29. HW 5/100, CX/MSS/ZTPI/10922(1072/4), repeated in HW 1/644, Naval Headlines 644, June 13, 1942, section 1a; HW 5/100, CX/MSS/1073/T12; HW 5/102, CX/MSS/1094/T15.
30. HW 5/100, CX/MSS/1073/T12.
31. Primary sources for the account of the raids from the perspective of the participants: Special Forces, 147–149 (from the official “History of the Long Range Desert Group,” CAB 44/151), 319–322 (from the official “History of Commandos and Special Service Troops in the Middle East and North Africa,” CAB 44/152); WO 201/727, “Capt. Buck’s Party,” July 7, 1942; Zerubavel, Magen Beseter, 174–178; “Rav Turai Petr Haas,” Izkor, www.izkor.gov.il//en_5e01a22f0ef7df5c9ee5ce5063100b7c (accessed October 31, 2019). The two British official histories differ on some details. Additional sources are noted below.
32. An additional account, however, states that Gottlieb was captured, then executed. “Turai Eliahu-Ernst Gottlieb,” Izkor, www.izkor.gov.il//en_5b237d6472ed0424a7cd96e98a69f52a (accessed October 31, 2019).
33. WO 201/727, Bill [Kennedy Shaw] to John [Haselden], June 19, 1942.
34. The Martuba pilot also conveyed a hearsay account of the raid at Derna, though he had not been there. He claimed that the SIG’s German driver had driven right up to the commander’s office at the Derna base, gone in, and revealed who was in the truck. This hints strongly at a story embellished in retelling.
35. WO 201/727, Supplementary Report on Leutnant Friedrich Körner, Supplementary Report on Oberleutnant Ernst Klager, July 7, 1942.
36. US NARA, RG 242, Microfilm Publication T-321, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Roll 236, Frame 6298760, Morgenmeldung vom 15.6.42. A slightly more detailed Luftwaffe report in TNA HW 1-645, CX/MSS/1073/T29, states explicitly that there were “no raids” at Martuba. At Derna, “on the basis of a report by a German soldier, an enemy sabotage lorry was captured.” It is impossible to know if this refers to betrayal by the SIG’s German instructor.
37. See, for example, Special Forces; John W. Gordon, The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940–1943 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987), 105–108.
38. Cesare Amè, Guerra segreta in Italia, 1940–1943 (Rome: Gherardo Casini Editore, 1954), 103–105.
39. Special Forces, 409–412.
40. US NARA, RG 242, Microfilm Publication T321, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Roll 236, Bericht über die Untersuchung des Sabotagfälle auf dem Flugplatz in Iraklion am 13. und 14. Juni 1942, July 19, 1942; cf. Microfilm Publication T321, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Roll 236, Frame 6298760, Morgenmeldung vom 15.6.42.
41. IWM, Document 25664, journal of J. H. Jackman, 1; Document 15363, W. Morris, letter dated to approximately September–October 1942.
42. IWM, Document 3583, Commander A. E. Sutcliff, Newcastle logbook IV, entries for June 14, 1942.
43. IWM, Document 7696, Capt. W. F. N. Gregory-Smith, undated account, 32.
44. IWM, Document 25664, Jackman, 2–3.
45. I. S. O. Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East, vol. 3: British Fortunes Reach Their Lowest Ebb (September 1941 to September 1942) (Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press, 2004), 307–313.
46. Amè, Guerra segreta, 102–105.
47. Playfair et al., The Mediterranean, 1: 314.
48. FFP, Cable 1134, June 14, 1942.
49. WO 201/2014, Personal for CIGS from General Auchinleck, Situation Review, June 19, 1942; Moorehead, African Trilogy, 365–367.
50. Churchill, Hinge of Fate, 331–332; FFP, Cable 1134, June 14, 1942; Barr, Pendulum, chap. 1; Warner, Auchinleck, 187–188.
51. RG 242, Microfilm Publication T321, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Roll 83, Item 270, Frame 385, June 15, 1942, translation of Cable 1385 from Maxwell to Arnold, June 10, 1942. On the air ferry route, see Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 7: Services Around the World (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983), x, 46–48, 73.
52. HW 1/648, CX/MSS/1078/T5, CX/MSS/1078/T7.
53. HW 1/653, C/9782, Menzies to Portal, June 16, 1942. Menzies reports on a conversation with Churchill the previous day.
54. NCML, SHR-025, Colonel McCormack’s Trip to London, May–June 1943, Bluebird Incident, 271.
55. HW 1/652, C/9779, Menzies to Churchill, June 16, 1942.
ACT IV. CHAPTER 2. INSIDE INFORMATION
1. FFP, Cable 1145, June 17, 1942. Cf. FFP, Cable 1149, June 19, 1942.
2. WO 201/632, To Mideast from HQ Main Eighth Army, Cositrep 358, June 17, 1942; Cositrep 359, June 17, 1942; Cositrep 362, June 19, 1942. Cf. FFP, Cable 1148, June 18, 1942.
