1 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:08,840 1939. 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,000 War with Germany is looming, 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:14,840 and the British know they will need every advantage to stop the Nazis. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,760 They create one in a small group 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,680 of brilliant mathematicians and scholars 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:22,360 assigned to work secretly 7 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:25,760 in a quiet country home called Bletchley Park. 8 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:28,200 With the help of a discovery first made 9 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:30,920 by Polish intelligence officers, 10 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:34,640 this team will work to break the key to the Enigma code, 11 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:38,560 the encryption used for German military communications. 12 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,000 This crucial step is the first of many 13 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:46,360 in the intelligence war waged by the Allies. 14 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:50,640 All wars change the world. 15 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,120 But none of them change the world like the Second World War did. 16 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:56,080 Japan's on the march. 17 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:57,640 Germany's on the march. 18 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,880 No one can imagine the nightmare they're about to unleash. 19 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:04,760 The most destructive war in human history. 20 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,320 Suddenly, the world is turned upside down. 21 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:10,000 And all hell is let loose. 22 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:15,880 The west is stunned by the speed of the advance. 23 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,520 You get the Allies led by the big three: 24 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,160 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. 25 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:26,880 Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 26 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:31,120 It's the biggest military operation of human history. 27 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,560 The Allies have to come together - 28 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,000 not just militarily but industrial scale. 29 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:37,720 It's a global perspective. 30 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:39,960 They have to fight in every climate - 31 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:43,640 from the Arctic, to the jungles of the Pacific 32 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:46,720 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 33 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,480 But there was no certainty of victory. 34 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,400 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 35 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:58,040 We see humans at their absolute worst, 36 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:00,280 how they treat other human beings. 37 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,520 And we see them at their absolute best, 38 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:04,480 willing to give their lives that others might live. 39 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:06,560 World War Two was a struggle 40 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:08,520 in which there could be one victor... 41 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,040 ...and one vanquished. 42 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:41,360 In the summer of 1940, 43 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,720 Great Britain is threatened by Nazi Germany. 44 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:48,720 Adolf Hitler's armies have torn through Poland, 45 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,960 Scandinavia, and Western Europe. 46 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,360 Even France has fallen. 47 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:04,600 Prime Minister Winston Churchill fears Britain will be next. 48 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:07,720 The first few weeks of Winston Churchill's 49 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:09,720 prime ministership are probably the worst 50 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,200 and most disastrous weeks in the history of Britain. 51 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,440 The most catastrophic defeat on the continent of Europe. 52 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:20,680 Outclassed by the German Wehrmacht 53 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:22,600 and the Luftwaffe in the skies above. 54 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:27,160 Britain is facing defeat and starvation. 55 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,000 By 1940, the British position looks practically hopeless. 56 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:36,760 They've met the Wehrmacht a couple of times, 57 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,600 and on both occasions - Norway and Dunkirk - 58 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:41,120 they wound up running away, 59 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:43,400 evacuating from the continent under fire. 60 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:47,800 I think, when you face 61 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:49,920 the enormity of the challenge Britain faced in 1940... 62 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,000 if you're up against a stronger army, 63 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:55,240 you've got to find other ways to get round them. 64 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,080 The British have been working to crack enemy military codes 65 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:03,000 since the outbreak of World War One in 1914. 66 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,640 Alastair Denniston leads the British Government's 67 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:08,200 Code and Cipher School, 68 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:10,680 located at Bletchley Park, 69 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,600 an old manor house in the English countryside. 70 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:16,640 He served as an intelligence officer 71 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:18,960 in the Royal Navy in World War One, 72 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,600 and has spent his entire career in cryptology. 73 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,040 Denniston predicted that accurate cryptanalysis 74 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:30,080 of the Wehrmacht's codes would be 75 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,760 an important weapon in any war with Germany. 76 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,160 We talk about the German way of war. 77 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,040 Sometimes, we say "Blitzkrieg" or "lightning war." 78 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,400 It's about tanks. It's about aircraft. 79 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,760 It's about mobile infantry, and, of course, artillery... 80 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,840 ...all working together in the greatest possible harmony. 81 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:00,400 They need to be able 82 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,280 to communicate with each other in real time. 83 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:04,960 Vast technical improvements in radio 84 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:07,560 in the '20s and '30s make this possible. 85 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,400 The radio is as important to the Blitzkrieg 86 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:12,720 as the tank or the Stuka dive bomber. 87 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:15,960 It is Alastair Denniston who realises 88 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,920 that this German reliance on technical means of communication 89 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:21,640 is also a real Achilles heel. 90 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:25,320 If someone can step into that communications loop, 91 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,320 they can intercept German reconnaissance reports, 92 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:29,560 German orders. 93 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,600 They can intercept, in a sense, German intentions. 94 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,200 Denniston understands that signals intelligence... 