I am inclined to think that the problem was one which in the long run could be mastered by a great increase in the machines of the Hypo and Fillibuster type. We had only one Hypo and one Fillibuster - no more had ever been needed and there were more urgent machine requirements, given a dozen of each and a greatly increased testing staff the problem could have been solved. Our chief danger would have been in losing touch in the interim period before such machines were made in sufficient numbers.
The End.
25. There is little more to say; cribs became steadily worse but we managed to finish with a reasonable flourish through a number of re-encodements into all keys of manifestoes by the German government - as Shark had always been our most important key it was appropriate that one of the last and most remarkable cribs was provided by a repetition in the High Command Communique of Admiral Doenitz' final Order of the Day to his U-boats.
26. The graphs and figures in the appendices give a statistical estimate of our work; it is harder to give a real impression of what we felt about it. Even the people who had the dullest and hardest work (and a great deal of the routine work was very dull and still more of it extremely exhausting) felt that it was worth while to an extent that few jobs in peace time can be and they did not spare themselves in any way - through staff shortage they frequently had far more to cope with than they should ever have been asked to do; they always got it done somehow and I am sure that a number of the breakdowns in health that occurred were caused chiefly by overwork. As for these of us who did the skilled technical work, I think we all felt that it was impossible that we should ever again have a job which would give us in the same way a sense of the greatest importance and urgency combined with the fascination of a highly ingenious and complicated game - we all thought ourselves extremely fortunate to have had the chance to do it.
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