The Journal of Military History

Abstract

In 1945, the British and American chiefs of staff ordered that information about the Allied solution of German cryptosystems be excluded from their official histories of World War II in order to preserve an intelligence advantage. This left the world with an incomplete but not an erroneous account of that struggle. Despite a few leaks, not until Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham revealed those solutions in 1974 did that story begin to emerge fully. An unexpected consequence was to bolster British pride.

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Cite this article

David Kahn, “How the Allies Suppressed the Second Greatest Secret of World War II,” The Journal of Military History 74, no. 4 (October 2010): 1229–1241.

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