Intell
The Origins of Aerial Reconnaissance II
Frederick Sidney Cotton Alarmed by the rise of Adolf Hitler and the advent of the Luftwaffe, the Royal Air Force pioneered covert, peacetime aerial reconnaissance in the late 1930s. British Squadron Leader Fred W. Winterbotham of the Air Ministry successfully convinced British and French officials of the need to reconnoiter German military installations. Eventually, Winterbotham contacted Frederick Sydney Cotton, an…
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CIA operations in Southeast Asia
Lockheed A-12 CIA involvement in Southeast Asia lasted for nearly two decades, from the mid-1950s through 1973. Though the U. S. government and many of its entities were blamed for America’s ultimate failure in Southeast Asia, the Agency performed credibly, often conducting operations outside of its sphere of responsibility. In…
Type XXIs and Western Intelligence
By January 1945, the Allies were deeply concerned about a renewed U-boat offensive that might seriously imperil the ground offensive toward Germany from the west. President Roosevelt in his State of the Union address on January 6 had stressed the possibility of a renewed U-boat offensive. Three days later, Roosevelt…
Cipher Machines
The Lorenz SZ42 machine with its covers removed. The rotor principle was discovered independently by inventors in several countries, the most famous being German engineer Arthur Scherbius (1878–1929). Scherbius invented a three-rotor cipher machine, the Enigma, in 1918 (the last year of World War I). Scherbius tried unsuccessfully to sell…