by DAVID KAHN
336 9 :05 message: Report of the Chief Signal Officer, 332.
336 “unnecessary work”: Moorman, “Wireless Intelligence,” 267.
336 Jaeger: Moore, 8; Moorman, “Code and Cipher in France,” 1040.
336 “Woe to him”: Childs Cipher Papers, I, §11, undated “Special Code Section Report,” message of 6:40 p.m., April 1 [1918].
337 Childs: Who’s Who in America, 1963; Childs Cipher Papers, I, §1, travel orders and “Report of Investigations of Codes and Ciphers”; Childs, German Military Ciphers, 19, 22, 24; Before the Curtain Falls, 116-117, 122,125; excerpts from Childs’ as-yet-unpublished manuscript tentatively entitled “Between Two Worlds.”
337 Für GOD keys: Childs, German Military Ciphers, 1-4.
337 von Kressenstein message: Childs Cipher Papers, I, §6, for ciphertext, solution, and G-2 survey; I, §5, untitled page, message of 21:10 hours August 8 for “use forbidden”; John Buchan, A History of the Great War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922), IV, 299, for importance of Baku.
339 ALACHI solution: Childs, German Military Ciphers, 9-12; Moorman, “Wireless Intelligence,” 267.
339 Constantinople and Mackensen messages: Childs, German Military Ciphers, 35-41, 14; Before the Curtain Falls, 143-146, for “By reason of its length,” translation of Mackensen message, and excitement at G.H.Q.; R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Roumanians (Cambridge: at the University Press, 1934), 535, for situation in Rumania. Original ciphertext in Childs Cipher Papers, III, “‘Richi’ ADFGVX Cipher,” November 3, 1918, message of 7:06 p.m. November 4. German plaintext in Childs Cipher Papers, I, §5, “Special Code Section Report,” November 5, 1918.
339 ADFGVX: Painvin, 16-45, for detailed exposition of cryptanalyses; Eyraud, 215-219, for abbreviated exposition. Military details have been largely drawn from the excellent articles on “World War I,” “St. Quentin, Battle of,” and “Chemin-des-Dames, Battle of” by Captain B. H. Liddell Hart in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
340 conference of German specialists: Desfemmes, 30.
340 perplexity: Before the Curtain Falls, 125.
341 “Poor Painvin”: Painvin, 17.
341 “best informed man”: Guitard, 49.
344 no general solution: Painvin, 39. For such a solution, Sacco, §102; Friedman, IV, §§41-43.
344 keys solved: Childs, German Military Ciphers, 13. Daily volume ranged from 25 messages a day at the inception of the system to 148 in the last days of May. During July, the system, formerly confined to the Western Front, began to be used by Berlin to communicate with its troops on the Eastern Front. These messages bore the indicator RICHI in the preamble, in contrast to those on the Western Front, which were prefaced by CHI (the RI from “orient”?). Both prefaces were followed by the number of letters in the message. The Eastern Front keys had a life of two days and later of three, in comparison with one day in the West. G.2 A.6 read 17 RICHI keys covering 44 days from July to November. No keys for constructing the checkerboard or the numerical transposition sequence were ever recovered for any ADFGVX solution.
344 other solutions: Painvin, 39. Childs Cipher Papers, I, §10, includes some of the original mimeographed notifications of the keys.
344 “in short”: Painvin, 39.
345 times of solution: Painvin, 40.
346 Ludendorff troubles: Erich Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s Own Story (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1919), II, 271. “St Quentin, Battle of” for typical use of night cover.
346 French intelligence, Guitard enters: Desfemmes, 26.
346 telegram text: Painvin, 44, corrected by a letter of August 12, 1962, from Painvin.
347 French preparations and the attack: [Ferdinand Foch], The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, trans, by T. Bentley Mott (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931), 323, for aerial reconnaissance; Raymond Recouly, La Bataille de Foch (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1920), 77-78, for deserters and Mangin counterattack; General Bartholemew Palat, La Grande Guerre sur le Front Occidental, XIII (Offensives Suprêmes de l’Allemagne) (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1929), 365-366, for “offensive is imminent”; Colonel Ripert d’Alauzier, “La bataille de Courcelles-Méry,” Revue militaire française, 95th year (new series) (August 1, 1925), 234-252, (September 1, 1925), 372-392, (October 1, 1925), 68-83, at 383 for bombardment, and passim for details of the entire battle. Foch says that the French knew German intentions by May 30, which would be before the Painvin solution. But Recouly, who wrote much more closely to the event, and Palat, who is the official French military historian, specifically credit the munitions cryptogram with alerting the French to the attack. I believe that Foch was simply a few days off in the question of warning. The message—which has recently been given the name of “le radiogramme de la victoire” in French cryptologic literature—is also mentioned in Givierge, “Problems,” 17, where it appears to be a Schlüsselheft solution ; in Gyldén, 48, who credits the Mangin attack with turning the tide of the war; and in Cartier, “Souvenirs,” II, 19-20.
