American 6813 Division History October 1945 Page 13

Tony Sale's Codes and Ciphers

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II. Hut Six.


This brief report does not attempt to duplicate even in con-

densed form the official Hut Six history now nearing completion. Our only
concern here is with the part played by the American pasrty in the two final
years of the Hut's history.


It must be emphasised at the outset that Hut Six remained basic-

ally a British accomplishment. American personnel never constituted even
a tenth of the total strength of the Hut. Nevertheless our contribution
was far from negligible. Americans participated in every activity of the
organisation and contributed valuable work in each.


Historical Summary. The first contingent of Americans arrived

at Bletchley Park on 30 August 1943 at a critical moment in the life of
Hut Six. Before this time Lt Col (then Capt) Johnson had spent six months
in the Hut and even earlier Col (then Capt) Kullback had toured the organi-
sation, but this date marked the first penetration in force. Two days
later, on 1 September, German Army keys stopped the general use of dis-
criminants and the problems of traffic identification were vastly compli-
cated.


The group assigned to Hut Six consisted of four officers and two

enlisted men: 1/Lts Alex T. Frengel and John J. Libers, 2/Lts William
Bijur and Arthur J. Levenson, T/3's George B Walker and Arthur N. Lewis.
In an intensive two-week course conducted by Mr John Herival, one of the
senior British cryptanalysts, the group was initiated into the mysteries of
Enigma and was then considered ready to begin an active apprentisceship.Lt
Bijur was assigned to the Air Research Section, Sgt Walker to Control, Lts
Frengel and Libers left the Hut temporarily for Sixta, the former being
eventually assigned to Hut Three, the latter returning later to the Control
Section in Hut Six.

Lt Levenson soon had to drop out of operations temporarily to

assume the role of teacher, guiding the second wave of American arrivals
who were destined for cryptanalytic sections through the course of instruc-
tion the first group had so recently completed. His class consisted of
1/Lt
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