Changing the course of history

Cracking the Nazis’ Lorenz code translated into lives saved on many battlefields — and the invasion of Normandy was one of the most critical.

According to historian Richard Fletcher, United States General Dwight Eisenhower knew from intercepted Lorenz messages that Hitler had swallowed a deception plan and was convinced the invasion would come at the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. He had ordered Rommel not to move Panzer reserves to Normandy — and it was important for Eisenhower to act when he did on June 6 rather than wait for better weather in case Hitler learned of the deception.

“The final defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945 can be linked directly to the work of Bill Tutte,” Fletcher says. “Information from intercepted Lorenz messages and passed on by the British allowed the Russians to defeat the Germans at Kursk in 1943. Had the Russians been defeated at Kursk or had Eisenhower hesitated on D-Day, the war in the West would have been very different indeed [and] without Bill Tutte’s cracking of
the Lorenz code, the war could have gone on for many years longer.

“Alan Turing may have saved Britain from defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941 when we stood alone, but Bill Tutte shortened the war
in Europe by some two years, saving countless lives,” Fletcher adds, quoting Captain Jerry Roberts, the last surviving member of Tutte’s
team at Bletchley Park.   

Photo credit: Creative Commons