More than 10,000 women were recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy as secret code breakers in World War II, working to decode enemy communications. Their story was finally, fully revealed in 2017’s bestselling, “Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II.” The Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress hosted a reunion on Friday, March 22. Here, “code girl” veterans Nancy Tipton and Katherine Fleming chat with author Liza Mundy, who told their story.
Comments (10)
Dear Sirs,It must have been very exciting this reunion.
Lovely photo, but under Special Category don’t you mean World War II not World War I.
Hi Clare Imholtz,
Thanks for the close read! The menu of categories on the left is a standard feature, not related to this (or any other) particular post…although I take your point. It DOES look odd in this instance.
All best,
Neely
You have marked the indicated special category for this blog post as “World War I.” It should be “World War II.”
Good book!
Hi Ms. Doyle,
Thanks for close read! The “special category” is a separate listing, not related to this post. Those categories are just part of the menu.
All best,
Neely
Congratulations to the women in uniform and remembering in a great way
I’m reading the book “Code Girls”. Wish I could sit down with one of you with my 12 year old grandson who is so interested in WWII history, and just listen. Thank you for all you have been privileged to have done.
Was this program videoed? If yes, where might we see video?
If no, why wasn’t it videoed? Thank you.
Janice Law, thanks for your comment. This program was recorded and made available online recently: https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8756
I am just reading Code Girls now–my mother-in-law went to D.C. as a young lady where she said that she worked as a typist for the FBI. As I read the book, I see that she is one of the type of women that the military was looking for to be a codebreaker, although I have no idea if she was indeed. Is there any sort of list of women who worked as decoders? If not, do you have any advice on how to track that down. She succumbed to cancer many years ago, and my father in law died two years later, so there is no one for us to ask. Thank you!!