TheCodeBreakers
at Lauf snatched it from the ether at about 8 a.m. June 12. By 9 a
cryptanalyst was
working on it to strip the superencipherment; by 10 it had been
decrypted; by 11:30 Rommel had it in plenty of time to warn his airfields.
On the night of the 13th, as expected, commandos dropped from the sky
and strike forces roared in from the east.
The waiting German and Italian forces massacred them. The carefully
planned operation failed almost completely. At the three North African
airports of Matruba, El Fetejak, and Barce, not a plane was touched; at
the K2 and K3 airfields, the British succeeded only in slightly damaging
eight craft, all of them repairable in a few days. At three other airfields
(Benina in North Africa and Heraklion and Castelli in Crete), where the
warnings were either not received or ignored, the British destroyed a total
of 18 planes and burned two hangars.
Next day, airplanes that had been saved from destruction by the
annaabi.ee 
