alan that the IBM electrical calculators have been shipped and will be arriving soon. Time for my lunch date and it's not with Sally.