General Patton and His Use of ULTRA Was General Patton’S World War II Success Partly Due to the ULTRA Wireless Intelligence Provided by British Code Breakers?
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General Patton and His Use of ULTRA Was General Patton’s World War II success partly due to the ULTRA wireless intelligence provided by British Code Breakers? Geoffrey Pidgeon [Although there was no Amateur Radio received German encrypted transmissions and is widely believed to have shortened the war during WWII, wireless communication played deciphered them. and it certainly saved the lives of hundreds of a significant role in the outcome of the war. Amongst its many roles, Section VIII thousands of Allied servicemen. Historians This article, written by one who was part of the UK’s code-breaking efforts, provides was responsible for the dissemination of the writing about Patton’s success largely ignore details on an under-reported aspect of the ULTRA intelligence from Bletchley Park to its existence and put it down to his “brilliance story. — Ed.] Allied Army Commanders in the field. This and sixth sense.” That is unfair to the tens of intelligence arose from the thousands of wire- thousands working to provide ULTRA infor- less messages sent daily by the German military mation to him. am the author of The Secret Wireless using their Enigma cipher machines. Bletchley This article is the joint effort of myself with War and the recently published Edgar Park then deciphered, analyzed and my wartime colleague Wilf Neal, I Harrison — Soldier — Patriot and Ultra graded these messages with the most LIBRARY OF CONGRESS to put the record right. He was Wireless Operator to Winston Churchill.1,2 I important classified as ULTRA. one of our four wireless operators was a member of MI6 (Section VIII) during At each Army Commander’s HQ attached to General Patton’s Third World War II. Section VIII was the commu- was a Special Liaison Unit (SLU). As the US Army in the invasion of France. nications arm of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Special Communication Unit (SCU) They worked in shifts in the SCU/ Services (SIS). It was militarized in June provided its wireless facility, the SLU wireless vehicle built into a 1940 under the title Special Communication whole outfit became known as Dodge ambulance, placed in the Units (SCUs) but remained outside the con- an SCU/SLU. The role of an very heart of Third Army HQ. trol of the British Army. Its head was Richard SCU/SLU was to provide Gambier-Parry and his HQ was in Whaddon each Army Commander, ULTRA Decodes Hall a Georgian mansion some 5 miles west be it Generals Bradley, in WWII of Bletchley Park — the high security instal- Montgomery, Simpson, Historians should lation in England where British cryptologists Patton or others, in their take note of the Cadre field headquarters with Papers No 10 entitled up-to-date and vital intel- XIX TAC and ULTRA — 1Available from your local ARRL dealer, or from the ARRL Bookstore, ARRL order no. 0262. ligence from Bletchley Patton’s Force Enhancers Telephone toll-free in the US 888-277-5289, Park on the movements, in the 1944 Campaign or 860-594-0355, fax 860-594-0303; www. status and plans of the in France by Major arrl.org/shop/; [email protected]. 2Available from your local ARRL dealer, or from German forces facing them. Lt General George S. Patton Jr Bradford Shwedo of the the ARRL Bookstore, ARRL order no. 0270. ULTRA intelligence in March 1943. USAF, published by Air BRIAN PAGE, N4TRB The Bletchley Park complex in England where the ULTRA code breakers worked. From June 2010 QST © ARRL University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Wallace would spread the ULTRA map over he presented it to the Army Commander, or Alabama. Throughout its 142 pages there are the war map and brief Patton on the enemy the very few senior officers entitled to see it. continuous and highly detailed references to situation as seen in COMINT.... ”All seven of These American officers, who served as part the use made of ULTRA. In one passage it these Third Army officers had been inducted of the Command’s G2 section, were not part refers to Patton’s daily ULTRA meetings with into the ULTRA secret, namely: General of the British SLU, but were trained and indoc- his intelligence officers as follows: George Patton, Major General Hugh Gaffey, trinated at Bletchley Park. They totaled prob- “The operational value of the services Brigadier General Hobart Gay, Colonel Oscar ably less than 25 across all of the US Army was so impressive that General Patton never Koch, Colonel Robert Allen and of course, Commands. The principal officer attached to passed a special briefing. If he was unable to Majors Helfers and Wallace. Third Army was Major Melvin Helfers, the attend the regular meeting, he always saw to only regular US