95 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,200 is essential to combat Germany's 96 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:41,800 new mechanised tactics. 97 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:43,840 If you don't have vast numbers of tanks 98 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,640 and you don't have the luxury of overwhelming military force, 99 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,440 you need to find a way to win a war. 100 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:54,200 And that can involve using a bit of this: intelligence. 101 00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:58,240 It provides an incredible force multiplier, 102 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:00,160 particularly when you're outnumbered. 103 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:04,640 It may give you that chance that you never thought you had before. 104 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:10,280 But cracking the German ciphers is seemingly impossible. 105 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,600 They're created by a complex device. 106 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:19,480 The Enigma machine. 107 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,160 The Enigma machine itself looks like 108 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:26,240 a cross between a cash register and a typewriter. 109 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,360 And it's an electromagnetic machine 110 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:33,200 that scrambles plain text into a code. 111 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:37,880 You would press the key... 112 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,280 ...and that instigates an electric pulse 113 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:42,520 that would run through a set of rotors. 114 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,080 As they turn, it produces what we call ciphertext. 115 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:52,760 If you press the D... 116 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,400 ...it would come out as a T. 117 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:57,760 If you press the D again... 118 00:06:57,920 --> 00:06:59,320 ...it would not come out as a T again. 119 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:01,280 It would come out as a Z... 120 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:04,040 ...or some other random letter. 121 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:06,600 The word "Hitler," for example, 122 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:08,680 if used in a message, is scrambled. 123 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:14,360 This version is sent using Morse code 124 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,040 to the operator of another Enigma Machine with the same settings. 125 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:21,400 When the encoded word is typed in, 126 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:24,720 it's possible to decipher the original message. 127 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,360 It was a unique machine. Germany was leading the world in this. 128 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:33,800 It turns every German frontline position 129 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:36,280 in World War Two into a veritable data 130 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:38,400 and information processing centre. 131 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:41,440 And to make the entire process secure, 132 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,160 there is the Enigma machine. 133 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:46,000 The Germans believe their signals are secure 134 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:50,080 because of the complexity hardwired into the Enigma machine. 135 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:54,880 The great thing about the Enigma machine is 136 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:58,760 the vast number of ways that it can be set up every day. 137 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:00,440 If I've got three rotors, 138 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,480 Each rotor can have one of 26 positions. 139 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,440 So that's 26 times 26 times 26, 140 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:10,360 which is 17,500 different ways of setting that up. 141 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:12,880 That sounds like a big number, but it's not. 142 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,360 Here is where it gets fun because, on the front of the machine, 143 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,120 the Germans have installed an extra device, 144 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:22,120 which is called "The Plug Board." 145 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:23,480 If you had ten cables, 146 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:28,360 it's 150 million-million different ways 147 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:30,000 to set up the plug board. 148 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,400 So if you multiply all these different options together... 149 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,680 ...you end up with 156 million-million-million 150 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,000 different ways of setting it up, which is more, I think, 151 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:41,920 than there have been seconds in the universe. 152 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,720 The Germans figured - 153 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,840 and I think justifiably - that it was unbreakable. 154 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:49,760 But Denniston believes 155 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,480 it's possible to crack the Enigma codes. 156 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,120 He spends years recruiting mathematicians, 157 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,480 linguists, and scholars from Britain's top universities. 158 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:06,000 He reached out to the academic communities - 159 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,600 to Cambridge and Oxford - and he'd go to dinner with them. 160 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:12,000 And he was kind of sussing out, you know, who's good at this, 161 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:16,080 who might be useful, looking especially at mathematicians. 162 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:18,400 It was a professional challenge. 163 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:20,680 You're a mathematician. You've got a problem. 164 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:22,440 You want to solve that problem. 165 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,080 And here's the added benefit that you're doing it for your country, 166 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:27,800 and for your family, so that they don't have 167 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:29,360 to grow up speaking German. 168 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,400 A key recruit to Bletchley Park is 169 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:36,160 a young academic from the University of Cambridge. 170 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,880 An eccentric genius named Alan Turing. 171 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:43,720 Let me tell you a bit about my uncle, Alan Turing. 172 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:47,160 He has always been interested 173 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,200 in everything to do with science and maths. 174 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,800 He likes the planets. He likes chemistry. 175 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:54,520 He likes genetics. 176 00:09:54,680 --> 00:09:58,320 But what he's really interested in is logic problems. 177 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:00,400 Mathematical logic. 178 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:03,640 Turing is only 27 years old, 179 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:05,800 but he's already a world-renowned leader 180 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:07,960 in the solving of mathematical problems 181 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:10,240 with the help of mechanical devices. 182 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,880 One of the greatest contributions that Alan Turing brings 183 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,320 to code-breaking in this era is 184 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:19,720 to understand that, to attack the Enigma machine, 185 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:21,520 the British will need their own machine. 186 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:26,040 Turing begins by studying 187 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:28,800 the critical work of Polish codebreakers. 