347 “thorough preparation”: Ludendorff, II, 271.
347 no surprise: all parties agree on this—Liddell Hart in “World War I”; Buchan, IV, 259; even Ludendorff, II, 271.
347 importance of the battle: Recouly, 78; Buchan, IV, 260; Hanotaux and Lavisse, quoted in Desfemmes, 27.
347 Painvin: Eyraud, 219; Who’s Who in France, 1961-1962; Painvin, letter, August 12, 1962, for satisfaction and “indelible mark.”
348 chamber analysis dead: Gyldén, 3.
348 cryptologic executive: Gyldén, 39-40.
349 Bacon: The Tvvoo Bookes of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning (London), at 61r.
349 “encode well”: Givierge, “Problems,” 31.
Chapter 12 TWO AMERICANS
351 Yardley biography: Who Was Who in America, 1951-1960; United States, Department of State, Register, December 15, 1916 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1917), 24, 144; Yardley, 17-21; Herbert O. Yardley, The Education of a Poker Player (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957), v, 5, 65. Ladislas Fargo, The Broken Seal (New York: Random House, 1967), 9-31, 56-58, 67-72, which came to my attention too late for use in my text, gives additional material on Yardley, but his interpretations must be viewed with extreme caution.
351 House message: Yardley, 21-22.
351 Wilson systems: Permanent exhibit on second floor of The Library of Congress shows a superencipherment; George Sylvester Viereck, The Strangest Friendship in History (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1932), 353 for jargon code, 358-359 for another superencipherment edition.
351 memorandum, Yardley symptom: Yardley, 26-30.
352 MI-8 organized: Yardley, 31-36.
352 Manly: Yardley, 38-39; DAB, supplement 2; Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942.
352 others: David Stevens, letters of May 3 and 11, 1963; Who’s Who in America, 1938-1939 for Stevens; Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942, for Luquiens; 1943-1950 for Knott, Beeson.
352 subsections: United States, War Department, Annual Reports, 1919: Report of the Chief of Staff (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1920), 329. Yardley, 47, names a code and cipher solution subsection instead of the code instruction subsection cited in the official report. Childs, “History and Principles of German Military Ciphers,” at 1, for teaching at Army War College; Manly Papers, University of Chicago Library, for Problem 20.
352 locations: Frederick Livesey, “Memoirs” (1959), typescript in possession of his widow, Vera, to whom I am indebted for making it available to me. For Livesey, Who’s Who in America, 1956-1957.
352 shorthand: Yardley, 54.
353 secret inks: Yardley, 60-85; ch. 5, for Victoria; Scheutz, 95. Charles E. O’Hara and James W. Osterburg, An Introduction to Criminalistics (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952), 500, 504, and Edmond Locard, Manuel de Technique Policière, 4th ed. (Payot: Paris, 1948), 241-242, for general reagent. Report of the Chief of Staff, 329, for 2,000 and 50 letters.
353 diplomatic solutions, mos
tly Spanish: Yardley, 206; Livesey. I cannot bring myself to believe the figure of 10,000 telegrams solved that Yardley gives.
353 “it rather worried me”: Yardley, 198.
354 Waberski: Yardley, ch. 7, who, regrettably, does not give Manly credit for the solution; Henry Landau, The Enemy Within: The Inside Story of German Sabotage in America (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1937), 120-127; Stevens, letter of May 3, 1963. Stevens, incidentally, solved the PQR cipher (Yardley, 150-152). Yardley, ch. 6. for Eckardt’s dictionary code.
354 Yardley in Europe: Yardley, chs. 9-12; Before the Curtain Falls, 157-158; Livesey.
355 origin of the American Black Chamber: DSDF 894.727/10, Secretary of War to Secretary of State, September 1, 1931.
355 American Black Chamber: Yardley, 240, 250, 265; Livesey, 75-76; Mrs. Edna Yardley, interview, November 3, 1961, for personnel. “Yardley Surprised at Denials,” New York Sun, June 8, 1931, 3:2-3, and Manly, letter, January 24, 1921, addressed to Yardley at 141 East 37th Street, Manly Papers, for addresses. Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942, for Mendelsohn. Of the three locations, 3 East 38th Street has been replaced by a five-and-dime store, 141 East 37th Street is now a woman’s residence, and 52 Vanderbilt Avenue still stands as an office building.
