ULTRA
ULTRAbecame the code word the Allies used to identify intelligence produced by decrypting enemy communications during World War II. The British Admiralty first used the term in May 1940 to enable commanders to evaluate the source of the intelligence dispatched to them. By 1945, ULTRA was in official use by American, Australian, Canadian, and British intelligence agencies and field armies and navies worldwide. ULTRA's sources were mainly decrypted German and Japanese military and naval ciphers, although some codebreaking successes were achieved against the Italian armed forces as well. In general terms, the Germans relied on numerous machine‐generated ciphers, while the Japanese resorted to multiple book‐based cipher systems. Success in reading one code did not translate into a wholesale breakthrough into all existing code systems. Nor did breaking one code guarantee continual solution of the system because the enemy introduced changes on a routine basis to...
[The entire page is 1809 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
