Code Girls, page 44
“The day his plane went down”: Hanke, oral history.
Chapter Eight: “Hell’s Half-Acre”
Young Annie Caracristi washed her hair with laundry soap: Wilma Berryman Davis, oral history interview, December 3, 1982, NSA-OH-25-82, 39.
One of the bookish men, a New York editor: Robert L. Benson, former NSA historian, interview with the author in The Plains, Virginia, in June 2015.
At Arlington Hall there also were “BIJs”: Ann Caracristi, interview, undated, Library of Congress Veterans History Project, https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.30844/transcript?ID=mv0001; Stuart H. Buck, “The Way It Was: Arlington Hall in the 1950s,” Phoenician (Summer 88): 3–11.
Josephine Palumbo at eighteen was virtually running: Josephine Palumbo Fannon, interviews with the author on April 9 and July 17, 2015.
Unlike the Navy, Arlington Hall also had an: Jeannette Williams with Yolande Dickerson, The Invisible Cryptologists: African-Americans, WWII to 1956 (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2001), https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/assets/files/invisible_cryptologists.pdf.
When Juanita Morris, a college student fresh from North Carolina: Juanita Moody, oral history interview on June 12, 2003, NSA-OH-2003-12.
When the code breakers figured out how to rig a Coke machine: Solomon Kullback, oral history interview on August 26, 1982, NSA-OH-17-82, 119.
Designed to hold 2,200 people, it quickly proved inadequate: Descriptions of the grounds and physical plant are in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1370, “Signal Security Agency Summary Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 1944.”
“You didn’t go by rank,” said Solomon Kullback: Kullback, oral history, 117.
During 1942 the U.S. Army and Navy had hammered out: Robert Louis Benson, A History of U.S. Communications Intelligence During World War II: Policy and Administration (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 1997).
Part of the problem, at first, had been a lack of message traffic: Kullback, oral history, 34–37; David Alvarez, Secret Messages: Codebreaking and American Diplomacy, 1930–1945 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000), 150.
The job was just too big: Davis, oral history, 11; RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
Each unit remained tied to its home base in Japan: Kullback, oral history, 38.
Lewis, the Utah-bred son of an Englishman turned cowboy: Douglas Martin, “Frank W. Lewis, Master of the Cryptic Crossword, Dies at 98,” New York Times, December 3, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/03lewis.html.
It was not unusual to find an exhausted code breaker napping in a tub: Davis, oral history, 24.
“Visualize, if you will, the entire communications set-up”: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, SRH 362, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 3, “The Japan Army Problems: Cryptanalysis, 1942–1945.”
The Japanese devised a host of minor codes: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 92, SRH 349, “The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II,” 23.
She had been recruited out of Russell Sage: Ann Caracristi, interviews with the author.
Thinking it a bit of a lark, the three friends: Ibid.; Ann Caracristi, oral history interview on July 16, 1982, NSA-OH-15-82, 2.
Soon enough, Ann too found herself laboring: Caracristi, interview, Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
The suggestion—it came to be known as de-duping: Caracristi, oral history, 7.
To the naked eye, the major Japanese Army code systems: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section.”
Wilma Berryman was assigned to the address problem in April 1942: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
At the suggestion of one military officer: Caracristi, oral history, 10.
They had caught a small break, though: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
They agreed that chaining differences was “silly”: Caracristi, oral history, 10.
At times, the Japanese Army was obliged to send messages over Navy radio circuits: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section.”
“I sort of remembered having seen something in that file”: Davis, oral history, 51. The usefulness of the Navy cribs is described in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section”; RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 827, “Monthly Report No. 5, 15 February 1943.”
Ann Caracristi dove in, blissfully at home: Caracristi, oral history, 11.
Arlington Hall began producing weekly memos: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1114, “SSA, Intelligence Div, B-II Semi-Monthly Reports, Sept 1942–Dec 1943.”
On March 15, 1943, a memo: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 827, “Monthly Report No. 6, 15 March 1943.”
If a code group was 0987, for example, 098 was the actual code group: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section”; RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
The address codes carried a bounty: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), SRH 349, Box 92, “The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II,” 25.
“That outfit was 100 percent female”: Kullback, oral history, 113–115.
Wilma’s team worked alongside a unit: Davis, oral history, 41.
“I think that’s one of the things that made it”: Ibid., 43–53.
“We were in an awful pickle, because it was war”: Ibid., 48–49. The odds and evens problem is also discussed in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section,” and RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 827, “Monthly Report May 15, 1943.”
“It was fascinating, actually, to work in the world”: Caracristi, interview with the author.
When Solomon Kullback received visitors: Kullback, oral history, 39.
Wilma Berryman would give Annie: Caracristi, interviews with the author.
Years later, when Solomon Kullback was asked whom: Caracristi, interview, Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
The address unit also did its bit: Davis, oral history, 37.