356 Japanese solutions: Yardley, chs. 14-16, at 268-269 for “By now”; Livesey, 77-79. It should be recorded that in 1932 the then Captain W. A. van der Beck, a Dutch officer stationed in Batavia and assigned to solve Japanese codes, singlehandedly solved an early edition of the Japanese LA code. He made his initial break by correctly guessing that certain repeated codegroups in circular telegrams represented addresses. The solutions helped the Dutch fend off tough Japanese demands in a trade conference (van der Beck, letters, March 25, April 23, June 16, 1962).
357 Kowalefsky: Yardley, 279; Shiro Takagi, “Nippon Kaigun No Kimitsushitsu” (“The Black Chamber of the Japanese Navy”), Shukan Asahi (Showa 36, Junigatsu 8 [ December 8, 1961]), 24-26 at 24.
358 Jp: Yardley, 289-290. He states that this code employed three-letter codewords to disrupt the regularity of the two-letter groups, and that this gimmick delayed solution forty days. But a photograph of a Jp code message with its partial decryptment (opposite 312) shows no threeletter groups.
358 “sees all”: Yardley, 305.
358 most important telegram: Yardley, 312-313.
358 “nothing to do”: Yardley, 317.
359 Hughes letter of commendation: mentioned DSDF 894.727/10.
359 nervous breakdowns: Yardley, 318-321. However, Livesey, who was probably the “most valuable assistant” that Yardley mentions, states that “this page about me is purely imaginative.” He says that Yardley had to let him go because of cutbacks, but got him severance pay and a job in the State Department, which Livesey made his career.
359 security: Yardley, 323-331; Mrs. Edna Yardley, interview, for taking papers home and size of staff. Manly, letter to Yardley, December 5, 1924, Manly Papers, for appropriation cut.
359 45,000: Yardley, 332.
359 code telegrams from telegraph companies: DSDF 894.727/25, copy of Yardley letter to Bobbs-Merrill Company, March 18, 1931.
359 end of the Black Chamber: Yardley, “The American Black Chamber,” original typescript in possession of Mrs. Edna Yardley, ch. 20, p. 2, which differs in significant detail from the printed version; Yardley, ch. 20. Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947), 188, for “Gentlemen” and “In 1929”; Elting E. Morrison, Turmoil and Tradition: A Study of the Life and Times of Henry L. Stimson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960), 639. Neither the National Archives nor the State Department seem to have any records of the Black Chamber or its dissolution.
360 $6,666: The Origin and Development of the Army Security Agency, anonymous, undated mimeographed document, but evidently based on official sources, at 4.
360 $98,808.49 and $230,404: DSDF 894.727/10. Letter from Victor Weiskopf to Manly, September 16, 1929, Manly Papers, mentions that the rent was prepaid to September.
360 “less than nothing,” loan, “I hadn’t done”: Letters of Yardley to Manly, August 29, 1930, and undated from Worthington; letter of Manly to Yardley, January 30, 1931, all Manly Papers.
361 The Saturday Evening Post: “Secret Inks,” CCIII (April 4, 1931), 3-5, 140-142, 145; “Codes,” (April 18, 1931), 16-17, 141-142; “Ciphers,” (May 9, 1931), 35, 144-146, 148-149. Demand was so great that he wrote another, more general article, “Cryptograms and Their Solution,” for the November 21 issue, at 21, 63-65.
361 critics: Book Review Digest, XXVII (March, 1931-February, 1932), for Roberts and others. The best-selling mystery-book author, Erie Stanley Gardner, calls The American Black Chamber “one of the most interesting books I have ever read” and commends it to “any ambitious writer” as an example of “the possibilities of the human mind when its self-imposed brakes are removed” in ch. 7, The Writer’s Handbook, ed. A. S. Burack (Boston: The Writer, 1963), 30-31.
361 official statements: “Deny Our Statesmen Read Envoys’ Ciphers,” The New York Times (June 2, 1931), 18:3. Also “State and War Officials Silent on Yardley Book,” New York Herald Tribune (June 9, 1931).
361 St.-Mihiel Story: Yardley, 42-45; Friedman, Field Codes, 10-13, 25-26. Manly wrote to Friedman, July 24, 1931, that he had the same impression of the episode as Yardley (Manly Papers).
