Quote:
Originally Posted by CCIP
Although there is an interesting note on Sink the Bismarck! on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sink_th...rical_accuracy
So perhaps there's a bigger role Bletchley Park played than I gave credit for. The Luftwaffe intercepts were certainly decoded much more quickly than the Kriegsmarine ones. Still, it seems that the key decision in finding the Bismarck was taken on the grounds of DF rather than reading any of the messages, and the content of its own transmission to Paris was not known, at least certainly not until after the Luftwaffe message was read.
I think it's great that the story of Bletchley Park has now become much better known and movies are being made about it. At the same time, one should also not forget the Admiralty's very effective DF network, which was pretty much of equal importance and effectiveness in the Battle of the Atlantic as the crypto work at Bletchley Park. |
Well now that I've gotten to this part this is what Beesly confirms. The decrypting of the Luftwaffe signals helped them figure out the Bismarck was headed towards France. But as you stated the DF network was very important. Although Beesly states they did have a problem at this end run where at first the DF plotting was vague and confusing. The codebreaking did help confirm the Bismarck's intention to head for Brest after much confusion with the D/F fix.
Beesly does state that a Luftwaffe signal to a high ranking officer in Athens was decrypted saying the Bismarck was headed to Brest at this time. The next morning this then is where the catalina was able to confirm Bismarck's position.
I don't know its all pretty confusing because he then goes to emphasise again the cryptanalysis played a minor part.