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<title> war and social upheaval: World War II -- traditional military intelligence </title>

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT=" Military intelligence is surely as old as warfare itself. The objective of military intelligence is to assess opportunities and risks associated with friendly and enemy operations. It is also used to reduce reduce uncertainty associatted with terrain and weather conditions. The basic tasks are to: 1) acquire informtion, 2) analize that data, and 3) securely deliver actionable information to the appropriate commanders. Traditionally the principal sources of information have been human sources. This includes interviewing captured enenmy combatants and civilians. There are also academic sources, such as published texts with maps offering terraine information or in naval warfare, iceanographic charts. Until the 20th century, the calvalry was an important source of information on both terraine and enenmy movements. Modern weapons greatly reduced the role of calvalry in Wotld War I and it played a minor role in Workd War II in the area of intelligence. Another source of information is spying, but this is often carried out by organizations other than the military itself, although this varied from country to country. Intelligence outside the military structure was often at first not trusted by the military, but this chnged over time when Allied Ultra proved to be so accurate. Technological advanced created two new areas of intelligence acquisition: 1) photo reconisance and 2) signals intelligence. Both first appeared in World War I, but were perfected during World War II, especially signals intelligence.  With photos and text. ">

<META NAME="KeyWords" CONTENT="World war II, Second World war, intelligence, code breaking, codes, encryption,  history, historical, fashion, ">

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<center><h1>World War II:  Traditional Military Intelligence</h1></center>

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<p> Military intelligence is surely as old as warfare itself. The objective of military intelligence is to assess opportunities and risks associated with friendly and enemy operations. It is also used to reduce reduce uncertainty associatted with terrain and weather conditions. The basic tasks are to: 1) acquire informtion, 2) analize that data, and 3) securely deliver actionable information to the appropriate commanders. Traditionally the principal sources of information have been human sources. This includes interviewing captured enenmy combatants and civilians. There are also academic sources, such as published texts with maps offering terraine information or in naval warfare, oceanographic charts. Until the 20th century, the calvalry was an important source of information on both terraine and enenmy movements. Modern weapons greatly reduced the role of calvalry in World War I and it played a minor role in Workd War II in the area of intelligence. Another source of information is spying, but this is often carried out by organizations other than the military itself, although this varied from country to country. Intelligence outside the military structure was often at first not trusted by the military, but this chnged over time when Allied Ultra proved to be so accurate. Technological advanced created two new areas of intelligence acquisition: 1) photo reconisance and 2) signals intelligence. Both first appeared in World War I, but were perfected during World War II, especially signals intelligence. 
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<h2><a href="cou/w2tmic-us.html">America</a></h2>
<p> America at the onset of World War II had a military intelligence capability, as with other areas, that was illprepared to conduct a global war.  The United States had two military services each with cabinet status, the Army and the Navy.  The Air Force was part of the Army rather than an independent service, although because of its expansion during the War gradually achieved a large degree of organizational autonmy.  The U.S. Arny at the onset of World War II was the smallest army of any of the major beligerants and was smaller than that of several of the minor beligerants.  The U.S. Navy was one of the major naval forces, but woefully insufficent to wage a two-ocean war.  Because of budgetary restructions and arms control agreements, Japan with a relatively small industrial base was able to build a naval force capable of challenging the U.S. Navy.  Both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy had intelligence units and capabilities.  And organizationally there were centralized units in the Pentagon as well as field units.  
Both had programs working on Japanese codes.  There was, however, liittle cooperation between these intelligence units.  The United States did not have a civilian intelligence agency.  President Roosevelt created the first peacetime, civilian intelligence agency--the Office of the Coordinator of Information (1941).  This ws was a very small office created to organize the intelligence activities of several agencies.  After Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the War, major changes occurred (December 1941).  Pearl Harbor was the most costly intelligence failure in American history.  Several major changes in military intelligence followed.  General Marshal undertook a major reorganization of Army intelligence, largely intended to strengthen the Army's central intelligence structure.  And President Roosevelt decided that a larger and more diversified civilian intelligence agency was needed--the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (1942).
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<h2>Britain</h2>
<p> Britain's World War II military intelligence system was essentially based on a system set up just before World War I and futher developed during the War.  Britain's modern military intelligence system was founded as the Secret Service Bureau (SSB), the forerunner of today's Secret Inteligence Service (SIS) (1909).  The SSB (also called the Bureau) was a joint initiative of the Admiralty and the War Office to coordinate the collection, analasis, and distribution of intelligence within Britain and overseas.  The initial focus was on Imperial Germany, the principl military threat at the time.  The SSB was split into naval and army sections which.  Gradually these two divisions shifted to a geographic division of labor, foreign espionage and domestic counter-espionage operations.  The primary interest of foreign espionage was the strength and capability of the growing Imperial German Highsea Fleet.  This was SSB's formal orgnization when World War I broke out (1914).  The intelligence needs of the militry varied as the War developed and a large British army was deployed in France.  Thus naval intelligence becanme only one part of what was needed.  The domestic unit became Military Intelligence Section 5 (MI5).  The foreign section became Militay  Intelligence Section 6 (MI6).  These terms are still used today in popular culture today.

