Room 40 - Signals Decryption and Intelligence Analysis in Bowler Hats

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@biscuit4705]

how come the japaness navy and army are in such terrible relationship during the its existence until after the war

[@juancarosio4266]

Hi drach! Could I ask a question about turbines and vibrations. I read that all turbine ships such as the Cunard liners had lots of problems with vibrations, while the white Star liners had triple expansion and low pressure turbines. Was this problem (turbine vibrations) also an issue in warships?

[@kemarisite]

@Golden Eagle that's even stupider than I had imagined. I know the British were shocked by American interservice rivalry, but I can just imagine both the British and Americans congratulating each other on having obtained such a stupid opponent as the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.

[@jamessumpter2199]

You can send back one of the Royal Navy's current active duty ships to Portsmouth, Jan 1940 plus one relevant supply ship. Unmanned, but with instruction manuals, which ship would you send to have the greatest effect? I'm excluding the Vanguards from this scenario, because I don't trust Churchill not to draw up a list entitled: "German and Italian cities that exist" and start crossing them off.

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

Which navies had the worst secret codes in World War One and World War Two

[@GeekControl2MajorTim]

Germans: It's an older code, but it checks out

[@klobiforpresident2254]

Apparently it wasn't just the nazis they took the inspiration from.

[@MrSigmatico]

Lower the force fields.

[@jf5016]

Just fly casual!

[@ThroneOfBhaal]

The book having 35000 instructions and being insanely large and overly complicated is the most German thing I've heard today. :D

[@jakublulek3261]

To quote Bottom: "No wonder they lost the bloody war!"

[@michaelsommers2356]

Bigger code books are more secure. They allow more words or numbers or dates or phrases to be represented by a single code group, rather than having to spell them out. That also makes the messages shorter. In addition, they make it easier to have multiple code groups for a single common word.

[@doncooper6801]

At what time did the RN have operational direction finding? Could HMS Minotaur have trailed Spee's squadron when it left the neutral port in China? The Minotaur's records show multiple occasions on which different German vessels left port.

[@lucascousins6934]

as a German, that made me happy

[@TomFynn]

I bet they a had a book of instructions instructing instructors how to look up instructions.

[@t.bunker2511]

When the French Navy caught a civilian British cable-ship searching for underseas cables off the French coast in the first days of WW1, he threatened to arrest them. Once the British commander explained what and why they were trawling for the German cables, the French Captain sent over champagne and "good fishing!"

[@stanthology]

Cable ships in San Francisco Bay near the floating dry docks see 'em from 3rd street.

[@christianhaupt2637]

stanthology There is an Old one there now?

[@thekinginyellow1744]

Germany: We want you to declare war on the United States Mexico: No hablo Alemán

[@artoriastheabysswalker]

As a German I find your attempt to speak a German dialect hilarious, it's really amusing to hear

[@billbolton]

I am amused by the pronunciation of Rosyth, The y is pronounced like 'eye', At least that's what I thought.

[@EdMcF1]

And some said that the German sense of humour was no laughing matter.

[@Grimmwoldds]

@@EdMcF1 "klopfen klopfen" " Qui est là?" "Gespensterdivision"

[@theMoerster]

@@EdMcF1 Don't malign the German sense of humour...that's how you get Funnybot. And that doesn't end well.

[@dobypilgrim6160]

I'm thankful to this day that many British, French, and American people have a hard time with German pronunciation. For reasons that are probably obvious. My wife's mother was Korean, and spoke and read Japanese better than Korean. That's what happens in a long term occupation. Probably why your English is so good?

[@jimtalbott9535]

As a Cyber Security Engineer.....this is AWESOME. This should be required viewing as part of Cyber Security subject matter. And Ewing? He deserves more recognition!

[@robertewing3114]

@BC Bob thank you!

[@robertewing3114]

Another director of naval education gratefully received your reply, best of luck Jim.

[@leyasep5919]

@Jim : I agree :-) The WW2 exploits are now well understood but I had never found a similar account about WW1. And yes, it burns to be German in this case...

[@neilwilson5785]

16:43 - The sound of a British guy taking a deep breath before attempting an impossible German word. Drach is a trooper, of course, and went for it, lol.

[@harrymartin1661]

Absolut perfect pronounciation!

[@sarjim4381]

The problem of telegraph decoding precedes navies. When telegraphs first started to be used commercially, messages were charged by the letter. This was very expensive, especially for transatlantic cables, and prompted various commercial entities, including Western Union, to come up with number blocks and code books so entire phrases could be transmitted using a single code block of five numbers or letters. This didn't provide signal security since codes books were widely available. However, large business soon developed their own encoding techniques and private code books so competitors wouldn't be able to read their messages if they were intercepted. This was the beginning of using codes for operational security.

[@jamespfp]

Perhaps the most intriguing and technically impressive of telecommunications developments of the early 20th century is the German "Feld-Hell" system, which took an alternative approach on how to broadcast unreadable messages effectively in the clear. And, it did exactly as you said at the end -- it foresaw the need of a system without a code book, but which would still be fundamentally secure; the Enigma eventually made perfect a mechanical system that used code books only for daily settings, to keep everyone on the same page, as it were. Plus, Feld Hell didn't much care if it was using a cable, or a radio. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellschreiber

[@sarjim4381]

@@jamespfp Pretty amazing for the 20's, and led directly to FSK and PSK for we amateurs. The only problem was the large bandwidth and slow speeds. Attempts to send faster speeds really hogged the bandwidth, but it was only system that could remotely print out a message. I'm sure there were many errors when messages were sent by CW under poor conditions and we had to depend on humans operators to get it all right while it was in code. I know I couldn't do it.