In the long-running beef: Solomon Kullback said that “the attitude of the Navy was such that they didn’t want to tell the Army people too much because the Army was practically all civilian… they didn’t trust the security.” Oral history, 121.
Wilma liked to say nobody working on: Davis, oral history, 26.
Ann and Wilma and a few others even: Ibid., 22.
The code breakers formed a glee club: Caracristi, interview, Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Gert, Ann, and Wilma would save up: Davis, oral history, 43.
Tooth and nail they worked: Ibid., 38–43.
One civilian woman complained often: Caracristi, oral history, 15.
There was competition: Ibid., 22.
“The mere statement of facts and figures”: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, SRH 362, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 3.
Then in April 1943, a couple of things happened: The breaking of 2468 is described in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 827, “Monthly Report No. 7, 15 April 1943,” and RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems,” 393; Joseph E. Richard, “The Breaking of the Japanese Army’s Codes,” Cryptologia 28, no. 4 (2004): 289–308, DOI: 10.1080/0161-110491892944; Peter W. Donovan, “The Indicators of Japanese Ciphers 2468, 7890, and JN-25A1,” Cryptologia 30, no. 3 (2006): 212–235, DOI: 10.1080/01611190500544695.
“New life has been given to the entire section”: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 827, “Monthly Report No. 7, 15 April 1943.”
In July 1943, one of the first 2468 messages: Kullback, oral history, 81.
The break into 2468 was one of the most important: David Kahn, The Codebreakers (New York: Scribner, 1967), 594.
“What nicer bit of information”: Kullback, oral history, 80.
Buoyed and elated, Arlington Hall became: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section.”
They attacked a major administrative code: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems,” 244–246.
“There wasn’t a damn thing that the Japanese”: Kullback, oral history, 87–89.
In January 1944, Australian soldiers: Donovan, “Indicators of Japanese Ciphers”; Kullback discusses Japanese code security in his NSA oral history, 40.
Chapter Nine: “It Was Only Human to Complain”
That’s when Arlington Hall decided to lure: For a history of recruiting in 1943 and 1944, see RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
The void of information led recruiting officers: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 1, “Organization,” part 2, “1942–1945” (also online at NSA Cryptologic Histories site).
“Young Army boys we used”: Solomon Kullback, oral history interview on August 26, 1982, NSA-OH-17-82, 72. Elsewhere in the same interview, Kullback admitted that they lied: “I think unfortunately, some of the recruiting officers may have lied a little bit in order to get those girls to come to work in Washington by maybe implying that there would be more younger officers available,” 112.
“I think the northern members of our community”: Ann Caracristi, interview with the author.
By 1944, recruiters were allowed to expand: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 96, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 1, “Organization,” part 2, “1942–1945.”
An article in a Minnesota newspaper: Jennifer Wilcox archives.
The instructor, Ruth W. Stokes: Letter provided to the author by Winthrop University archivist Susanna O. Lee. Information about the Winthrop program can be found in the Winthrop University Louise Pettus Archives, http://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/winthroptowashington/.
Titled Private Smith Goes to Washington: Recruiting pamphlet provided to the author by Josephine Palumbo Fannon.
The “stinkinest jobs that there were to have”: Davis, oral history, 41.
“I don’t care if you’re a colonel; you can’t go in there!”: Ibid.
Norma Martell, one of the WACs assigned to Vint Hill: Norma Martell, oral history interview, WV0072 Norma Martell Papers.
In May 1945, two WACs working at the Vint Hill: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, “History of the Signal Security Agency, vol. 1, “Organization,” part 1, “1939–1945.”
A report conducted in 1943 concluded that: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 991, “Report on Progress and Improvements in Section BII, 1943.”
In the early fall of 1943, a “morale survey”: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1027, “Survey of Morale, Signal Security Agency, 1943.”
In April 1944, two code breakers identified only as M. Miller: Document ID A69346, “A Poem for a Birthday Celebration on April 6th,” William F. Friedman Collection of Official Papers, National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/assets/files/reports-research/FOLDER_060/41709519074880.pdf. The identity of the authors was suggested by NSA historian Elizabeth Smoot.
Chapter Ten: Pencil-Pushing Mamas Sink the Shipping of Japan
Ambon. Canton. Davao. Haiphong: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 844, “Japanese Army Transport Codes.”
“This material is extremely secret and must be treated with the utmost care”: Ibid.
A few dealt with transportation of the wounded: Ibid.
For example, one station transmitting from Singapore: These and the subsequent examples of stereotypes are found in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 877, “Stereotypes in Japanese Army Cryptographic Systems (Vol III).”
Dot’s workday consisted of messages: This example is given in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 844, “Japanese Army Transport Codes.”
The administrators at Arlington Hall concluded: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
“The history of the department during the past year”: Ibid.
