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j 

I.l!X:TURE IV 

How I came to be a crypta.nal.yst. Riverbank - the unofficial Black 

Chamber. The School of Cryptography. 

Colonel George Fabyan 

Studying cryptology 

U.S. had !!2 organization for cryptanalysis 

Navy had a very small group for ma.king Navy codes and ciphers. 

Arm:/ had nothing, not even what the Navy had. 

Remember W.D. T.C. 1915!?? 

When in April. 1917 U.S. entered war, British soon told Military IntelJ.igence 

Branch, War Department General Staff about insecurity of WD Telegraph Code. ~ 

Implications! ' 

President Wil.son's lack of confidence in State Department codes. 

152 

P. 143 of The Life and Letters of Woodrow WJ.l.son, Vol. 61 Showing plain 

text of message from Wilson to House, in Wilson's handwriting 

152.l 

P. 144 of the book. Message encoded by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. 

152.2 

Message as f'inal..ly sent by the State Department. 

( 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 10-09-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
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ill P. 316 of Woodrow Wilson's "Lif'e e.nd Letters", Vol 51 showing shorthand 

notes ma.de by Wil.son tor a tel.egram to Col.onel. Bouse. 

153.l 

P. 317 of above showing President Wilson's transcription of the above 

message into code, done on his own typewriter. 

153 2 

Transcription into plain l.a.nguage on receipt. 

212 

Title :page of Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers by Parker Hitt, 

1916 (Things we studied.) 

J.69 

Parker Hitt. 

Title page at An Advanced Problem in Cry;ptogra;phy and its Solution by 

Mauborgn.e. 1914. 

1-22· J. o. Mauborgne. Became Chief' Signal. Officer. 

We study. We solve messages for State, War, Navy and Justice. We teach 

crypt and run classes. We learn Bacon's Biliteral.--the earl.iest binary code. 

Bacon's "bili terar ie alphabet" 

81 

Example: The Castle. 

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Many years later (15-16), being desl.l'ous of giving a picturesque example 

at bilateral cipher in one of m:f texts but thinking the picture of a phoney 

castle would not be acceptable to the authorities in the OCSigO, I put in an 

example and challenge students to solve it. 

l.. Buil.ding up Riverbank crypt organization, 1916-1917. 

2. What sort of messages did Riverbank solveY Mexican principally --

messages obtained surreptitiously by D/J. 

No facilities for intercept ot radio. 

No arrangements with Western Union or Postal for copies of messages of 

belligerents in Europe. 

Ciphers of Hindu conspiracy. 

&.!. One of the ciphers used by the Hindu conspirators - 191.6-17. 

Solution of the Hindu letter. 

34.l 

Another Hindu system. 

Trial in Chicago. 

Bow trial in San Francisco wound up! 

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In due course, MID builds an organization in Washington around 1st Lt. 

Yardley. In summer 1917 Riverbank is cut out for security reasons and for 

schooling of' of'f'icers. 

Will have something to say about H.O.Y. later. 

133 

The entire officer staff' of' MI-8. 

Some ot the things MI-8 worked on (with British help): Postal censorship, 

26 

eoncealment systems, secret ink message on music sheet, German spy (Courteney de 

Rysbach) sentenced to life. 

Phoney music. 

26.l 

- Open code "Concealment" (every 4th word) 

26.2 

The message. 

27.5 

~Another example - every 6th word in lines with even number ot words. 

27.6 

~Heavy letters --passed by German censor. 

30-32 

Sabotage messages. 

Spies and secret agents. 

Secret ink writing in the Black Tom and Kingsland Fire disasters. 

25 and 25.1 

Waberski. 

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82 

Riverbank continues to work on Mexican messages but it tapers off. But 

instructional courses go on. One of the classes ot student officers at the 

----~~T"-"" --·.:;:· ... ·- -------------------------~ .... -'C''W1'11'1JJ ~ 

Riverbank School of Cryptography, 1917-18. 

r 

156 

I am commissioned and go directly to France. 

~ Col.onel. Moorman. 

Cipher system used by the Russians m World War I (from a book by the 

Austrian cryptologist, Andreas Figl). (Misuse of this cryptographic system. 

(or f'ail.ure to use) cost the Russians the defeat at Tannenberg! Importance of' 

that defeat. 

Russo-Finnish War 194~. 

J.2 

French Army. 

Italian Army. 

The German ADFGVX cipher system, used by the German High Command during 

World War I. (First new system used by them. Invented by putting together two 

well-known steps.) 

