Published 03:02 IST, May 10th 2020
World War II: German soldiers' last intercepted messages revealed by British analysts
British intelligence agency on May 8 released the last messages from a German military communications network that were intercepted during World War II.
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British intelligence agency on May 8 released the last messages from a German military communications network that were intercepted during World War II. The messages were released to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. The last messages were intercepted by analysts at Bletchley Park on May 7, 1945, which talked about closing down all radio traffic 'forever'.
"British troops entered Cuxhaven at 1400 on 6 May - from now on all radio traffic will cease - wishing you all the best. Lt Kunkel," one of the messages read. "Closing down forever - all the best - goodbye," the other one said that immediately followed after the first message.
These were the last messages heard by analysts at Bletchley Park as a network of German Air Force signallers turned off their radio in the last days of the World War II.
To mark #VEDay75 our Historian Tony Comer tells an untold tale from our archives.
— GCHQ (@GCHQ) May 8, 2020
For the first time he reveals the final messages intercepted by GCHQ from a German communications network in the days leading up to #VEDay ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/K7hLcN9c1J
"Analysts at Bletchley Park who had followed the BROWN Network since 1940 saw its end on 7 May 1945," the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) said on its website. BROWN was the codename given to the Enigma key used by the German Air Force’s radio and research regiment.
"It was anomalous for such a relatively small unit to have its own key and a significant effort went into breaking it, something achieved in the autumn of 1940," GCHQ added further while describing the Enigma.
Breaking of Enigma and WWII
The course of cracking the German Enigma code by British codebreakers is portrayed in the Oscar-winning 2014 film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The German forces started surrendering on all fronts after Hitler's death on April 30, 1945. Two days prior to that, on April 28, Mussolini had already been captured and executed in Giulino. Japan's surrender came after the United States dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945.
(Image Credit: GCHQ/Webpage)
03:02 IST, May 10th 2020