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[IP] lack of WW II cryptanalytic co-operation between the US and UK?



from the article djf

But amid the mass of technical data, his conclusion on American efforts was clear - they were not up to the task.

Dr Turing said: "Generally speaking, their attitude is so purely mechanical and mathematical that they often fail to see the wood for the trees and do not like to admit that experience and a knowledge of immediately prior developments, combined with a little manual work, may often produce the answer more quickly than machinery.

"I am persuaded that one cannot very well trust these people where a matter of judgement in cryptography is concerned."

He asked to bring all the new American technology back to the UK, believing his team could make much better use of the machines. His proposal was supported and his team eventually built Colossus, one of the world's first programmable machines.


Begin forwarded message:

From: Steve Bellovin <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 20, 2004 10:54:49 AM EDT
To: cryptography@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: lack of WW II cryptanalytic co-operation between the US and UK?

Some recently declassified British documents show that the British
and the Americans did not co-operate as closely on cryptanalytic
matters as is generally thought.  See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3758276.stm for details.

I'd really like to see the full text of Turing's report; does anyone
know if it's online?

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