Any history buffs on this forum might find this story interesting. I had just read about it in David Kahn's book, "The CodeBreakers" pages 510-512 (attached).
During WWII, the US Army lost one of its encryption machines, the SIGABA. The attached article was declassified in 2008 by the NSA. However, Kahn's first edition of his book was released in 1967 and the 2nd in 1996. Yet, how did Kahn know the story of the lost SIGABA back in 1967 before the story was declassified by the NSA 41 years later?
The SIGABA was the US military's encryption machine that was similar to the German Enigma with some differences. It was bigger than the ENIGMA and not suitable for frontline use. However, one SIGABA that was lost in Colmar, France in February 1945 was only about 4 miles from German forces!
Kahn's account is a little more colorful than the NSA released document which is attached. According to his sources, the two NCOs tasked with transporting the SIGABA took time to visit a brothel while a Frenchman stole the 2 1/2 ton truck parked outside. The NSA account is suitable for G-rated audiences.
I wonder if the lost SIGABA had anything to do with the delay of Operation Grenade further to the north. This operation was an offensive conducted by the US 9th Army. It was scheduled to start on 10 FEB 1945. According to the attachment, the incident was first reported on 6 FEB 1945. Keep in mind that the truck was stolen two days earlier!
The two NCOs tasked with transporting and safeguarding the single most important piece of crypto gear the allies had at the time, left the truck unguarded overnight! I'm beginning to think that Kahn's version with the brothel is correct. What would you do if you went to a whore-house instead of securing the truck and it came up missing?
I tell you what most people would have done and they probably did. That was panic! "Oh, golly gee whiz, whatever will we tell them? We can't tell them we were getting laid while our truck was stolen."
That might explain the 2 day delay in reporting the missing SIGABA. The reporting was further elevated on 10 FEB 1945, which was also to be the start of Operation Grenade and the crossing of the Roer river.
I'm no expert historian but here are my thoughts.
LTG William Simpson was commander of the US 9th Army and further north was the British XXX Corps. The British began Operation Veritable on 8 February 1945. That was their crossing of the Roer river and it didn't go very well. They were probably counting on the 9th Army to cross on their right and tie up German forces on the east bank of the Roer. That didn't happen.
As any graduate from West Point would know; the delay of the 9th Army allowed a shift in some German forces to attempt to repulse the British attack.
Simpson's combat engineers told him, days earlier, that the water level was rising in the Roer; which was something unseasonable at that time of year. The stories that I read, said that was the reason for Simpson to postpone the scheduled crossing. Which is plausible.
Units of the US 9th Infantry Division had captured two dams upriver (to the south) from the 9th Army and XXX Corps, days before the scheduled start of Operation Grenade. Those were the Schwammenauel, and the Urft dams, southeast of Aachen. Before evacuating them, the Germans opened the floodgates and sabotaged them in a manner to prevent the US Army from reclosing them.
All anyone could do for the time being was watch, helplessly, as the water level in the Roer slowly rise. So LTG Simpson's official reason for the delay of Grenade was the increasing water level. Did he pass that on to the British XXX Corps? I don't know. Even if he did, competition between the US and British military to get to Berlin first was so stiff that the latter would probably not have delayed anyway.
I think that the British had to know because, above Simpson, was Montgomery who commanded the 21st Army Group. Simpson's 9th Army was assigned to Montgomery.
Did LTG Simpson know that the Germans had sabotaged the floodgates in the dams upriver? I don't know that either. On the other hand, consider this. All communications were to be halted using SIGABA on 6 FEB 1945. So if Simpson did know what the 9th Infantry division discovered it was probably not through SIGABA.
More importantly, Simpson did know that SIGABA was possibly compromised. A vital component to his operational success had been stopped. His ability to communicate with Eisenhower in Paris was brought down to a snail's pace. Furthermore, he might have thought that the Germans already knew about Operation Grenade because of the missing SIGABA. And why not?
The British, north of his position, were getting their asses kicked trying to cross the swollen Roer river. So he had every reason to believe that the Germans probably knew about the planned and coordinated crossings. Only with Simpson's delay, the crossings would not be coordinated.
