The Woman Who Smashed Codes

by Jason Fagone

  He went by UTZ Ibid.

  231 HUMBERTO was a piece of luck “History of USCG Unit #387,” 71.

  “the greatest help to us” “Final Report, British-Canadian-American Radio Intelligence Discussions, Washington, D.C., April 6–17, 1942,” RG 38, CNSG Library, Box 82, 5050/67, NARA.

  using book ciphers “History of USCG Unit #387,” 68.

  switched to a grille-like cipher Ibid.

  232 never sent useful information Ibid.

  their own SIS filing system FBI, “Subject: Frederick Duquesne, Interesting Case Write-Up,” March 12, 1985, eight PDF files. The SIS used different serial numbers than the coast guard serial numbers, but the texts of the messages are the same; for instance, the handful of Mexico-to-Germany decrypts that Elizebeth kept in box 6, folder 6 of her collection are identical to messages included in the FBI/SIS Duquesne write-up.

  “A considerable amount” FBI, “History of the SIS Division,” vol. 1, 288.

  difficult for the coast guard Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  a massive spy investigation Raymond J. Batvinis, “Ducase,” in The Origins of FBI Counter-Intelligence (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 226–56.

  233 Sebold was secretly working Ibid.

  The bureau reached out “History of USCG Unit #387,” 22–32; Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  to relay messages Bativinis, “Ducase,” in The Origins of FBI Counter-Intelligence.

  they were in an unknown code Ibid.

  Elizebeth broke it “History of USCG Unit #387,” 22–32.

  Long Island to Hamburg The coast guard called this radio link Circuit 2-C and monitored it for the rest of the war. “History of USCG Unit #387,” 22.

  233 “the greatest spy roundup” Marc Wortman, “Fritz Duquesne: The Nazi Spy with 1,000 Faces,” Daily Beast, February 26, 2017, http://www.thedailybeast.com/fritz-duquesne-the-nazi-spy-with-1000-faces.

  234 “gave birth to the popular cultural belief” Batvinis, “Ducase,” in The Origins of FBI Counter-Intelligence, 256.

  “exposed the secret messages” Rose Mary Sheldon, “The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide,” rev. October 2013, Marshall Foundation, PDF file, 345, text for Item 1006, WFF Collection.

  too cavalier about publicity Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  235 disrupt their work Diaries of Henry Morgenthau Jr., vol. 473, December 14–16, 1941, 37, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum website.

  a Treasury staff meeting Diaries of Henry Morgenthau Jr., vol. 457, November 1–5, 1941, 237–64, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum website.

  visible through a nearby window Peter Moreira, The Jew Who Defeated Hitler: Henry Morgenthau Jr., FDR, and How We Won the War (New York: Prometheus Books, 2014), 40.

  at 10:45 A.M. Diaries of Morgenthau, November 1–5, 1941.

  a birdlike man Moreira, The Jew Who Defeated Hitler, 85.

  “She is very discontented” Diaries of Morgenthau, November 1–5, 1941.

  236 Harry Dexter White James Nye, “Revealed: The Banker Who Shaped the Modern Financial World after WWII Was a Soviet Spy Who Wanted America to Become Communist,” Daily Mail (London), March 5, 2013.

  “I don’t like to butt into this” Diaries of Morgenthau, November 1–5, 1941.

  “But they knew” Ronald Clark, The Man Who Broke Purple: Life of Colonel William F. Friedman, Who Deciphered the Japanese Code in World War II (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977), 170.

  Personnel started to stream in The most vivid recollection of the Munitions Building immediately after Pearl Harbor comes from John B. Hurt, the Japanese linguist on Friedman’s team. Three pages, undated, 1944, NSA.

  237 1,177 crewmen Wikipedia, s.v. “Attack on Pearl Harbor,” last modified May 17, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor.

  wrote his will Hurt.

  it would happen in Manila Ibid.

  237 a three-volume report WFF, “Certain Aspects of ‘MAGIC’ in the Cryptological Background of the Various Official Investigations into the Attack on Pearl Harbor,” March 1957, NSA.

  “cryptologic schizophrenia” WFF, “Second Period, Communications Security” (lecture), NSA.

  238 a declassified NSA report ESF interview with R. Louis Benson, January 9, 1976, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from NSA; received October 2015.

  Elizebeth would never understand Ibid.

  “a date which will live in infamy” “FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech: Crafting a Call to Arms,” Prologue 33, no. 4 (Winter 2001), https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/winter/crafting-day-of-infamy-speech.html.

