TheCodeBreakers
mathematicians to break first into this original system and, in 1940, into
a modification of it._ Ironically, changes of superencipherment within a
message, intended to provide greater security, furnished the German
cryptanalysts with isomorphic repetitions that helped them reconstitute
the superencipherment substitution. With the superencipherment
stripped off, the linguistic group solved a big 72,000-group code with not
too much trouble. Dr. Hans-Kurt Miiller was instrumental in this; he had
an uncanny gift for seeing the outlines of the whole plaintext in the murk
of the partial solutions. Miss Friedrichs assisted.
They were greatly helped in their work by their knowledge of the
activities of diplomat Robert Murphy, who in 1941 and 1942 was in
North Africa, handling delicate negotiations with the Vichy French and
paving the way for the Allied invasion of North Africa. Murphy insisted