[@jamespfp]

@@sarjim4381 Part of the charm of Feld Hell, like the Enigma machine, is the mechanical *AND* patented part, an actual machine that took care of the tricky stuff. The main things for the operators to understand would be (a) how to rig it for wire or wireless, (b) tying in additional systems after the advent of Enigma, and (C) being capable of fixing these mechanical parts in the field. The Germans obviously took the communications end of technological development more seriously than almost anyone else; some would say, to the detriment of other fields of research, including nuclear. Radio-guided bombs is another stellar example developed by the Germans, and almost without competition from the Allies. It is curious to note that Allied autopilot schemes for aircraft in the period of WW2 considered remote radio guidance a standard, which is certainly more complex than a simple guided bomb. Even so, internal inertial guidance proved to be far more reliable for that purpose.

[@sarjim4381]

@@jamespfp They also invented Kurier, a system of flash messaging the could send 600 WPM. NOt only was it fast, but the messages were sent on a deviation from center frequency of as much as .200 MHz. That made it difficult to detect the transmission with a standard AM receiver. A Navy study of German submarine communications after the war found out about Kurier, but they never knew it existed during war, so it was never DF'd. As the study noted, if Kurier had been in operation earlier in the war the Allies would have been in serious trouble when it came to knowing where U Boats were.and what they were up to.

[@jamespfp]

@@sarjim4381 The more we know, eh? XD

[@sos_legio_primus9177]

Wow Drach is a fan of The Last Airbender. Cartoon I hope and not the M Night Shyamalan movie

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

lol, yeah, that 'Ung' but did get on my nerves a bit. the cartoon was better in many ways.

[@Typhyr]

please let the Netflix life action not suck, please let the Netflix life action not suck

[@CB-fn3me]

I don't believe that air is a bendable item. It sounds just as difficult as folding soup...😀

[@LukeVilent]

@@CB-fn3me Maybe that's why the air nomads went extinct so promptly.

[@williammorris584]

Dilly Knox was a famous and brilliant member of the Room 40 codebreakers who did some of his best analytical thinking in a bathtub (installed at his behest in Room 53). Associate Frank Birch rhapsodized about this: “The sailor in Room 53 has never, it's true, been to sea but though not in a boat he has served afloat - in a bath in the Admiralty”.

[@MagnusVictor2015]

8:15 There was a disappointing lack of proper Oom-pah music for the German radio network. 8.8/10, would scuttle in Scapa Flow.

[@TankratRustDust]

Yes!!... or some German techno

[@evensgrey]

A detail that's really outside the scope of this video but is pretty important to the larger picture of how the British and the Germans dealt with signals in WWII is that Winston Churchill wrote a detailed memoir of his actions in WWI, including lots and lots of info about Room 40. This was part of why the Enigma Code, which was too complex for breaking it by hand to be practicable on a large scale, was introduced, as well as other, similar mechanical and electromechanical systems used by Germany and Japan. This also meant that after WWII, Britain kept a tight hold on knowledge of what had really happened at Bletchly park, with things only coming out in the mid-1970's. This contributed to things like the persecution of Alan Turing, since nobody was going to cut him any slack for his critical part in saving Britain when they didn't know about it. It also tarnished the reputation of George Patton for the wrong reason, as the cover story for his removal from command was his striking a soldier who had PTSD, rather than the real reason, which was he wasn't following the strict rules for using information from Project Ultra.

[@robertmarsh3588]

Great content!!! Thank you. As an engineer of 30+ years who did his degree in Communications Engineering this is a fabulous reminder of the progression of radio telegraphy and other signalling, plus the practicalities of actually using the available technology. I'm well acquainted with the role of radar both in naval and airforce operations but didn't realise the lead (pardon my pun!) the British had in terms of telegraphy infrastructure at the start of ww1 and the effect this had.

[@TheRealGraylocke]

Having worked in the US Army's Military Intelligence (never mind the oxymoron) branch for almost a decade as a signal/voice interceptor and German linguist, I found this video very enlightening and entertaining. Always liked working with my Brit counterparts. Well done.

[@Wallyworld30]

What did you think of Trump handing over our secrets (Given to us from Isreal) about the Syrian conflict over to Russia? Was is a mistake or as being president it's in his right to do so??

[@alainarchambault2331]

@@Wallyworld30 I'm not in the field, but as Drach said, "Context". Outside of sheer stupidity of Trump being blindsided by his ego, we may never know the why of it.

[@misterjag]

Are you familiar with MI5's covert manipulation of American public opinion? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Security_Co-ordination

[@Johnnycdrums]

Did you like the fact the Brits kept spying on America long after?

[@Johnnycdrums]

@@Wallyworld30 ; His absolute right to do so.

[@barrydysert2974]

2:17 "All of this changed when the Fire Nation attacked." 😂😂😂😂😂 👌🙏🖖 Excellent BTW!:-)

[@Mathwayb]

Suddenly there was an ominous knock at the door! Could this be the end of our beloved Drach? Tune in next time to find out!

[@kelb76]

It's the creepy computer voice wanting his job back.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

Microsoft Sam vs HMS Splendid Drach. Who's your five quid on?

