US Army Center of Military History catalog

The US Army Center of Military History website has a catalog of their publications. Many of these books can be downloaded as pdf’s!

Some recommendations:

Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East by Ziemke

The Signal Corps trilogy - U.S. Army in World War II Series

German mathematicians in the cryptologic service

The German cryptologic organizations of WWII employed a lot of Phd’s in Mathematics.
 
Thanks to website The Mathematics Genealogy Project it is possible to find more details about some of them:

Herbert von Denffer - OKH/In 7/VI

Dr. phil. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 1935

Dissertation: Über die Bernsteinsche Theorie der partiellen Differentialgleichungen zweiter Ordnung vom elliptischen Typus

Günther Wünsche - OKH/In 7/VI, mathematical research department

Ph.D. Technische Universität Dresden 1933

Dissertation: Über die Geometrie der Invaliditätsversicherung

 

Werner Schulz - OKH/In 7/VI, English section

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1937

Dissertation: Reduzibilität, Irreduzihilität und Affektfreiheit bei gewissen Klassen von Polynomen

Advisor: Erhard Schmidt

Willi Ludwig August Rinow - OKH/In 7/IV

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1932

Dissertation: Über Zusammenhänge zwischen der Differentialgeometrie im Großen und im Kleinen

Advisor: Heinz Hopf

Wilhelm Vauck - OKH/In 7/VI, Head of Agents section

Ph.D. Technische Universität Dresden 1924

Advisor: Gerhard Hermann Waldemar Kowalewski

Hans-Peter Luzius - OKH/In 7/VI, M-209 expert

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1938

Dissertation: Methode zur näherungsweisen Berechnung des Risikoreservefonds in der Lebensversicherung unter Benutzung der Momente

 Advisor: Paul Riebesell

Otto Buggisch - OKH/In 7/VI, mathematical research department

Dr. rer. nat. Technische Universität Darmstadt 1938

Dissertation: Über die Seltenheit der Gleichungen mit Affekt

Hans Pietsch  - OKH/In 7/VI, Head of mathematical research department

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1938

Dissertation: Über Flächen, die ein Bündel geschlossener Geodätischer oder ein Paar konjugierter Gegenpunkte besitzen

 Advisor: Ludwig Bieberbach

Alfred Emil Richard Kneschke - OKH/In 7/VI

Dr.-Ing. Technische Universität Dresden 1927

Dissertation: Anwendung der Theorie der Integralgleichungen auf das Durchschlagsproblem von festen Isolatoren

Advisor 1: Georg Wiarda Advisor 2: Max Otto Lagally

Hans Rohrbach  - Pers Z, Expert on the US M-138 strip cipher

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1932

Dissertation: Die Charaktere der binären Kongruenz-Gruppen Mod p^2

Advisor: Issai Schur

Helmut Grunsky - Pers Z

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1932

Dissertation: Neue Abschätzungen zur konformen Abbildung ein- und mehrfach zusammenhängender Bereiche

Advisor: Ludwig Bieberbach

Wolfgang Franz – OKW/Chi, Expert on the US M-138 strip cipher

Dr. rer. nat. Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg 1930

Dissertation: Untersuchungen zum Hilbertschen Irreduzibilitätssatz

Advisor: Helmut Hasse

Karl Stein - OKW/Chi cipher security department

Dr.phil. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster 1937

Dissertation: Zur Theorie der Funktionen mehrerer komplexer Veränderlichen; Die Regularitätshüllen niederdimensionaler Mannigfaltigkeiten

Advisor: Heinrich Adolph Behnke

Gisbert Hasenjaeger - OKW/Chi cipher security department

Ph.D. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster 1950

Dissertation: Topologische Untersuchungen zur Semantik und Syntax Eines Erweiterten Prädikatenkalküls

Advisor: Heinrich Scholz

Werner Weber - OKW/Chi mathematical research department

Dr. rer. nat. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 1929

Dissertation: Idealtheoretische Deutung der Darstellbarkeit beliebiger natürlicher Zahlen durch quadratische Formen

