TheCodeBreakers
Marcel Givierge, and Soudart's assistant, Marcel Guitard: "By virtue of
my job I am the best informed man in France, and at this moment I no
longer know where the Germans are. If We're captured in an hour, it
wouldn't surprise me." Within a week the Germans had punched a hole
38 miles deep in the Allied lines, and it was not until the British and
French
troops fell back to Amiens that they collected themselves and halted
the advance.
The furious advance was reflected in a dramatic upsurge in radio
traffic. The first result was disappointment. Pain-vin's frequency counts
showed that the checkerboard key did change daily; presumably the
transposition key did also. Solution would therefore require a goodly
quantity of text from a single day, but until April 1 the interceptions were
too meager. On that day, the French picked up 18 ADFGX messages
totaling 512 five-letter groups. Two had been sent in three parts, and
annaabi.ee 
