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B-Dienst
Sign in to saveThe B-Dienst (, observation service), also called 'xB-Dienst, X-B-Dienst and χB-Dienst''''', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (, MND III) of the OKM that dealt with the interception and recording, decoding and analysis of the enemy. In particular, it focused on British radio communications before and during World War II. B-Dienst worked on cryptanalysis and deciphering (decrypting) of enemy and neutral states' message traffic and security control of Kriegsmarine key processes and machinery.
~101 min read
Article
62 sectionsContents
- Background
- Key personnel
- Kurt Fricke
- Ludwig Stummel
- Heinz Bonatz
- Wilhelm Tranow
- Other notable personnel
- Organization
- General Section 4/SKL I
- General Section 4/SKL II
- General Section 4/SKL III
- Operations
- Linguistic output
- U-Boat operations
- U-boat Message Types
- Dissemination to U-boats at sea
- Intelligence Dissemination Per Period
- Training
- Chronic personnel requirements
- Offensive cryptology
- Summary
- Operation Stratford
- 1941–42 period
- 1942–43 period
- End of B-Dienst success
- Naval Cypher
- Introduction of Naval Cypher 2
- Combined Naval Cipher No. 3
- British suspicions of compromise
- Fears of compromise
- Fears communicated
- Evidence accumulates
- Compromise accepted
- Naval Cipher No. 4
- Naval Cipher No. 5
- Naval Code
- Table of attempted cyphers solutions
- Defensive cryptology
- Operational security
- Kriegsmarine enquiries
- 1940 suspicions
- ''U-33'' sinking
- Sinking of 8 destroyers and the submarine ''U-13''
- Sinking in Norway
- 1941 suspicions
- Capture of ''U-570''
- 1941 enquiry
- Sinking of ''Atlantis'' and ''Python''
- 1943 enquiry
- U-Boat positioning
- Partial reading of ciphers
- Hundred Day Project
- Allied Radar and Metox
- Naval Enigma
- Naval Enigma Cipher Keys
- Operational evaluation
- Summary
- Effect on the ability of U-boats to contact convoys
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The B-Dienst (, observation service), also called 'xB-Dienst, X-B-Dienst and χB-Dienst''''', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (, MND III) of the OKM that dealt with the interception and recording, decoding and analysis of the enemy. In particular, it focused on British radio communications before and during World War II. B-Dienst worked on cryptanalysis and deciphering (decrypting) of enemy and neutral states' message traffic and security control of Kriegsmarine key processes and machinery. "The ultimate goal of all evaluation was recognizing the opponent's goal by pro-active identification of data."
B-Dienst was instrumental in moulding Wehrmacht operations during the Battles of Norway and France in spring 1940, primarily due to the cryptanalysis successes it had achieved against early and less secure British Naval ciphers.