How did they get over the catch-22 that if they used the information that Nazis could guess it came from breaking the code but if they didn’t use the information there was no point in having it.
EDIT. I tagged this as mathematics because the movie suggests the use of mathematics, but does not explain how you use mathematics to do it (it’s a movie!). I am wondering for example if they made a slight tweak to random search patterns so that they still looked random but “coincidentally” found what we already knew was there. It would be extremely hard to detect the difference between a genuinely random pattern and then almost genuinely random pattern.
In: Mathematics
For some uses in meshed with multiple other sources (eg u-boats were reported by agents, sighting by aircraft and ships, HF/DF), so it was one element among many and not the most obvious. In other uses the information was more of strategic value than tactical, so informed senior leadership decisions in ways that were not obvious to the Germans.
They took care to ensure tactical information was not compromised. As an example – Enigma intercepts told when Italian convoys to Africa would depart and what route. So reconnaissance planes would be tasked to fly over the area (as well as other areas of course). Convoy reports being spotted, RAF and RN show up and wreak havoc, hit explained. In one case when no planes were available they decided to hit the convoy anyway, then transmitted a signal to Agent 99 in Naples – “Congrats on accurate convoy info. 2,000 Fr in Swiss account”, knowing that this cipher had been broken by the Germans. Hit explained and as a bonus Germans disrupt Naples docks for weeks trying to find Agent 99.
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