188 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:30,320 Before the War, 189 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:32,560 these men built a machine that could sift through 190 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,680 the many variations of the early Enigma settings. 191 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:38,320 In 1939... 192 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:41,400 fearing the Nazis were about to invade their country, 193 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:43,680 the Poles presented their device to the British 194 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:45,840 and French Intelligence Services. 195 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,480 Turing now assembles a radically upgraded 196 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,800 British version of this machine: The Bombe. 197 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,720 It's huge. Imagine a wardrobe, maybe a bit bigger. 198 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:01,520 Very noisy, very clunky. 199 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:06,560 The British feed intercepted German signals into the Bombe. 200 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,440 Then, it rotates through the millions 201 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,360 of possible Enigma settings... 202 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:14,480 ...and, by a process of elimination, 203 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,040 reduces these to a smaller number that can be deciphered, 204 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,280 revealing the original message. 205 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:23,800 This is a sort of behemoth, 206 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,720 the like of which has never been seen before. 207 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,080 It's got 100 rotating drums. 208 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:32,000 It's got 1 million soldered connections. 209 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:35,680 How is this monster going to deliver? 210 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:38,920 Turing and his team are in a race 211 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,120 against time and Adolf Hitler. 212 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:44,160 In August 1940, 213 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,760 his Luftwaffe begins to attack 214 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:49,040 Royal Air Force bases in the South of England. 215 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:52,480 The Battle of Britain has begun. 216 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:16,240 Hitler has ordered the Luftwaffe 217 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:18,520 to destroy the Royal Air Force and its bases 218 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:21,680 before he invades Great Britain by sea. 219 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:25,440 The defence of the country depends 220 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,960 on the young RAF pilots and airmen sent up to defend Britain. 221 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:34,080 At Bletchley Park, 222 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,880 Turing and his team have been working to improve the Bombe. 223 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:42,120 And now, they're decrypting the Luftwaffe's Enigma signals. 224 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,320 You have got these extraordinary individuals - 225 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:50,800 certainly not your carbon-copy military types - 226 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:53,880 who have achieved what was believed 227 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,080 to be impossible. 228 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:02,200 Turing calls his new machine "Victory." 229 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:06,160 After decryption, 230 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:08,360 teams decode the German signals, 231 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:12,240 then feed the intelligent to the Royal Air Force fighter command. 232 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:15,840 Bletchley Park is absolutely vital 233 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,800 for the British defence in the Battle of Britain. 234 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,880 Why? 235 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,880 Because it reveals the Luftwaffe order of battle. 236 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,600 So you can see who's going where, when. 237 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,240 And better still, it also reveals that the Germans have 238 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,440 these direction-finding beams for their aircraft. 239 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:37,160 And if you can intercept those beams, 240 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:40,160 you know where the aircraft are going in advance. 241 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,440 And you could therefore defend those targets far more adequately. 242 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,680 It also reveals the true extent 243 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:48,760 of German aircraft losses. 244 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:51,760 Now, that's a really important piece of information for the RAF 245 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:55,760 because they know that the Germans are getting hammered. 246 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,440 So it is absolutely vital. 247 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:06,720 The work at Bletchley Park is crucial 248 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:09,680 to the RAF's victory in the Battle of Britain. 249 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:13,360 Hitler indefinitely postpones the invasion. 250 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:16,960 The scope and scale of the code-breaking operation 251 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:19,680 expands with its success. 252 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:22,880 The initial stage is the collection 253 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:24,520 of the signals themselves 254 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,520 at interception sites dotted 255 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:29,840 all around the UK and overseas. 256 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,120 Any signals that are encrypted would be relayed 257 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:35,960 via teleprinter or via a dispatch rider 258 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,560 who would relay the material back to Bletchley Park. 259 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,640 Now, Alan Turing's Bombe machine starts 260 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:48,360 the key part of your encryption process. 261 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:50,200 Then, specialised teams will finalise that 262 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,040 and decrypt that message. 263 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,480 But it's in German now. So now you've got translators 264 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:57,040 who are working to translate the message into English. 265 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:58,880 We needed linguists. 266 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:00,640 We needed to people who were good 267 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,280 at clerical administrative tasks and typing, 268 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,240 which is why the site mushroomed in terms of numbers and scale. 269 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:10,640 Finally, you need to analyse the message 270 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,160 and send it out to commanders in the field, 271 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:14,560 so that they can put it into use. 272 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,160 This was to produce intelligence for all theatres of war. 273 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:25,440 It wasn't just producing material for Europe. 274 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:27,360 It was producing intelligence 275 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:30,200 from North Africa, the Middle East, the Far East. 276 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,480 This was a global war, and it needed global intelligence. 277 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,240 The Enigma signals intelligence generated 278 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:40,520 by Bletchley Park is given a name - 279 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:43,080 "ULTRA" for "ultra secret." 280 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,320 Winston Churchill is its biggest champion. 281 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:47,880 He has long-believed 282 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:50,840 that intelligence will help the Allies win the war. 283 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,520 For a general or a politician, to be able to read 284 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:59,080 the innermost thoughts of your enemy is like a superpower. 