TheCodeBreakers
fall? The German high command, recognizing the incalculable military
value of surprise, shrouded its plans in the tightest secrecy. Artillery was
brought up in concealment; feints were flung out here and there along
the entire front to keep the Allies off balance; the ADFGVX cipher, which
had reportedly been chosen from among many candidates by a
conference of German cipher specialists, constituted an element in this
overall security, as did the new Schliis-selheft. The Allies bent every effort
and tapped every source of information to find out the time and place of
the real assault. But one of their most flowing founts—cryptanalysis —
appeared to have dried up.
When the first ADFGX messages got to Georges Painvin,
the best cryptanalyst in the Bureau du Chiffre, he stared at them, ran
a hand through his thick black hair with an air of perplexity, and then
set to work. The presence of only five letters immediately suggested a
annaabi.ee 
