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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Ultra -vs- Magic
Message-ID: <1990Oct4.012126.10901@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Oct 90 01:21:26 GMT
References: <1990Oct2.234803.22706@cbnews.att.com>
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <1990Oct2.234803.22706@cbnews.att.com>, Jacob Ben-david Zimmerman writes: 
*The difference between 'magic' and 'ultra' information in WWI is as
*follows:  'Magic' was the information resulting from the cracking of the
*Japanese Purple code and various other codes, the most important during
*the war being JN-25.  In essence, the decoded messages themselves were
*'magic' information, and were tightly guarded.

the above is essentially correct.

*  'Ultra' messages were
*instructions to units that were based on Magic information.

this is a confusing point; Ultra was used with two different
meanings by the allies.  the more commonly used meaning today
is to refer to data gathered by the british from intecepted
and decrypted messages generated by the German Enigma machine;
the methodolgy used was based on discoveries by a number
of Polish mathematicians and operatives before the war, and
transfered to the British just in time.

the US used ultra to indicate message of great importance
in the Pacific, based on Magic decrypts (and sometimes on
British Ultra data) as Jacob mentions.

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
welty@lewis.crd.ge.com                 ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            
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