285 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,440 Churchill would look at these intelligence reports in his bath, 286 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:05,680 in his bedroom, out in the garden. 287 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:07,520 He wanted to see the raw intelligence. 288 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:09,200 He was fascinated by it. 289 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,560 And Churchill could see that, in Bletchley Park, 290 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,840 he had a potentially war-winning tool. 291 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:15,720 He made sure they had the resources they needed. 292 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:18,040 He made sure they had access to him. He said that they could get 293 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,920 in touch with him any hour of the day, 294 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:22,680 no matter what. 295 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:26,280 Churchill understands 296 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,200 how important military intelligence can be. 297 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,480 He was Home Secretary and led MI5, 298 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,240 Britain's domestic Intelligence Service. 299 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:37,960 Heil eurem Fuehrer! 300 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:39,800 Heil! Heil, Fuehrer! 301 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:42,880 Hitler, on the other hand, has long been sceptical 302 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:45,320 of the usefulness of military intelligence. 303 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:48,880 I don't think Hitler values intelligence 304 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:50,960 in the same way that Churchill did. 305 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,040 Hitler is a guy who believes in his instincts. 306 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,240 He believes in his vision. 307 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,560 Hitler is so caught 308 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:01,800 in his own ideological thinking 309 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,600 that he rejects out of hand intelligence 310 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,160 that doesn't go along with his worldview. 311 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:10,480 He doesn't rely on it all that much. 312 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:16,080 German military intelligence - the Abwehr - 313 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:18,600 is led by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. 314 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:23,760 Canaris has planned German espionage campaigns all over the world, 315 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:26,760 including in the United States. 316 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:30,240 By all accounts, Hitler is largely very impressed by him. 317 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:32,160 Canaris is very sophisticated. 318 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:34,320 He's really on top of his job. 319 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:36,240 He's terrifically well informed. 320 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:37,880 And he has some good ideas. 321 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:42,080 But Canaris is a realist, 322 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:46,640 and the Abwehr's intelligence is often too candid for the Fuehrer. 323 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:49,960 He keeps coming up with reports that suggest 324 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:52,880 that a war with Britain would be a long, hard war, 325 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:55,040 that a war with the United States would be unwinnable, 326 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:57,960 that even a war with the Soviet Union would be much more difficult. 327 00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:00,600 Nobody wants to hear from pessimists right now, 328 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,600 especially an invincible Hitler at the height of his power. 329 00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:08,360 Hitler believed predominantly in military might. 330 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:11,280 The great German military machine. 331 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,200 And to be honest, he has great reason 332 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:16,080 to believe in the might of his army because it's achieving things 333 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:17,640 that have never been achieved before. 334 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,280 In Britain, Churchill doesn't have 335 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:22,960 the military resources 336 00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:25,240 to attack Germany on the ground. 337 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:30,440 So he creates the Special Operations Executive, 338 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,560 which launches espionage and sabotage campaigns 339 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:36,400 throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. 340 00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,440 But Churchill knows that this is not enough. 341 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,280 He needs an ally. 342 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,320 He needs the United States. 343 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,720 After months of Luftwaffe attacks, 344 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,240 Prime Minister Winston Churchill is determined 345 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,560 to persuade the United States to enter the War. 346 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:14,720 Without America as an Ally, 347 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:17,920 he fears Hitler will defeat Great Britain 348 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:20,320 and absorb the British Empire. 349 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,880 One way for Churchill to gain American confidence and support... 350 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:29,360 ...is to share critical intelligence and information 351 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:30,920 with the United States. 352 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:34,760 Churchill is so desperate to get the Americans into the War 353 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,280 that he does really anything he can to woo them. 354 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:39,600 He wants the Americans to be impressed. 355 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:41,960 He wants the Americans to enter this alliance, 356 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:44,000 come into the War with confidence. 357 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:45,920 And what could be more persuasive 358 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:47,920 than showing off to the Americans, 359 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:49,760 telling them that you're on the way to building 360 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,320 a pretty complete picture of everything your enemy is doing 361 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,640 and thinking and saying in private. 362 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,800 That's an Ally you want to have. 363 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:00,560 In February 1941, 364 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,560 the first American delegation comes to Bletchley Park. 365 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,440 Winston Churchill gives authorisation. 366 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:07,800 From then... 367 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,680 the American and British Partnership really started 368 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,800 to move at pace; it blossomed. 369 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,920 Intelligence officers from both countries work together 370 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,240 throughout 1941. 371 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,120 But, in December, when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor... 372 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,240 ...cooperation evolves into alliance. 373 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:36,680 America is now at war with Japan. 374 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,480 And days later... with Germany. 375 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,920 America has almost no Intelligence Service 376 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,000 before we enter the War. 377 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,120 So there's Army and Navy code-breakers. 