06/17/2005: "More Enigma"

A couple more snippets from
Enigma - The Battle for the Code
by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.



Alan Turing again:

But ironically, the very innocence which had helped him to come up with his ideas in the first place - he worked some of them out without referring to published material dealing with similar subject matter - led the an unfortunate incident in 1952. In the course of reporting a theft, he unwisely told the investigating detectives that he was having a homosexual relationship with the friend of the man who had done the thieving. Turing was prosecuted for indecent behaviour and, in spite of his OBE and a glowing character witness statement from Hugh Alexander, he only escaped going to prison by allowing himself to be injected with female hormones - so-called organotherapy - as a result of which he developed breasts, like a woman. Two years later he was found dead in his rooms, after he had poisoned himself with cyanide. No-one was able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt whether he had committed suicide - although this was the verdict of the coroner at the inquest - or whether he had inadvertently licked cyanide off an apple during the course of an experiment; an apple coated with cyanide was found half eaten beside his corpse.

and this, below:

The Director of Naval Intelligence, John Godfrey, also wanted his department to take up a pro-active role. At the end of October 1940 he reported that he was setting up an organisation to arrange 'pinches', and to think up other 'cunning schemes'. One top secret scheme had already emanated from Godfrey's assistant, Ian Fleming, whose novels about James Bond would later be released to a much wider audience. The essence of Fleming's proposal was contained in the following memorandum which he gave to Godfrey on 12 September 1940:

I suggest we obtain the loot by the following means:
1. Obtain from the Air Ministry an air-worth German bomber.
2. Pick a tough crew of five, including a pilot, W/T operator and word perfect German speaker. Dress them in German Air Force uniform, add blood and bandages to suit.
3. Crash plane in the Channel after making S.O.S. to rescue service in P/L [plain language].
4. Once aboard rescue boat, shoot German crew, dump overboard, bring rescue boat back to English port.

Fleming's scheme, which was codenamed Operation Ruthless, included a contingency plan in case it all went wrong:

Since attackers will be wearing enemy uniform, they will be liable to be shot as franc-tireurs if captured, and incident might be fruitful field for propaganda. Attackers' story will therefore be 'that it was done for a lark by a group of young hot-heads who thought the war was too tame and wanted to have a go at the Germans. They had stolen plane and equipment and had expected to get into trouble when they got back.' This will prevent suspicions that the party was after more valuable loot than a rescue boat.

Fleming added that the pilot should be a 'tough bachelor able to swim', and a German speaker, who was also to travel on the bomber, was to be known as 'Fleming'. Operation Ruthless was quickly given the go-ahead, and Fleming travelled down to Dover, once a plane and crew had been procured, with the hope that he could put it into practice. ... However, the plan eventually had to be abandoned.

lerevdr on Fri 17-Jun-2005 @ 23:22 e.s.t [permalink]
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