  239 Elizebeth’s ration book ESF and WFF’s Second World War ration books are in a black folder of letters given to the Marshall Foundation by John Ramsay Friedman.

  appoint a new chief ESF interview with Benson.

  This upset her Ibid.

  240 She got to know James Roosevelt Colin Burke, “What OSS Black Chamber? What Yardley? What ‘Dr.’ Friedman? Ah, Grombach? Or Donovan’s Folly,” http://userpages.umbc.edu/~burke/whatossblack.pdf.

  a tall, irascible Evan Thomas, “Spymaster General,” Vanity Fair (March 2011), http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/03/wild-bill-donovan201103.

  James Roosevelt approached Elizebeth Diaries of Morgenthau, December 14–16, 1941, 37.

  Donovan reinforced the demand William J. Donovan to Morgenthau, December 14, 1941, in ibid., 53.

  Morgenthau grumbled Ibid., 37.

  three and a half weeks ESF to Colonel Donovan, via Chief Liason Officer, Coordinator of Information, December 29, 1941, box 15, folder 14, ESF Collection.

  She built it from scratch Ibid.

  a seethingly polite letter Ibid.

  defined by recklessness Thomas, “Spymaster General.”

  241 “My experience and observations” ESF to Colonel Donovan.

  an honorary L.L.D. ESF to Mrs. T. N. Alford, October 19, 1939, box 1, folder 9, ESF Collection.

  Brazil had declared solidarity Boris Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, trans. Arthur Brakel (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 228.

  firing torpedoes at Brazilian ships John Bryden, Best-Kept Secret: Canadian Secret Intelligence in the Second World War (Toronto: Lester, 1993), 108–9.

  241 The positions of the ships Ibid.

  “Measures against members” Brazil to Germany, December 10, 1941, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2210.

  242 Operation Drumbeat Bryden, Best-Kept Secret, 108–9.

  the ruthless U-boats Ibid.

  MARCH 14, 1942 South America to Germany, March 14, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2418.

  an FCC listening station Rhode Island Radio, “Radio Intelligence Division,” http://www.61thriftpower.com/riradio/rid.shtml.

  8,398 American servicemen Eric Niderost, “Voyages to Victory: RMS Queen Mary’s War Service,” Warfare History Network, January 16, 2017, http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/voyages-to-victory-rms-queen-marys-war-service/.

  MARCH 7, 1942 South America to Germany, March 7, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2414.

  MARCH 8 South America to Germany, March 8, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2413.

  243 MARCH 12 South America to Germany, March 12, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2418.

  MARCH 13 Ibid.

  MARCH 14 South America to Germany, March 14, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 2419.

  one million Reichsmarks Niderost, “Voyages to Victory.”

  able to take evasive maneuvers ESF wasn’t the only Allied codebreaker who noticed that the Queen Mary was in peril; British and Canadian agencies solved similar messages. It was like multiple witnesses reporting the same crime to 911. See Bryden, Best-Kept Secret, 121.

  “hiding place” Santiago to Hamburg, March 5, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3739.

  31 degrees Celsius Brazil to Hamburg, March 7, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3799.

  “Throughout country” Brazil to Germany, March 16, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3831.

  the docked Swiss ship Brazil to Hamburg, March 17, 1942, RG
457, SRIC, No. 3821.

  guessed that authorities Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  244 “You’ll blow the house up!” John Humphries, “The Man From Brazil,” in Spying for Hitler: The Welsh Double-Cross (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2012), 199–211.

  March 15, 1942 Leslie B. Rout Jr. and John F. Bratzel, “Climax of the Espionage War in Brazil: 1942–55,” in The Shadow War: German Espionage and United States Counterespionage in Latin America during World War II (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1986), 172–222.

  245 Engels assumed Ibid.

  “MEYER CLASEN” Brazil to Germany, March 18, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3964.

  That day Engels was arrested Rout and Bratzel, “Climax of the Espionage War in Brazil.”

  West believed Ibid.

  Robert Linx drove around Rio George E. Sterling, “The History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II,” unpublished manuscript, PDF file, http://www.w3df.com, 85.

  246 verbatim copies Ibid.; see also Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  “delivered the complete information” J. Edgar Hoover, “How the Nazi Spy Invasion Was Smashed,” The American Magazine (September 1944): 20–21, 94–100.

  tougher on the prisoners Rout and Bratzel, “Climax of the Espionage War in Brazil.”

  fill in a handful of missing words Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  went on a hunger strike Rout and Bratzel, “Climax of the Espionage War in Brazil.”

  looked the other way Ibid.