3. FFP, Cable 1148, June 18, 1942.
4. WO 201/2014, Personal for CIGS from General Auchinleck, Situation Review, June 19, 1942.
5. Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 13–18, 1942; Roberts, Masters, 185–186.
6. Kimball, Churchill and Roosevelt, 509–514; Smith, FDR, chap. 24; Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 26, 1942.
7. Smith, FDR, chap. 24; Roberts, Masters, 185–199.
8. Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 21, 1942.
9. FDR, Map Room, Box 93, File MR300, Sec. 1, Fellers Cable 1157. This is the text as paraphrased in the War Department code section and brought to the president. Fellers’s original text (in FFP) is slightly different. Brooke and Churchill reaction: Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 21, 1942.
10. Roberts, Masters, 200–201; Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 21, 1942.
11. Moorehead, African Trilogy, 373–381; Liddell Hart, Rommel Papers, 225–231.
12. HW 5/104, CX/MSS/1111/T18.
13. HW 8/17, Appendix to Enemy Intelligence Report No. 3 (22/6–28/6/42).
14. FDR, Map Room, Box 93, File MR300, Sec. 1, Fellers Cable 1156, in six parts. Part 1, missing in this file, is partially preserved, with likely errors due to translation to Italian and back to English, in US NARA, RG 457, 190/37/7/1, Box 1035, File NR 3324, “The Contribution of the Information Service to the May–June Offensive in North Africa,” Appendix 8. While Part 1 was sent on June 20, the remainder is dated June 21. Dating is further confirmed by British decrypts of German messages based on this cable: HW 5/104, CX/MSS/1111/T18, CX/MSS/1114/T10; HW 5/105, CX/MSS/1127/T4.
15. CD, June 23, 1942; War Journal of Franz Halder, June 22, 1942.
16. CD, June 22, 1942; Barr, Pendulum, 18; Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War, 246–247.
17. Liddell Hart, Rommel Papers, 235–236; Fraser, Knight’s Cross, 343; Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War, 249.
18. The SIM (Italian) decrypt and translation of Fellers Cable 1156 is dated June 23, 1942: US NARA, RG 457, 190/37/7/1, Box 1035, File NR 3324, “Contribution of the Information Service to the May–June Offensive,” Introduction and Appendix 8. Kesselring forwarded key points from the cable, attributed to “a Good Source,” in the Red key of Enigma, also on June 23: HW 5/104, CX/MSS/1114/T10. The German army version of the message in Chaffinch was apparently either not intercepted or not decoded. By this time many Good Source reports were decoded and sent within one day. If that was the case, Rommel would have received the information on June 22.
19. RG 165, NM84–42, 390/37/31/5, Box 357, documents from June 20–25, 1942; Alanbrooke, Diaries, June 21–26, 1942; Roberts, Masters, 200ff.; Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, 243–254.
20. KV 2/1467, “First Consolidated Report,” July 29, 1942; “Second Consolidated Report on the Activities of Eppler, Johann and Sandstede, Heinrich Gerd,” July 31, 1942; “Third Report,” August 3, 1942; “Interrogation of Persons Connected with the ‘Eppler and Sandy’ Case,” Parts I and II, undated; KV 2/1468, summary, January 5, 1943.
21. US NARA, RG 457, 190/37/7/1, Box 1035, File NR 3324, “Contribution of the Information Service to the May–June Offensive,” Appendices 4–11; HW 5/104, CX/MSS/1111/T18, CX/MSS/1114/T10; HW 5/105, CX/MSS/1127/T4. On discrepancies between Fellers’s assessment and actual British strength, see Barr, Pendulum, 20–21. Part but not all of the discrepancy is due to Italian mistranslation of Fellers Cable 1156.
22. Barr, Pendulum, 34–35.
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br /> 23. WO 201/727, “Notes on Conversation with Col. Bagnold on Subject of Qattara Depression,” June 25, 1942.
24. Barr, Pendulum, 25–27.
25. WO 208/1561, Security Summary Middle East No. 57, June 25, 1942; No. 58, June 30, 1942.
26. FO 371/63073, Weizäcker to Neurath, June 23, 1942.
27. CD, June 26, 1942.
28. Sadat, Identity, 32–33. David Hirst and Irene Beeson, in Sadat (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), 62–63, raise questions about Sadat’s involvement. However, as the investigation of the Eppler-Sandstede affair shows, Sadat was indeed aware of and apparently involved in the effort to contact Rommel.
