World War I cryptography
Encyclopedia
Codes and ciphers were used extensively in World War I
. The decoding by British Naval intelligence of the Zimmermann telegram
helped bring the United States into the war.
Trench code
s were used by field armies of most of the combatants (Americans, British, French, German) in World War I.
by the Royal Navy and in MI1
by British Military (Army) Intelligence.
, and Étienne Bazeries
who came out of retirement, on German ciphers .
was due to interception of messages between the Russian commanders in the clear!
The ADFGX and ADFGVX field ciphers were a modified polybius system with single order double columnar transposition and frequent key change, with letters optimized for Morse. It was later broken by the famous French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin
.
began as a code clerk in the State Department. After the outbreak of war he became the head of the cryptographic section of Military Intelligence Section (MI-8)
and was with the American Expeditionary Force in World War I as a Signals Corps cryptologic officer in France. He later headed the Cipher Bureau, a new cryptanalysis group started in 1919, immediately after World War I, and funded jointly by the State Department and the US Army.
Some American cryptography in World War I was done at the Riverbank Laboratory where Elizebeth Friedman
, William F. Friedman
and Agnes Meyer Driscoll
worked. The Riverbank Laboratory, Chicago was privately owned by Colonel George Fabyan.
The US Navy cryptanalysis group, OP-20-G
, was also started after World War I (in 1922).
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The decoding by British Naval intelligence of the Zimmermann telegram
Zimmermann Telegram
The Zimmermann Telegram was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico to make war against the United States. The proposal was caught by the British before it could get to Mexico. The revelation angered the Americans and led in part to a U.S...
helped bring the United States into the war.
Trench code
Trench code
In cryptography, trench codes were codes used for secrecy by field armies in World War I. A reasonably-designed code is generally more difficult to crack than a classical cipher, but of course suffers from the difficulty of preparing, distributing, and protecting codebooks.However, by the middle of...
s were used by field armies of most of the combatants (Americans, British, French, German) in World War I.
Britain
British decrypting was carried out in Room 40Room 40
In the history of Cryptanalysis, Room 40 was the section in the Admiralty most identified with the British cryptoanalysis effort during the First World War.Room 40 was formed in October 1914, shortly after the start of the war...
by the Royal Navy and in MI1
MI1
MI1 or British Military Intelligence, Section 1 was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. It was set up during World War I...
by British Military (Army) Intelligence.
- Zimmermann telegramZimmermann TelegramThe Zimmermann Telegram was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico to make war against the United States. The proposal was caught by the British before it could get to Mexico. The revelation angered the Americans and led in part to a U.S...
- Arthur ZimmermannArthur ZimmermannArthur Zimmermann was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire from November 22, 1916, until his resignation on August 6, 1917. His name is associated with the Zimmermann Telegram during World War I...
- MI1MI1MI1 or British Military Intelligence, Section 1 was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. It was set up during World War I...
British Military (Army) Intelligence - Room 40Room 40In the history of Cryptanalysis, Room 40 was the section in the Admiralty most identified with the British cryptoanalysis effort during the First World War.Room 40 was formed in October 1914, shortly after the start of the war...
Royal Navy (Britain) - Alastair DennistonAlastair DennistonCommander Alexander Guthrie Denniston CMG CBE RNVR was a British codebreaker in Room 40 and first head of the Government Code and Cypher School and field hockey player...
Room 40 - James Alfred EwingJames Alfred EwingSir James Alfred Ewing KCB FRS FRSE MInstitCE was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis.It was said of Ewing that he was 'Careful at all times of his appearance,...
Room 40, first head - Nigel de GreyNigel de GreyNigel de Grey , CMG, OBE, British codebreaker. Son of the rector of Copdock, Suffolk, and grandson of the 5th Lord Walsingham, he was educated at Eton College and became fluent in French and German. In 1907 he joined the publishing firm of William Heinemann. He married in 1910...
Room 40 - William R. Hall ‘Blinker’ Hall, Room 40, second head
- Dilly KnoxDilly KnoxAlfred Dillwyn 'Dilly' Knox CMG was a classics scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and a British codebreaker...
Room 40 - Oliver StracheyOliver StracheyOliver Strachey , a British civil servant in the Foreign Office was a cryptographer from World War I to World War II....
MI1 - William Montgomery (cryptographer)William Montgomery (cryptographer)Rev. William Montgomery was a Presbyterian minister and a British codebreaker who worked in Room 40 during World War I.Montgomery and Nigel de Grey deciphered the Zimmermann Telegram, which helped bring America into World War I. At this time , Montgomery was 46.A Presbyterian minister, he was an...
Room 40 - Playfair cipherPlayfair cipherThe Playfair cipher or Playfair square is a manual symmetric encryption technique and was the first literal digraph substitution cipher. The scheme was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, but bears the name of Lord Playfair who promoted the use of the cipher.The technique encrypts pairs of...
