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

On November 19, the Russians attack both the northern and southern flanks in a massive plan of double encirclement aimed at surrounding the German forces inside Stalingrad. Within four days, the Russians achieve their goal, linking their attacking forces on November 23, on the Don River at a city called Kalach. The entire German Sixth Army, and a portion of the Fourth Panzer Army, some twenty-two divisions totaling 330,000 men, are trapped. Hitler then seals the fate of his men in Stalingrad when he accepts Field Marshal Goering’s assessment that his Luftwaffe can supply the German forces in Stalingrad by a massive airlift. Hitler orders the Sixth Army to hold its position. Meanwhile, British code breakers who are reading the Luftwaffe’s Enigma ciphers can determine that the Germans have lost so many transport planes in trying to support Rommel in North Africa that there are not enough left to supply the Germans trapped at Stalingrad. (Almost every supply ship sent Rommel in recent months is sunk because the code breakers in Bletchley Park’s Mediterranean section knew when they were sailing and their destination; in turn, this forces the Germans to send unescorted transport planes with vital supplies to Tunisia.)