INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
ENLISTMENT
TRAINING
APPEARANCE AND EQUIPMENT
BELIEF AND BELONGING
THE EARLY PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS
Daily life in the Southwest Pacific Hastily into battle – the Solomons and Tarawa
THE CENTRAL PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS
Daily life in a rest camp
LIFE ON CAMPAIGN
JAPANESE ATTEMPTS TO BREAK THE CODE
EUROPEAN COMBAT – THE COMANCHE
FINAL CATACLYSMS
Daily life – reorganization The final battles
AFTERMATH
MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS
GLOSSARY
REFERENCES
Security of communications has been a primary concern of military commanders since prehistoric times. Tactical communications security is particularly problematical, since messages must be sent and received as rapidly as possible under great stress. Considerable intellectual effort has also been expended in code-breaking, as knowledge of the enemy’s intentions is one of the greatest advantages a commander can possess.
In 1941 the United States already possessed virtually unbreakable codes thanks to the use of indigenous language. The indigenous peoples of the Americas were divided into local tribes speaking hundreds of languages. Only a few had ever been written, in long-forgotten pictographic alphabets. As the United States expanded westward, the government sought to “civilize the savages.” Native languages were to be eradicated. The young were often harshly punished for using their Native languages, and it was hoped that the languages would die out with the older generations.
Early radios were not a practical means of battlefield communication. This radio party in 1918 is trying to establish contact. The long bamboo poles were dragged along to support the wire antenna. (NARA)
But in 1918 the US Army discovered, quite by accident, that Native languages had immense military value. Easily spoken by a Native speaker, they were hard to learn because of the vocabularies and numerous dialects, and had fundamentally different linguistic structures.
The first code talkers were Choctaws from Oklahoma serving in the 142nd Regiment, 36th Division on the Western Front in World War I. The Army had a policy of full integration of Native American troops, but units of the 36th Division were recruited from the old Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and included both Native American and white troops.
The first use of Choctaw in October 1918 was incidental, and simply involved James Edwards and Solomon Lewis speaking their most familiar language to relay information. Radios of the era were heavy and fragile, and saw little practical use in tactical communications. Most communications were by prearranged color-coded rockets, small notes carried by pigeons, electronic buzzers, runners, and field telephones in order of increasing usefulness. Runners were used to coordinate actions of front-line units, but about one in four was killed or captured. Telephones were by far the most satisfactory, but posed serious problems of laying networks of ground lines under fire, and security. Both sides tended to tap into existing wire networks in captured ground, using the enemy’s lines. The Germans could easily listen in. This was made obvious by an incident when the Americans discussed the location of a bogus supply point, and the Germans obligingly bombarded the empty ground.
Code talker privates first class Preston and Frank Toledo in Australia, July 1943. The radio is a TBX-7, used in the artillery net. There were several models of the TBX, differentiated by frequencies and tactical application. (NARA)
Field telephones provided reliable front-line communications, but the process of laying and maintaining networks of lines was slow and dangerous. This German wire party illustrates the large entourage necessary to lay a line. (NARA)
Though senior officers were credited with the idea, the Choctaw code talkers recognized a company commander, one Capt Lawrence, a white officer, as the author of the notion of a formal spoken code. He persuaded senior officers to redistribute eight fluent Choctaw speakers through the battalion. Choctaw communicators eventually served in three regiments, and an unknown number of other tribal language speakers (Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Osage, and Yankton) were used. Since many military terms – like artillery – had no Choctaw equivalent, simple substitutions like “big gun” were devised. The communicators thwarted every German attempt to break this “code,” and taunted eavesdroppers in English and German.
But the successes of the code talkers were largely forgotten. The US Army again experimented with spoken codes as early as 1941, but it fell to the Marine Corps to develop the most comprehensive and secure system of code talking. However, America’s potential enemies had not forgotten the code. John Benally said that as a Navajo high-school student in 1936 he assisted an older European man, probably a German, to compile a Navajo vocabulary.