“This is a business organization,” said one memo: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
A pneumatic tube: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1380, “History of the Distribution of Intercept Traffic in SSA.”
The women in Department K—Dot’s unit—were a “very fine group”: Ibid.
“The great value of the intelligence derived”: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
Another memo pointed out that the New York Times: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 92, SRH 349, “The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II.”
November 1943, one month after Dot’s arrival: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 82, SRH 284, “Radio Intelligence in WWII Submarine Operations in the Pacific Ocean Areas November 1943.”
“The success of undersea warfare is to a certain extent”: Ibid.
After the war, a census would be taken: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 36, SRH 156, “Weekly Listing of Merchant Vessels Sunk in Far East Waters 14 Dec–March 1945.”
At the end of the war, a U.S. naval report found: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 84, SRH 306, “OP-20-G Exploits and Communications World War II.”
Citing a few of the biggest achievements: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 878, “Capt. Fuld’s Reports, ‘Intelligence Derived from Ultra.’”
“When they were planning some major moves against”: Solomon Kullback, oral history, interview on August 26, 1982, NSH-OH-17-82, 89.
“By resorting to chewing it raw”: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 18, SRH-66, “Examples of Intelligence Obtained from Cryptanalysis 1 August 1946.”
“If the latter,” the document noted: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 876, “Stereotypes in Japanese Army Cryptographic Systems.”
Chapter Eleven: Sugar Camp
They boarded the train at midnight: The memory of arriving at Sugar Camp is from Iris Bryant Castle, “Our White Gloves,” letter of reminiscence, Deborah Anderson private archives. Throughout this chapter, I have also drawn from detailed letters of reminiscence written by Jimmie Lee Hutchison Powers Long, Dot Firor, and Esther Hottenstein, in the Deborah Anderson private archives, which Debbie Anderson shared. I have also drawn from Curt Dalton, Keeping the Secret: The Waves & NCR Dayton, Ohio 1943–1946 (Dayton, OH: Curt Dalton, 1997), and from transcripts of the underlying interviews, which Dalton kindly provided. And I have drawn from interviews I conducted with Millie Weatherly Jones, Veronica Mackey Hulick, and Betty Bemis Robarts.
“The WAVES will take courses in the operation”: “Waves to be Occupants of Sugar Camp This Summer,” NCR News, May 5, 1943.
Jimmie Lee Hutchison was another: Jimmie Lee Hutchison Powers Long, oral history interview on June 30, 2010, NSA-OH-2010-46.
He flirted and had the hearty, slightly false air: Millie Weatherly Jones, in an interview with the author, recalled Meader’s flirtatiousness and the women’s reaction. His demeanor also was mentioned by Howard Campaigne: “He was quite a politician. He would be all ‘hail fellow well met’ with everybody.” Howard Campaigne, oral history interview on June 29, 1983, NSA-OH-14-83, 38.
For the Allies, 1942 marked the low point: The discussion of the Allied merchant shipping losses, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the role the bombes played in it are taken from a number of sources: David Kahn, Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939–1943 (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1998); Jim DeBrosse and Colin Burke, The Secret in Building 26: The Untold Story of America’s Ultra War Against the U-Boat Enigma Codes (New York: Random House, 2004); John A. N. Lee, Colin Burke, and Deborah Anderson, “The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES: The First Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (July–September 2000): 1–15; RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 705, “History of the Bombe Project”; and Jennifer Wilcox, Solving the Enigma: History of the Cryptanalytic Bombe (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2015).
The submarine, which had surfaced, began to sink: Wilcox, Solving the Enigma, 21–22.
Raised and schooled in Dayton: A good description of Desch’s background is in DeBrosse and Burke, Secret in Building 26, 6–9.
On January 31, 1943, a unit diary: The transfer of Agnes Driscoll’s team, and the trips taken by John Howard between D.C. and Dayton, are in RG 38, Box 113, “CNSG-OP-20-GM-6/GM-1-C-3/GM-1/GE-1/GY-A-1 Daily War Diary.”
One such woman was Louise Pearsall: The details about Louise Pearsall’s life, enlistment, life in Washington, and work on the bombe project are from an oral history: “Interview with Louise Pearsall Canby,” taken by her daughter, Sarah Jackson, May 17, 1997, University of North Texas Oral History Collection Number 1163, and from an author interview with her daughter, Sarah Jackson, and her brother, William Pearsall.
If they suspected that a line of cipher such as: This example is offered in Chris Christensen, “Review of IEEE Milestone Award to the Polish Cipher Bureau for ‘The First Breaking of Enigma Code,’” Cryptologia 39, no. 2 (2015): 188.
She always remembered one terrible night: Ann White Kurtz, from Mary Carpenter, underlying notes for Mary Carpenter and Betty Paul Dowse, “The Code Breakers of 1942,” Wellesley (Winter 2000): 26–30.
