Radio contacts realistic?

[Puster Bill]

The answer, my friend, is the Beobachtungsdienst. That was the Signals Intelligence unit that intercepted, DF'ed, and broke the messages of the merchant marine, and then passed them on to the Kriegsmarine.

This intelligence was used, at least on occasion. For instance, the B-Dienst would intercept a message. It would send the information to BdU, who would transmit it to the boats at sea. A famous example is when Reinhard Hardegen was told he could divert from his course to attack the Dimitrios Inglessis if he was within a certain distance of her. She had reported a rudder problem.

History supports me, too. Looking at the BdU KTB, you see reports like this:

III. Reports on the Enemy:
a) 1) U 160 reports sinking of petrol tanker "Gallia" (9,974 BRT) in ED 9946.
2) U 84 sighted convoy in DM 1896, course 320, speed 8 knots, air patrol 1.
b) None.
c) U-boat sightings in CA 56 - CA 52 - DN 84 - DN 91 - DD 85 - DD 18 - DC 15 - DD 78 - BB 79.
U-boat attack in DM 16/24 - DC 12 - DD 78.
English aircraft sighted U-boat in BF 75 - 72.


I believe the IIIc section is intercepted enemy communications. The sections are:

a) Reports from u-boats
b) Reports from german aircraft
c) Reports from the B-Dienst
d) Reports from the "German Intelligence Service".

You can actually see in that excerpt that the Germans are reading the U-boat situation reports put out by the British. It helps to know what the other guy knows about you...

So I rationalize it as intercepted communications being relayed to me, but my radio operator (Bernard, naturally) forgets to tell me about them.