29. Mallmann and Cüppers (“Elimination of the Jewish National Home”) state that planning accelerated after the fall of Tobruk. The plan was presented to Himmler on July 1 and probably to Hitler on the same day. The phrase “executive measures” is from the orders issued for Rauff’s unit on July 13 (Cüppers, Walther Rauff, 150). Jewish population of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq: Harry Schneiderman and Jullius B. Maller, eds. American Jewish Yearbook 5707 (1946–47) (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 5707/1946), 609, www.ajcarchives.org/ajc_data/files/1946_1947_13_statistics.pdf (accessed November 24, 2019). The figures for Palestine, based on government calculations, do not include significant illegal immigration.
30. The message itself, CX/MSS/1122/T9, is in HW 5/105 with the key indicated and in HW 1/676 with Churchill’s question. The latter file contains Menzies’s answer, C/9871, June 29, 1942. Menzies wrote that leakage would end “as from 25th July”; in context, July is clearly a typographic error, and the intent is June.
31. Beaton, Near East, 122.
32. Barr, Pendulum, 31.
33. Liddell Hart, Rommel Papers, 237–239.
ACT V. CHAPTER 1. EL ALAMEIN
1. Moorehead, African Trilogy, 383; Barr, Pendulum, 69–70.
2. Beaton, Near East, 126–132; Watkins, Underage and Overseas, chap. 1.
3. MLD, July 1, 1942.
4. HW 5/106, CX/MSS/1134/T17, CX/MSS/1135/T28, CX/MSS/1136/T16, CX/MSS/1136/T34, CX/MSS/1137/T18, 1139/T3. On Rommel’s failed feint, see Pitt, Crucible of War 2, 286–288.
5. US NARA, RG 242, Records of Headquarters, German Army Command, Microfilm Publication T-78, Roll 451, Generalstab des Heeres, Abteilung Fremde Heere West, Nr. 786/42 Geheime Reichssache Kommandos Chefs, June 29, 1942. It is not clear whether Rommel himself received a copy of this message. However, this is also the date later given by Rommel’s deputy chief intelligence officer for the end of the Good Source messages, indicating that, in one form or another, he was informed on June 29 not to expect more. There had actually been no messages for several days at this point. Behrendt, Rommel’s Intelligence, 166–167.
6. Ugo Cavallero, Diario, 1940–1943 (Rome: Ciarrapico, 1984), 297; USSME, “FRONTE CIRENAICO: Rilievi sulle operazione britanniche ed elementi informative tratti da un rapporto di un osservatore Americano,” December 23, 1941, N-3/520/B. I am grateful to John Gooch for sharing this document with me. The information is drawn from HBF B39 F8, Fellers Cable 406, December 18, 1941.
7. US NARA, RG 457, 190/37/7/1, Box 1035, File NR 3324, “The Contribution of SIM to the Second Counteroffensive of Cyrenaica (January 21–February 5, 1942),” App. 1–15; HW 40/91, “Japanese MA Rome Forwards Report Derived from Intercepted American Cipher Telegram,” May 11, 1945, decrypt of January 24, 1942, Cable 558, Japanese Military Attaché Rome to Summer Tokyo; “Der Deutsche General beim Hauptquartier Ital. Wehrmacht,” Ic Nr. 206/42, to OBS, Duetsches Marine-Kommando Italien, translation of Fellers’s cable misdated as January 19, 1942. I am grateful to Andreas Bierman for sharing this document. His translation is at “The Good Source,” The Crusader Project, May 10, 2009, https://rommelsriposte.com/2009/05/10/the-good-source (accessed August 30, 2015). Sources for the Axis documents include Fellers Cable 616, January 17, 1942; Cable 699, January 27, 1941; Cable 723, January 31, 1942; Cable 741, February 2, 1941, all via FFP; Fellers Cable 640, January 20, 1942, reproduced in David Kahn, How I Discovered World War II’s Greatest Spy, and Other Stories of Intelligence and Code (Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2014), 251.
8. Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War, 194–196.
9. On June 29, Menzies informed Churchill that with “U.S. authorities having now changed their cypher, no further leakage should occur as from 25th July, 1942” (HW 1/676, C/9871). As noted above, July is a typographic error for June. While Menzies’s US sources had been mistaken in previous claims of changes in the code, additional evidence shows that the Military Intelligence Code (MIC) ceased being used between Cairo and London on or very close to June 25.
• The last messages sent to Rommel as recorded in “Contribution of the Information Service to the May–June Offensive” and in British decrypts are from Fellers Cable 1156, the final part of which was radioed on June 21 or early on June 22. Thus, the code was still in use up to this time. Neither of these sources, however, is a complete record of Axis interceptions.
• Cavallero was aware of the plan to send a US armored division to Egypt, which was under active consideration in Washington on June 23–25. He never learned of the cancellation of the plan late on June 25. We can conclude that a message to Cairo about the plan was intercepted; a message cancelling it was not.
• By June 27 at the latest, Fellers was no longer signing cables from Cairo. His messages were signed by Maxwell, indicating that the shared code room was now under Maxwell’s command. The change appears to have taken place at the same time that the new cipher machine went into use.