[@praetor678]

The end of the video was perfect, WELL PLAYED SIR WELL PLAYED!

[@Maddog3060]

It still boggles my mind to see anything about the laying of communication cables under the ocean. The sheer distance, the incredible depth, and the need for accurate navigation makes these operations some of the most astounding yet unsung engineering feats in human history. Especially when you see these maps of the various networks and realize that we started to wire this planet up even before we developed aircraft. It's amazing.

[@thekinginyellow1744]

Google operation Ivy Bells. U.S. taps Soviet undersea cable. simply incredible.

[@Rog5446]

Very absorbing. Anyone interested in this subject who may be visiting Cornwall, might like to pop into the cable station museum at Porthcurno, as seen at time mark 29:45

[@onewhosaysgoose4831]

Don't worry Drach: if they arrested you after the release of this video, it would suggest some of the released information was public. They are likely to understand that most would ignore the sensitive information hidden in plain sight, and that most would be upset about the disappearance of a youtuber.

[@gilanbarona9814]

Several parts of this story remind me of that old Mad Magazine section: Spy vs Spy. If it did not involve an actual war and lost lives, it would truly have been funny. Thanks again for another update to my education.

[@Weesel71]

An excellent intro to anyone interested in the Room 40 story. There are a number of books out there on that topic and others that touch on radio intelligence to some degree or other. It's worth noting that not all the Germans were so apparently clueless. After MAGDEBURG was lost, Prince Henry (Kaiser's brother and commander of Baltic ops) voiced some concern about the codebooks being compromised. He was assured this could not be the case. Meanwhile in the Rufiji Delta, Max Looff of the KONIGSBERG was having suspicions about the security of the codes and tried to warn the Admiralstab. He went so far as to arrange a fake rendezvous with a supply ship and sent some crew to the meeting place to see if anyone showed up: three British cruisers (Heilige Schiesse!). However, if the crown prince down the road was ignored by the Admiralstab what chance was fregatten-kapitan in Africa going to have? (Sigh!) May I suggest Captain Hall as someone worth reviewing? Someone who knew how to use intel material and seems to have engaged in some very interesting skullduggery regarding the Falklands and who seems to have spooked invasion fears on both sides of the North Sea.

[@18robsmith]

Massive communications hub = and 10x8 shed with lots of cables coming up through the floor.......

[@johannaldbrecht1594]

Any chance you would cover the US Navy's Signals Intelligence in the second World War? Was a real insight into how intel works. Traffic Analysis is as important as Signals Analysis.

[@timboinozify]

Yes, it's the first part of the picture, without it you are well behind the 8-ball!

[@kaveebee]

Traffic Analysis is the direction of signals?

[@johannaldbrecht1594]

@@kaveebee Traffic Analysis is deriving intelligence through the amount and context of messages sent from specific stations. You can learn a lot by how much or how little somebody is talking even if you have no clue what they are actually saying.

[@kaveebee]

@@johannaldbrecht1594 Thank you. My hobby is gleaning information, I use it in one of the political groups I am affiliated with. Over time I have found great success in saying very little so that the opposite number feels drawn to fill in the gaps. Works well at times.

[@kaveebee]

@@johannaldbrecht1594 I've given it some thought , what you say here. Your idea has merit.

[@amerigo88]

Room 40 was the origin of much of the Royal Navy's edge over Germany in both world wars. In both wars, the Germans assumed their encryption was practically unbreakable. They knew codebooks were vulnerable (especially in WWI) and the WWII Enigma machines were nearly identical to the British Typex radio encryption devices, so it's hard to understand this assumption. Dilly Knox worked in Room 40 (WWI) and Bletchley Park (WWII). Churchill at Admiralty oversaw much of the Room 40 setup and was very personally involved with using Bletchley Park decrypts. Many don't realize that the Germans were readily decrypting British merchant naval messages in WWII, giving their U-boats great info. Bletchley Park finally helped the British figure this out in 1943 and the codes were finally improved.

[@jamesthurstans1378]

Fact is that many German cryptanalysts had doubts about enigma as it was about 20 years old in its various forms by 1940 and some of them put two and two together when the number of U boat losses dropped after 4 rota enigma was deployed. Difference is that OKW and most high ranking officers refused to listen to them, particularly as most cryptanalysts were treated as low level soldiers rather than top level operatives. Room 40 and Bletchley on the other hand were broadly left to their own devices and eccentricities which meant that people who weren’t any good dealing with military hierarchy but were excellent academics could thrive.

[@amerigo88]

@@jamesthurstans1378 In "The Theory That Would Not Die," there is a lot of coverage of Enigma and naval warfare in general (finding U-boats). Somewhere I read that the Germans eventually ran a deep analysis to see if Enigma had been cracked, but many historians believe the Nazi head of counterintelligence, Admiral Canaris, wanted Germany to lose. He was eventually executed by the Nazis. The Germans readily cracked their Italian allies' codes as well.

[@jamesthurstans1378]

Samuel Thompson going to have to look that one up :) Thing about that analysis is that it was run by cryptanalysts acting independently rather than with orders from the OKW. As a result it was rejected out of hand. Canaris is interesting, a professional and a patriot but not a fan of his rivals in the nazi controlled intelligence forces so he ended up fighting them more than fighting the enemy. Finally the Italians form part of the perfect storm of why enigma wasn’t replaced, the Germans convinced themselves that code breaches in the Mediterranean were down to Italian incompetence and “proved” it by routinely breaking their allies codes!

[@neutronalchemist3241]

@@jamesthurstans1378 Ironically the Italians did the right thing by replacing the Enigma-D with the C-38m in 1940. The C-38 was not really more complex than Enigma, so obviously could be cracked, but British cryptanalysts were more set to decipher Enigma coded messages, and gave precedence to them, so a C-38 coded message could last days, or even weeks. The main source of information for the British in the Mediterranean and North African teaters were the messages of the Luftwaffe, encrypted with the three wheel Enigma.

[@amerigo88]

@@neutronalchemist3241 It was largely British codebreaking that led to do many sunken Axis supply ships and the Palm Sunday Massacre where squadrons of Allied fighters just happened to intercept a fleet of incoming German transport aircraft loaded with supplies for Rommel. I know replacing Enigma would have been difficult, but there are photographs of them in action on command vehicles during the 1940 invasion of France. The American equivalent machine, CIGABA, was kept far more securely away from deep penetrations raiders and served into the 1960's.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

*Sees title* You've had me at bowler hats.

[@chrisvickers7928]

This was not the first time British broke ciphers. In the Peninsular campaign from 1809 to 1812 the was a commoner in the quartermasters corp named George Scoville. He had organized a group of Spanish and Portuguese irregular cavalry to waylay French messengers and bring the messages to him. He quickly broke the ciphers the French were using and read their messages, providing Wellington with regular reports of what the French were up to. The French reacted by creating 'Le Grand Cyphre' which they thought was unbreakable. It was a 1000 x 1000 matrix with many blanks and multiple possible encryptions for common letters such as 'e'. Some French encrypters were lazy and sent part of their messages in clear and part encrypted. Within a few months Scoville had cracked 'Le Grand Cyphre' and Wellington again had a fairly complete idea of French troop deployments and plans. Since the three French marshals in Spain were jealous rivals of each other, they didn't share this information with each other. Wellington had a better idea of what the French were up to than the French did.

[@theatagamer90]

Isn't Scoville the same one who came up with a heat scale for food?

[@chrisvickers7928]

@@theatagamer90 Not that I know. He invented a breakdown anvil that could be carried on donkeys and used to re-shoe horses at night. He also came up with the idea of military police to stop stragglers from abusing Spanish civilians.

[@centurymemes1208]

You got Soult, Suchet and Jourdan. there were more, before 1812 such as massena

[@phillipneal9289]

Another cracking episode. This channel is seriously good. I salute you Drach

[@Inny1984]

Scotland Yard, open up!

[@nukclear2741]

THIS ISN'T EVEN BRITISH SOIL! WHY ARE YOU HERE?

[@richarddowney1972]

First time I have seen a video about room 40. Have a couple of good, out-of-print books. Thanks much.

[@model-man7802]

Oh Drach?James...a mister Bond is here to see you! "Yes please,Shaken,not stirred"

[@rjinnh3933]

One of your most informative vids. Fascinating........

[@jeffoverocker4867]

Sometimes I seem to sense a SLIGHT level of sarcasm in your narration....It's freaking hilarious...The Brits I worked with were ALL comedians....laughed till I pissed myself...2-3 times a day..lol

[@kaveebee]

Hmmm, " the Brits I worked with..." now where did you work I wonder?

[@P-B-G_YT]

Knock knock ... "I'll be right back." ... ;) Fortunately it appears they didn't haul you away.

[@FutureCanadaBlue]

8:00...even secret signals are delightfully British! "I say chaps! The maid has served the tea to the bishop; no jam on the scones. Pass it on."

[@SynchroScore]

"John has a long mustache."

[@richardscales9560]

equal measures of ingenious, fascinating, farcical and hilarious. You couldn't make this stuff up and expect people to believe it

[@Beaguins]

This shows the importance of being strategically prepared for war at all times. Germany should have prepared its international communications long before WW1. If it could have relied on telegraph like Britain, it wouldn't have made these mistakes with radio. I suspect Britain would have made some of the same dumb mistakes if it had had similar limitations, but it was prepared. Sometimes it helps to have a real empire instead of scraping together the crumbs nobody else wants.

[@richardmercer810]

For historical accuracy yo should mention that wireless communications in 1914 and for a decade later, were by Morse code not voice.

[@billbolton]

Quality content, delivered with a wry smile, well done. How long 'til next Wednesday?

[@99IronDuke]

My son is Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, although he comes from a long line of over 100 years of British Army infantry soldiers. Love your channel.

[@babomb2146]

99IronDuke is he being stationed on one of the elizabeth classes?

[@yalelingoz6346]

A lovely change of pace for a mid-week special. :)

[@Iain1957]

I am glad you covered the point that while it is great to get and read all the messages there needs to be a method for turning them into something useful for operational and tactical purposes. Jellicoe was of course let down by this failure.

[@Ka9radio_Mobile9]

What about Monty Pythons Killer Joke! it work for them. Lol

[@George_M_]

It becomes immidiately obvious why there are legitimate concerns over who installs who's internet infrastructure.

[@cyklotronpl7785]

Excellent. Super interesting.

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

19:10 top ten naval betrayal

[@thomasvandevelde8157]

´Could solve problems regarding the curvature of the Earth?´ Are you stuck in that 1850s model of EM-waves? Ok, now you got me angry: Both SMS Goeben and Breslau could easily keep contact at night to Nauen station, that´s outside Berlin, while being chased across the Mediterranean Sea. RMS Titanic at nighttime, while testing it´s wireless installation while still in dock at Liverpool, got a reply from the station at the entrance of Suez Canal. Same for the fact literally hundreds of people had heard Titanic´s emergency messages on (very crude indeed) homebuild wireless receivers, shows that by 1914 things in the wireless department had moved forward quite considerably. By 1917 eavesdropping the ship-to-ship transmission by Room 40 was pretty much the order of the day, and so was the increasing use of Radio Direction Finding. This was enabled by the French FINALLY getting a triode (vacuum tube) into mass production that was reliable, cheap, easy to use, and that was stable when used as an amplifier, in 1915. It was dubbed type ´T.M.´ or simply ´Telegraphie Militaire´. 100.000 of these were made, the British Chinese-copied the TM as the type R triode in 1917, realizing it was exactly what the fighting man needed: at the expense of performance, and above all filament life duration, they had created UNIFORMITY and any lightbulb factory could easily be turned around to produce war-related equipment. The importance of the TM ´bombshell´ cannot be overstated, since every nation on the Globe made a Chinese copy during or after WW1. It was known as ´the French Valve´ in the US, as ´type E´ with Philips, type R with the British and a whole family was born from it. By 1918 the Allies had aeroplanes flying over German lines, using the TM/R tubes in radiophone transmitters guiding artillery directly during the Spring Offensive and subsequent drive back towards the German border. The Germans didn´t have the technological edge in this department, they did however clearly posses one important aspect Royal Navy radiomen didn´t: Radio discipline, which came out all the painfully during the Battle of Jutland, and it suited everybody´s interest Beatty´s flag-officer should be hung from the nearest telegraph pole, and not the multinational Marconi Company which had trained Royal Navy operators in everything but military use of radio, so... German ships clearly used old-fashioned spark-stations troughout, but they used them with a very high degree of discipline in combat (hence not creating a jam on the air the moment a sharp maneuver by the whole squadron has to be made). *Edit: Did I read this story in reverse or what?* Because here I now hear that the British had the better radio discipline, albeit the German company Telefunken (which was the first competitor of Marconi) was set up by the German military exactly to research and develop the means of wireless for military purposes? I mean there was even a Marconi-Telefunken ´war before/during´ the War itself: Marconi stations were forbidden to relay any messages sent with Telefunken equipment (you can hear the difference in sound quite clearly), which meant a death-sentence for more than one ship, but I never realized until now that long before this communications war had started: The British Marconi company pitted vs the German junker-founded-financed Telefunken, which had no parallel in de world in terms of centralized research (albeit they continued to put emphasize on systems to be deployed as soon and reliable as possible.). If comparing a German Cruiser station vs a British one, one sees that the German layout it designed solely for fast/easy responses and extreme simplicitty. By now my brain is in shortcut-mode, and I´ve go to reboot and research, which would take w ahile- But even years before Jutland, in 1912 the destroyer USS Salem set out for wireless tests, a floating receiving station carrying 3 sorts of receiver platforms and test them ´against another´. Same holding true for the Arlington Station, which switched periodically between 35kW or 100kW Spark transmitter (both being same Damped waves), and a 35kW Arc transmitter connected to the same antenna at Arlington, using the same wavelength (frequency today) but using Continuous Wave, instead Damped Waves. Mind you that the test was set to end in Atlantic waters, but due to success being achieved, and still plenty of signal strength to go by the time Madeira was reached, next up was the Cape Verde islands. There, finally, during the daylight hours the signals started fading down (also because they were headed directly into subtropical regions, where there´s H-U-G-E amounts of interference by lightning) to the point of being drowned in similar sounding waves of discharging static Room 40 also could not have done what it did, without the work of Colonel (later General) Ferrié and the US engineer/captain (later major) Edwin Armstrong, who was the only non-Frenchman at the time to be rewarded with the Legionne d´Honeur, who had rushed to France long before the US became directly involved. He invented some of the cornerstones of modern communications technologies while watching German Zeppelins or planes bomb Paris. He also invented FM-radio, along the way, and sadly enough he left France back for America... Where he committed suicide after spending nearly 20 years in court battles to be recognized as the father of FM-radio, and stuff like that. Just thought I should mention these (totally forgotten) men, who changed the world completely by integrating military and science at multinational level, at the professional level, and left us a world that would be unrecognizable to them 100 years later. Sorry, just had to say this. Read up on this: earlyradiohistory.us/ Or this nice page: www.navy-radio.com/xmtr-prewar.htm

[@Marci124]

Also thanks for the insightful comment.

[@SpinStar1956]

You know, I really love this channel but I have so little time with all that I'm involved in---and keeping up with the present lunacy of the modern world. But every once in awhile I like to come here and watch a video, and today I was not disappointed! I had seen stories before about this, but yours has such better detail; and I appreciate your humour, and ways with description. I'm really interested in radio, radar and electronics, and how they have been implemented in ships; hopefully there is detailed infor out there to reconstruct(?). Also, a lot of people don't know that CW (Morse-code) even to this day, is much more effective than voice per amount of power used! You have such wonderfully detailed and documented videos, that they are a real joy to watch. This channel has long-become one of the 'pillar'-channels of KZbin. So thank You for all your hard work. I may not get to watch often, but I'm always thinking about you! So, take care, and the very best to you...

[@Zaprozhan]

Your work is informative, educational, and amusing. Thank you.

