This meant that help could be asked for and received in real time without any delays when they were eventually deployed on the front line the fast, secure and error-free communication which Code Talkers were able to send by telephone and radio undoubtedly went on to save countless lives. This system made it possible for Code Talkers to translate three lines of English in 20 seconds, a task which would have taken around 30 minutes using existing code-breaking machines. For example, there is no word for ‘submarine’ in Navajo and so the term besh-lo (iron fish) was created, as was Toh-Dineh-ih (sea force) for ships. Type 2 code was made up of words which could be directly translated from English to Navajo this Type 2 code also had an initial list of 211 military terms which did not exist in Navajo (the list was later increased to 411). By the end of the war this alphabet had been expanded to 44 so that the most frequently used letters could be represented by more than one word and so make the code even more difficult to break. the Navajo for ‘ant’ is wo-la-chee, and this was used for the letter ‘a’ in the English alphabet. The first, Type 1, was made up of 26 Navajo words which could be used to represent letters of the English alphabet and would allow them to spell out words e.g. Two types of code were developed by this first group of Code Talkers. Carl Nelson Gorman, one of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, tracks enemy movements on Saipan. On May 5 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits began their basic training, unaware that there was an ulterior motive to their recruitment once this basic training had been completed they underwent an intensive course in message transmission, and began (in a locked and guarded room) to develop a code which it was hoped the Japanese could not break. On 28 th February 1942 four Navajo speakers sent and received coded messages on 6 th March Major General Vogel ordered the recruiting of 200 Navajo speakers to the Marines. Major Jones was sceptical – until Johnston spoke a few words of Navajo and the go ahead was given for a trial. Philip Johnston, a veteran of the First World War who had grown up on the Navajo Nation where his father was a missionary, suggested to Major Jones at Camp Elliott in San Diego that as the Navajo language was unknown among other tribes and the wider American population there would be no chance of the Japanese breaking a code which utilised it. This could not be allowed to continue and so the search was on for an unbreakable code. Vogel recommending the enlistment of 200 Navajo code talkers ĭuring the early part of the war in the Pacific, Japan was able to break every military code in use by the Americans. A memorandum from Marine Corps Major General Clayton B.
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