SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Battle of Leyte Gulf was raging 66 years ago today.

Armistead · 10-25-10, 05:43 AM

Yea, you're right. Probably one of the most interesting battles yet. The battle of who made the less mistakes. One must always chuckle over the
message sent to Halsey, the famous "the world wonders" It was never meant to be a slam, just code...and nothing beats the action of the DD's
Sure you all know the story of Cap. Evans of the Johnson. The message was

"TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS [3]

The words before the first 'GG' and after the last 'RR' are padding added to make cryptanalysis more difficult.[3][4] The first paragraph, the material between 'GG' and 'X', is routing and classification information, metadata for the message itself.[3] While decrypting and transcribing the message, Halsey's radio officer properly removed the leading phrase, but the trailing phrase looked appropriate and he seems to have thought it was intended and so left it in before passing it on to Halsey,[1] who read it as
“Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty Four? The world wonders.
”
The structure tagging (the 'RR's) should have made clear that the phrase was in fact padding. In all the ships and stations that received the message, only New Jersey's communicators failed to delete both padding phrases.[5]
The message (and its trailing padding) became famous, and created some ill feeling, since it appeared to be a harsh criticism by Nimitz of Halsey's decision to pursue the carriers and leave the landings uncovered. "I was stunned as if I had been struck in the face" Halsey later recalled.[4] "The paper rattled in my hands, I snatched off my cap, threw it on the deck, and shouted something I am ashamed to remember"[4] and let out an anguished sob.[4] Regarding the message as an open humiliation, he delayed for an hour - saying he was refueling - before turning around with his two fastest battleships along with three light cruisers and eight destroyers.[6]
The padding phrase may have been inspired by both a sense of history and a knowledge of poetry. The day the message was sent was the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.[1] A famous poem about this charge was written by Tennyson, and contained the stanza:
“Flashéd all their sabers bare,
Flashéd as they turned in air,
Sab'ring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered."

10-25-10, 05:43 AM	#2
Armistead Rear Admiral Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: on the Dan Posts: 10,880 Downloads: 364 Uploads: 0	Yea, you're right. Probably one of the most interesting battles yet. The battle of who made the less mistakes. One must always chuckle over the message sent to Halsey, the famous "the world wonders" It was never meant to be a slam, just code...and nothing beats the action of the DD's Sure you all know the story of Cap. Evans of the Johnson. The message was "TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS [3] The words before the first 'GG' and after the last 'RR' are padding added to make cryptanalysis more difficult.[3][4] The first paragraph, the material between 'GG' and 'X', is routing and classification information, metadata for the message itself.[3] While decrypting and transcribing the message, Halsey's radio officer properly removed the leading phrase, but the trailing phrase looked appropriate and he seems to have thought it was intended and so left it in before passing it on to Halsey,[1] who read it as “Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty Four? The world wonders. ” The structure tagging (the 'RR's) should have made clear that the phrase was in fact padding. In all the ships and stations that received the message, only New Jersey's communicators failed to delete both padding phrases.[5] The message (and its trailing padding) became famous, and created some ill feeling, since it appeared to be a harsh criticism by Nimitz of Halsey's decision to pursue the carriers and leave the landings uncovered. "I was stunned as if I had been struck in the face" Halsey later recalled.[4] "The paper rattled in my hands, I snatched off my cap, threw it on the deck, and shouted something I am ashamed to remember"[4] and let out an anguished sob.[4] Regarding the message as an open humiliation, he delayed for an hour - saying he was refueling - before turning around with his two fastest battleships along with three light cruisers and eight destroyers.[6] The padding phrase may have been inspired by both a sense of history and a knowledge of poetry. The day the message was sent was the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.[1] A famous poem about this charge was written by Tennyson, and contained the stanza: “Flashéd all their sabers bare, Flashéd as they turned in air, Sab'ring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wondered."