Spies on the ground during WWII were able to accomplish little in the way of intelligence gathering that made a difference. Codebreakers were another story entirely.
The Second World War witnessed a huge expansion of the intelligence machines of every belligerent nation, so that secret service became the struggle’s growth industry. Never in the history of conflict had such vast resources been deployed by all belligerents to compile and assess information about their enemies. The overwhelming bulk was wasted, of course. As late as January 1943, in the heyday of Bletchley Park’s codebreaking operations in Britain, Lord Beaverbrook expressed scepticism about intelligence, telling a colleague that in Cabinet he heard very little secret information which was of real value. It deserves notice that a grandee privy to the affairs of the allied intelligence community could speak in such terms: contemporary witnesses did not always regard allied secret war operations with the reverence conferred on them by a 21st century generation.
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WNU Editor: The conflict ended 70 years ago .... and it is only now that we are learning some details. I can only imagine what has happened since, and the Edward Snowden leaks have given us an insight.
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