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Its first director was Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who often dropped the Smith in routine communication. He typically signed correspondence with his initial C in green ink. This usage evolved as a code name, and has been adhered to by all subsequent directors of SIS when signing documents to retain anonymity. [1] [7]

The service's performance during First World War was mixed, because it was unable to establish a network in Germany itself. The majority of its results came from military and commercial intelligence collected through networks in neutral countries, occupied territories, and Russia. [8]
1. 3. Inter-War period

After the war, resources were significantly reduced. Circulating Sections were introduced to give greater control on its objectives to its consumer departments, mainly the War Office and Admiralty.[citation needed] The Circulating Sections established intelligence requirements for the operational Group sections to fulfill and passed the intelligence back to the consumers. This relationship was termed the 1921 arrangement and still provides the basis for the internal structure of the agency.[citation needed]

During the 1920s, SIS established a close operational relationship with the diplomatic service. It established the post of Passport Control Officer within embassies, based on a system developed during World War I by British Army Intelligence. [9] This provided operatives with a degree of cover and diplomatic immunity but had become compromised by the 1930s Venlo Incident.

The debate over the future structure of British Intelligence continued at length after the end of hostilities but Cumming managed to engineer the return of the Service to Foreign Office control. At this time, the organisation was known in Whitehall by a variety of titles including the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Secret Service, MI1(c), the Special Intelligence Service and even C's organisation. Around 1920, it began increasingly to be referred to as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a title that it has continued to use to the present day and which was enshrined in statute in the Intelligence Services Act 1994. [1]

In the immediate post-war years under Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming and throughout most of the 1920s, the SIS was focused on Communism, in particular, Russian Bolshevism. Examples include a thwarted operation to overthrow the Bolshevik government [10] in 1918 by SIS agents Sidney George Reilly [11] and Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, [12] as well as more orthodox espionage efforts within early Soviet Russia headed by Captain George Hill.

Smith-Cumming died suddenly at his home on 14 June 1923, shortly before he was due to retire, and was replaced as C by Admiral Sir Hugh "Quex" Sinclair. While lacking the charisma of his predecessor, Sinclair had a clear vision for the future of the agency,[citation needed] which developed a range of new activities under his leadership,[citation needed] including creation of the following sections:

    A central foreign counter-espionage Circulating Section, Section V, to liaise with the Security Service to collate counter-espionage reports from overseas stations.
    An economic intelligence section, Section VII, to deal with trade, industrial and contraband.
    A clandestine radio communications organisation, Section VIII, to communicate with operatives and agents overseas.
    Section N to exploit the contents of foreign diplomatic bags
    Section D to conduct political covert actions and paramilitary operations in time of war. Section D would come to be the foundation of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. [9]