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• The PLAY.FAIR Cipher. This cipher was used by the British and Americans, and 

was thought to be 'hot stutf' in 1914. Solution was described in Mauborgne•s 

"An advanced probl.em in cryptography" • 

Cipher al.l.egedl.y invented by Playf'air, but he did not do it -- rather Wheatstone. 

Wheatstone is credited with having invented the electrical. bridge, but he did not 

do it -- rather Christy. 

Double transposition. 

Code systems ot WWI. 

An example of a commercial code. Call attention to 2-letter dif'f'erence. Al1 

kinds, suited and specially constructed for general. or specific businesses and 

industries, such as leather, steel, automotive, shipping, etc. 

18 

- A highly specialized "commercial code" Call attention to 3-letter difference: 

Chinese code. 

YGATA -

YGKRO -

YGCIB - YGMAN -

COMA 

DELIRIUM TREMENS 

CONSTIPATION 

DIARRHEA 

19-22 

Tactical codes in WWI. Prior to World War I and, in fact, for the first two 

years of World War I code was thought to be impractical for military field or 

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tactical use. But the Germans began to use code late in 1916, and the Allies 

followed suit Question of reproduction then as it is today. 

Field codes in WW I - will show only one example in slides --the German 

type of KRUSA code Exhibits can be examined later. 

One ot the German Army Field Codes, World War I. 

KRU 

KRUS 

KRUS A 

French Arm3 Code. 

676 x 3 1928 

~f -~ 

32Si 

British Army Field Code, World War I. 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

An early AEF Code in World War I. An indication of how poorly prepared we 

were for COMSEC. 

24 

- American ArUJ¥ Code. River series - First ArUJ¥, Lake series - Second Army. 

Cryptanalytic work in World War I. American successes in cryptanalytic 

work in the AEF, World War I, were not remarkable because of circumstances. We 

were working on traf'fic from "quiet sectors" -- hence bad little but practice, 

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and tbat was largely in 2-part codes. Fair success with cipher because traffic 

from all sources and collaboration with French and British. Best results were 

in connection with lower echelon 3-number codes, o~en tactically useful information 

was obtained after the introduction of the 3-llllll1ber code. 

J.4.l 

- "Special. Code Section Report" by G-2, A-6., GHQ, AEF 2fJ Nov 1918. A crypt 

"bulletin" from the ADFGVX cipher. This farms a good example of Special. Intelligence 

in World War I. 

!2.· One of the earl.iest exampJ.es of traffic analysis and traffic inteJ.ligence -

based on study of traffic in ADFGVX messages. 

On traffic analysis. "The probJ.em of the extent to which traffic analysis 

can be regarded as a reJ.iable source ot intelligence is an extreme.ly tricky one. 

I feel tbat it wiJ.l always have its limitations., that the 'first impressions' 

which it gives may often be wrong, that it must rely heavil.y on later confirmation 

from crypta.naJ.ysis ar collateral, and that in particular it is resrettably 

vulnerabl.e to deception activ:i.ty by an enemy. 11 - Travis in J.etter to Wenger 5 Jan 51 

Return to U .s. af'ter final. report and am. demobilized. Return to Ri verba.nk 

and write brochure. Trying for Regular Ar'llf3' at G. Fabyan's insistence. Joining 

cso, 1921, January 1. 

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U S. COMIN'l' activities in 1920-29. 

1. Navy had RPS but small. COMINT just in iD:f."ancy. All work under 

Naval Communications. No official relations between Army and Navy. 

2. Army -- cryptologic work under much divided authority: 

Signal Corps, G-21 and AG with MI having over-all responsibility 

for security. 

3 WFF came to OCSigO on J. January 1920 

4. B.O.Y. in New York. No relations ABC with OCSigO, AB AB 

solved J messages in 1922 Disar:mamant Conference 5-5-3 ration. 

5. Albright studies situation. 

6 Closing of ABC - STIMSON. 

7 SIS formally established on paper in April 1929 by transfer of 

solution. activity to OCSigO and little later transfer of AG duties to OCSigO 

also - thus integrating all work under one head. But G-2 retained over-aJ.l 

responsibility. 

8. Publication of Yardley book and effects. 

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I begin compilation, revision of codes and ciphers. Study cryptanalysis. 

Put out some brochures. 

l.66 

The first official. text. W D. Training Pamphl.et No. 3. El.ements of 

Cryptanal.ys is • TICOM souvenir. 

l.61. 

Major Owen s. Al.bright. Reorganization of C & C work. 

SIS Staff - l.935· 

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