Every morning in early 1942, over breakfast, the notorious German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was briefed on classified information. The report detailed British military positions, supply routes, convoy schedules, and operational plans throughout North Africa, and was so accurate that Rommel referred to it as a “source of information.”
His sources were not spies within the British military. It was an American incorporated into an Englishman.
Colonel Bonner Ferrers, the U.S. military attaché in Cairo, had no idea that detailed reports to Washington were informing the Desert Fox. Italian intelligence intercepted the codes Mr. Ferrer used to communicate the dispatch, and for six crucial months any assessment he sent was a stumbling block for Allied forces.
Italian intelligence infiltrates American embassy
In September 1941, three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Italian spies carried out one of the most successful intelligence operations of World War II. Loris Gherardi, an employee of the American embassy in Rome, stole a set of keys and gave them to Italy’s Servizio Inforzioni Militare, Italy’s wartime intelligence agency.
General Cesare Ame, head of Italian military intelligence, later recalled that the operation was not difficult: “All I had to do was reach through the wall of my office for the keys to the American embassy.”
Italian agents entered the embassy under cover of darkness, photographed every page of the Black Code, a system of encryption used by American diplomats and military attachés around the world, and returned the codebook within two hours. The Americans had no idea what had happened.
Americans living in Cairo and their information leaked
When Ferrars arrived in Egypt in October 1940, British commanders sensed an opportunity. Desperate for American support, they provided West Point graduates with unparalleled access to information about Mediterranean operations, including detailed accounts of troop movements, supply convoys, and battle plans. The plan was to prove the success of British efforts in the region to encourage Americans to join the war.
But when Mr. Ferrers pointed out that the Negro Code system was outdated and raised concerns about its safety, his superiors ignored his objections. He sent everything he learned from the British to Washington, where President Franklin Roosevelt, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of Intelligence, and others read his review.
So was Axis.
Within eight hours of the first transmission, Italian cryptographers decoded Ferraz’s report. They passed the information on to the Italian military commander in Rome, who then transmitted the data to Rommel’s army and Axis forces in North Africa. From December 1941 to June 1942, Rommel received detailed intelligence reports on British military strength, positions, losses, reinforcements, supply status, and plans.
The Germans nicknamed Ferrers “Little Ferrers”, a play on his name. Rommel simply called him a good source of information.
Axis success and blood price
Information leaks helped Rommel secure some of his greatest victories.
In January 1942, Ferrers reported that 270 aircraft and antiaircraft guns were being withdrawn from North Africa to reinforce British forces in the Far East. Armed with this knowledge, Rommel launched a counterattack, retaking Benghazi and pushing the British back into Ghazala.
The leaked information proved most devastating during Operation Julius in June 1942. At this time, the British attempted to resupply Malta using two convoys at the same time. Information regarding both operations had been unwittingly revealed to the Axis through Ferrers’ reports.
On June 11, Ferrers sent Report No. 11119 detailing the entire operation: the convoy’s route, escort strength, timing, and planned special forces raids on Axis airfields to support the convoy. Berlin and Rome moved to counter every element of the British plan.
Special forces and paratroopers were exposed to heavy artillery fire as the defenders of the Axis airfields were put on alert. No Axis aircraft were destroyed.
Operation Vigoras set out from Alexandria with 11 merchant ships. After four days of attacks by aircraft, torpedo boats, and submarines, the Italian fleet approached and the convoy turned back. One cruiser, three destroyers, and two merchant ships were lost.
Operation Harpoon was only marginally successful. Of the six merchant ships that left Gibraltar, only two reached Malta after Italian cruisers and aircraft decimated the convoy. The destroyer Bedouin and three merchants were sunk. Although small shipments of oil and supplies ensured Malta’s survival, the cost in lives and supplies was staggering.
While the convoy was being raided, Rommel launched the attack on Gazala on May 26, which was considered the greatest victory of his career. By June 21, Tobruk had fallen and 32,000 British Commonwealth troops were captured. This was Britain’s largest surrender after Singapore.
Seeing the British army reeling from these setbacks, Rommel sent troops deep into the Egyptian desert.
Information leaks are prevented
British intelligence had detected suspicious Axis signals as early as January 1942, including one citing “Egyptian sources.” Every time an air patrol plane departed an airfield or a convoy sailed into the Mediterranean, Axis planes and ships seemed to appear. Britain quickly assumed that Egyptian sources had access to highly sensitive information that ordinary spies could not decipher. In June 1942, Britain notified Washington that its secret codes had been compromised.
On June 29, Ferrers switched to a new code system, ending the leak. The intelligence advantage during the North African campaign changed when the British code-breaking unit at Bletchley Park exposed Axis communications while blocking Rommel’s intelligence sources. Almost overnight, Rommel lost his greatest advantage over the British army while being unable to submit secure intelligence reports.
Ferraz was quietly expelled from the region after the scandal, but was promoted to brigadier general and even awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his reporting in Egypt.
Lacking good intelligence sources, Rommel’s advance stalled at El Alamein. By November, the Afrika Korps was in complete retreat as Allied forces closed in on both sides of North Africa.
Worst information leak during World War II
Mr. Ferrer was never officially held responsible for the disaster. Roosevelt even invited him to the White House when he returned to Washington in July 1942.
“Consistent with previous reports up to 1942, Ferrers advocated strong and rapid reinforcement of British forces in the Middle East” and influenced Roosevelt’s decision to support Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.
While historians debate the influence of his reporting on the campaign, they also note a peculiar irony. The idea is that Ferrers’ overly pessimistic assessment of British capabilities may have ultimately helped the Allies. Many of his reports accused the British of being poorly supplied and powerless, and Rommel was convinced to overextend his supply lines as he headed towards Alexandria, an action that led to his defeat due to the silence of influential sources.
His anti-British coverage and Rommel’s surprising success during that period also influenced the American decision to supply the British army with new Sherman tanks and supplies before the victory at El Alamein. Roosevelt and his commanders were also encouraged to focus on defeating the Axis powers in Europe first, rather than Japan.
Ferrers served in the Office of Strategic Affairs and then in the Pacific under General Douglas MacArthur. After the war, he played a controversial role in protecting Emperor Showa from war crimes prosecution.
The Black Codes disaster remains one of the most significant intelligence failures of World War II, a reminder that accurate intelligence reports mean nothing if the enemy is reading them. Today, Russian and Ukrainian militaries are still learning this lesson the hard way, as information is shared through social media, cell phones, and new technologies, giving enemy forces new ways to access information.
