America wasn’t officially at war, so the US and UK weren’t technically allies. It was a momentous decision, one that needed to be signed off by Churchill himself. Weeks into the mission - with Denniston still lobbying to keep the Bombe machine secret from his American guests - Denniston’s superiors decided otherwise. Sinkov later recalled that they were driven from their accommodation to Bletchley Park in separate cars and - despite having lunch and supper together - rarely mixed during the day or discussed what they did.īletchley Park was the UK communications nerve center during World War II Full disclosure A German bombing campaign on US targets was likely to follow.įor the most part, the US army and navy teams kept to themselves. If they were discovered, it would give Hitler proof that America was fighting a secret war against the Reich. If the Americans were successful, the US would help defeat the Nazis. The men were the first foreigners to visit Bletchley Park - even UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill didn’t visit until October 1941 - and the stakes were high. Weeks (later Rear Admiral Weeks) had served on submarines and held Navy communications security posts in Washington. The Navy sent Lieutenant Prescott Currier, a commissioned officer and former member of the ‘ On the Roof Gang’ of radio operators trained in collection techniques involving the Japanese Navy. The US Navy and Army codebreakers roll up their sleeves at Bletchley The plan on both sides was to share intelligence and spy on each other for the next month or so. The Americans didn’t trust the Brits either. Denniston, their welcoming host, fully intended to withhold secrets, including the success Britain was having breaking German ciphers with Alan Turing’s ‘Bombe’ machine. They were disguised as ‘Canadian diplomats’ with passports to match their legends - a cover Sinkov worried no one would believe.īoth the US and UK were circumspect. The US team was sent to exchange cryptanalytic information with Britain that might help break the German enigma code protecting Nazi military communications. It was 10 months before Pearl Harbor - long before America officially entered World War II. At Bletchley Park, the sound of German bombs would become a familiar backdrop to the mission. On the last leg of the journey, German pilots tried to bomb their ship, but the Luftwaffe narrowly missed - twice. They saw the tops of British merchant vessels sunk by the Germans in the North Sea. The four-man team had boarded the British battleship HMS King George V off the coast of Annapolis, Maryland in January 1941 for a stormy, two-week voyage. The US spies arrived at Bletchley Park under the cover of darkness, February 1941 The Bletchley Park Sinkov MissionĪbraham Sinkov, a math teacher from Brooklyn and later an Army cryptanalyst, led the US mission.
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