Words and War
Nikolos van Leer 2019, section 3
HR: none
- Introduction
Throughout the history of warfare, disrupting the enemy’s communications has been key to military success. Most militaries in recent history have relied on telecommunications such as radios and telephones. We have many military contingency plans for if war were to break out with other countries. Many of these contingency plans begin with strategically bombing power grids and stations that are critical to the enemy’s instant telecommunications. A major key to military success is dominating the battlefield of communications. This can be done in many ways, such as intercepting enemy communications. This is why it is important to encrypt your radio communications and learn to decrypt the enemy’s. This can be demonstrated by examining the battles over the airwaves in World War II.
- Encryption
2.1. The Code Talkers
During the War in the Pacific, the U.S. and Japanese were both able to hear each other talk to each other over the radio. There was no way to hide their frequencies from each other. The only way for the U.S. to encrypt their messages was to use a code. However, they needed a code complex enough that the Japanese would never be able to figure it out. To meet this demand, they came up with a method of encryption that had two layers to it. This method was the use of the famous Navajo Code Talkers.
2.2. The First Layer
The first layer was simply talking to each other in the Navajo language as opposed to English. There may have been Japanese soldiers who knew English, but it was highly unlikely that any of them knew Navajo. There was also no way that the Japanese could find a Navajo to work with them. The Navajo were a proud people with a time-honored warrior tradition and they would never betray their allies. In addition to this, it was nearly impossible for the Japanese to capture one in the first place. The U.S. kept them very safe from enemy capture and were prepared to kill the Code Talkers before letting them fall into enemy hands.
2.3. The Second Layer
The first layer would likely have been enough to keep the Japanese from understanding on its own, but the second layer was still needed. The second layer of encryption came from the fact that the Navajo language did not contain words for many relevant terms of war. This meant that they had to get creative with how they worded their messages. For instance, they did not have a word for “ship”. Instead, they used the phrase “metal fish”. Because of this, not only would the Japanese have to translate the Navajo language but they would also have to figure out the meanings of these improvised phrases.
2.4. The Effect
The Japanese had no way to properly deal with the code talkers and had no hope of ever developing a way. All that they could do to disrupt United States radio communication was to get on their frequencies and make as much disruptive noise as possible. They would scream and shout and bang metal objects together in an attempt to drown out the voices of the Code Talkers, but it was not enough. The Code Talkers were still very much able to effectively communicate with each other and securely pass on vital tactical information.
- Interception and Decryption
3.1. The Enigma
In the War in Europe, the Allies’ struggle was not in encrypting their own messages, but rather in decrypting the Germans’. Nazi Germany had developed a brilliantly designed machine known as “The Enigma”. The way it worked was that each letter in the alphabet would not actually reference itself but rather another randomly selected letter. The letters that each letter referenced was changed daily and every German command would be given the day’s code to decrypt the messages. This meant that in order to decrypt the Germans’ messages, the Allies would have to decrypt each code every day. The Germans were able to talk to each other freely with no consequences.
3.2. Colossus
Eventually, Britain got their hands on a German defector who understood how the Enigma functioned. This meant that Britain could now heavily invest in a means to defeat the Enigma. Using the defector’s information, British forces were able to develop a machine known as Colossus. Colossus used an algorithm to analyze a message and test possible decryption solutions until it found one that produced an actual message. Using Colossus, they were able to understand what the Germans were telling each other. The Colossus was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war. The German’s never found out about Colossus and thought that their Enigma messages were still unbeatable. Meanwhile, the British secretly had the upper hand the entire time. The Germans would fearlessly send sensitive strategic information with Enigma encryption and virtually serve their secrets to the Allies on a silver platter.
3.3 The Effect
One might think that the Germans ought to have realized something was wrong once the Allies suddenly were able to make plans that perfectly countered their own. However, the British were extremely proficient at hiding the fact that they knew what the Germans were planning. They would only use their decrypted intelligence just enough to tip the scales of battle in favor of the Allies. Most of the Allies’ victories that were attributable to Colossus were seen by the Germans as a matter of dumb luck. These small victories added up, tipping the scales of the entire war in favor of the Allied Forces. The Allied victory over the Axis powers in Europe was possible partially because of the success of Colossus.
- Conclusion
In warfare, one of the most important battlefields is the battlefield of communication dominance. The ability to safely communicate with your allies and the ability to listen in on your enemies can both be the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield. More importantly, it can be the difference between life and death. The U.S. were able to dominate Japan in the Pacific, because they were able to securely encrypt their radio communications with each other. The British dominated Germany in Europe, because they were able to intercept and decrypt the radio messages sent by the Germans while the Germans thought that their information was safe. In both cases, the winners of the war were decided, in no small part, by the battle over the airwaves.