Landing Intent Map January 1943

[Carl Schwamberger]

Can anyone recognize this map & point to its original source? I'm able to read most of it it, but am curious about its context/origin and how widely assessed it was. The date is about the time the German leaders realized the actual situation they were in on the Volga and in Tunisia.

Brief of Landing Intent Januar 1943 copy.jpg

[GregSingh]

Isn't original source listed just under the title?

[Carl Schwamberger]

I'm unsure if that is it. Not able to interpret the German organizational acronyms with any fluency.

[GregSingh]

It's from annex to OKW document from Wehrmachtführungsstab (WFSt).

[Richard Anderson]

Wehrmacht Führungsstabe/Verbindungs Offizier, Amtsgruppe Ausland/Ic.

The report was from the Liaison Officer of the Abwehr Foreign Intelligence Working Group to the Wehrmacht Command Staff. The guys that were pretty well spoofed by FORTITUDE.

[Carl Schwamberger]

I did not realize Op FORTITUDE went back to January 1943. Holt names a lot of operations then, guess I missed it among the crowd.

[Carl Schwamberger]

If I'm reading the labels correctly the map illustrated the Alled message traffic mentioning general and specific areas around the edge of the continent. Its not clear what span of time these massages were collected. Just the obvious of pre January 1943. Possibly many were part of the cover for Op TORCH back in September & October, or perhaps November & December. I recall a set of messages sent via the XX system identifying the Eastern TF of TORCH as a incpient invasion of the Bereton peninsula.

A portion may have been legit traffic intercepted. The Allies were running miscl ops in those areas marked, and the Germans were not entirely incompetent in this.

[Richard Anderson]

I did not realize Op FORTITUDE went back to January 1943. Holt names a lot of operations then, guess I missed it among the crowd.

It didn't, it went to December 1943. I meant the were the same intelligence people later fooled by FORTITUDE. This map demonstrates how easy it was to reinforce their assumptions when they were relying on mentions of place names in R/I to divine Allied landing intent. Say TRICYCLE or GARBO gives them details on FORTITUDE NORTH plans, then they check and, lo and behold, it matches earlier intercepts, so it must be true!