[@lycossurfer8851]

Love the ending😂😅😄

[@leondillon8723]

It was left out that the "Lusitania" was an Armed Merchant Vessel (AMV). In the cargo was 1 million rounds of .303 caliber.The German Embassy placed warnings in the newspapers, next to the sailing schedules.I suspect that the Zimmermann Cable is a fake.An embassy official with highly classified papers in his briefcase.A Secret Service agent just happened to be on the trolley and was able to steal the briefcase.A violation of international law. In John Toland's book, "Guns of August", it stated that many Americans favored Germany & were ready to war with the limeys for the same reasons as for The War of 1809(1812).

[@Mtlmshr]

Hey Room 40 hope y’all are doing well!🤔😜😳great video on this fantastic topic!

[@peterbrazier7107]

Ah, The Great Eastern, the largest cable layer of its time.

[@typograf62]

At 21:00 you show a pair of German WW2 radars. Also direction finding normally looks for the minimal signal as that tends to be the sharpest indicator.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Henry L. Stimson : Gentlemen do not read each other's ma Me : STHU and get with the program the British perfected ya rube!

[@alexandruhagi]

The ending was very good. Thank you for the very informed content. Greetings from România.

[@aitchisondaniel]

The Bowler Hat: Secret weapon on which the world depends.

[@DarkStarPast]

Excellent, just excellent, your program explains so much. Like why Grand fleet Captains failure to inform the Admiral Jellicoe of ship movements and sighting durning Jutland battle. (over use of radio discipline ). Even today because of secretiveness, intelligent services are loath to give up important needed information because of consequences. (see steel report for agent uncovered, lost of contacts or pre-911 intelligent. I always wondered how the British got the big jump on ship message intercepts, well explained. Thanks much Please more Naval things other that the very interesting Naval architecture.

[@nmongo]

There are three aspects of Naval Communication: Accuracy, Speed, and Security. The operator may of necessity sacrifice Security for Speed, or Speed for Security, but Accuracy cannot be Sacrificed for either of the other 2 .

[@leftcoaster67]

I'd like to return this record. It is scratched. Ooops wrong phrasebook.

[@rayg.2431]

"Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?" "Drop your panties, Sir William, I cannot wait till lunchtime."

[@mbryson2899]

"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson talks a lot about Alan Turing and Bletchley Park and illustrates how intel was actually used in WWII. BTW, great video! I thoroughly enjoy how you weave all the realities together (economics and personalities in particular) to show how wars are won and lost based on more than ships' statistics on paper, Uncle Drach.

[@jamespfp]

That is an excellent but fictionalized account of the Second World War from the point of view of a close contemporary of Alan Turing, *PLUS* Stephenson goes out of his way to show how the smartest Germans in the War weren't as gullible or over-confident in Engima as the Army High Command, or the Kriegsmarine. If you liked "Cryptonomicon", Stephenson released a series of Baroque-period novellas called "The Baroque Cycle" which does more to explain the *WHOLE* of the story of why the 20th Century was as it was, by focusing on all the key developments of that period which made the Information Revolution of the late 20th century possible. And he still finds time to talk about Economics, Mathematics, Damascus Steel, Japanese swords, Naval Combat and age of sail ship designs, Pirates versus Privateers, and basically all of the key "Elements" or "Symbols" that he put into "Cryptonomicon". Enoch Root? Yeah... he's in there too.

[@mbryson2899]

jamespfp, "The Baroque Cycle" is amazing! He wrapped up so much pertinent to our modern day concepts in such beautiful prose. BTW, the first book my better half and I downloaded to our kindles was "The Diamond Age."

[@gasgas2689]

It was Porthcurno where all the transatlantic cables came ashore. I was trained in telegraphy and telephony at the Cable and Wireless college at Porthcurno in 1967. We were not told then that there was a big communications centre hewn into the cliffs there, right next to the entrance to the college. It was used in both WWs and was still secret. Now it is a museum and you can visit it.

[@hatchcrazy]

Drach, just in case you (or anyone else watching this) haven't read it, I strongly recommend the fantastic book _Battle of Wits_ by Stephen Budiansky. It's the finest account of WW1 and WW2 Allied codebreaking I've yet read, and one of the few to give a detailed mathematical description of how both Enigma and Purple were broken. It's also relatively recent, so it includes newly-declassified material.

[@EdMcF1]

Imagine the Admiralty Ops room prior to radio. Smudges where ships might be.

[@Drachinifel]

"Somewhere in this ocean, maybe"

[@diestormlie]

@@Drachinifel "Probably not sunk."

[@Drachinifel]

@@diestormlie "If they went this way our best Intel suggest dragons or Kraken, possibly both, and maybe some French"

[@nickierv13]

Still better than the 2ed Pacific Squad. Not sure if the ops chart was a smudge or a vast empty space. Or on the Kamchatka...

[@Worstplayer]

"Here be torpedo boats"

[@kamchatka_survivor1959]

London calling to the faraway towns! 😈

[@thekinginyellow1744]

Aiiiih live by the river.

[@trekaddict]

Somehow this is the first time I'm reading the full text of the Zimmerman telegram. My reaction: "Good Lord." *pinches nose, facepalms*

[@matthewrobinson4323]

Wow!!! I guess Zimmerman proves the ultimate oxymoron is "Military Intelligence".

