It was in this context that an almost miraculous chance of helping Alan's work on naval Enigma was thrown away.
在这样的情况下,一个几乎是奇迹般的,能帮助艾伦解决海军谜机的机会被错过了。
On 26 April the Navy captured the German patrol boat VP2623, while she was on passage from Germany to Narvik, and took from her a few papers…
4月26日,德国巡逻艇VP2623,在从德国到纳威克的途中,被英国海军俘获了,并从中得到了一些文件……
More might have been achieved if VP2623 had not been looted by her captors before she could be carefully searched;
如果在大肆洗劫VP2623之前能够仔细检查它一下的话,还会得到更多的信息。
and the Admiralty at once issued instructions designed to prevent such disastrous carelessness in the future.
海军立即发布命令,禁止再发生这种毁灭性的粗心大意的行为。
As it was, except that they provided some information on the extent of the damage sustained by the German main units during the Norwegian campaign, the decrypts were of no operational use.
因为那些解码信息几乎都被破坏了,只剩下一些关于德国在挪威战役中的损伤程度的信息。
The capture of cipher hardware was to be expected and allowed for; the taking of flimsy, water-soluble pages of current instructions for the use of the machine was a very different matter.
缴获密码设备是在意料之中而且被允许的,但是那些记载着当前指令的、脆弱的、易溶于水的文件注,则完全是另一回事。
While the parliamentary upheaval meant that Winston Churchill now ceased to be responsible for this and other muddles,
然而,内阁的剧变意味着,温斯顿·丘吉尔现在要收拾这个乱七八糟的局面了。
and instead took on the far greater muddle which was called the war effort, the 'instructions designed to prevent such disastrous carelessness in the future' were symbolic of an equally significant change.
这是为了防止更大的混乱采取的行动,被称为战争努力,“禁止再发生这种毁灭性的粗心大意的行为",这是一个重要变革的象征。