There has been some controversy and acrimony over who originated the idea of the Navajo code. Benally, one of the “Original 29” code talkers, made it clear that Philip Johnston originated the idea, but played no role in development of the code itself. Johnston, the son of missionaries, had grown up on the Navajo reservation. In February 1942 he proposed to Maj James E. Jones the idea of Dineh (the name the Navajo call themselves) communicators. His idea was to develop a complex code based on the language. This was the birth of true code talking, an unbreakable code within a code.
CHOCTAW CODE TALKER, 142ND INFANTRY, 36TH (INFANTRY) DIVISION, US ARMY IN THE MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, 1918 The senior leadership of the US Army was determined to break out of the trench warfare stalemate that had characterized the Western Front for four years, and restore mobility to the battlefield. The Meuse-Argonne offensive succeeded in rupturing the German Front, but as in earlier phases of the war communications and logistics limited the advance of any victorious army. In particular, laying secure telephone lines under fire was a slow and hazardous task. This code talker has tapped into an existing German field telephone network by simply splicing his portable telephone into the wires. Many Germans spoke fluent English, and the use of an obscure language like Choctaw thwarted German efforts to eavesdrop on the American communications. The code talker and the infantryman providing security wear the bulky and heavy woolen greatcoat, “dishpan” helmet, and wrap leggings. Both men wear gas-mask carriers around their necks. The communicator is talking on the telephone headset, and the optional headphones are clipped around the telephone box for convenience. Metal tobacco tins, like the one to the right of the telephone, were often used to store parts that might be damaged by water or dirt. The trench knife with integral brass knuckles was a multi-purpose tool, used both for fighting and for cutting and splicing wires. |
Marine division assault communications (typical)
Whichever individuals can best be credited for the adoption of code talkers, they became an integral part of every Marine division, as well as special units like Amphibious Corps support units and Raider units. Some divisions used the code talkers extensively, while others were not so accepting of the program. Some units saw such value in the code that they requested additional code talkers over and above the number rated, or simply grabbed up additional code talkers outside the normal personnel replacement channels. Because of the secrecy that cloaked the program there are no accurate records of how many code talkers served in various units. The diagram above provides some indication of the numbers of code talkers rated by various units, but should not be considered definitive.
Heavy wire reels like this one were used to lay the main telephone lines that knitted together front-line infantry and artillery positions. Maneuvering this burden across the battlefield was a dangerous task. (NARA)
This book will cover the development of the code and follow its use and speakers into combat. In addition, it will touch upon the experiences of the much smaller group of Comanche code talkers who served with the US Army in Europe. It should be noted that Comanche code talkers also served in the Pacific War, and Meskwaki, Sioux, Crow, Hopi, and Cree code talkers served with the Army in North Africa and Europe. Little is known about their service.
We will follow four fictional characters, Navajos Winston Chee, Billy Chee, Vern Begay, and Comanche Nolly Bird. All named characters other than these four are actual persons. Where statements from actual persons are enclosed in quotation marks, these indicate quotations extracted from interviews conducted as part of the Marine Corps Historical Division Oral History Program.
Most Army and Marine Corps communicators, like these Marines on Bougainville, used a small mechanical typewriter, which converted each letter of a message into number groups that had to be laboriously transmitted, and decoded at the other end. The process could take several hours, and the message might contain many errors. (NARA)
1918 | |
October 26 | The Choctaw language is used to coordinate the withdrawal of two companies of the 142nd Infantry, 36th Division from an exposed position. Additional use of code talkers follows. |
1940 | |
December 1940 – January 1941 | (dates uncertain) First Comanche are recruited for the Army’s code talker program. |
1941 | |
August 1–17 | First code talkers are employed in the Army’s Louisiana Maneuvers. |
September–October | The Comanche code is developed at Camp Benning, Georgia. The system is not destined to be expanded beyond one company. |
December 1941 – January 1942 | (exact date unknown) Philip Johnston contacts Maj James E. Jones, US Marine Corps, with a proposal for a Navajo code. |
1942 | |
February 28 | At Camp Elliott, Philip Johnston and four Navajo provide a practical demonstration for Jones, MajGen Clayton B. Vogel, and staff. |
March 26 | LtCol Wethered Woodworth, after meeting with Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials, recommends recruiting Navajo as code talkers. |
