page_title: German Radio Intelligence Operations during World War II
section_title: Defense of Western Europe 1944–1945
hierarchical_section_title: German Radio Intelligence Operations during World War II / Intercept operations during World War II / Defense of Western Europe 1944–1945
caption_attribution_description: English: Allied invasion plans and German positions in Normandy. Deutsch: Alliierte Invasionspläne und deutsche Positionen zur Invasion in der Normandie.
context_page_description: German Radio Intelligence Operation were signals intelligence operations that were undertaken by German Axis forces in Europe during World War II. In keeping with German signals practice since 1942, the term communication intelligence had been used when intercept units were assigned to observe both enemy radio and wire communication. When the observation of only enemy radio communication was undertaken, the term was radio intelligence. The term intercept service was also used up until 1942.
context_section_description: Following the spring of 1944, German communication intelligence in Italy noticed a shift in heavy enemy concentrations from the Mediterranean area to England. American and British elite divisions, which had previously been observed in southern Italy or elsewhere in the Mediterranean theatre, appeared in the British Isles. The following is an example of German intercept work during that period: An American airborne division (the 82nd?) had been reported for quite some time in southern Italy, when it suddenly disappeared. About three weeks later over a hitherto unidentified net in England there was transmitted a reference to the search for a soldier against whom a girl in the United States had instituted paternity proceedings. The shipment number of this soldier tallied with the code designation used by the missing airborne division. When communication intelligence reported this finding and suggested that the airborne division might have been transferred to England, the Armed Forces Operations Staff replied facetiously that the division had most likely been transported by submarine, but that no transports of this kind had been observed near Gibraltar. Nevertheless, the new radio net was put under special observation for any characteristics of this airborne division, and indisputable evidence of its presence in England was soon secured. It subsequently turned out to be one of the first invasion units to be reported.
caption: D-day assault routes into Normandy.
exif: {}