God in Everyday : Joseph Rochefort
Rochefort had the ability to take vast amounts of decoded data and almost intuitively see the bigger picture. Even more amazingly, he had an uncanny ability to predict what the Japanese would do next.
He proved it on April 27, 1942, when his team decrypted Japanese coded messages asking for navigational charts of the Aleutian Islands (off Alaska). Days later, more decoded messages revealed the Japanese had requested charts of the Hawaiian Islands. The Aleutians were a given, but which of the Hawaiian Islands was next?
In May, Rochefort predicted it would be the Midway Atoll. Everyone else was skeptical, but Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz (Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet) supported Rochefort.
With the pressure on, Rochefort set a trap. Midway’s base sent an emergency radio message complaining that their water filtration system had broken down.
Comments
Post a Comment