The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker

Codebreaker Girls

Jan Slimming

• Editorial: Pen and Sword Military
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781526784162
• Categoría: History
• Categoría: Military Biographies

The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker is the true account of Janice Martin, a college student recruited to the military in 1943, after she was secretly approached by a college professor at Goucher College, a liberal arts establishment for women in Baltimore, USA. Destined for a teaching career, Janice became a prestigious professor of classics at Georgia State University, but how did she spend three years of her secret life during the war working in Washington D.C.’s Top Secret Intelligence? Why was she chosen? How was she chosen? What did she do? Questions everyone asks are answered in this study of not just one but several Second World War codebreakers, male and female. Backed by extensive research, unpublished photographs and recorded interviews, we discover the life of Janice Martin from Baltimore and her Top Secret Ultra role in helping to combat U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic; the work she and her colleagues undertook in a foundation provided by both British and American Intelligence. From ‘the early days’ to D-Day and beyond, the book includes other hidden figures who were part of this huge wheel of an incredible time in history.

Chapter 1

Baltimore 1923

I was grateful for NPR’s lead and Janice was equally keen to tell her story. She was Professor Emerita in Classics at Georgia State University. She was born in Baltimore, worked in Washington DC, and had lived in Atlanta for a long time with her family. Her husband, Herbert Benario was also Professor of Classics at the neighbouring college, Emory University.

The administration office at Georgia State connected us, and after one hour of me hitting ‘send’ on my email that November day, Janice telephoned me. She said she had newspaper cuttings and book references and two days later I received a large envelope with multiple photocopied articles about Bletchley Park and cryptology. Now I really wanted to uncover my mother’s story, but I almost didn’t know where to start. Should I be looking at codes and try to learn about codebreaking? Or assemble old photos from my mother, that didn’t mean much to me? Instead, I started reading accounts of others and wondered how my mother fitted into this.

After further long conversations, Janice and I eventually arranged to meet. I was apprehensive but delighted to finally introduce myself to the person who I was by then calling my adopted codebreaking mother. Her huge smile was infectious and almost overwhelmed her small-framed body. She was even the same height as my mother, though slimmer. We continued our discussions and Janice told me everything about growing up in Baltimore and her wartime experience. This was the first time I’d spoken at length with anyone involved in the Second World War. It was emotional and exciting at the same time. She showed me photos of when she was young and gave me a list of additional books. So, with the help of the internet, scant memories and many books, I started to piece together my mother’s days at Bletchley Park. I had to read, read, read and organise a visit to England.

My research soon led me to also capture her oral history and write her story; it was an important opportunity and not to be missed.

Background – Leading to the Second World War

Janice was born five years after the end First World War, 1914-1918. The death toll had been over twenty-two million, and the Allies had formed the League of Nations in 1920 to prevent further wars and disastrous loss of life from ever happening again. A long period of intense patriotism ensued. This was followed by uncertainty, and then a period of economic prosperity.

In North America and Western Europe – especially in big cities such as New York, Paris, Berlin and London – cultural bias paved the way for the Roaring Twenties (or Années folles in France). The ‘Crazy Years’ emphasised social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Some events and reactions were considered extreme and hyper-emotional, but many wartime survivors were young women who had lost their fathers, brothers or fiancés and, for them, theatre and musical artistic flair was crucial to define their role as modern women. They had new freedoms in politics, the workplace, fashion and behaviour. Over-zealous young women were called ‘Flappers’ wearing shorter skirts and bobbed hair. They listened to jazz and flaunted their disdain for those who considered their behaviour morally unacceptable. They were called brash for applying excessive makeup, drinking contraband alcohol and expanding their sexual liaisons in a casual manner. They smoked cigarettes, drove cars and generally flouted the so-called social and respectable norms of previous years. During this time, women also won the right to vote in most major countries.

