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Old 27th Sep 2010, 17:30
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Hipper
 
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The problem of using Intelligence without revealing its source also occured after the Bismarck sinking in 1941.

Enigma decrypts had revealed the locations of all six German supply ships that were to be used for this operation. Of course if you sink the lot the Germans will become suspicious, so it was decided to sink five of them and leave the other one alone. In addition it must appear that the ships were found in normal search operations, so usually an aircraft would be sent first. In this way when the supply ships were reporting they were being attacked they would mention they were discovered by a 'wheeled aircraft', for example. The selected five ships were duly sunk but as luck would have it the sixth ship was discovered in the normal course of events and dispatched.

Fortunately, despite much discussion, the Germans did not believe that Enigma was compromised and we could continue to read decrypts, and won the war!
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