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Robert Maguire's personal annotations on this page

rmaguir
Rmaguir bookmarked on 2008-11-30 intelligence war US cryptology code espionage spying WWII photo

  • The date is July 24th, 1940. The place, the New York City Field Office of the FBI. The memo, from Director Hoover, is short and cryptic:



    CLEARANCE AUTHORIZED FOR FOLLOWING MESSAGE: “DUNN SAYS FOUR BATTLESHIPS AND TEN DESTROYERS OF TEXAS CLASS GOING TO CARIBBEAN TO SCOUT FOR ENGLISH WITH SIX HUNDRED RESERVE OFFICERS AND SIX HUNDRED ENLISTED MEN.”


    HOOVER

  • What you see here is a photo that never should have been allowed to be taken, and one which provides an amazing, one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of WWII espionage and counter-espionage. As far as I can tell, what is shown in this picture is an FBI agent in New York encrypting a message, passed from “DUNN” - Duquesne - through Sebold, prior to transmitting that message to Germany via shortwave radio. Unlike yesterday’s photo, which was clearly staged, this appears to be real cryptology at work. Even the message is most likely real: it refers to the Neutrality Patrol undertaken shortly before the outbreak of war.
  • What I think is really cool, though, is that the photo also shows the agent’s worksheet:

This link has been bookmarked by 6 people . It was first bookmarked on 30 Nov 2008, by Robert Maguire.

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