It was a period of unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations resulting in significant lifestyle changes. Manufacture of vehicles expanded, and a few telephones started to appear in homes leading to better communication. Electricity became widely available and radio connected towns and cities across the world. Refrigeration paved the way for convenience foods at home, then came air conditioning, and moviemakers focused on film stars and palatial cinemas. In 1923 a growing dance craze was sweeping the United States, ‘dance ‘til you drop’. Young couples endangered their lives by dancing for hours, hoping to win a handsome cash prize. Many were injured. One girl’s ankles swelled to twice the normal size after dancing more than forty-five hours and wearing out five male dance partners. In Baltimore, a couple were stopped by police after a marathon of fifty-three hours.

* * *

Janice was born on 19 February 1923. ‘I was born Janice Marguerite Martin. My mother’s maiden name was Gladys Kathryn Martin, and my father was J. Elmer Martin.’

That was a surprise. The ‘tape’ was running and I interjected to question why they had the same name.

‘Yes’, said Janice. ‘It was a strange thing that my mother had the same married name as her maiden name. She had some difficult moments explaining they were legally the same. It was an unusual situation.’

She continued: ‘I grew up in a typical Baltimore Row House. It was long and narrow with a red brick front and white marble steps. Baltimore is known for rows and rows of this type of house. Ours had three floors and a basement. My grandfather, John L. Martin had been a bricklayer and he helped build the house for his son, J. Elmer. When my parents married, his mother and father were getting old and so an apartment was made for them on the second floor. My parents and I lived on the first and third floors, plus we had use of the basement. Our address was 2923 North Calvert Street, Baltimore.’

Janice and her mother, Gladys Kathryn Martin, Calvert Street, Baltimore. (Janice Benario Archive)

The Martin residence resembled a New York Brownstone, in the middle of a block of several houses. It was 16 feet across on a strip of land just 16 feet wide, which her grandfather had bought. ‘The dwelling areas were long and went right to the back. On the first floor was a living room, a music room, a dining room and a hall which passed by the pantry to the kitchen,’ Janice remembered.

‘Their furniture was smart and solid. The kitchen had a large stove, a sink, a large worktable and a wall of cabinets and cupboards. There was also a small dinette where some of their meals were eaten.’ Through the kitchen, a door opened to the back porch, where steps led down to the garden and a cement sidewalk that bordered a small lawn to a brick garage for her father’s car. ‘He was lucky to have one,’ she said.

‘I used to call my grandfather “Dadaddy”, and with Grandma and my parents, we all lived happily together for many years. We were not rich, but comfortable; my family knew how to handle money.’

Baltimore was a large city and as the houses were close together Janice said she got to know all her neighbours and had plenty of other children to play with. ‘We roller skated in the neighbourhood and threw balls around, not in the road, but on the sidewalk. We also played hopscotch but there were trees along the edge of the street which always got in the way.’

Janice in the Calvert Street garden with her grandfather, 1926. (Janice Benario Archive)

She was five-and-a-half when she started kindergarten at Margaret Brent Elementary School, ten-minutes from her home. Her father had his own law office and together they walked the three blocks, then he caught the streetcar to his office. By the time she was six or seven, she walked by herself. She went to public school all the way through to high school. ‘My mother was a “stay-at-home”.’

I enquired if her mother minded being a ‘stay-at-home’. Most married middle-class women did stay home then, but attitudes toward women were changing. She replied, ‘Well, the interesting thing about my mother’s family (who also lived in a row house four blocks away) was that when she graduated Eastern High School and wanted to go to college in 1912, her father had strict views, saying, ‘As long as I can support you, no daughter of mine is going to go to college.’ So, her mother didn’t go to college and never went to work. Janice said she didn’t think her mother resented it, ‘…she was happy being at home.’

Her father J. Elmer, however, was pulled out of high school at 16 to work at the Pennsylvania Railroad as his father, Janice’s Dadaddy, was injured and couldn’t work. He only went to the second year of high school but was able to take an evening business course. Later he went to law school at the University of Maryland. After three years he took the bar exam and passed first time.

