Cryptanalytic Equipment in operation

Stray Thoughts in the Information Age

Well, what does it all mean? How can the contribution of codebreaking to the Allied victory be summed up? . . .

Where it helped, however, it helped enormously. Statement after statement of top commanders testify to this. Here’s Eisenhower to the administrative overseer of Bletchley: “The intelligence which has emanated from you before that during this campaign has been of priceless value to me. It has saved thousands of British and American lives and, in no small way, contributed to the speed with which the enemy was routed and eventually forced to surrender.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower to Menzies, 12 July 1945).

Excerpts from David Kahn, “The Significance of Codebreaking and Intelligence in Allied Strategy and Tactics.” from remarks delivered 1976 before the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, originally in Cryptologia, 1:3.