With the emergence of Germany as a threat following the ascendence of the Nazis, in the early 1930s attention was shifted in that direction. [9] Whilst the service acquired several reliable sources within the Government and the German Admiralty, its information was less comprehensive than that provided by the diplomatic network of Robert Vansittart, the Permanent Undersecretary at the Foreign Office.[citation needed]

Sinclair died in 1939, after an illness, and was replaced as C by Lt Col. Stewart Menzies (Horse Guards), who had been with the service since the end of World War I.
1. 4. Second World War

During the Second World War the human intelligence work of the service was overshadowed by several other initiatives:

    The cryptanalytic effort undertaken by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), the bureau responsible for interception and decryption of foreign communications at Bletchley Park.
    The extensive "double-cross" system run by MI5 to feed misleading intelligence to the Germans
    Imagery intelligence activities conducted by the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (now JARIC, The National Imagery Exploitation Centre).

GC&CS was the source of Ultra intelligence, which was very useful.

The most significant failure of the service during the war was known as the Venlo incident, named for the Dutch town where much of the operation took place. Agents of the German army secret service, the Abwehr, posed as high-ranking officers involved in a plot to depose Hitler. In a series of meetings between SIS agents and the 'conspirators', SS plans to abduct the SIS team were shelved due to the presence of Dutch police. When a meeting took place without police presence, two SIS agents were duly abducted by the SS.

In 1940, journalist and Soviet agent Kim Philby applied for a vacancy in Section D of SIS, and was vetted by his friend and fellow Soviet agent Guy Burgess. When Section D was absorbed by Special Operations Executive (SOE) in summer of 1940, Philby was appointed as an instructor in the arts of "black propaganda" at the SOE's training establishment in Beaulieu, Hampshire.

SOE operations were overtly offensive in the occupied countries, which clashed with the more discreet approach of SIS, leading to a significant level of friction and increased risk to SIS operatives. The increased security in the occupied territories as a result of SOE activity, significantly reduced freedom of movement for SIS operatives and so curtailed operations.

In early 1944 MI6 re-established Section IX, its prewar anti-Soviet section, and Kim Philby took a position there. He was able to alert the NKVD about all British intelligence on the Soviets—including what the American OSS had shared with the British about the Soviets.

Despite these difficulties the service nevertheless conducted substantial and successful operations in both occupied Europe and in the Middle East and Far East where it operated under the cover name Interservice Liaison Department (ISLD).


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<h2>France</h2>
<p> French intelligence during World War II is a very complicated story.  The French Army and Navy had intelligence units, but we know little about them.  The French Army was largekly ibnterned in the Reich as aesult of the German invasion and vicgtory (Junre 1940).  The French Navy survived largeky intact, but we know little about its intelligence operation.  The Deuxième Bureau (Second Bureau) of the General Staff) was established as the French external military intelligence by the Third Republic (1871).  It was dissolved along with the Third Republic itself as a result of the armistice with Germany (June 1940).  The Resistance which organized in occupied France was not capable of significant military oposition to the Germans.  And the brutality of the Germans meant that any attacks on the Germans would result in horendous reprisals.  The majopr importance of the Resistance becme collecting intelligence.  And the primary target was information needed by Allied planners preparing the cross-Channel invasion.  Information on the Atlantic Wall, German deployments, and the V-wepon instalations were of critical importance.  Vichy also had an intelligence operation, but this focused more on domestic security than military intelligence.  
<br>
<h2>Germany</h2>
<p> German military inteligence was composed of a centralized intelligence agency controlled by the Wehrmach High Commabnd (OKW)--the Abwehr.  Each of the service commnds had their own inteligence units:  the Heer (OKH), the Krriegsmarine (OKM), and the Luftwaffe (OKL).  The naval intelligence unit was B Dienst and proved to be the most successful of the German intelligence units.  Captured allied and neutral flagged merchant ships yielded a wealth of information.  B Dienst also achieved some success with code breaking.  The Germans had inteligence operations in many different countries.  The most important was the Soviet Union.  The best know Heer inteligence officer was Major General Reinhard Gehlen (1902–79) served as chief of intelligence-gathering on the Eastern Front.  He accumulated a vast amount of infoormtion, but failed to predict Red Army offensives.  Spy operations in America and Britain were noable failures.  Even after the defeat of France, the Germans mounted a spy operation in Vichy.  

