Abstract
Elizebeth Friedman and her Coast Guard cryptanalytic group were transferred to the Navy and spent the most of the war chasing German spies operating in South America. Her group broke not one but three Enigma machines and was largely responsible for containing the German threat in Brazil and Argentina. Her work was so secret that neither she nor anyone in her group received any awards or recognition for their work at that time.
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Notes
- 1.
Jason Fagone, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, (New York, NY: William Morrow, 2017), 189.
- 2.
Fagone, Smashed, 227.
- 3.
Fagone, Smashed, 231–232.
- 4.
Fagone, Smashed, 235.
- 5.
“Personnel File: Elizebeth Smith Friedman” (National Personnel Records Center, 1946), VF 148-2, National Cryptologic Museum Library.
- 6.
Fagone, Smashed, 239–241; Elizebeth S. Friedman, “ESF Letter to Wild Bill Donovan,” Memorandum, December 29, 1941, archive.org, https://archive.org/details/@jason_fagone
- 7.
Peter Twinn, “The Abwehr Enigma,” in Codebreakers : The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 123–31.
- 8.
David Mowry, “Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during World War II” (Ft. George Meade, MD: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2011), https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/assets/files/cryptologic_aspects_of_gi.pdf, 84–88.
- 9.
Mowry, German Intelligence, 84.
- 10.
Elizebeth S. Friedman, “History of US Coast Guard Unit #387: 1940–1945” (Washington, DC: United States Navy, 1945), https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfCoastGuardUnit387/page/n1/mode/2up, 230.
- 11.
Fagone, Smashed, 244–245; David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II, (New York: Macmillan, 1978), 326.
- 12.
Leonard T. Jones, “History of OP-20-GU (Coast Guard Unit of NCA),” Memorandum (Washington, DC: United States Navy, Naval Security Group, October 16, 1943), RG 38, box 115, 5750/193, CNSG Library, https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfOP20GU, 6.
- 13.
Mowry, German Intelligence, 86.
- 14.
This “Red” Enigma machine is not to be confused with the Japanese diplomatic RED machine that the SIS solved in 1935. They are completely different.
- 15.
Fagone, Smashed, 279–281, 303; Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, 324–327.
- 16.
Fagone, Smashed, 193–194.
- 17.
Friedman, History of Unit #387.
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Dooley, J.F. (2023). The Friedmans at War: Elizebeth. In: The Gambler and the Scholars. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28318-5_18
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