,l 

Dear Travis• 

Arlington Hall Station 

Arlington, Va. 

U.S.A. 

20 August 1943 

I learned today, with sincere regret, from Pat Bayly tha.t 

you have been somewhat unqer the weather sinoe your return, and 

I hasten to send you my wishes for a speedy recovery. 

I know th.at I have been ve~y remiss in failing to send 

you long ago a note to thank you for the many courtesies shown 

me by yourself and by the many members of your staff during my ~our &t Bletchl~y Park. In extenuation, I can only plead that ~ d~terred WJ:'it1~ un~il there could be sent along at the same 

t1-me a co~y or my first report based upon the voluminous notes 

Which I took during my visit, When I commenced its preparation 

I to~d that to ~o-wha.t I regarded as a necessary and thorough job or it, I would have to go into details and try to convey oh paper something which would give a fair pioture o~ the verJ 

important, not to say astonishing, operations which I had the 

good fortune to see. So it took considerable time but the 

other day I filed a ~ather extensive report on the E operations and a copy is being sent you officially. I know that it will ~ve some errors but I hope that they will not be of a serious 

l)ature. If somebody would be good enough to write a brief 

cr!ticiam pointing out wherein I went astray I should be very 

grateful. 

First or all, permit me to say that my admiration for your 

very remarkable organization and the supremely important work 

which has been done by you and your people is unbounded. I 

reel that when Mr. ChurchI11 made his now ramous statement to 

the et.feet that ttn!'ver bef'ore did so many owe so much to so few", 

he must have had BP in mind~ as well as certain others more 

prominently in the public eye. 

I shojld~ of' coUl'se, like to write individual letters of 

thanks to everybody who was so kind andllelpful to me, but this 

is jjnpossible. However, I cannot refrain from mentioning a few 

:pe-0J>1e by name. 

For the opportunity of meeting and having such pleasant conversation with your Chief, and for his opening wide the gates 

to the Inner Sanctum, I am deeply grateful. -

Declassified and approved for release by NSA on 05-19-2014 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
REF ID:A275480 

To Colonel Tiltma.n I have written a special letter of thanks. t 

To 1"ll-· DeGr~y I owe a special debt ot gratitude, ro~ during 

your absence he took prompt care of my slightest and oftt.mes 

J{OSt casually expressed wish. I owe him special thanks for having ~~e my trip to Cambri~ge possible and also for having made 

possible my trip to Oxford, on which he accompanied me and ~rom 

which I derived much information and considerable pleasure. 

___ To Mr. ~;lcpman and to W!pg Commander Jones I owe special thanks r.~ ~he very considerabJ~ time they took from more 

pressing duties to talk with me and give me a comprehensive picture o~ What tlieir organizations were doing. Mr. Fletcher, in Mr. i/elQbmap~~s group, was extremely helpful in guiding me through the complex maze of Hut 6 operations. To the many, many people 

1ii:1Iut 6 &nd Hut ' who were ao indulgent and who patiently anSfered~the ma.gy questions~vbich I asked, the answers to which ~o duly recorded in my notes, particular thanks are due. w 

, ~ To Professor Boase, to Dr. McVittie, and to the various 

other people in )fr. Cooper's organization, and to Mr. Cooper himself, I owe a considerable debt tor the opportunity of seeing e-'flne~qw. I fJ.nd it ditticμlt to express my sincere appreci- l!tiOn or the great courtesy shown Lieutenant Colonel Taylor t!td myself by Mr. Cooper when he took the time to accompany 

us oi.t a whole day's tour or Cheadle. ~ 

~ ~o Mr. P'g8_and to Mr. Twinn, of ISOS and !SK fame, I 

oye_&- debt tor tbe large amount or their ovn time they gave me, 

telling me the story of their shows, which I round rather 

r&scfnating--almost like what one expects to see at the Cinema. 

To Colonel Pritchard, Ma.jor Thompson, .Major Evans, Major .Al.exander, Captain Shiner, Captain Nenk, Captain Webster, and cyi"~tain Ingleby are due many thanks tor a tine tour through ~o. IV I.B., and to Major Lewis and Major Gadd are due my thanks tor an equally fine tour through their parts of No. VI I.S. 

I must not fail to mention several others, sucb as Mr. 

Freeborn_, who personally took me through his "works" and later 

prepared a special report at my request; Major Morgan, who, as 

the bead of your very ~apable research group, was very helpful; Paymaster Commander Dudley-Smith, who gave me the benefit or 

hie studies on cryptographic security. 

Then there is ~ommander Hok, who provided a delightful luncheon when I visited his show at Oxford and devoted the 
~ 

REF ID:A275480 

SE ml 

whole of an afternoon to showing me through his very interesting show; and Wing Commander Swanborougb., who provided a tine 

luncheon and dinner and who devoted maiiy hours to showing 

Colonel Taylor and myself through his very excellent show at Cheadle~ 

To Conimander Bradshaw, and his able aBsistants, to Captain 

Ka.ye and~o,Mr. Nicholson I am indebted tor many cQupt~~ies 

which looked~ovard my personal eomf'ort. Finally, I shail never forget the memorable and happy day I spent with Pror~ssor Vincent at 

Cambridge. For that delightful visit and my illuminating talksi 

with him on that occasion my special thanks are due him. I 

I 

All in all, largely as a result of the many kindllesses and 

courtesies extended to m.e by you and so m'ny other people at 

BP, I shall retain in memory for a long time a reoolleotion of 1 

a tour that constituted one ot the most in!'ormative and at the 1 

same time most pleasurable periods in my life. There &re un- \ doubtedly many people whose names I have failed to mention herein 

and I hope thllLt you will be good enough to convey to everybody \ 

my deep thanks, whether I have mentioned their names or not, and\ 

that you will be so good as to extend my apologies tor being unable to thank each or them individually by letter. 

Things are moving quickly here and I have hi~h hopes that 

we will be able to do something toward hitting the bulls-eye \ 

in the Japanese army problem aa you have on the various problems 

you have so successfully taokl~d. 

Reiterating my personal thanks to you, and with most cordial 

greetings and best wishes for your good health, I am 

Commander E. W Travi~ 

GC &: CS 

Sincerely youl's, 

William F. Friedman 

Director of Communications 

Researe:h ~ - -

P.S. I'm sure you will be interested in a suitable "Theme Song" for Hute 3 and 6. Maybe it in well-known to the people at BP but 

\ 

\ 

I 

I caaeacroas it only the other day. Here is a copy tor you in case 

it is nev. "\