378 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:50,440 But there's no equivalent 379 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,600 of the British Foreign Intelligence Service. 380 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,440 American Intelligence is like a cottage industry. 381 00:20:57,520 --> 00:20:59,520 You know, it's at a pre-industrial stage 382 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:02,120 before Pearl Harbor occurs. 383 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,840 Now the United States works with Britain to establish the OSS, 384 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,800 the Office of Strategic Services. 385 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:14,120 But as the Americans enter the War, 386 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:17,920 the Germans still control a large portion of Soviet territory. 387 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,040 And the Japanese continue 388 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:24,560 to sweep through the Pacific and Southeast Asia. 389 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,960 By 1942... you have an unprecedented... 390 00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:32,880 trans-Atlantic collaboration, 391 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:35,840 intelligence sharing on every level. 392 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,600 The Americans are in every department 393 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:42,520 in Bletchley Park working alongside Britain. 394 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,480 So this is a really significant, enduring partnership. 395 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:52,240 ULTRA's success gives the Allies an advantage - 396 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,360 especially in the crucial Battle of the North Atlantic. 397 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,440 It reveals the location of Nazi U-boats, 398 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,280 allowing Allied navies to avoid German Wolf Packs, 399 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:09,040 and safely re-route the all-important convoys. 400 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:13,600 It has an incredible impact on the Battle of the Atlantic. 401 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:15,800 As a matter of fact, it swings the entire battle 402 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:17,720 in the Allies' favour. 403 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,800 Despite this, most of the German High Command 404 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,960 still believe the Enigma codes are unbreakable. 405 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:30,000 But Admiral Karl Donitz, 406 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:32,920 the Commander of the Nazi U-boat fleet, 407 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:37,600 cannot understand how Allied ships keep sailing around his submarines. 408 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,000 Admiral Donitz is by far 409 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,520 the most security-obsessed military leader 410 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,520 in the German war machine. 411 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,000 And he sniffed out the fact 412 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,240 that we're rerouting our convoys. 413 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,360 Admiral Donitz orders an examination 414 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,880 into the integrity of the Enigma codes and ciphers. 415 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,080 His intelligence officers insist 416 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,400 that the system is impregnable. 417 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,600 They argue that the Allies are using radar to track U-boats. 418 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,360 Or that there are spies in the German Navy. 419 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,200 They launch investigations to identify possible traitors. 420 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,120 The Germans are so convinced that it is unbreakable 421 00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:23,520 that they don't see what's going on, 422 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:25,800 even if it stares them into the face. 423 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,520 They never try to prove that it has been broken. 424 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,160 They always try to prove that it cannot be broken, 425 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:35,360 meaning that they always end up 426 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,400 at their preferred answer - 427 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:38,960 everything is fine. 428 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,280 In February 1942, 429 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:52,160 Donitz orders a security upgrade to the Enigma machine. 430 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,320 A fourth rotor is added, 431 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:00,640 strengthening the encryption even further. 432 00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:05,000 In 1942, 433 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:07,520 the German U-boat flotillas changed 434 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,160 from the M3 to the M4 Enigma, adding a fourth rotor, 435 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:15,080 which added a huge layer of complexity to attacking the cipher. 436 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:18,520 Basically, it takes the odds 437 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,120 of 150 million-million-million to one from the three-rotor 438 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:24,240 up to an unfathomable... 439 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:26,960 92 septillion to one shot. 440 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:30,560 This addition is a major setback 441 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,640 for Bletchley Park in the North Atlantic. 442 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:36,320 It's almost like the light's going out 443 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,440 on a grid of an electrical pattern. 444 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,560 You can't find submarines anymore. 445 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,680 Once again, German U-boats pose 446 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,280 a grave threat to Allied shipping. 447 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,680 Intelligence officers at Bletchley Park are no longer able 448 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:56,680 to decrypt German naval signals. 449 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:00,440 To utilise ULTRA in the Battle of the Atlantic again, 450 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,040 the British will attempt to seize the codebooks 451 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,720 the Germans use to set their Enigma machines. 452 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,800 The Allies are on the verge of losing the Battle of the Atlantic. 453 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,320 The first half of 1942 is once again referred to 454 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,720 as the "Happy Time" by German U-boat commanders. 455 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,920 One thing that can help the Allies is 456 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,760 to restart ULTRA in the Atlantic. 457 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,960 But they need to decrypt the new Enigma messages. 458 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,560 This code material is absolutely priceless 459 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:44,560 for the code-breakers of Bletchley Park. 460 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:47,840 It was used to set up the machine. 461 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,080 It shows how it's supposed to be configured 462 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,560 for every single day of every single month. 463 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,000 The British launch secret raids 464 00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,680 to extract any intelligence they can find 465 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,640 on German submarines, ships, and military facilities, 466 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,200 including Enigma codebooks. 467 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:09,480 They call the raids "pinch operations." 468 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,320 "Pinch" is British slang for "stealing." 469 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,280 British Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming 470 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,640 helps to coordinate pinch operations. 