Advisor 1: Emmy Amalie Noether
Advisor 2: Edmund Landau

Ernst Witt - OKW/Chi mathematical research department

Ph.D. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 1934

Dissertation: Riemann-Rochscher Satz und Z-Funktion im Hyperkomplexen

Advisor: Emmy Amalie Noether

Johann Friedrich Schultze - OKW/Chi mathematical research department

Dr. rer. nat. Universität Berlin 1939

Dissertation: Über unstetige Flüssigkeitsbewegungen um vorgegebene Profile

Advisor: Alfred Klose
Advisor 2: Ludwig Bieberbach

Georg Aumann - OKW/Chi mathematical research department

Dr. phil. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 1931

Dissertation: Beiträge zur Theorie der Zerlegungsräume

Advisor 1: Heinrich Franz Friedrich Tietze
Advisor 2: Constantin Carathéodory

Guido Hoheisel – OKL Chi Stelle 1944

Ph.D. Universität Berlin 1920

Dissertation: Lineare funktionale Differentialgleichungen

Advisor: Erhard Schmidt

Some got their doctorate after the war:

Horst Schubert – OKH/In 7/VI , Head of Russian section in 1943

Ph.D. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1949

Dissertation: Die eindeutige Zerlegbarkeit eines Knotens in Primknoten

Advisor: Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert

Acknowledgments: I have to thank Frode Weierud for his help in identifying the German mathematicians.

Allen Dulles and the compromise of OSS codes in WWII

During the war several organizations run agents in occupied Europe for the allied side. Britain had SIS and SOE and the US had OSS.

The Office of Strategic Services was the predecessor of the CIA and it was headed by General William Donovan. An important person in that organization was Allen Dulles.

Dulles came from a prominent family, studied at Princeton University and in 1916 became a State Department diplomat. After receiving a law degree in the 1920’s he became a successful New York lawyer with the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. His political position in the 1930’s was for intervention on the side of the British.

During the war Dulles joined the OSS and in November 1942 he was sent to Berne, Switzerland to head the OSS station on “Hitler’s doorstep”.

Berne was a hotspot of agent activity both Allied and Axis. The goal of the OSS was to recruit informants and gather intelligence on European affairs. Especially important was the need to recruit German agents to report on that country’s internal condition and policies. The Berne station also had contact with members of the German resistance.

Obviously there was a need for absolute secrecy in communications between the Berne station and Washington. Unfortunately for the Americans it seems some the OSS communications were read by the Germans and their Hungarian allies.

Since OSS was in the business of dealing in secrets such a security compromise must have had important consequences.

The British learned through an agent of theirs that OSS codes were compromised and were distrustful of the OSS organization.

Moreover the OSS people were warned by General Schellenberg of the SD that their codes were being read but instead of doing something about it they decided it was a provocation…

Let’s take a look at the rather limited amount of information available:

From ‘The secret front: the story of Nazi political espionage’ by Wilhelm Höttl, p268

In the autumn of 1944 the Headquarters of the Secret Service in Berlin received its first intimation that an American office existed in Switzerland, the duties of which appeared to be more than those of a normal Intelligence Center. The head of it was a lawyer name Allen Welsh Dulles, who had become prominent at the end of first war as a member of the American diplomatic service in the Versailles peace treaty negotiations, and particularly in the Austro-Yugoslav disputes. The fact that he had been installed in the American Legation in Berne, gave some indication of his real activities. And from his wireless messages to Washington that were picked up and for the most part deciphered and passed to the Germans by the Hungarian monitor service, the German Secret Service was able to obtain accurate knowledge of his views on the great problems of world politics. Unlike the American Minister in Berne, who forwarded to Washington as established facts the wildest and stupidest rumors, which emanated from Germany, Dulles showed himself to be only a man of high intelligence, but also an implacable enemy of Bolshevism, whose opposition was based on knowledge, reasoned argument and clear-sighted vision. This unequivocal attitude seemed to their group, which had for years sought contact with an authoritative American organization, to offer the very chance they had been seeking so long. They set about trying to get in touch with Dulles. Through the intermediary of an Austrian industrial magnate and the German Deputy Air Attache in Berne they quickly succeeded in doing so.

Höttl was head of SD foreign intelligence  for Southeastern Europe.

