By exploiting captured Enigma materials, the British successfully updated and improved the Bombe process. With some gaps, the British read a sufficient number of Enigma messages to maintain a relatively consistent fix on every U-boat in 1940 and 1941. However, British cryptanalysts were unable to solve the M4 Enigma and adapt to the TRITON network without assistance from their American counterparts during the "blackout" of 1942. Building upon British information on Bombe technology, U.S. Navy Reserve Commander Howard Engstrom assembled a team of researchers and engineers to develop a "high speed" Bombe that would be capable of processing M4 Enigma cryptograms at a faster rate. Unlike his British counterparts, Engstrom controlled a large research and development budget. Working with contractors like Bell Telephone Laboratories, General Electric, and the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio, Engstrom and his team unveiled the first production models of the "high-speed" American Bombe in the summer of 1943. While improvements were still necessary, the American Bombe was less cumbersome and more efficient than British models. Most importantly, private contractors like the National Cash Register Company were prepared to mass-produce the American Bombe at a rate beyond the wartime production capabilities of the British.
With superior financial and industrial assets, U.S. Navy codebreakers working for OP-20-G largely surpassed the capabilities of the British at GC&CS in gathering and exploiting intelligence on U-boat activity. With the American high speed Bombe, OP-20-G largely supplanted GC&CS in solving the M4 Enigma and collecting other forms of U-boat intelligence after 1943. Nevertheless, the British and American intelligence services maintained a unique working relationship due to the cooperative spirit established by Travis and Wenger in their 1942 arrangements. Arguably, their arrangements were the foundation that ensured the complete Allied victory over the Axis powers by 1945.
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