471 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:21,400 Ian Fleming ends up 472 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,880 at the Department of Naval Intelligence almost by accident. 473 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:27,680 He's got no experience in intelligence work, 474 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,800 but he very quickly finds his feet. 475 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:32,760 He has this gift for analysis 476 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,120 and weighing up intelligence options. 477 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:39,280 Fleming, who later writes the James Bond novels, 478 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,520 plans a pinch operation in connection with an Allied raid. 479 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,680 Operation Jubilee will be a large amphibious landing, 480 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,800 essentially a dress-rehearsal for the expected invasion of Europe. 481 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,080 It involves 1,000 aircraft 482 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,360 and more than 230 ships. 483 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,600 Their target is the heavily fortified French port of Dieppe. 484 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,320 The Allies know they're going to have to stage 485 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:11,760 a landing in Western Europe 486 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:13,960 in order to win the war against Hitler's Germany - 487 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:17,360 it's a test to see if you can seize a port. 488 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,400 At the centre of this was the Royal Marine Commando, 489 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:22,560 which were a British unit, 490 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:25,560 but the vast majority were Canadian infantry. 491 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,360 And then, of course, this was the debut 492 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:29,080 of the United States of America. 493 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:31,560 There were 50 United States Rangers 494 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,560 that were going to go into combat on European soil 495 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,000 in the Second World War for the first time. 496 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,000 Lieutenant Commander Fleming and a small team 497 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:41,920 called 30 Assault Unit 498 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,120 are part of the raiding force. 499 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,440 They have a specific objective. 500 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,240 With Fleming coordinating aboard ship, 501 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,560 30 AU will attempt to enter 502 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:56,960 the German Navy's regional headquarters 503 00:27:57,120 --> 00:27:59,040 and a nearby supply depot. 504 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:05,240 Both will likely contain codebooks for the new Enigma machines. 505 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:08,160 From a pinch perspective... 506 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,520 what is really important about Dieppe is 507 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,920 that they have all these code books waiting to be distributed, 508 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:17,400 not only for the next month, but months in advance. 509 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:21,840 But after initial success, 510 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,440 the landing at Dieppe disintegrates. 511 00:28:26,120 --> 00:28:28,600 It is absolutely Hell. 512 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,800 You've got to run up this beach, carrying all your kit and a rifle. 513 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,600 And of course, you've got German machine guns, 514 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,080 mortars, artillery, you name it, firing at you. 515 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,120 It becomes an absolute slaughter. 516 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,800 Over half of the Allied forces at Dieppe are killed, 517 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,400 wounded, or captured. 518 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,320 Most of 30 Assault Unit's men are killed. 519 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,320 At the end of the day, they come away with nothing, 520 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,360 despite all the bloodshed. 521 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,880 The raid on Dieppe is a failure from every angle. 522 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,600 But the British still need German codebooks 523 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,280 and intelligence to revive ULTRA. 524 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,520 Allied ships are ordered to make seizing German intelligence 525 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,560 a part of every mission, when possible. 526 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,160 In the fall of 1942, 527 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,520 HMS Petard is one of a small destroyer groups 528 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,680 sent to hunt Nazi U-Boats. 529 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,320 When they locate U-559, 530 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,000 they launch depth charges... 531 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,360 ...and force it to the surface. 532 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,240 The U-Boat crew abandon their submarine. 533 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,840 It was sinking slowly. 534 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,000 And this gives the opportunity for the crew of HMS Petard 535 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:03,560 to actually board the U-boat 536 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:05,960 and try to pinch and capture the material 537 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,560 from the sinking U-boat as it's going down. 538 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,120 Three men rush inside - 539 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:14,960 Lieutenant Tony Fasson, 540 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,120 Able Seaman Colin Grazier, 541 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,720 and a 16-year-old canteen assistant, Tommy Brown. 542 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:24,360 They're down there working with flashlights, 543 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,200 ransacking the place, looking for anything. 544 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,080 But it's a race against time 545 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,320 because the U-boat is starting to fill with water. 546 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,320 The three British sailors have minutes 547 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:38,320 to find useful intelligence. 548 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:54,280 Three British sailors desperately search 549 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:56,720 a crippled U-Boat as it begins to sink. 550 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,520 What they find could help win the War. 551 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:07,920 They go down to the signals office. 552 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,600 Then, they go into the captain's cabin, and sure enough, 553 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,600 find the material and a whole lot of it. 554 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:15,760 These guys, freezing cold, 555 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:17,640 petrified, are below deck 556 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,120 feeding crucial, rich signals intelligence - 557 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:22,600 these cipher books - 558 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:24,720 up the conning tower. 559 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,240 Almost like a conveyor belt, one guy to another, to another. 560 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:32,560 Suddenly, the submarine takes on 561 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,400 this huge rush of water... 562 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,160 ...the pressure of which pushes the teenager Tommy 563 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:41,960 out of the conning tower like a cork from a bottle. 