April | 1st Sgt Frank Shinn begins recruiting efforts at Fort Defiance, Arizona. |
May 4 | First class of Navajo is inducted at Fort Wingate, Arizona; they are bussed to California the following day. |
June 27 | First class of Navajo recruits graduates boot camp. |
June 28 – August 23 | First class trains in basic communications and develops the code. |
September 18 | First contingent of code talkers arrives on Guadalcanal. Not even the commanding general on the island is aware of the highly secret code program, and at first no one knows how best to utilize the code talkers. The code talkers will go on to play a vital but virtually unknown role in every Marine Corps operation for the next three years. |
1943 | |
November | 6th Marines Division lands on Tarawa. |
1944 | |
February | 4th Marines Division lands on Roi-Namur. |
July 15 | 6th Marines Division lands on Saipan. |
1945 | |
February–March | Operation Detachment, the assault on Iwo Jima. |
March–June | Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa. |
June 19 | On southern Okinawa LtGen Mitsuri Ushijima sends a farewell message to Japan and commits ritual suicide. The ground war is concluded. |
August 14 | Japan surrenders unconditionally. |
1968 | |
Summer | Lee Cannon, a member of the Honors Committee of the 4th Division Association, plans to honor the code talkers at the Association’s annual reunion. He does not know the code is still classified. |
1969 | |
June 28 | With the Navajo Code officially declassified by the Marine Corps, the surviving code talkers are honored at the annual reunion in Chicago. |
In addition to man-portable radios, code talkers also manned communications jeeps like this one on Peleliu. (NARA)
1982 | |
August 14 | The first National Navajo Code Talkers’ Day is celebrated on the orders of President Reagan. |
2000 | |
December 21 | President Clinton signs a congressional bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the original 29 code talkers, and Silver Medals to some 300 Navajo who subsequently served in the program. |
2001 | |
July 26 | President Bush awards the medals at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. |
2002 | |
June 11 | The film “Windtalkers,” an overly dramatized and entirely fictional cinematic version of the code talker story, premiers in Los Angeles. |
Recruitment of the original group of code talkers was by word of mouth, though the purpose was shrouded in secrecy. Navajo John Benally recalled: “I was working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at that time, the education department and the announcement was made that they needed some Navajos to go into special training. I didn’t know exactly what the special training was, but of course later on when we were recruited, we were notified of this special program.” Carl Gorman was working for the federal government, taking an inventory of Navajo tribal livestock. Upon the outbreak of war the program was suspended, and Gorman lost his job. With few other jobs available on the reservation, the military seemed a good alternative to unemployment.
Winston Chee was working for the Tribal Council when the Indian Placement Bureau in far away Los Angeles, California, contacted him. After an interview with a serious middle-aged man named Philip Johnston, Winston was asked to travel to a place north of San Diego. Johnston explained that his only task would be to stand ready in case any of four other Navajo were taken sick or injured. On February 28, 1942, Winston simply cooled his heels while Johnston and Maj Jones had one of the men translate a message and send it by telephone to another Navajo. The second man translated the message back into English. MajGen Clayton B. Vogel, commander of Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, was impressed by the speed and accuracy of the translation. The Marines were still using an obsolete numerical code called Shackle. Vogel forwarded a report to Washington, and requested permission to recruit 200 Navajo communicators.
Commandant Thomas Holcomb approved only a pilot program of 30 recruits. Influential persons in the military and BIA expressed serious doubts. If the first group of recruits failed, Holcomb could easily end the program.
The Marines set up recruiting posts near the Tribal Headquarters at Fort Defiance, New Mexico, and the two boarding schools. The requirements were that recruits should fall in the age range 18–30 years, have fluency in English and Navajo and a minimum weight of 122lb, and be in overall good health and physical condition. The primary hurdles were fluency in English and the weight requirement. Many Navajo spoke only “trader English,” and code talker Jimmy King later recalled that many Navajo recruits were eliminated due to limited education, particularly in spelling. The average American male of that era weighed about 150lb, but the Navajo were smaller both from genetic factors and from malnourishment stemming from poverty on the reservation. The age requirement was easy to circumvent. Birth records on the reservation were somewhat irregular, and the recruiter often had to take the applicant’s word about his date of birth.