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.
He was under terrible pressure: DeBrosse and Burke, Secret in Building 26, 86, describe Meader as a hard taskmaster, as did Deborah Anderson in an interview with the author.
“The design of the Bombe eventually required”: RG 38, Box 109, “CNSG Report of Supplementary Research Operations in WWII.”
“The first two experimental bombes were under preliminary tests”: The saga of the bombes’ first summer is in RG 38, Boxes 38 and 39, “Watch Officer’s Log, 26 June–9 August 1943.”
Commander Meader had ejected a number of: RG 38, Box 2, “CNSG, Assignment/Transfers, (Enlisted Pers), (1 of 5).”
Back in 1942, when the WAVES were formed: The policy of what to do about pregnancy and abortion is discussed in “Women in the Military Box 7,” in the folder marked “Bureau of Naval Personnel Women’s Reserve, First Draft Narrative Prepared by the Historical Section, Bureau of Naval Personnel” in the Ready Reference Section of the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C.
Once, when a sloppy (or tired): Jennifer Wilcox, Sharing the Burden: Women in Cryptology During World War II (Washington, DC: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2013), 10.
“He had nightmares for years about men dying”: Deborah Anderson, daughter of Joseph Desch, interview with the author.
The people working on the Enigma project: DeBrosse and Burke, Secret in Building 26, make this point very well.
One of the women in charge of maintaining: Graham Cameron, son of Charlotte McLeod Cameron, interview with the author.
A daily log on February 25, 1944: RG 38, Box 40, “Watch Officers Log, 2 Feb–4 March 1944.”
Another was reprimanded for coming in: RG 38, Box 39, “Watch Officers Log 26 September–26 November 1943.”
After two months at Smith: Pearsall’s return date as an officer is in RG 38, Box 1, “COMNAVSECGRU-OP-20G Headquarters Personnel Rosters & Statistics (3 of 4)”.
Jimmie Lee by now had married: Jimmie Lee’s reflections here and elsewhere are taken from transcripts of her interviews with Curt Dalton, author of Keeping the Secret; letters of reminiscence she wrote Deborah Anderson; and her NSA oral history interview, Jimmie Lee Hutchison Power Long, on June 30, 2010, OH-2010-46.
As Jimmie Lee and the other women: Jennifer Wilcox pointed out the all-female nature of the operation in an interview with the author.
Promoted to watch officer, Fran had access: Jed Suddeth, son of Fran Steen Suddeth Josephson, interview with the author.
The effect of the U.S. bombes on solving the Atlantic U-boat cipher: RG 38, Box 141, “Brief Resume of Op-20-G and British Activities vis-à-vis German Machine Ciphers,” in folder marked “Photograph of Bombe Machine, about 1943.”
Once they were broken, the messages would pass to: Janice Martin Benario, interviews with the author. She also describes the tracking room in Janice M. Benario, “Top Secret Ultra,” Classical Bulletin 74, no. 1 (1998): 31–33; and Robert Edward Lewand, “Secret Keeping 101: Dr. Janice Martin Benario and the Women’s College Connection to ULTRA,” Cryptologia 35, no. 1 (2010): 42–46.
There, a commander named Kenneth Knowles: David Kohnen, Commanders Winn and Knowles: Winning the U-Boat War with Intelligence, 1939–1943 (Krakow: Enigma Press, 1999), describes the tracking room. The working together of submarine tracking rooms in the UK and United States is described in Kahn, Seizing the Enigma, 191.
One male officer said the WAVES did a better job: Kahn, Seizing the Enigma, 242–244.
After the carnage of 1942 and early 1943: Good descriptions of the innovations in the first six months of 1943—HF/DF, hunter-killers, and so on—are in DeBrosse and Burke, Secret in Building 26, 117; and Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won (New York: Norton, 1996), 45–62.
These refuelers were known as milch cows: Kahn, Seizing the Enigma, 274–275.
In October 1943, the U-Boats reappeared: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, SRH 367, “A Preliminary Analysis of the Role of Decryption Intelligence in the Operational Phase of the Battle of the Atlantic.”
“Congratulations from Hut six”: RG 38, Box 4, “COMNAVSECGRU Commendations Received by the COMINT Organization, Jan 1942–8 July 1948.”