564 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,960 But tragically, it kills the two men 565 00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,840 who have done this VITAL work below deck. 566 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,280 They're actually trapped... as the water starts to come in, 567 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,440 and they give their lives to affect the pinch operation, 568 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,000 which changes the course of the intelligence war. 569 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,840 The courage of these three British sailors means 570 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,840 Bletchley Park can once again decode 571 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,480 the German navy's Enigma messages. 572 00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:14,400 But now, the code-breakers become victims of their own success. 573 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,520 The number of enemy signals they intercept 574 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,280 and decode grows so rapidly 575 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:23,360 that the Bombe machines can no longer handle 576 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,920 the sheer volume of material fed into them. 577 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,000 The Allies need to process military intelligence 578 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,160 on an industrial scale. 579 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,360 So, Great Britain turns to its Ally: 580 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:40,240 the United States. 581 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:43,960 We send our most precious asset... 582 00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,840 the other side of the Atlantic; we send Alan Turing to America. 583 00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:58,040 In the winter of 1942, 584 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:01,560 Turing meets Joe Desch, an electrical engineer 585 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:05,400 at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. 586 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:12,000 As a result, the Bombe machines evolve into an electrical, 587 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:16,080 as well as a mechanical, weapon against the Third Reich. 588 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,120 Desch's machine is transformative technology. 589 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,720 He's invented the first... 590 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:27,920 electronic computer memory. 591 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,560 The new machines are six times faster... 592 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,440 ...and are mass-produced in the hundreds. 593 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,240 By decrypting messages at such speed and scale... 594 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:45,600 ...the Allies are able to access key German information 595 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:50,160 and, in combination with a mosaic of intelligence operations - 596 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,320 deception, espionage, and sabotage - 597 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:57,080 they can corroborate that their secret war is working. 598 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,680 In the Spring of 1943, 599 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,840 Allied Forces - under the leadership of Dwight Eisenhower - 600 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,040 have forced the German and Italian Armies out of North Africa. 601 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:19,800 The Allies' plan is to next invade the island of Sicily. 602 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:23,360 The only real problem with Sicily is 603 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:25,760 that it's somewhat of an obvious target. 604 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:27,040 If you're looking at a map, 605 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,160 Sicily is the first big island. 606 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,400 The Allies believe it's necessary to spread 607 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:33,760 a little disinformation around, 608 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,000 make Hitler and the German planners think 609 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,200 the landing is coming somewhere else, 610 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:40,840 perhaps in the Balkan Peninsula to the east. 611 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,800 Anywhere but Sicily. 612 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:51,000 In February 1943, 613 00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:53,880 Ian Fleming, and other British intelligence officers, 614 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:55,560 formulate a plan. 615 00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,560 It emerges from a list of ideas 616 00:34:59,720 --> 00:35:01,880 known as "The Trout Memo." 617 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:05,280 The Trout Memo is so-called 618 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:07,120 because it uses fly fishing 619 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:08,920 as a kind of analogy 620 00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,120 for conducting deception operations 621 00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:13,160 against the Germans. 622 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,160 Now, it's widely believed that this was largely written by Ian Fleming. 623 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,360 It's very much in his style. 624 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:22,640 And it shows that very imaginative thinking 625 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,760 for which he's later going to be absolutely renowned, of course. 626 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,280 Most of the suggestions in it are pretty far-fetched. 627 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,680 But there's one that actually does catch the eye, 628 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,400 and that's this idea of putting false information on a corpse, 629 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:40,320 and then allowing it to be discovered by the enemy. 630 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,480 Intelligence officers believe 631 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,320 this could be a way to feed the Germans false plans 632 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:50,640 for an Allied invasion of The Balkans. 633 00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,200 It's a fiendish and dastardly idea. 634 00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:58,760 If the Germans believe the false documents, 635 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,200 they will have the wrong idea 636 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,200 of what the Allies are going to get up to. 637 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,960 The British name the plan "Operation Mincemeat" 638 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,800 and present it to Eisenhower. 639 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:12,760 Eisenhower's buy-in is required 640 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,520 because Eisenhower is essentially the theatre commander in the area. 641 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,920 It's also indicative of American trust 642 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,240 in this particular operation. 643 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,600 With Eisenhower's approval, 644 00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:28,000 British Intelligence moves to the next stage. 645 00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,600 They find the corpse of a homeless man in Britain, 646 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,840 and they build an entire story for him. 647 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,480 A lifetime that he never actually enjoyed in person. 648 00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,600 They give him a uniform. They give him a career. 649 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:47,240 They put identity cards in his wallet. 650 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,760 They give him pictures of an imaginary girlfriend, 651 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:51,240 the lovely Pam. 652 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,120 He becomes Major Martin, British Intelligence Officer. 653 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,480 The final step is to give Major Martin a briefcase 654 00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:04,200 containing fake plans for an Allied invasion of The Balkans. 655 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,280 The Allies must now get Major Martin's documents 656 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:12,440 into the hands of Germany's intelligence chief, 657 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,400 Admiral Canaris. 658 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:31,120 In the early hours of April 30th, 1943, 659 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,920 a British submarine drops a corpse 660 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:36,760 dressed in the uniform of a Royal Marine 661 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:39,240 into the sea off the west coast of Spain. 