• An enigmatic cable from Fellers for the chief signal officer on June 24 (FDR, Map Room, Box 93, File MR300, Sec. 1, Cable 1168) asks if the latter has “received notification of destruction” of certain materials. A message for the chief signal officer on June 27 from Fellers but signed by Maxwell confirms arrival of new cryptographic materials (US NARA, RG 319, 270/5/13/5, Box 125, File 311.5, Cable 1174). How messages were sent between these dates is unclear, but it was evidently not in MIC.
• As noted, German military intelligence was certain on June 29 that its Cairo source was no longer available. Such a conclusion would only have been reached after several days of silence.
10. Cavallero’s testimony on this point is from his diary entry for July 25, 1942. Summing up SIM’s “indistinct” information on reinforcement of Egypt, Cavallero wrote that it included the arrival of the US “15th” Armored Division, according to the published version of his diary. “15th” is most likely a transcription error for l’2o, “the 2nd” in Italian. Cavallero, Diario, 436.
11. Fellers himself only became aware of this decision on June 27 when Ritchie returned to Cairo. FDR, Map Room, Box 93, File MR300, Sec. 1, Maxwell Cable No. 29, June 27, 1942. The text of the cable states that it was “prepared by Fellers and concurred in by Maxwell.”
12. NCML, David Kahn Collection, DK 64/1, David Kahn interview of Hans-Otto Behrendt, November 18, 1978, Stuttgart.
13. HW 5/107, CX/MSS/1141/T7, indicates that on June 29, after the fall of Mersa Matruh, German intelligence was still in the dark about the El Alamein line. CX/MSS/1141/T11 shows that on June 30 German intelligence underestimated the forces at El Alamein.
14. NCML, SHR-025, Colonel McCormack’s Trip to London, May–June 1943, Bluebird Incident, 273–275. According to Jenner, “Turning the Hinge of Fate,” 198–199, Marshall gave orders on June 21, 1942, for a change in the encryption system used with Fellers. If so, the order either was not sent immediately or was not carried out for several more days.
15. The number of soldiers captured at Tobruk varies in different accounts, based in part on estimates of how many British troops were actually in the town on the eve of the battle. The number here is from Barr, Pendulum, 16.
16. Monelli, Mussolini, 9–11.
17. Bernhard, “Behind the Battle Lines,” 435–436.
18. Roumani, Jews of Libya, 34–35; Simon, “Yehudei Luv,” 66–68; Bernhard, “Behind the Battl
e Lines,” 434–435. There are conflicting accounts of when the imprisonment of Cyrenaica’s Jews reached completion. The date here is from Roumani.
19. “1,000,000 Jews Slain by Nazis, Report Says,” New York Times, June 30, 1942, 7; cf. details of the smuggled report in JTA Daily News Bulletin, June 26, 1942, pdfs.jta.org/1942/1942-06-26_145.pdf (accessed August 1, 2018).
20. Cüppers, Walther Rauff, 148–149.
21. HW 5/107, CX/MSS/1141, para. 11; CX/MSS/1142/T43; CX/MSS/1142/T27.
22. Barr, Pendulum, 71–81.
23. HW 5/107, CX/MSS/1144/T19, CX/MSS/1144/T21, CX/MSS/1144/T24, CX/MSS/1146/T33, CX/MSS/1147/T4, CX/MSS/1147/T31, CX/MSS/1141/T5, CX/MSS/1142/T16, CX/MSS/1148, para. 8; Barr, Pendulum, 87.
24. Barr, Pendulum, 93.
25. CD, July 3, 1942.
26. US NARA, RG 165, 390/31/30/7, Box 751, File 2900–2950, “Axis Formally Declares Egypt Free,” July 3, 1942, 3:50 p.m. EWT.
27. Mallmann and Cüppers, “Elimination of the Jewish National Home,” 14. The conversation took place on July 9.
28. US NARA, RG 165, 390/31/30/7, Box 759, File 5970, “Letter in English (extracts),” July 15, 1942.
29. HW 12/278, 106449, Turkish Minister Cairo to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Angora, July 3, 1942.
30. Haim Gouri, interview, June 21, 2013. Recalling the events after seven decades, Gouri could not give a precise date. However, his description fits the movement of the Ninth Australian Division, as described by Barr (Pendulum, 100). Gouri’s memory of conversations, in my experience, was uniquely accurate.
31. HW 8/17, Enemy Intelligence Report No. 4, 28/6–5/7/42.
32. WO 201/2158, documents from January 9 to May 19, 1942; FFP, Cable 882, March 5, 1942, Cable 929, March 26, 1942; FDR, Map Room, Box 45, Army Dispatches, April 7–15, 1942, Cable 963, April 11, 1942.
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