Marching Orders: The Untold Story of How the American Breaking of the Japanese Secret Codes Led to the Defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan

by Bruce Lee

Marshall knew that the Allies would never be able to achieve this numerical superiority in trying to regain the territory already occupied by Axis forces. Unless, of course, we knew about the enemy’s strategic and tactical intentions so we could use fewer men in attacks against relatively lightly-defended enemy positions. And this is where our ability to read the secret codes of the Axis gave us the vital edge. Consider the following: In June 1942, only seven months after Pearl Harbor, the US Navy won the battle of Midway. This changed the course of the war in the Pacific. Then, in August 1942, General Montgomery won his first victory at the battle of Alam Halfa. This changed the course of the war in North Africa and Europe. The common denominator of these two battles was that they were won because we had broken the Japanese and German radio codes.