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.