362 Friedman circularizes, Hitt, Moorman reply: Letter from Friedman and enclosed photostats, Manly Papers; Childs Cipher Papers, I, §12. Friedman, Field Codes, 10, refers to The American Black Chamber as “a book which, in most libraries, is undoubtedly catalogued under the class of non-fiction.”
362 “you might incur,” “I approve”: letters of January 30 and April 24, 1931, Manly Papers. 362 Friedman criticism: Letters of August 24, 1931, for breach of ethics, and of November 22, 1931, for “great harm,” Manly reply of August 28, [1931], Manly Papers.
362 extra work: Solomon Kullback, interview, December 7, 1962.
362 “dramatise”: undated letter and letter of April 30, 1931, Manly Papers.
362 letter to the editor: New York Evening Post (June 23, 1931).
363 Liberty article: VIII (December 19, 1931), 8-14.
363 sales: memorandum of November 28, 1962, from William J. Finneran, sales manager, trade division, Bobbs-Merrill Company.
363 furor: DSDF 894.727/9, report of counselor of embassy in Tokyo, enclosing newspaper clippings and translations; DSDF 894.727/11, Forbes report of November 5.
364 language students: PHA, 10:4909.
364 Togo: Togo, 61.
364 Hornbeck memorandum: DSDF 894.727/20.
364 seizure: “Code Expert’s Ms. On Japan is Seized,” The New York Times (February 21, 1933), 3:4.
364 Yardley bill and debate: 73rd Congress, House of Representatives Reports 18 and 206, Senate Report 21; Congressional Record, LXXVII, 2698, 2699, for passed and reconsidered; 3125-3139, for debate and Senate passage; 5218, 5333-5334, for House acceptance and passage; 6198, for President signs; 3129, for Yardley justifications.
367 Bobbs-Merrill petition: DSDF 894.727/25 1⁄2.
368 Yardley novels: both published 1934 by Longmans, Green & Company of New York.
368 Rendezvous: Undated publicity material—which, incidentally, states falsely that the film is based on The American Black Chamber; André Sennwald, “William Powell as the Star of ‘Rendezvous,’ a Spy Melodrama Now at the Capitol Theatre,” The New York Times (October 26, 1935), 12:2-3. J. Rives Childs, letter, June 27, 1964.
368 China: Yardley, Education of a Poker Player, 65-66; Theodore H. White, Fire in the Ashes (New York: William Sloan Associates, 1953), 357-358. Herbert O. Yardley and Carl Grabo, Crows Are Black Everywhere (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1945), 78-80, for ciphers. J. Rives Childs, letter, June 27, 1964, for salary and Queens.
369 personality: Mrs. Yardley interview for golf and duck-hunting. Education of a Poker Player, v, for poker, 67, for whorehouse
s. Letter from Theodore H. White, May 10, 1963, for virtual orgy. Emily Hahn, China to Me (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1944), 167-168. Childs, “Between Two Worlds,” for cynicism.
369 restaurateur, Canadian bureau, forced out: John O’Donnell, “Capital Stuff,” New York Daily News (February 27, 1945), 4:4-5.
369 “father of American cryptography”: Associated Press.
369 inspired amateurs: as for example, Rosario Candela, who pays tribute to Yardley in his The Military Cipher of Commandant Bazeries (New York: Cardanus Press, 1938), xiv.
369 Friedman traits: my observations.
370 Friedman biography: Who’s Who in America, 1962-63; interview, December 11, 1962, for all information up to 1921, except as otherwise noted.
370 Fabyan: Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942; William F. and Elizebeth S. Friedman, The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined (Cambridge: University Press, 1957), at 205; Harris, 329.
371 Elizebeth Smith Friedman: Who’s Who of American Women, 1963-1964; interview, December 11, 1962.
371 Hindu ciphers: W. F. Friedman, “The Hindu Cipher,” Information Bulletin of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, No. 11 (December 1, 1921), 23-27; Strother, 151; Thomas M. Johnson, “Secrets of the Master Spies,” Popular Mechanics Magazine, LVIII (September, 1932), 409-413; for checkerboard system. This, incidentally, is essentially the same as the so-called Nihilist substitution (Schooling, IV, 616-617; Gaines, 164167; Wolfe, II, ch. 8). Inspector Thomas J. Tunney, Throttled! The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb Plotters (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1919), 80-81 and pictures opposite 80 and 90, for book cipher; Friedman, I, 102, for solution methods.
372 Pletts solution: Friedman, “The Use of Codes and Ciphers in the World War and Lessons to be Learned Therefrom,” Articles, 42-43; Friedman, interview, 1961; Yardley, 358, for illustration of the device, which appears not to have been patented.