The mysterious Native American code that was never cracked
A lot of what goes in war is wild and loud — guns firing, shells whizzing, grenades exploding. But battles are not won with bullets alone. During a battle, communication is key. Soldiers on the front lines need to let their commanders at the field base know what’s going on. The commanders need to give instructions to the troops who are fighting. How do these messages get across the battlefield? And more importantly, how do you make sure that the enemy won’t intercept the messages and discover your tactics?
It’s all about the code that’s used to encrypt the messages, or make them super hard to understand. During World War II, a special group of US Marines developed a top secret code that was never broken. Read the story of how their code helped America defeat the Japanese in the South Pacific and eventually end the war.
The transport ship was full to the brim with US troops. After having been on board for several weeks, they had finally gotten over their seasickness and found their sea legs. The men were fresh from training and had never fired a gun in battle. Now, they were heading to Guadalcanal, an island in the South Pacific. For months, American troops had been fighting to take control of Guadalcanal from the Japanese. The men on the ship were going to join the fight.
One of the men was Chester Nez from New Mexico. He had volunteered for the Marines just a few months before and hadn’t seen his family since. Up on the deck, Chester gazed out at the flotilla his ship was travelling with. There were destroyers, battleships, cruisers, and more transport ships, all heading to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
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