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

In less than a week’s time, another major intelligence break crosses Marshall’s desk. From Bucharest, Japanese minister Okubo reports that the Hungarian regent, Horthy, met Hitler on April 16 and 17 at German headquarters. It is reported that Horthy told Hitler: “We Hungarians have already lost one hundred thousand men in this bloody war, counting dead, wounded and missing. Those we have left have but few arms with which to fight.… We cannot help you one bit more. We are through. We are doing our best to stave off the Bolshevik menace and we won’t be able to spare a single man for the Balkans.”7 McCormack’s analysts emphasize the significance of this message in a special note for Marshall and other Magic Summary readers. This note points out that, on April 22, the U.S. chargé in Helsinki reported to Washington that several Finnish journalists had just returned from Hungary, after Horthy met with Hitler, and they were impressed by how pessimistic Horthy had become. And on April 28, both the U.S. chargé in Helsinki and U.S.