Chapter 489: Churchill's Little Secret

Judging from the current form of warfare, the German army's superiority is all-round, and its advanced communication cipher is the guarantee for the smooth implementation of its advanced strategy and tactics.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century, the German army had already begun to distribute the "Innig code" advanced cipher machine.

It was the newest and most complex communication cipher of the time. This cipher was used in Germany, from Reinhardt to important military and intelligence services.

If this code had been kept a secret all the time, then Reinhardt and Germany would not have failed easily.

But in 1939 there was a turning point: in August 1939, British intelligence agencies obtained an "Innigma" cipher machine from Poland.

Although Reinhardt designed to frame Turing, a key figure in breaking the code, the historical "Alan Turing" team ceased to exist.

But in fact, Turing's death only delayed the decipherment of the British, and did not completely prevent them from deciphering the German army's Enigma.

One day in 1940, British intelligence intercepted a German bombing operation, codenamed "Moonlight Sonata".

The cipher was intercepted during the transmission of the cipher via radio waves. This is an order issued by the German Air Force Command in accordance with Reinhardt's order, requiring the air force group to carry out a fierce bombardment of three important cities including Coventry City, the center of the British outback, in recent days!

The bombing plan had two purposes: first, Coventry City was an important industrial city supported by the British in the war effort, which was of great significance; Second, the British army was always on guard during the German air raid on London, and the German Ministry of Defense began to suspect that the "Innigma" had been leaked, and they wanted to confirm their suspicions with this operation.

Reinhardt also suspected that the "Innigma" had been leaked, and this time it was a huge trap he had set for the British army.

From his point of view, even if the British had not deciphered the "Innigma", such a large-scale bombardment would have been intercepted by the remaining British radar stations when the bomber group approached the British mainland.

You know, Reinhardt had deliberately not allowed the Germans to destroy the British radar station south of Coventry, in order to leave them to verify whether the code had been deciphered.

If the British had deciphered the German code, according to Reinhardt's knowledge of Churchill, he would have ordered a ban on the evacuation of civilians from Coventry and other cities, and no special air defense arrangements would have been made.

In this way, Churchill was able to keep the decipherment of the German code as a hole card and take it out later when it was more needed.

However, the British did not decipher the code, so after their remaining radar stations discovered the German bombing cluster, they would have urgently notified the evacuation to prevent excessive losses.

In other words, if the British were clever enough not to prepare for air defense, they exposed their cards, which reflected the fact that they deciphered the German code.

So, on the evening of August 14, 1940, the German army began to implement the "Moonlight Sonata" program.

But this time the plan was changed, in addition to Coventry and other three important cities, Reinhardt also temporarily secretly added London, the capital of the United Kingdom, to spy on Churchill's hole cards to the maximum.

In this way, the German army carried out indiscriminate bombardment of London and other cities for 10 consecutive hours, killing 1,254 people, injuring more than 6,800 people, and destroying more than 50,000 houses and more than 500 shops. 12 aircraft parts factories were paralyzed.

The British air defense forces and air force were as if they were dumbfounded, and did not give any return fire at all.

It turned out that as early as a few days ago, the British intelligence services, without Turing, finally deciphered the news that the German army was about to bomb Coventry and other cities.

As a result, Churchill immediately decided to remove most of Coventry's air defenses, and only secretly let government officials and officers stationed in the dugouts wait in advance, leaving civilians to be killed or wounded by the Germans.

However, the Germans did not mention bombing London in the telegram, and the radar station in the south of London had already been marked by Reinhardt to the Luftwaffe for the Germans to shoot down.

The Luftwaffe took Churchill by surprise with a classic sound, bombing both Coventry, which Churchill had left behind for Reinhardt, and London, which Churchill had not expected.

As a result, Churchill naturally had to be furious in his office afterwards.

"Tell me what your intelligence department does? Didn't you say that the German code was deciphered? What did the Germans say about an air raid on Coventry, and the result? Their plane flew to London! Where is London? It is the capital of our country and the seat of the Empress! As for us, we allowed the Germans to bomb for ten hours, and we did not have any precautions beforehand, but transferred our original air defense units. Tell me, you idiots are doing this intelligence work! ”

After the bombing of London, Churchill called the head of the intelligence service to his office and scolded him.

"Prime Minister, listen to me."

As soon as the person in charge wanted to explain, Churchill immediately interrupted: "Explanation? What to explain? Will you be able to make up for the bombing of London by explaining it? ”

The bombing of London by the Germans really affected Churchill so much that he could not control his emotions at all, and he vented all his temper in one go.

"Tell me what's going on with you? Some time ago, Wavell in Africa just suffered a few defeats, and now that the ass is not hot, your intelligence department is looking for something for me on the soil again. Tell me what you want me to do as prime minister? Will I be able to continue as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? In my opinion, I should immediately take the blame and resign, I really have no choice but to lead you stupid pigs, or whoever wants to come! ”

Churchill pulled from the intelligence services to General Wavell in Africa, and he told all the recent series of British defeats in one breath, at least so that he was vented.

Ironically, more than 30 years after the end of the war, a conspiracy theory appeared with Sir John Colwell as the source: in fact, Churchill knew for a long time that Coventry was going to be bombed not against Coventry but for London, but in order to ensure that the secret that the British side had deciphered the "super code" was not revealed, he abandoned the car and abandoned London: no notice to the residents, no defensive measures! And he gave Reinhardt a very realistic play.

No one knew that Reinhardt had the ability to predict the future, and everyone could only guess that Churchill was acting, and Reinhardt was acting in a play within a play.

Back then, after the bombing, Reinhardt was sitting in his office and telling his assistants, "Do you believe that Churchill is now angry with his men?" I believe that this news will soon be exposed by the media and reach our ears. ”

Churchill's original intention was nothing more than to lose his pawn and protect the car.

And if such a tactic is successful: although Coventry suffered losses, the British kept the secret that had broken the code, so that they could intercept important information many times in the future war, and would have made an extremely great contribution to the victory of the war.

It's a pity that this time he gave up both Coventry and London, and he couldn't keep his little secret.

In the face of Churchill's clumsy acting skills, Reinhardt was ready to accompany him to the end from the beginning.

As for who is the better actor, we will soon find out.

Sure enough, the next day, the London Daily reported that Churchill was unhappy with the bombing of London and Coventry, and the report was accurate to every word Churchill had ever said.

I have to say that the editor of the London newspaper really thought that Reinhardt and the German were three-year-olds.

What would a one-sentence report look like if it wasn't intentional on Churchill's part? Could it be that it was leaked by British government personnel?

Such a confidential conversation between the leader and his subordinates was so easily released, and no one knew what was going on.

It is clear that Churchill will be wrong and want to cover it up.

Presumably, he also wanted Reinhardt to think that the bombing of Coventry was enough to prove that the British did not decipher the German code.