662 00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:44,840 A briefcase is attached to the corpse by a security chain. 663 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,240 The British hope the documents inside the case... 664 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,360 will make their way to Adolf Hitler in Berlin. 665 00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:58,280 They've chosen Francisco Franco's Spain 666 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:00,680 because they suspect the Spanish will 667 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:02,880 pass the information to the Germans. 668 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,000 The British know the German Intelligence Agencies, 669 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:10,800 especially the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, 670 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,640 have a really good relationship with the Spanish. 671 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,480 So, this is a far more clever and subtle way 672 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,480 of getting deception information into German hands. 673 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:24,880 Rather than just dumping it off the coast of Germany... 674 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:27,240 ...put it off the coast of Spain, 675 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,600 and you've got a more plausible way 676 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,640 of that information coming through the pipeline. 677 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,200 A Spanish fisherman finds the body. 678 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:41,200 Soldiers guarding the coast take it to Spanish Navy officers, 679 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,840 who tell German Intelligence agents in Spain 680 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,600 what they've found. 681 00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:49,920 But signals decrypted at Bletchley Park 682 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,000 show the Germans are sceptical. 683 00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,360 The German agents in Spain simply don't take the bait. 684 00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:58,240 Back in British intelligence, 685 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,200 there's this terrible panic 686 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:02,760 that Mincemeat is going to fail. 687 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:04,760 You know, it's just going to be ignored. 688 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,000 To ignite interest in Major Martin, 689 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,840 British Intelligence writes a letter to the Spanish authorities, 690 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,400 demanding the return of the briefcase 691 00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:18,640 and the document inside. 692 00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:21,880 They want to make it look 693 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:23,640 as though the British are deeply worried, 694 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:25,360 as though, you know, this really is... 695 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:27,280 a proper officer with real plans on him. 696 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,080 This is a really daring gambit 697 00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:33,640 because it may seem too obvious. 698 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,040 But, actually, the British are lucky. 699 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:39,760 What that does is to get the local German agents 700 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:41,560 to get hold of the plans 701 00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:44,440 that "Major Martin" is carrying, 702 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:46,040 they photograph them, 703 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,560 and they send those photographs 704 00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:50,800 back to their boss in Berlin: 705 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:52,920 Wilhelm Canaris. 706 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:03,960 Canaris is interested. 707 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:07,920 He examines the plans for days... 708 00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:09,880 then hands them to Hitler. 709 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:12,440 The Fuhrer already suspects 710 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:14,640 the Allies will attack through the Balkans, 711 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:18,120 so he's inclined to believe the information. 712 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,760 But propaganda chief Josef Goebbels is wary. 713 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,400 Goebbels is smart, and Goebbels, after all, 714 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,920 is, you know, the Minister for Propaganda, for Lies. 715 00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:30,720 He knows what it means to deceive people. 716 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:31,880 He thinks it's a bluff. 717 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,240 The information Canaris gives Hitler confirms his instinct. 718 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:45,480 Two days later... 719 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:47,880 Bletchley Park decodes a message. 720 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:52,680 The Germans are moving troops toward the Balkans. 721 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,680 Operation Mincemeat is working. 722 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:02,480 The work of Bletchley Park feeds 723 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,640 into a deception campaign like this in a really important way. 724 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:07,680 ULTRA allows you to understand 725 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:09,640 whether your enemy is... 726 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:12,480 buying the deception you're trying to sell. 727 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:14,200 We can see, 728 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:16,640 thanks to our Bletchley decryptions, 729 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,800 that Hitler is pulling Panzer units 730 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:22,920 to the Balkans, to Greece... 731 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:26,200 directly because of one dead corpse 732 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:29,000 that's left floating off the shores of Spain. 733 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:38,880 Two months later, the Allies land in Sicily 734 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,560 and capture the island more quickly than anticipated. 735 00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,880 The depleted number of German defenders is 736 00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,120 a critical part of their success. 737 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:54,560 This is one of the most successful 738 00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:57,400 intelligence operations of the Second World War. 739 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,520 Canaris's reputation begins to suffer 740 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:06,480 after Operation Mincemeat. 741 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:08,440 As the War goes on, after that, 742 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,600 Canaris will be more and more... 743 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,880 disliked and distrusted by Hitler and the other elites of the regime. 744 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:16,400 In 1944, 745 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,440 the Third Reich abolishes the Abwehr, 746 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,400 and Canaris is accused of being involved in a plot to kill Hitler. 747 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:26,160 A year later, he's hanged - 748 00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:29,200 just weeks before the end of World War Two. 749 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,960 Accurate intelligence is critical to military victory. 750 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,320 But ultimately, the outcome is determined by combat. 751 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,240 The decisive battle of the war against Nazi Germany 752 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:45,400 is about to be fought - 753 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:47,400 at terrible cost - 754 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,480 in a strategically-important 755 00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:52,080 Soviet city on the Volga river. 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