It wasn't until 23 FEB 1945 that the 9th Army crossed the Roer river. It started at 0245 Hrs with a massive artillery preparation on German positions along the east bank of the river. Over 1500 guns in the 9th and 1st US Army unleashed a hell-on-earth-steel-rain for 45 minutes on part of Hitler's thousand year Reich.
I talked with a veteran of that crossing back in the late 1990s. He was with the forward observer's party in the same artillery battalion my Father was in. The FO told me that was a night he couldn't forget. Some veterans said that there was so much light from the explosions and fire that they thought the sun was coming up!
My Father also remembered that event very well. The alert went out to report to the guns at midnight. He got to the gun first and sighted it in. Imagine how hot the gun barrels would get over a 45 minute barrage. After a few rounds of rapid fire an artillery piece needs to slow down its rate of fire or else the barrel is ruined. That can get pretty expensive.
During the battle for Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1967, several 105 mm cannon barrels were ruined after an entire NVA regiment attacked the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. That is another story.
The safes carrying the SIGABA and other material were finally recovered from a nearby river close to Colmar. They were not able to be opened because mud and silt got into the combination locks.
The safes were brought back to Paris where a bunch of high ranking officers were gathered to watch the opening with acetylene torches. Fortunately, the torches ran out of gas. That's right, I said "fortunately."
Packed inside the safes were some thermite and TNT for use in destroying the SIGABA in case of capture. The flame from the torches could have touched off the thermite with everyone in the room getting hurt or killed.
That didn't happen and the safe's door was able to be pried open after sufficient cutting from the torches. I don't know if Eisenhower was in the room or not. If the thermite and TNT would have exploded we might have lost not only the Commander of SHAEF but a future president of the US.
There was no evidence that the missing SIGABA was ever compromised.
I share this story and the article because it's an example of how wanting to spend time with a couple of women of questionable reputation in a clothing-optional recreational activity can screw things up so badly that a future President of the United States has to get involved in the search for a fancy top-secret typewriter and thousands of men can lose their lives.
Here's a photo of the missing SIGABA.
During WWII, the US Army lost one of its encryption machines, the SIGABA. The attached article was declassified in 2008 by the NSA. However, Kahn's first edition of his book was released in 1967 and the 2nd in 1996. Yet, how did Kahn know the story of the lost SIGABA back in 1967 before the story was declassified by the NSA 41 years later?
The SIGABA was the US military's encryption machine that was similar to the German Enigma with some differences. It was bigger than the ENIGMA and not suitable for frontline use. However, one SIGABA that was lost in Colmar, France in February 1945 was only about 4 miles from German forces!
Kahn's account is a little more colorful than the NSA released document which is attached. According to his sources, the two NCOs tasked with transporting the SIGABA took time to visit a brothel while a Frenchman stole the 2 1/2 ton truck parked outside. The NSA account is suitable for G-rated audiences.
I wonder if the lost SIGABA had anything to do with the delay of Operation Grenade further to the north. This operation was an offensive conducted by the US 9th Army. It was scheduled to start on 10 FEB 1945. According to the attachment, the incident was first reported on 6 FEB 1945. Keep in mind that the truck was stolen two days earlier!
The two NCOs tasked with transporting and safeguarding the single most important piece of crypto gear the allies had at the time, left the truck unguarded overnight! I'm beginning to think that Kahn's version with the brothel is correct. What would you do if you went to a whore-house instead of securing the truck and it came up missing?
I tell you what most people would have done and they probably did. That was panic! "Oh, golly gee whiz, whatever will we tell them? We can't tell them we were getting laid while our truck was stolen."
That might explain the 2 day delay in reporting the missing SIGABA. The reporting was further elevated on 10 FEB 1945, which was also to be the start of Operation Grenade and the crossing of the Roer river.
I'm no expert historian but here are my thoughts.
LTG William Simpson was commander of the US 9th Army and further north was the British XXX Corps. The British began Operation Veritable on 8 February 1945. That was their crossing of the Roer river and it didn't go very well. They were probably counting on the 9th Army to cross on their right and tie up German forces on the east bank of the Roer. That didn't happen.