[@CThyran]

@Northfield Stradford Not a very good one.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Zimmerman: "Play nice or else." USA: "HULK SMASH!"

[@francoistombe]

He was Foreign Minister.

[@mpetersen6]

The ultimate oxymoron is 'criminal mastermind'

[@stanklepoot]

Man, British intelligence must have had a massive collective erection when they deciphered the Zimmerman note. They also probably busted a collective gut when they heard Zimmerman try to play it off as "it's only a threat if you don't do as we tell you to do". I mean, the Brits knew the US mindset better than anyone else at the time, and they knew just how massively the Germans had screwed up in both instances. That had to be the emotional equivalent of winning the lottery while in the process of figuring out what expenses you could cut to be able to pay your rent that month.

[@historytank5673]

Imagine if Zimmerman was smart and played it off as a most offensive ploy by the Brit’s to try and decisive the American people. Maybe even throwing in suggestions that the Brit’s felt they could re subjugate the American people.

[@peregrinemccauley7819]

The Major from Fawlty Towers , I'm sure would have enjoyed this doco' ." What ? .... , Germans ? ....... , here "?

[@markhonerbaum5789]

Scapa flow and the U boat slips in an sinks the Royal Oak story long term memory took a while but that's an interesting story to hear about.

[@WagesOfDestruction]

very informative, i knew much about it but I found much good stuff here

[@sheadjohn]

Didn't the germans make a machine that could listen to the British single wire field telephones?

[@whatsoperadoc7050]

Wow. Imperial Germany was cartoonishly inept at communications security.

[@catfish552]

On the one hand: Codes and continually changing ciphers. On the other hand: Have ships phone home every day. But that practice didn't die there, the Soviets had their nuclear subs make daily reports during the Cold War...

[@AdamMGTF]

It is worth remembering that this was a new area of warfare. They may seem "cartoonishly inept" to us in 2020 and with 20-20 vision. To us its *obvious* that what they did was absurd and how could they be so stupid. At the time they had some of the best minds in their entire country coming up with a system that at the time seemed to make perfect sense and work in their system. The British had some of their best minds trying to best the system and still the victory largely depended on occasions of luck as much as it did intellect and hard work. It's very important when learning history. Not to apply a modern slant to what happened. It's hard not to do. But if you fall into this trap. You don't fully learn what happened and worse. Fail to learn histories lessons.

[@spikespa5208]

Use an old code to verify a new code. "Can you hear me now?"

[@atzuras]

@@AdamMGTF Howrever German Army and Navy never followed the golden rules that they intelligence told them: never encode the same plaintext twice with different cyphers, use randomized starting positions, do not send predictible messages like weather reports, never encode test patters like the alphabet etc. Each command adapted the cryptography system to serve an operational purpose and ignored the rest.

[@Jax2777]

They may as well have just been sending the messages to britian themselves with as much info they were leaving out in the open.

[@Kwolfx]

Just think, Arthur Zimmermann missed an opportunity to create the term "Fake news!" Doing that or something similar is what he should have done. Admitting the truth in that situation has got to be dumbest diplomatic move by any Foreign Secretary or diplomat of any country in the past 150 years, at least. However, the entire idea was beyond stupid. Mexico was in the middle of a Civil War with multiple factions and wasn't capable of attacking anyone. The Mexican government then in power was hanging on by it's finger nails. The Germans had diplomats in Mexico. I assume they would have sent Berlin reports on the chaotic conditions that existed in Mexico at the time. Apparently, no one took the time to read them. As far as the British intelligence reading U.S. diplomatic mail, the U.S. can't really complain. (Much) After the Second World War the United States sold or gave just about every country in the world that wasn't aligned with the Soviets; with the exception of the UK who would have known better, copies of German Enigma machines and told them it would protect their diplomatic traffic from spying. I don't know if this scheme was shared with British Intelligence, but even if it wasn't I can't believe the people working in GCHQ after the war wouldn't have recognized the exact type of coded transmissions they had cracked during the war were now being used by most third world countries, and some wealthier ones too, just about everywhere on the planet.

[@DuckiestBoat959]

For any patrons, the uss mayflower might be an interesting suggestion for a video. Just found a lost photo of her in the archives that's never been digitized and I'm currently guarding it with my life. It's her in ww2 config which is rare, there's only 4 other pics in this config online and mine is probably the only one that's high fidelity. I'll digitize it for free if someone wants to suggest it as a video.

[@DidMyGrandfatherMakeThis]

I'm sure it's been said before but it's pronounced Ros-cyhte, lovely anchorage which to this day had admiralty bouys there

[@bigblue6917]

This vagueness when passing on information carried on into WW2. Montgomery had this problem in North Africa and he decided to just ignore any information passed on to him from Bletchley Park. Crete was lost for the same reason as the information passed to those involved was so meaningless that it was of no help. If sufficient information had been given to those in charge the Germans would have been defeated. It makes you wonder why, between the wars, people from intelligence and the armed forces did not sit down and work this out.

[@kemarisite]

Big Blue, there's always been that question of whether any particular battle is worth giving up the intelligence source for. Frequently, plausible alternative sources of intelligence were devised (a recon aircraft sent after a ship or convoy you already know about through codebreaking). The one battle that might have been important enough to risk giving away the secret, a chance to ambush four of the six Japanese fleet carriers at Midway, is also one for which, to my knowledge, the Americans never crafted a cover story. No conveniently stationed submarine to report on movements of the Kido Butai in late May, no stray patrol planes just happening to spot the Japanese fleet with enough time for carriers to plausible get from Hawaii to Midway.

