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Unit 387 & Hillsdale College

Today we’re going to introduce you to a brilliant woman whose contributions in both world wars of the twentieth-century ensured Allied victories. After World War II, her efforts were shoved aside, and others took the credit while her extraordinary skills were, and this is putting it mildly, underutilized. However, in today’s world when we bemoan the lack of women in the field of writing code, a century ago, Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a ground-breaking cryptanalyst or, codebreaker. In other words, she did the complete opposite of writing code ⏤she broke it.

Elizebeth Smith Friedman, US cryptanalyst. Photo by U.S. Government (date unknown). NSA. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
Elizebeth Smith Friedman, US cryptanalyst. Photo by U.S. Government (date unknown). NSA. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Japanese had an encryption machine similar to the Nazi’s enigma machine? The Allies called it the “Purple Encryption Machine.” After the Japanese learned that the Americans had broken their code in 1936, they developed a new system to encipher their messages. The Japanese called their new machine the “97 Alphabetical Typewriter” or, better known to the American spy organizations as “Purple.” It was made up of two typewriters with an electrical rotor system and a 25-character alphabetic switchboard. The machine was actually an improvement over the Nazi enigma machine. Without going into a lot of technical stuff (because I don’t understand it), suffice it to say, “Purple” was extremely difficult to crack. The U.S. Army hired William Friedman in 1939 to break the “Purple” code. It took Friedman and his team almost three years to fully decipher “Purple.” In the process, Friedman had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized. Despite never having seen an actual “Purple” machine, Friedman’s team was able to reconstruct one and produced eight functional replicas. Two years into the war, the Allies were able to track the Japanese navy’s movements as well as other military communications. Friedman had cracked enough of the “Purple” code by 1941 to learn the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, this knowledge was never used.

Fragment of an original Japanese Type 97 “Purple” cipher machine. Photo by United States Air Force (2007). National Museum. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
Fragment of an original Japanese Type 97 “Purple” cipher machine. Photo by United States Air Force (2007). National Museum. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
William Friedman in front of an AT&T cipher machine. Photo by anonymous (c. 1919). PD-Published prior to 1924. Wikimedia Commons.
William Friedman in front of an AT&T cipher machine. Photo by anonymous (c. 1919). PD-Published prior to 1924. Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s Meet Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of the George C. Marshall Foundation, Lexington, Virginia.
Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of the George C. Marshall Foundation, Lexington, Virginia.

Elizebeth Smith (1892-1980) was one of ten children born into an Indiana Quaker family. She attended Wooster College (Ohio) but transferred to Hillsdale College (Michigan) in 1913. Elizebeth joined the Pi Beta Phi (“Pi Phi”) sorority and graduated in 1915 with a degree in English literature (a favorite author was Shakespeare). After moving back to her parent’s home and a stint in the public-school system, Elizebeth was asked to join Riverbank Laboratories which was owned by Colonel George Fabyan (1867-1936). It seems the Colonel Fabyan and Elizebeth shared a common interest in Shakespeare and he wanted her to help prove his theory that Sir Francis Bacon had written Shakespeare’s plays. Read More Unit 387 & Hillsdale College

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The Double Cross System

Undoubtedly, many of you have heard the story of the fake army which was used to deceive Hitler and his generals into planning for a cross channel invasion (across the Strait of Dover to Pas de Calais). It is true but the story is somewhat more complex and as wartime documents seven decades old are declassified, historians are only now able to fill in missing gaps and answer why Hitler reacted the way he did to the Normandy invasion.


Did You Know?

Did you know that the author of the James Bond series, Ian Fleming (1908−1964), worked for British Naval Intelligence during World War II? He was promoted to commander and initially served as the assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, the curmudgeon Rear Admiral John Godfrey (1888−1970). In that role, Fleming represented Godfrey in many high-level meetings with the British Secret Intelligence Service, Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the Prime Minister’s staff among other wartime government organizations including the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS—the predecessor to the CIA).

You will shortly meet Duško Popov, one of the principal double agents for the Double Cross System. He was a Serbian intelligence agent who was flamboyant, wealthy, promiscuous, and well-connected in France and the United States. Popov offered his services to the German Abwehr (military intelligence) with the intent all along of becoming a double agent. Popov was anti-Nazi and promptly became a double agent working for MI5 (British Military Intelligence, Section 5). Stationed in Lisbon in mid-1941, Popov was paid $80,000 for his MI5 services. At the time, Fleming had been assigned to shadow him. Popov frequented a local casino where one evening he became upset with the way the house was breaking the rules to benefit one of its affluent baccarat clients. Popov placed a $50,000 bet which the other gentleman was obliged to match, much to his chagrin. This ended with Popov collecting his money and an admonishment to the dealer, “I trust you’ll call this to the attention of the management and that in the future such irresponsible play will be prohibited. It is a disgrace and an annoyance to the serious players.” As he walked away, Popov winked at Fleming whom he knew was with British Intelligence and had been watching him.

Many of the Bond books and its characters were based loosely on Fleming’s wartime experiences. Bond’s boss, M, was based on Godfrey while Miss Moneypenny was loosely based on Vera Atkins, one of leaders of the SOE (click here to read Women Agents of the SOE). It is thought the James Bond character is likely based on Duško Popov and the reason we see Bond in so many casinos stems from Fleming’s experience that evening in the Lisbon casino.

One last tidbit of information: Popov once told Fleming that his uncle, Milivoj Popov, lived in Belgrade, Serbia and the number he called to speak with his uncle was 26-007.


Deception strategies were used by the Allies and Germans against one another throughout World War II. However, by 1942, the Americans and British held the upper hand: intelligence was gained through the top secret Ultra program by decrypting German messages using the Nazi military Enigma machine at Bletchley Park. Deception methods created primarily by British intelligence were becoming increasingly complex and successful. As Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin agreed in late 1943 on plans for an invasion of Europe, the Allies came up with the largest deception plan to date to be used against the Nazis.

Bletchley Park. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons.
Bletchley Park. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons.
Four rotor German naval Enigma. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). Bletchley Park. PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons
Four rotor German naval Enigma. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). Bletchley Park. PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons

Operation Bodyguard and Fortitude

Operation Bodyguard was the American and British-led umbrella deception plan to mislead the Germans into thinking the inevitable invasion of Europe would take place at a location other than the real invasion site. Additionally, the plan was to deceive Hitler about the actual date, time, and size of the assault force. It was formulated in 1943 once the Allies agreed to a 1944 invasion date. Read More The Double Cross System