Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

by Liza Mundy

Through their brainwork, the women had an impact on the fighting that went on. This is an important truth, and it is one that often has been overlooked.

He stated, “I believe that our cryptographers… in the war with Japan did as much to bring that war to a successful and early conclusion as any other group of men.” That more than half of these “cryptographers” were women was nowhere mentioned.

Schoolteachers were smart, educated, accustomed to hard work, unused to high pay, simultaneously youthful and mature, and often unencumbered by children or husbands. In short: They were the perfect workers.

Known as the “Hello Girls,” these were the first American women other than nurses to be sent by the U.S. military into harm’s way.

cryptography, which is the term for code making, and cryptanalysis, the term he coined for code breaking. (The word “cryptology” embraces both.)

Here is the thing about a machine cipher: It’s hell to break, but once you break it, you’re in.

The work that Ann Caracristi and Wilma Berryman were doing enabled U.S. military intelligence to construct what is called the order of battle: an accounting of the strength, equipment, kind, location, and disposition of Japanese Army troops.

they discovered what workplaces are and have been since the dawn of time: places where one is annoyed and thwarted and underpaid and interrupted and underappreciated.