As any graduate from West Point would know; the delay of the 9th Army allowed a shift in some German forces to attempt to repulse the British attack.
Simpson's combat engineers told him, days earlier, that the water level was rising in the Roer; which was something unseasonable at that time of year. The stories that I read, said that was the reason for Simpson to postpone the scheduled crossing. Which is plausible.
Units of the US 9th Infantry Division had captured two dams upriver (to the south) from the 9th Army and XXX Corps, days before the scheduled start of Operation Grenade. Those were the Schwammenauel, and the Urft dams, southeast of Aachen. Before evacuating them, the Germans opened the floodgates and sabotaged them in a manner to prevent the US Army from reclosing them.
All anyone could do for the time being was watch, helplessly, as the water level in the Roer slowly rise. So LTG Simpson's official reason for the delay of Grenade was the increasing water level. Did he pass that on to the British XXX Corps? I don't know. Even if he did, competition between the US and British military to get to Berlin first was so stiff that the latter would probably not have delayed anyway.
I think that the British had to know because, above Simpson, was Montgomery who commanded the 21st Army Group. Simpson's 9th Army was assigned to Montgomery.
Did LTG Simpson know that the Germans had sabotaged the floodgates in the dams upriver? I don't know that either. On the other hand, consider this. All communications were to be halted using SIGABA on 6 FEB 1945. So if Simpson did know what the 9th Infantry division discovered it was probably not through SIGABA.
More importantly, Simpson did know that SIGABA was possibly compromised. A vital component to his operational success had been stopped. His ability to communicate with Eisenhower in Paris was brought down to a snail's pace. Furthermore, he might have thought that the Germans already knew about Operation Grenade because of the missing SIGABA. And why not?
The British, north of his position, were getting their asses kicked trying to cross the swollen Roer river. So he had every reason to believe that the Germans probably knew about the planned and coordinated crossings. Only with Simpson's delay, the crossings would not be coordinated.
It wasn't until 23 FEB 1945 that the 9th Army crossed the Roer river. It started at 0245 Hrs with a massive artillery preparation on German positions along the east bank of the river. Over 1500 guns in the 9th and 1st US Army unleashed a hell-on-earth-steel-rain for 45 minutes on part of Hitler's thousand year Reich.
I talked with a veteran of that crossing back in the late 1990s. He was with the forward observer's party in the same artillery battalion my Father was in. The FO told me that was a night he couldn't forget. Some veterans said that there was so much light from the explosions and fire that they thought the sun was coming up!
My Father also remembered that event very well. The alert went out to report to the guns at midnight. He got to the gun first and sighted it in. Imagine how hot the gun barrels would get over a 45 minute barrage. After a few rounds of rapid fire an artillery piece needs to slow down its rate of fire or else the barrel is ruined. That can get pretty expensive.
During the battle for Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1967, several 105 mm cannon barrels were ruined after an entire NVA regiment attacked the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. That is another story.
The safes carrying the SIGABA and other material were finally recovered from a nearby river close to Colmar. They were not able to be opened because mud and silt got into the combination locks.
The safes were brought back to Paris where a bunch of high ranking officers were gathered to watch the opening with acetylene torches. Fortunately, the torches ran out of gas. That's right, I said "fortunately."
Packed inside the safes were some thermite and TNT for use in destroying the SIGABA in case of capture. The flame from the torches could have touched off the thermite with everyone in the room getting hurt or killed.
That didn't happen and the safe's door was able to be pried open after sufficient cutting from the torches. I don't know if Eisenhower was in the room or not. If the thermite and TNT would have exploded we might have lost not only the Commander of SHAEF but a future president of the US.
There was no evidence that the missing SIGABA was ever compromised.
I share this story and the article because it's an example of how wanting to spend time with a couple of women of questionable reputation in a clothing-optional recreational activity can screw things up so badly that a future President of the United States has to get involved in the search for a fancy top-secret typewriter and thousands of men can lose their lives.
Here's a photo of the missing SIGABA.