From ‘U.S. intelligence and the Nazis’ by Richard Breitman, p25

By the time the COI became the OSS in 1942, high officials had recognized the value of having a well-stocked base in neutral Switzerland, nearly surrounded by the Axis powers, prepared to defend itself if attacked, but otherwise steering a delicately balanced course. Switzerland had so many economic links with both Germany and Italy that there was bound to be leakage of information through corporate channels. Prominent exiles from Nazi Germany in the country still had lines of information into Berlin. The  Swiss government, the International Red Cross, and the Bank of International Settlements might each yield some Nazi secrets if the right people plied their officials. Dulles had just the right qualifications. He almost left for Switzerland too late the journey was strewn with obstacles, and Dulles barely made it across the French border before Germany shut off this route in response to the Allied invasion of French North Africa. Dulles was given the cover of being special assistant to the American minister in Bern, Leland Harrison. Dulles had regular contact with Embassy officials, including Harrison; he even used some State Department codes when his own facilities for communication with Washington were overloaded.

p107:

To prove his bona fides, Schellenberg also gave Hewitt another message for Washington: the Gestapo was “onto” Allen Dulles’ espionage work in Bern. They were feeding him false information from informants, and they had broken his codes. Both items turned out to be essentially false—apparently designed to disrupt Dulles’ effective operations. Dulles made little secret of what he was doing, but he was good at separating valuable informants from Nazi plants, and his codes were never broken. He recognized Schellenberg’s ploy.

Schellenberg was head of SD foreign intelligence. During the war he tried to come in contact with allied personalities who could promote a peace initiative between the Reich and the Western Powers. It seems the information he gave Dulles was supposed to prove he was not a provocateur but the outcome was the exact opposite.

From ‘History of MI-6’, p511:

The potential for disaster was demonstrated by Dulles's first contact with the Abwehr representative, Hans Bernd Gisevius, in January 1943, which he reported back to Washington on a cypher which the British ascertained (through their Polish agent Halina Szymariska) had been broken by the Germans. In the middle of April Dulles told Vanden Heuvel that he had seen Gisevius, who had just returned from Berlin and had told him that forty large flying boats had recently been built in Rotterdam to be used for the heavy bombing of London manned by suicide squads. Despite having been alerted to the problem with the cypher, Dulles had reported this to Washington in two telegrams. Dansey thought that Dulles had been 'stuffed' by a deliberate piece of German disinformation. Clearly agitated, he told Vanden Heuvel: 'could you report to the fool [Dulles] who knows his code was compromised if he has used that code to report meetings with anyone, Germans probably identified persons concerned and use them for stuffing. He swallows easily.

British report ZIP/D-S/G.9 of 10^th April 1943 mentions the OSS M-138 strip:

What can we conclude from the information presented so far?

First of all the OSS station used diplomatic codes when their own systems were overloaded or simply for reasons of convenience. The Germans could read State Department codes Gray, Brown, A1, C1 and the M-138 strip. OSS messages enciphered with these systems were vulnerable in 1941-44.

The OSS also had available their own codes, which included a set of M-138 strips. It seems that at least in 1943 this was read by the Germans.

OSS communications were read not only by the Germans but also by the Hungarians. It is not clear what systems the Hungarians could decode. However Höttl praised the work of their codebreakers in his book.

The information we have uncovered so far points to considerable security problems for OSS communications from Berne. The full story however is not known.

Update

Time for a new file: CSDIC (U.K.) SIR 1704 – ‘The organization and history of the Cryptologic service within the German Army’. It has details on the British War Office Cypher, the codes of Tito and Mihailovich and a list of OKH/In 7/VI personnel.

P for Philby ?

Kim Philby was a British intelligence officer who distinguished himself in one department. He is probably the archetype of the ‘mole’, the double agent of the Soviet Union buried deep inside British intelligence.

Philby was a member of the Cambridge Five and was recruited prior to WWII. He came from an aristocratic background which allowed him access to the best educational institutions. He gained wide recognition as a journalist for the Times of London when he went to Spain to cover the civil war.

