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Royal Navy boards U-110 and seizes a German Enigma machine with its codebooks

British warships forced the submarine to the surface in the Atlantic; what is inside may open Nazi naval communications to Allied codebreakers.

On May 9, 1941, British warships forced German submarine U-110 to the surface and seized the most closely guarded secret of the Nazi war machine—an Enigma cipher device and its codebooks. This capture gave Allied codebreakers at Bletchley Park the keys they desperately needed to crack German naval communications. The intelligence bonanza that followed, codenamed Ultra, shortened the war by years and saved countless lives, yet remained one of the most closely held secrets until the 1970s…

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More from May 9
2020

Unemployment hits 14.7 percent; 20 million jobs vanish in seven weeks

The April rate is the highest since the Great Depression, as pandemic shutdowns bring entire industries to a halt.
2022

Biden signs Lend-Lease revival on Soviet Victory Day; weapons pipeline to Ukraine widens

The law cuts red tape on arms shipments to Kyiv, reviving the same World War II program that once armed Britain and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany.
1955

West Germany joins NATO; a former enemy is now the alliance's eastern front against Moscow

Bonn gains full sovereignty and enters the Atlantic pact today, putting Western troops and nuclear guarantees on the Soviet Union's doorstep.
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With Lee already gone, the general rides into Gainesville, Alabama, and lays down his arms rather than fight on for a cause with no government left to serve.
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More from The World Wars
1945

Four generals form a council to rule Germany; the German Army ceases to exist

Zhukov, Eisenhower, Montgomery and de Lattre de Tassigny sign in as Berlin's new governing body and outlaw the old uniform on the same day.
1945

MacArthur steps onto the tarmac at Atsugi, alone but for a corncob pipe

The newly named Supreme Commander arrives on an airfield American troops had held for only two days.
1945

Aboard the Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan signs its surrender; the war is over

Foreign Minister Shigemitsu puts his name to the document at dawn; the Japanese delegation is gone within the hour.
1941

A German submarine fires on an American destroyer; the Greer answers with depth charges

The United States is still officially neutral, but off Iceland its warships are now trading fire with Germany's navy.
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