German code breaking in World War II German code breaking in World War II German code breaking in World War II achieved some notable successes cracking British Naval ciphers until well into the fourth year of the war, but also suffered from a problem typical of the German armed forces of the time: numerous branches and institutions maintained their own cryptographic departments, working on their own without collaboration or sharing results with equivalent units. This led to duplicated effort, to a fragmentation of potential, and to lower efficiency than might have been achieved. There was no central German cryptography agency comparable to the British Bletchley Park facility.
United States Coast Guard Unit 387 Cryptanalysis Unit the neutrality laws. Throughout WWII, the unit used HFDF technology to intercept approximately 10,000 enemy communications from 65 German clandestine networks and played a key role in cracking the “Enigma G” Code of the Green Enigma, the Red Enigma, the Berlin-Madrid Machine, and the Hamburg-Bordeaux Stecker codes. Their HFDF stations expanded to cover the United States with 20 primary stations, nine secondary stations, six contributory stations, and five Coast Guard radio stations. The USCG also had Cutters, trucks, briefcases, and handbags with HFDF technology inside to track “wildcat” stations across the US. The FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed that