Apart from radio interception and code-breaking, Hitler’s Intelligence Services had also captured large quantities of secret cipher material from the various British Embassies and Consulates in Scandinavia during April-May 1940. A complete Set of current Naval ciphers was seized from the submarine HMS Seal, captured off the German coast in 1940. There is still some mystery surrounding this incident, because nearly an hour passed between the submarine being forced to the surface and surrendering, yet no attempt was made to throw the ciphers overboard. On 11th September 1942 a motor torpedo boat was captured by the Germans which again carried valuable cipher material, similar secret Naval documents were found in Royal Naval vessels lost off Crete.

German Intelligence was also adept at exploiting specific coups, for example, in August 1941 an Italian employee at the US Embassy in Rome picked the lock of the safe used by the Military Attaché, Colonel Fiske and photographed his cipher (sometimes called the "Black Code"), which was then passed on to the Germans, for the next 15 months or so they were able to read all American military attaché traffic around the world.

As is usual, history is written by the winners. The myth of allied superiority in code breaking during the war is the only side we hear. There are 2 sides to the spy/code element of the war.