Enigma message decode errors, and protocols to prevent them I was looking at some Enigma messages for some random reasons, and I wondered if there were ever issue pulling the correct words out the strings of characters of if there was a protocol for it.  For instance, here is a decoded message from here:

KRKRALLEXXFOLGENDESISTSOFORTBEKANNTZUGEBENXXICHHABEFOLGELNBEBEFEHLERH
ALTENXXJANSTERLEDESBISHERIGXNREICHSMARSCHALLSJGOERINGJSETZTDERFUEHRER
SIEYHVRRGRZSSADMIRALYALSSEINENNACHFOLGEREINXSCHRIFTLSCHEVOLLMACHTUNTE
RWEGSXABSOFORTSOLLENSIESAEMTLICHEMASSNAHMENVERFUEGENYDIESICHAUSDERGEG
ENWAERTIGENLAGEERGEBENXGEZXREICHSLEITEIKKTULPEKKJBORMANNJXXOBXDXMMMDU
RNHFKSTXKOMXADMXUUUBOOIEXKP


As one can easily see, the words are just chained together, and therefore, strange things can happen.  An example I came up with in English:

kidsexchange


Which could be "kids exchange" or "kid sex change".

Were any protocols in place to protect against a vague message in Enigma or any other plain text encryption system?
On page 5 of the document you linked in the comment it says the following in section 22:


  Satzzeichen
  
  Es werden ausgedrückt:
  
  Punkt durch x, Doppelpunkt durch xx, Fragezeichen durch ud, Komma durch y, Trennungsstrich, Bruchstrich, Bindestrich durch yy, Klammer durch kk. Satzzeichen sind im allgemeinen nicht entbehrlich, Schlusspunkt ist nicht einzusetzen. Da Satzzeichen im Interesse der Kürzung des Spruches gestrichen werden, ist im Wortlaut auf Unmissverständlichkeit sorgfältig zu prüfen.


(My) Translation to English:


  Punctuation
  
  To express are:
  
  Dot by x, colon by xx, question mark by ud, Comma by y, hyphen, line break, hyphen in words by yy, bracket by kk. Punctuation marks are generally not dispensable, the final dot is not to be used. The punctuation marks shall be deleted in the interest of shortening the sentence, the wording shall be carefully checked for unambiguity.


In section 28 there's also a short overview:


  \begin{array}{|c|c|}
\hline
j - j &amp; Highlighting \ signs \\ \hline
x &amp; Dot \\ \hline
y &amp; Comma \\ \hline
ud &amp; Question \ mark \\ \hline
xx &amp; Colon \\ \hline
kk - kk &amp; Bracket \\ \hline
qu &amp; Square \\ \hline
grqu &amp; Big \ square \\ \hline
fpkt &amp; Time \\ \hline
sm &amp; nautical \ mile \\ \hline
yy &amp; Hyphen, \space Line \ break, \space Hyphen \ in \ words \\ \hline
\end{array}


So, as we can see, there's no special procedure to prevent vague messages. I would even argue that this could have been done intentionally, because the German language can have (very) long words and if you know the length of certain words it might be easier to decrypt a message.



Edit:

Handwritten text on pages 23 &amp; 25:

??? = The parts I can't quite read


  Gestrichen ??? Ergänzende Anweisung [Befehlsnummer / Datum] gef.  / gez. [Unterschrift]


English:


  Discarded ??? Additional instruction [Number of command / Date] private / signed [Signature]


I guess there was a command released that these instructions are not to be followed as written in this book. The soldier then crossed these pages out and signed it. "gef." is probably an abbreviation for "gefreiter" and is a rank in the military that can be compared to the English rank of private or soldier.

It could also be that it's "gez." (instead of "gef.") which would mean "signed" followed by the soldier's signature.