Army Officer among them. it during the day that the recipients (ULTRA The British Special Liaison Units It has been said that US Army Officers officers) came over to his caravan to make Now let me turn to the part played by Wilf were appointed to the US Commands “in their showing.” Neal during World War II. He served in the case of language problems” but as far as the The two American Third Army SLU offi- Royal Corps of Signals with a small British Third Army was concerned, it was more likely cers appointed and trained by Bletchley Park, SLU attached to the G2 section of the forward that Winterbottom was aware of the antipathy to Third Army G2 (Intelligence) Section, were headquarters of the United States Third Army. shown by Patton towards British Army per- Major Melvin Helfers with Major Warrack The unit, being part of SCU/SLU/8 totaled sonnel. Wallace as his assistant. some 15 or 16 men — the communications The intelligence was gathered by thou- In the document he quotes a number of team was made up of a sergeant, two driv- sands of service men and women wireless instances where, as a result of advance ULTRA ers, four wireless operators and the remaining operators, in what was known as the “Y” ser- intelligence, preventative measures were put members, including the officer in charge, were vice (Wireless Intercept — Wi or Y). The Y into place to avoid seriously jeopardizing the responsible for the cipher operation. Service task, 24 hours a day — often under position of forward troops. This document SLUs were part of the British Secret harsh conditions — was to listen to the vast attributes the following comment to Major Intelligence Service (MI6), formed in 1940 amount of Morse traffic created by the thou- Wallace: “An army has never moved as fast and to convey ULTRA intelligence to British sands of Enigma cipher machines of the as far as the Third Army across France, and and later to US Army Commanders in the German military. The Y Service units were ULTRA was invaluable every mile of the way.” field. SLUs, working in the utmost secrecy, spread across the whole of the UK. Many of The following comment by Group Captain were only attached to those Commanders these Service wireless interceptors worked in F. W. Winterbottom (RAF), the senior British cleared to receive ULTRA. They comprised huts in bleak locations and most of them with ULTRA officer, is on page 25 of this document two Sections. British Army signals person- inadequate heating in winter months. and reads: “Patton studied every ULTRA sig- nel manned the SCU wireless operation and It must be remembered that just prior to the nal and knowing where every enemy soldier Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel manned the outbreak of war, all British amateur wireless was in his path, would thread his way round vehicle handling the ciphers. operators had their licenses revoked, transmit- or through them and find the undefended spot. During the invasion of Europe all US Army ting gear removed and impounded, but were He had done it in Sicily and then all the way Commands entitled to take ULTRA used an allowed to retain their receivers. Many of these from Brittany to the Rhine.” ULTRA Representative — all of them offi- amateurs were recruited in the RSS (Radio One should note that Group Captain F. W. cers — in the US Army whose task was to Security Service) to listen for German agents Winterbottom — already head of MI6 (Air) receive the deciphered signals from the SLU. in the country but soon were employed listen- — was appointed by Winston Churchill to After summarizing the information in them, ing to the German intelligence service — the ensure the total secrecy of GEOFFREY PIDGEON Abwehr. RSS was later incorporated the Bletchley Park intelli- into the MI6 (Section VIII) organiza- gence output throughout the tion and designated SCU3. world. When Winterbottom refers to ULTRA signals he BRIAN PAGE, N4TRB is referring to the original meaning of absolutely top- level intelligence. These cru- cial messages were, in turn, graded from Z1 through to Z5. A message Z5 at night would be enough for Major Helfers to rouse Patton from his sleep. A 2002 photo of Wilf Neal There are more instances of Patton’s posi- standing beside a US Army tive use of ULTRA in the Cryptologic Almanac Dodge Ambulance of the issued by the United States National Security type converted at Whaddon Hall for use in the SCU/SLU Agency and Central Security Service. It can be for Patton’s Third Army. Wilf downloaded from the Internet under a heading was one of the wireless —General Patton and COMINT — it is the operators working to third article. (COMINT — Communications provide ULTRA to US Army Commanders. Intelligence). One of these recalls the daily meeting at 0900 of about 40 officers in the Third Army This is an Enigma machine used in different forms War Tent.