Thursday, January 26, 2017
The Role of Code-Breaking and Espionage in WWII
Guns, tanks, planes, etc. played a big role in the fighting of WWII. However, not all of WWII was fought physically: code-breaking and espionage played an equally important role that enabled the Allies to win the war. This is shown in multiple key moments throughout the war, including the Battle of Normandy. Because the Allies were able to decode the enigma, they were able to learn of enemy movement. Also, double-agents and spies fed the Germans with false information leading them to think that the invasion would not take place in Normandy. Another example is the Battle of Midway where the Americans set a trap by saying that they were short of water, prompting the Japanese to attack- in reality, the Americans were very well prepared. The Japanese lost 4 entire carriers as well as many of their top officers and pilots. Obviously, these tactics were very effective and gave the Allies a tremendous advantage. How do you suppose that non-physical tactics such as these are being applied to modern-day wars?
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Non-physical tactics have been a huge part of wars throughout the modern age, especially with the growth of technology and different means of communication. American government agencies can track the internet activity of those all over the world and use this information (as well as all of the intelligence they are able to gather through direct spying on other countries) against its enemies. Considering that the US intelligence budget has increased by around 7.2 billion dollars since 2005 (according to the Federation of American Scientists), it's obvious that the country has been continuously funding international espionage whether it be physical spying or online tracking because it allows us to have access to secret information regarding the actions of other countries as well as terrorist organizations. This can especially seen through the US' war against the IS, in which American intelligence agencies have been actively trying to decipher the plans of this terrorist organization throughout Iraq and Syria in order to prevent or prepare for a potential attack. Last June, for example, the US was able to track down and bomb the headquarters of the IS when one of their members posted a picture of themselves on social media, as this image gave American intelligence agencies the ability to use methods of espionage to find out where it was being taken. Now, even though the US hadn't originally gotten access to the image through spying, espionage still played a role in discovering the location of the base using the picture, which is why the US was able to benefit significantly through doing so. So overall, espionage is still a prominent part of modern warfare (one could argue that it's much more prevalent than it was in the past) since it has allowed countries to take advantage of modern technology and gain information about their enemies.
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ReplyDeleteAs codes have continued to advance and so has technology. Code making is different these days than it was back then. One interesting code from WWII was the Navajo code talkers. They were Navajo Indians who, because there was no written form of their language, were able to freely speak to one another without fear of the Japanese being able to understand them.
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