  247 one of the radio transmitters Sommer interrogation, 23.

  three long letters out of prison Rout and Bratzel, “Climax of the Espionage War in Brazil.”

  “Warning” Germany to Chile, March 23, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3809.

  a pack of cigarettes arrived C. F. Hemphill, “Osmar Alberto Hellmuth,” January 1, 1944, RG 65, box 18, 64-27116, NARA.

  CHAPTER 4: CIRCUIT 3-N

  249 “Flight, fight, or neurosis” Ronald Clark, The Man Who Broke Purple: Life of Colonel William F. Friedman, Who Deciphered the Japanese Code in World War II (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977), 258–59.

  250 “heebeegeebees . . . hbgbs WFF, “Bletchley Park Diary,” ed. Colin MacKinnon, http://www.colinmackinnon.com/files/The_Bletchley_Park_Diary_of_William_F._Friedman_E.pdf.

  three consecutive days ESF to Barbara Friedman, May 22, 1942, box 3, folder 22, ESF Collection.

  friends knocked on their door Ibid.

  “Artiste de Boudoir” WFF to ESF, telegram beginning “YOUR RENOWN,” May 1942, box 1, General Correspondence, ESF Collection.

  250 “Doctor of Successful Marriage” WFF to ESF, telegram beginning “BOARD OF OVERSEERS,” May 1942, box 1, General Correspondence, ESF Collection.

  251 leftist political causes Barbara Friedman to WFF, undated, box 4, folder 8, ESF Collection.

  “I hope you will let nothing interfere” WFF to Barbara Friedman, October 11, 1944, box 3, folder 21, ESF Collection.

  252 Arlington Hall Jennifer Wilcox, “Sharing the Burden: Women in Cryptology During World War II,” Center for Cryptologic History, NSA, 2008.

  Many were women Ibid.

  secret cryptology courses Patricia Ryan Leopold, in discussion with the author, January 2015. See also Craig Bauer and John Ulrich, “The Cryptologic Contributions of Dr. Donald Menzel,” Cryptologia 30, no. 4 (2006): 306–39. DOI: 10.1080/01611190600920951.

  guarded by U.S. Marines ESF, “foreword to uncompleted work.”

  operated the bombes Wilcox, “Sharing the Burden.”

  253 “rolling down one’s legs” Martha Waller, in discussion with the author, via e-mail, March 2015.

  the Star of David “Star of David; Badges and Armbands,” National Holocaust Centre and Museum, UK, https://www.nationalholocaustcentre.net/star-of-david.

  Exactly as she had feared Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  “thereafter completely changed” Ibid.

  “the matter got out of hand” “R.I.P. No. 98, Appendix II, American Measures Against Communications Intelligence Publicity,” April 5, 1943, RG 457, Friedman Collection, Entry UD-15D19, box 22, NARA, 400–401.

  254 also taken aback F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Vol. 4, Security and Counter-Intelligence (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1990), 149.

  “Rather shattering” [Redacted] to J. M. A. Gwyer, MI5, April 26, 1943, KV2/2845, TNA.

  jurisdictional squabbles “R.I.P. No. 98, Appendix II,” RG 457.

  without their approval Ibid., 384.

  in the Western Hemisphere Ibid., 394–97.

  “more informal” BSC, 472.

  “sotto voce” Ibid., 473.

  255 for tighter control Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  a weeklong conference “Final Report, British-Canadian-American Radio Intelligence Discussions.”

  255 On the day she explained “Brief of Minutes, Committee B, Method of Obtaining W/T Intelligence From Intercepted W/T Traffic, Including D/F Bearings,” British-Canadian-American Radio Intelligence Discussions, Washington, D.C., April 8, 1942, RG 38, CNSG Library, Box 82, 5050/67, NARA. See also “Recordings of Final Report, British-Canadian-American Radio Intelligence Discussions, Washington, D.C.,” April 6–17, 1942, envelope no. 2, list of April 8, 1942, speakers, RG 38, CNSG Library, Box 82, 5050/68, NARA.

  fewer than twenty cryptanalysts ESF interview with Benson.

  weirder, harder stuff “History of USCG Unit #387,” 15.

  ZUM NEUE JAHR Ibid., 95–96.