In 1940 Philby started work for the British intelligence agency SOE and in 1941 moved over to Section V (counter-intelligence) of MI6. Thanks to his good work he became head of Section V in 1944. During his time in MI6 he befriended the American officer James Angleton who would later became chief of the CIA’s counter-intelligence department.

Probably thanks to this connection he got the job of representative of British intelligence in Washington. He would often meet Angleton for lunch and discuss operations. Thanks to Philby the Soviets had complete access to Anglo-American secret operations!

Eventually Philby’s career started to unravel and he fled to the Soviet Union in 1963.

Could this disaster have been avoided? Did the British have any information to incriminate him before he managed to climb so high?

It seems that the Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky did give information about Philby to MI6 in 1940.

Walter Krivitsky (real name Samuel Ginsberg) was head of the Soviet military intelligence - GRU in Western Europe. He defected in 1937 and managed to get to the USA where he wrote articles in newspapers attacking Stalin. Things did not turn out well for Krivitsky. The General was found dead in a Washington DC hotel on February 10, 1941.

However in 1940 he had visited the UK and was questioned about Soviet spy activities.

Let’s see some parts of his debriefing that could lead to Philby’s uncovering. Krivitsky is mentioned as ‘mr Thomas’.

P for Philby?

Philby did acquire papers from his father. It is mentioned in ‘Deadly illusions’ p152:

…..Even before the end of 1934, when he was still in the first stage of his recruitment, Philby’s file shows that he fed Deutsch confidential government information obtained from his father and a Cambridge associate who was working for the War Office.

At that time Philby was indeed ordered by Soviet intelligence to provide information on Franco’s protective detail, obviously so that an assassination plan could be devised.

Overall Krivitsky’s tips are not conclusive but they should have alerted the Brits when doubts about Philby’s loyalties had begun to surface.

If I find more references to Philby in these files I will update this piece.

Sources: KV 2/804 ‘Walter J. KRIVITSKY’, ‘Deadly illusions’, Wikipedia.

RAF forces in Malta 1941-42

In war it is said that it is not the side with the best tanks, or the best guns that wins but the one with the best logistics. This was undoubtedly true in North Africa during WWII.

There both the Axis and Allied forces were entirely depended on outside sources of supply. Fuel, ammunition and even water had to be brought over from faraway places.

The side that managed to transport enough war material while denying the same capability to the enemy would already have a huge advantage.

In this war against supply lines the island of Malta was very important for the British side. Combat aircraft and ships operating from it could intercept Italian convoys.

Time to take a look at RAF strength in Malta during 1941-2:

RAF Strength Malta
	14-Mar-41	2-May-41	9-Sep-41	2-Jan-42	1-May-42	4-Sep-42	25-Dec-42
Hurricane	25	43	71	89	16	6	12
Spitfire					25	142	121
Beaufighter				1	2	30	36
Wellington	7	2	18	21	4	6	36
Maryland	3	5	7	9	1
Blenheim		6	18	32
Beaufort			2			20	5
Hudson				1
Baltimore						5	10
Sum Combat	35	56	116	153	48	209	220

The data comes from daily reports in AIR 22 ‘Air Ministry: Periodical Returns, Intelligence Summaries and Bulletins’. For 1941 the numbers refer to Category A aircraft, meaning those serviceable and those that can be made serviceable within 14 days.

In 1942 the numbers refer to Category A and B aircraft .The classification is changed as Category A refers to serviceable aircraft and Category B to those that can be made serviceable within 14 days.

RAF strength on the island expands during 1941. However in the first half of 1942 the Luftwaffe’s 2^nd Air Fleet mounted a bombing campaign against Malta which effectively neutralized the island. This is seen in the strength return for May 1^st ’42. There is a sharp drop compared to 2 January ’42.

The actual situation is worse than the numbers in the table indicate as there were only 15 serviceable fighters available.

The Germans were thinking about mounting an airborne operation against the island but in the end decided against it and instead used their airforce to support Rommel in N.Africa. 

This allowed the Brits to reinforce Malta and wrestle back control of the air. This is seen in the strength return of 4 September ’42. The RAF strength has been miraculously revived. This time 125 Spitfires are immediately available for operations!

In the second half of ’42 Malta based planes would take a toll on Axis convoys in the Med.