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Over the years I have wondered why, on August 31, 1944, the
direction of our advance was changed from the Laon area - Charleville
& Sedan - to make a right-angle change and head toward Mons.
Of course, orders from VII Corps were enough, but why did they
give the order?
I think I have found the answer on Page 905, Vol. II of "Bodyguard
of Lies," by Anthony Cave Brown, published by Harper &
Row in 1975. First off, the British had copied the German code
machine known as Enigma and had for years been decoding their
messages.
Secondly, General Troy Middleton's VIII Corps had surrounded
the Germans at Brest about this time and the Germans attempted
to parachute the latest code into the town, but it landed on
the American side and taken to a Lt. Finkelstein of Middleton's
G-2 staff and by him rushed up the line of command and to the
decoding machine in England, revealing the route of the broken
German army retreating from the Falaise Gap area. And that is
why we made the sudden change in our advance and cut off the
troops in the Mons pocket.
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