Janice’s mother had married J. Elmer, at the age of 26 and he was 32. They had few relatives, but all lived in the Baltimore area. ‘One aunt, one uncle and one first cousin, sixteen years older.’ Consequently, Janice was brought up to be independent and safely travelled the city by herself from a young age. ‘I was not spoiled in any way. I was just very independent.’

From the beginning education was important in her family and, as an only child, she spent many hours reading. ‘I always had a library card for books and read magazines, American Girl or something similar. I went through a spell of reading The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, and liked mysteries and romances. Little Women by American author Louise May Alcott, published in the 1860s, was also a popular choice. Baltimore had both a morning paper and an evening paper; my family bought them all.’ Janice was well informed on current affairs.

‘We were never wealthy, but if we needed a new car, we could get one, of course it helped that my parents lived in a house my grandfather built and paid for long ago. They had no mortgage.’

Her comfortable upbringing, however, indicated little of what she was to experience in later life. She did not have siblings and entertained herself playing hopscotch in the street when she was young, schoolwork, sewing, practising the piano, and playing sports. When the bubble burst in September 1929, Janice’s family were able to balance on the edge of the Great Depression, maintaining their stability, and could still have vacations.

‘My favourite was to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where I could swim in the ocean. My father never learned to swim but he loved the Atlantic Ocean and got me liking it too’.

Janice and her father, J. Elmer Martin, by the ocean at Atlantic City beach. (Janice Benario Archive)

Chapter 2

Trouble in Europe

Janice was an inquisitive student and read about the turmoil growing in Europe, including the complex decisions her country might have to take. At the age of 12, history was one of her favourite subjects. Through school lessons and her parents’ newspapers, she learned about world events and the Neutrality Act, an ancient proclamation, which would soon be amended and affect America’s decisions in global affairs.

The first mention of neutrality was in a formal proclamation issued by the US President, George Washington on 22 April 1793. He declared the nation would abstain from conflict between France and Great Britain and threatened legal proceedings against any American who aided any country at war. The Neutrality Act was formally passed in 1794, and clearly outlawed military operations against nations at peace with America.

During the early 1930s and the Great Depression, the Neutrality Act was still in force, but later amendments were passed by US Congress in response to a repeat of increased tensions in Europe. The 1935 act sought to ensure America would never again become embroiled in foreign conflicts. The amendment was spurred by strong isolationist and non-interventionist feelings, from those who remembered the country’s costly involvement in the First World War, not only in lives but dollars as, two decades later, America’s allies still owed huge sums of money.

An embargo on all war-item shipments was established which meant Americans were not permitted to travel on belligerent ships, and hostile countries were not allowed loans, but as the country wallowed in neutrality and isolationism, events in Europe and Asia escalated.

Totalitarianism – full government political power over public and private life – became a form of communism in the USSR under Joseph Stalin, while Spain and Italy followed the fascist ideals of Hitler, and fascism grew in Japan. As worl...

Índice

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Paul Reid
• Prologue
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Baltimore 1923
• Chapter 2 Trouble in Europe
• Chapter 3 War UK
• Chapter 4 America Inches Forward
• Chapter 5 A Junior in College
• Chapter 6 War USA
• Chapter 7 Chosen
• Chapter 8 A Brief History of American Codebreaking
• Chapter 9 Codebreaking in America
• Chapter 10 Women in Codebreaking
• Chapter 11 Signals, Operators, Poppies and WACs
• Chapter 12 WAVES
• Chapter 13 Going to the Chapel
• Chapter 14 Battle of the Atlantic
• Chapter 15 Working in Nooks and Crannies
• Chapter 16 Handling Top Secret Intelligence
• Chapter 17 Bombe Machines, German Codebreaking and ULTRA
• Chapter 18 Japanese Codebreaking
• Chapter 19 The Workings of Secret Codebreaking
• Chapter 20 Alien Codes?
• Chapter 21 D-Day
• Chapter 22 Final Battles
• Chapter 23 War’s End in Europe
• Chapter 24 Waiting for VJ Day
• Chapter 25 Aftermath
• Epilogue
• Afterword
• Memorial Day 2021
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• American Personnel at Bletchley Park
• Endnotes