Operation Ticom

'TICOM' was the US project by the Target Intelligence Committee (TICOM) to locate and seize German intelligence assets, particularly those related to cryptography and signals intelligence (1944/45).

The project was the result of pressure largely by the US military cryptography organisations, and had support at the highest levels. Several teams were sent into the field immediately behind the fighting front resulting, for example, in the April 1945 discovery by a TICOM team of Soviet code and cipher material in a German cryptanalytic centre.

Captured German cryptographic personnel revealed that, at least to them, that the Enigma system had been clearly recognised as breakable, but such men had simply believed that no one would go to the immense trouble required for the only avenues of attack the Germans could see. TICOM was one of several efforts made by Allies to extract German scientific and technological information and personnel during and after the war. Others included 'Alsos' and 'Paperclip' to locate and seize nuclear and rocketry information respectively, and 'Surgeon' to locate an gather avionics information.