  256 a partial list All of these circuits are described in “History of USCG Unit #387.”

  diplomats and even military officers L. T. Jones, “Memorandum to Op-20-G, Subj: Clandestine Radio Intelligence,” September 7, 1944, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from NSA; received October 2015; originally requested by G. Stuart Smith.

  257 just another communications channel Ibid.

  “when wireless is perfectly applied” John B. Kennedy, “When Woman Is Boss,” interview with Nikola Tesla, Collier’s, January 30, 1926, http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1926-01-30.htm.

  “a miscellany” Jones, “Memorandum to Op-20-G.”

  about the Nazi grasp Ibid.

  the shapes were parallelograms “History of USCG Unit #387,” 37–38.

  others like labyrinths Ibid., 199.

  “explosives from cacao” Argentina to Berlin, October 22, 1943, Serial CG3-2213, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA.

  258 baby girl, Jutta Hamburg to Iceland, June 1, 1944, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3687.

  “My dear JOHNY” Berlin to Argentina, November 11, 1943, Serial CG3-2348, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA.

  Lieutenant Jones did that ESF interview with Benson; Jones, “History of OP-20-GU.”

  Jones did that, too ESF interview with Benson.

  sometimes quarreling Ibid.

  “one of the workers” Ibid.

  $4,200 a year ESF payroll slip, July 1945, listing her previous salaries and government classification, Personnel Folder.

  Her initials, ESF Germany to ?, 1942, RG 457, SRIC, No. 3648.

  Her handwriting appeared See, for instance, Berlin to Argentina, April 6, 1944, Serial CG4-4142, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA, with a handwritten stapled note by ESF that begins “Comment,” or see one of the messages from the Jolle supply ship to Argentina, June 27, 1944, Serial CG4-5077-A, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/2, NARA.

  259 a characteristic burst Berlin to Argentina, May 30, 1944, Serial CG4-4847, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA. Berlin writes that a man named Curt “had his leg in a cast as a result of a bombardment of BERLIN when he was going down the stairs carrying a young lady on his back.” ESF wrote in red pencil, “neat trick.”

  described the meeting Government Code and Cypher School, memorandum, CLANDESTINE, Major G. G. Stevens to D.D.(S), December 24, 1942, HW14/62, TNA.

  at unexpected times Ibid.
<
br />   a device he called a “snifter” George E. Sterling, “The History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II,” unpublished manuscript, PDF file, http://www.w3df.com, 19–20.

  260 October 10, 1942 David P. Mowry, “Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during World War II,” Series IV, vol. 11 (2011), Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 85–86.

  called it Circuit 3-N “History of USCG Unit #387,” 231.

  chipped in with clues Ibid.; Mowry, “Cryptologic Aspects.”

  twenty-eight encrypted messages Ibid.

  261 1511 Calle Donado Utzinger interrogation, 4.

  legitimate paying clients Ibid.

  girlfriend worked at AMT VI In FBI memos exchanged after Utzinger’s arrest in August 1944, Bureau officials write that before Utzinger left Germany for South America, he asked friends to look after a woman named Hilde Burckhardt, who told a roommate that she and Utzinger both worked for AMT VI. See Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum, Subject: “Gustav Utzinger, with aliases,” James P. Joice Jr. to John Edgar Hoover, October 5, 1945, RG 65, Classification 64 (IWG), box 14. Also, in one of the Circuit 3-N decrypts, “Blue Eye” talks about “participating in the construction of several directional short-wave transmitters,” strongly suggesting that she was with AMT VI. See Berlin to Argentina, October 26, 1943, Serial CG3-2236, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA.

  signed the messages “blue eye” Berlin to Argentina, October 26, 1943, Serial CG3-2236.

  called herself “the Ahnfrau” Berlin to Argentina, February 8, 1944, Serial CG4-3535, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA. The coast guard codebreakers weren’t entirely sure how “the Ahnfrau” was related to “Luna”—they sometimes wrote “grandmother?” or “mother?” or “wife?” next to her name on the decrypts—but I am fairly certain, from the context of the decrypts, that she was Utzinger’s grandmother.

  261 “celebrating your birthday” Berlin to Argentina, October 28, 1943, Serial CG4-2837, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA.

  to brush his teeth Berlin to Argentina, April 29, 1944, Serial CG4-4447, RG 38, CNSG Library, box 79, 3824/3, NARA.

  262 built transmitters Ibid., 3.

  in the public square Ibid., 4.