Russia
- Ernst FetterleinErnst FetterleinErnst Constantin Fetterlein was a Russian cryptographer who later defected to Britain.Fetterlein was born in St Petersburg, the son of Karl Fedorovich Fetterlein, a German-language tutor, and Olga Fetterlein, née Meier. He studied a variety of eastern languages at the University of St Petersburg,...
was in the Tzarist Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1896, and solved (among others) German, Austrian and British codes. He was eventually made chief cryptographer with the rank of Admiral. With the Russian Revolution in 1917 he fled to Britain, and was recruited to Room 40 in June 1918 to work on Austrian, Bolshevik and Georgian codes. - The Russians used an overly complicated version of the Vigenère CipherVigenère cipherThe Vigenère cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of polyalphabetic substitution....
. It was broken within three days by Austro-Hungarian cryptanalyst Hermann PokornyHermann PokornyHermann Pokorny was a World War I Austro-Hungarian Army cryptologist whose work with Russian ciphers contributed substantially to Central Powers victories over Russia. He was a member of the Hungarian Order of Vitéz.- Life :Pokorny was born in Moravia into a German-speaking family. His father was...
.
France
The French Army employed Georges PainvinGeorges Painvin
Georges Jean Painvin was a French cryptanalyst during the First World War. His most notable achievement was the breaking of the ADFGVX cipher in June 1918.Before the First World War, Painvin taught paleontology and geology...
, and Étienne Bazeries
Étienne Bazeries
Étienne Bazeries was a French military cryptanalyst active between 1890 and the First World War. He is best known for developing the "Bazeries Cylinder", an improved version of Thomas Jefferson's cipher cylinder. It was later refined into the US Army M-94 cipher device. Historian David Kahn...
who came out of retirement, on German ciphers .
- The Tableau de ConcordanceTableau de ConcordanceThe Tableau de Concordance was the main French diplomatic code used during World War I; the term also refers to any message sent using the code. It was a superenciphered four-digit code that was changed three times between 1 August 1914 and 15 January 1915....
was the main French diplomatic cipher.
Germany and Austria
Germany and Austria intercepted Russian radio traffic, although German success at the Battle of Tannenberg (1914)Battle of Tannenberg (1914)
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of World War I. It was fought by the Russian First and Second Armies against the German Eighth Army between 23 August and 30 August 1914. The battle resulted in the almost complete...
was due to interception of messages between the Russian commanders in the clear!
The ADFGX and ADFGVX field ciphers were a modified polybius system with single order double columnar transposition and frequent key change, with letters optimized for Morse. It was later broken by the famous French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin
Georges Painvin
Georges Jean Painvin was a French cryptanalyst during the First World War. His most notable achievement was the breaking of the ADFGVX cipher in June 1918.Before the First World War, Painvin taught paleontology and geology...
.
America
Herbert YardleyHerbert Yardley
Herbert Osborne Yardley was an American cryptologist best known for his book The American Black Chamber . The title of the book refers to the Cipher Bureau, the cryptographic organization of which Yardley was the founder and head...
began as a code clerk in the State Department. After the outbreak of war he became the head of the cryptographic section of Military Intelligence Section (MI-8)
Black Chamber
The Cipher Bureau otherwise known as The Black Chamber was the United States' first peacetime cryptanalytic organization, and a forerunner of the National Security Agency...
and was with the American Expeditionary Force in World War I as a Signals Corps cryptologic officer in France. He later headed the Cipher Bureau, a new cryptanalysis group started in 1919, immediately after World War I, and funded jointly by the State Department and the US Army.
Some American cryptography in World War I was done at the Riverbank Laboratory where Elizebeth Friedman
Elizebeth Friedman
Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a cryptanalyst and author, and a pioneer in U.S. cryptography. The special spelling of her name is attributed to her mother, who disliked the prospect of Elizebeth ever being called "Eliza." She has been dubbed "America's first female cryptanalyst".Although she is...
, William F. Friedman
William F. Friedman
William Frederick Friedman was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s...
and Agnes Meyer Driscoll
Agnes Meyer Driscoll
Agnes Meyer Driscoll was, known as Miss Aggie or Madame X, an Americancryptanalyst during both World War I and World War II.-Early years:...
worked. The Riverbank Laboratory, Chicago was privately owned by Colonel George Fabyan.
The US Navy cryptanalysis group, OP-20-G
OP-20-G
OP-20-G or "Office of Chief Of Naval Operations , 20th Division of the Office of Naval Communications, G Section / Communications Security", was the US Navy's signals intelligence and cryptanalysis group during World War II. Its mission was to intercept, decrypt, and analyze naval communications...
, was also started after World War I (in 1922).
See also
- World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
- CryptographyCryptographyCryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
- History of cryptographyHistory of cryptographyThe history of cryptography begins thousands of years ago. Until recent decades, it has been the story of what might be called classic cryptography — that is, of methods of encryption that use pen and paper, or perhaps simple mechanical aids...
- World War II cryptographyWorld War II cryptographyCryptography was used extensively during World War II, with a plethora of code and cipher systems fielded by the nations involved. In addition, the theoretical and practical aspects of cryptanalysis, or codebreaking, was much advanced....