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In addition to military agencies, the SS also participated in military intelligence through the e Sicherheitsdienst (SD) commabnded by Reinhard Heydrich.  Heydrich protoge Walter Schellenberg took command of the SD after Heydrich assasintiion (1942).  Late in the war with the arrest of Abwer chief Admiral Canaris, the Abwehr was dismanteled and Schellenberg and the SD took over German intelligence operations.  The service units, however, retained their untelligence units.  German military intelligence during World War II had some notable sucesses, but generally failed, especially at critical points of the War.  Historians have addressed the topic of why German intelligence agencies performed less sucessfully than those of the Allies.  The principal reason identified is that the authority structure of the Führer state inhibited analytical phase of the intelligence process.  Hitler considered his judgement superior to that of subordinates and would commonly dismiss information that did not support his opinions or the pursuit of objectives he wanted to pursue.  The German assumption of supperority is also identified as a factor as was the fact that Abwehr Chief Admiral Canaris was an anti-NAZI.  
<br>
<h2>Italy</h2>
<p> Italian military intelligence proved more effective than the Italian Army in World War II.  It was produced some valuable information that was not generally used or was misinterpreted by senior commanders.  The espionage and counterespionage operations that the Fascists had used so effectively during to achieve and maintain power proved less effective in dealing with foreign enemies. [Conti]
<br>
<h2>Japan</h2>
<p> The primary Japanese military intelligence units were organizations within the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Navy ((IJN).  There was littkle cooperation between the two units.  Such cooperation was not that important with the war fought in China, but became vital in the Pacific War.  There was no civilian intelligence agency.  The Kempeitai (憲兵隊) litterally translated as Corps of Law Soldiers was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army (1881-1945.  It was not strictly a military police like the American and British military, but more like a French-style gendarmerie with secret police functions.  The Kempeitai played a major role in the World War II occupation regimes.  It also had counter-espionage functions and in Japan itself had a major effort to deal severly with those expressing anti-War or deatist sentiments.  The Kempeitai was organizationally a unit of the IJA.  It also provided military police for the IJN under the direction of the Admiralty Minister.  The  IJN had its own much smaller Tokkeitai).  The Kempeitai provided the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister and the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister. 
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<h2><a href="/essay/war/ww2/cou/sov/int/gpw-int.html">Soviet Union</a></h2>
<p> The intelligence operations in the West have been reported on in some detail, especially the Ultra code breaking operation. We also have some information about the incredibly unsuccessful NAZI operations on the Eastern Front. This operation was conducted beginning in 1942 by Reinhard Galen who the the American employed after the War. Much less, however, is known about the very successful Soviet operations. This has been obscured by the surprise achieved by the NAZIs in the opening phase of Barbarossa. This was, however, not a failure of Soviet intelligemnce. Soviet agents as well as the Allies gave Stalin ample warning. He simply refused to believe that Hitler would attack him. Subsequently each of the major Soviet offenses (Moscoe 1941, Stalingrad 1942, and Bagration 1944) achieved almost total surprise with devestating results. Some have speculated that the success of the Soviet intelligence operation was such that there must have been a very high-placed traitor in the German high command or security services. Soviet sources have never identified this individual if he existed. Another unanswered question is the extent and success of Soviet code breaking operations. While Soviet intelligence operations on the Eastern Front are not well documented, a great deal is known about Soviet operations in the West. Here the Soviets during and after the War obtainedcritical information which proved of great assistance in building the atomic bomb as well as other military secrets. 
<br>
<h2>Sources</h2>
<p> Conti, Giuseppe. <i>Mussolini's Spies: Italian Military Espionage, 1940-1943</i>.



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