Did Churchill not warn Coventry on November 14, 1940, that it would suffer a massive German bombing, so not to alert the Germans that their "uncrackable" Enigma codes had in fact been cracked by a team at Bletchley Park?

gonnzo

Untrue, according to the head of the Air Section at Bletchley Park and Churchill's biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Blitz#Coventry_and_Ultra http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article3661600.ece Dec 20 09, 5:26 PM

star_gazer

It seems that all the sources I can find agree with you gonnzo. However, this man, as far as I can tell, started making this controversial claim: In his 1974 book The Ultra Secret, Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham asserted that the British government had advance warning of the attack from Ultra: intercepted German radio messages encrypted with the Enigma cipher machine and decoded by British cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. He further claimed that Winston Churchill ordered that no defensive measures should be taken to protect Coventry, lest the Germans suspect that their cipher had been broken. Winterbotham was a key figure for Ultra; he supervised the "Special Liaison Officers" who delivered Ultra material to field commanders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Blitz Dec 21 09, 6:30 AM