[@francoistombe]

The different reactions to enigma info by commanders is curious and maybe telling. Montgomery and Mark Clark were seemingly indifferent. Patton loved it and used it to the max. But he presented a problem. He didn't hang around his HQ, he was always out in the field near the front. It was policy only to give enigma info directly the to commanding General in person. In Patton's case they had to make an exception so some of his senior staff were authorized to receive it.

[@atzuras]

It was a golden rule to never use Room 40 or Bletchley Park for tactical purposes. Only for strategic, long term advantatge. Otherwise it would be too easy to spot something shady was going on. The Germans had its own intelligence service and competent people doing the same job, but their relationship with the army or the navy was even worse than the British.

[@atzuras]

@@kemarisite I think the japanese naval codes were somehow weak and old at that time, and IJN was changing them often, so it was not a big deal to burn that bridge. And there was little margin to set up a cover since sending subs to be seen by the kiddo butai was a suicide mission.

[@thhseeking]

Well, that's the last we'll ever hear of Drachinifel :P

[@brucewilliams6292]

An age of well done spy and state craft. Thank you.

[@stevepittman3770]

Brilliantly informative video on a fascinating topic. Well done, sir.

[@hazchemel]

thank you so much j ford, australia

[@camrsr5463]

That was awesome! loved it!

[@peregrinesmith6335]

Very interesting, I learnt pretty much every thing you revealed about 50 years ago, and I got to say your presentation was great, and in the end very humorful. Thank you

[@jonathanevans4610]

I've always wondered just how bad it would have been for Scheer if Jellicoe had all the information available to meet him off the Horns reef

[@kemarisite]

Jonathan Evans, if you mean cutting them off from base at the Horns Reef, then it think it would look a lot like Tsushima with the Germans trying to break through a British fleet positioned along the one place they have to go.

[@jonathanevans4610]

@@kemarisite Well the Horns Reef is only an entrance to the German minefield that protects the German coast but yes they have to either break through or it a chase to the entrance at the Jade Estuary. Anyone know if the German destroyers would have torpedoes left for another massed attack to allow the battleships to disengage?

[@YultheYak]

Superb video. On of Drach's most entertaining and interesting.

[@fredricunderhill204]

46g7 wsa4 wexs e98j Stop the war. It's tea time.

[@ThePinkus]

LOL for the fire nation! :P That got me by surprise!

[@GeneralKenobiSIYE]

That German encrypting was lazy as fuck.

[@uniwasamistake6334]

"Rather british beginnings" Best line to start an explanation on anything involving tophats and bowlers

[@paladin0654]

The RN officer who asked for the location of call sign "DK", asked the wrong question....should have asked where the location of the German fleet.

[@kaveebee]

That was a BIG FUckup and used as an example of how not to do it

[@guywerry6614]

I have long been a casual fan / history buff of the Bletchly Park efforts and the American code-breaking efforts of WW2. This was most entertaining and revealing, so this is VERY much appreciated, fine job!

[@glennsimpson7659]

So much information so well presented. One thing not mentioned is that the UK shared this intelligence with the USA in 1917-18 to such good effect that the US set up its own ‘Black Chamber’ in imitation of Room 40.

[@mpetersen6]

And then post war Cordell Hull had it shut down. He supposedly said "gentlemen do not read each others mail"

[@michaelsommers2356]

MI-8 was not formed until June 1917, but its origins go back to before the war. The US didn't need the British to know, given the possibility of war, that it would be a good idea to be able to read the enemy's communications. I also doubt very much that the British shared much technical information with the US, given how extremely reluctant they were to share in the next war.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@mpetersen6 The so-called Black Chamber was jointly funded by the Departments of State and War. Secretary of State Stimson, not Hull, pulled State's funding in 1929. A dozen years later, though, as Secretary of War Stimson was quite happy to read decrypted Japanese messages.

[@Rhubba]

Anyone interested in learning more about Room 40 should check out Patrick Beesley's book called "Room 40".

[@dantreadwell7421]

"All this changed, when the Fire Nation attacked.." 🤣🤣😅😅🤣

[@gvbrandolini]

Interessante

[@string-bag]

Your best video yet, very interesting and informative.

[@rogerhwerner6997]

Lasr winter, I read a book on the development of British intelligence SAS or MI6 and MI5. Signals intel isn't very glamorous but it's damned important and Britain was about a expert in this as any country, probably more so. Code breaking during the Great War may be described as hilarious. The process by which the German WWII naval code was broken involved Polish and French intelligence working with the British. Breaking the Japanese code was a joint operation with the US and UK. Suffice to say, British signals intel played a significant roll in both world wars.

[@Iain1957]

Actually breaking much of the Japanese code on the British side was done by Australian's who were RN paymasters to cover their activities see "Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes: David Sissons and D Special Section during the Second World War". Of course this was a shared activity although from reading American accounts you would not know this.

[@rogerhwerner6997]

@@Iain1957 Americans like to take credit. Who knows the roll the Polish Secret Service played in breaking the Germnan code in the mid-1930s or for that matter the French.

[@SephirothRyu]

And then the Telegraph Nation attacked.

[@themrchappi1]

Which small european countries was Germany bossing around? Were you mixing up the wars? Or Germany with Austria?

[@scipioafricanus6417]

Nice video, could you link the intro music?