Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, 1941-1945

It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Ultra intelligence (the information derived from decrypting the radio traffic of the German armed force). For example, within four days of his arrival in the desert in August, 1942 Ultra told Montgomery that the new troop dispositions he had just made were ideally suited to counter Rommel's last attempt to reach the Nile; the way was cleared for Alamein and the turning of the tide of the war. Before the invasion of Sicily in July, 1943 an Allied feint sought to baffle the German defence by suggesting that Sardinia and Greece were the targets. Hitler was duped and within three days Ultra knew that he had been and could reassure Eisenhower that the Germans were not concentrating in Sicily but were preparing to defend the whole southern European coastline. After the assault on Italy in the following September, would Hitler waste men, tanks, petrol and guns stubbornly contesting the Italian peninsula, or would he economize resources by