M-209: Memoirs

Biography of Mason (Mickey) Hardin Dorsey

... After training I became a radio operator. I was a radio operator/gunner in an M8 Armored Car.

... The Morse code transmissions are sent by the radio operator using a key attached to a semi-circular steel strap clamped onto his right leg. Messages to division were encrypted and decoded using the army M- 209 encoder. A new setting for the M-209 was usually supplied each day.

... We then retraced our steps to our vehicles. Lt. Burns wrote out a report giving specs as to enemy strength, which I then encoded on our M-209 cryptograph, sent it to division HQ by CW on our SCR 536 CW radio.

World War II: 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion in the Battle of Bastogne (World War II Magazine)

...By 8:30 a.m. enemy infantry had approached to within 200 yards of the 463rd's command post in Hemroulle. Cooper ordered all classified documents and the M-209 cryptographic machine destroyed.

Texas Military Forces Museum - 36th Signal Company – August 1944 – May 1945

... Code and cipher traffic became particularly heavy, owing to the Division’s change of attachment (the 36th Division was now under the French First Army.) M-209 communication was carried on with several liaisons of the Division, and with the French II Corps. Message center men working as liaison code clerks were; Cpl. James Kenney, with the 3rd DIA, an Algerian Division of the French; Pfc. Marty Weinstein, with the French 4th Combat Command; Pfc. Moritz (Ratface) Werner, with the French 2nd Division or 2 DB.

The situation of the message center was ideal. The traffic desk occupied the front office of the Bureau De Postes, and the code room was set up behind shelter-halves in part of a larger adjoining office. Also in the post-office were teletype, TG, and switchboard installations, and a French cipher team. Traffic, particularly cipher traffic, was heavy, owing to the uncertainty of wire communication.

PAPA'S WAR, PART 3

... As time went by we made our radio truck a more livable place, in one town we ripped the doors off of a tall wooden cabinet to eventually close in the rear of the truck. For now, though, we tossed them into the back of the truck for later installation. we also scrounged a seat from a German Kubelwagen (their equivalent to our jeep) for the on-duty operator's comfort.

We installed a set of shelves over the radio set for the Signal Operating Instructions (SOI), our M-209 Converter (the device used to encode messages sent back to Division HQ and decode incoming messages), message pads, and other miscellaneous stuff. Each shelf had a deep lip on it to keep the contents from slipping out while we were traveling.

Thermite grenades were taped over the radio set and over the shelf where we kept the SOI and M-209 converter. If capture was imminent, by pulling the pins on those incendiary grenades we could reduce it all to ashes in a matter of seconds.

PAPA'S WAR, PART 4

... We went into the back of the truck and I gave him the password so he could get back safely.

He explained that the Regimental Message Center could not decode the last encoded message that I had delivered to them and wanted Division to retransmit it.

Unnecessary transmissions gave German direction finders time to locate our transmitter and call in an artillery strike so we tried to avoid them if possible. I asked him to wait, took my copy of the message and started running it through our decoding device, the M-209 Converter, and it started decoding perfectly. I said, "Look, the M-209 settings are supposed to be changed at midnight but sometimes a message sent before midnight (on yesterday's settings) does not arrive until after midnight. (I kept decoding as I talked.) We deliberately wait a couple of hours after midnight to change our settings because there might be traffic coming in just like this."

I finished decoding the message and gave it to him. "Now, if you can manage to get back to the Message Center alive, tell those dunderheads that just because the clock says that its past midnight does not mean that they should use the new settings on everything received. First, check the date-time group on the message. If its yesterday's date, use an M-209 converter with yesterday's settings. That's one of the reasons why the Message Center has more than one converter, --- so you can leave one on yesterday's settings for a while just to cover this kind of event. If I get killed some day because I was transmitting unnecessarily, I will come back to haunt all of you. Luckily, this is not an urgent message. Message Center is getting it much quicker than they would have if I had asked for a new transmission because someone at the other end would have to check to be sure the message was properly encoded before it could be sent again, and that all takes time. If this happens with an urgent message and a lot of lives are at stake, I might personally toss a grenade in the goddamn Message Center. Tell them that."

...The truck contained the classified Signal Operating Instructions (SOI), an M-209 converter set on the current day's settings, and a copy of the Armed Forces Code (AFCODE) for that day. It would have been a prize for German Intelligence.

Maurice R. "Bob" Slaney

... We were kept busy with make up things. Being the radio men, we operated out of the Dodge trucks, which saved our feet and backs. We used the SCR 193 radios. If I remember correctly, it was a BC 191 transmitter and a BC 348 radio receiver with a power inverter off the truck's battery to provide power for the radios. We often got a headlight or parking light off of a wrecked truck and wired it up so we had light to see in the dark. There were message pads and pencils and the M-209 code machine, which was a bitch to set up. One little mistake on the settings and the message was garbage (which often happened if we got the wrong signal operation instructions or SOI). It gave the frequencies to use and call signs and the settings for the M-209. If we got the right SOI for the right week it was easy. If not, we'd mooch around to get a valid copy.

The Graybeards – Official Publication of THE KOREAN WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION

Personal Reflections by Hal Remspear HQ Btry 50-51 “Early December 1950: we were at Chinhung-ni providing support for the Marines fighting their way out of the Chosen reservoir. The night they were supposed to start passing our position on their way to Hungnam, the Colonel (Lt. Col. Lavoie) called me to his tent. He was handwriting a message that I would encode on the M-209 cryptograph device. It turned plain language into 5 letter code groups.

Combat Control School Heritage Foundation (CCSHF)

... Although the team could function without the SCR-VHF, the set added less than 100 pounds to the total load without imposing any space inconvenience and therefore was considered a highly valuable aid.

Each team carried a set of documents to include three M-209 converters with special settings to provide approximately 32-hour security for any message; special code similar to air support request code but with vocabulary to fit the type of messages to be handled and assuring a longer period of security than the M-209; and air-ground authentication.

Journal of Army Special Operations History - PB 31-05-2 Vol. 2, No. 1, 2006 – Operation Varsity

The 112th Airborne Army Signal Battalion was also responsible for the FAAA’s cryptographic systems. Lacking a common cipher for British and U.S. airborne forces, the 112th used a combination of the British one-time pad system and the American M-209 cipher machine. To make the technology swap work, M-209 teams were assigned to the British 6th Airborne Division and 1st Commando Brigade, and one-time pad teams were assigned to FAAA and XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters and to 17th Airborne Division. The British cipher officer assigned to XVIII Airborne Corps was “invaluable as he was able to assure the smooth functioning of the one-time pad system.”

G503.com - G503 Military Vehicle Message Forums

You had to have a top secret clearance to even destroy one or look or talk about it in 1966 when I went through crypto school at Ft Gordon. I was ordered to forget everything I learned about it "until Needed", when I finished the 72B20 classes.
Billy

Re: WTB WW2 M-209 CIPHER MACHINE
by BillyClanton » Mon Nov 15, 2010 4:19 am

Howdy
Haven't seen one of those since I left the "Cage" at Ft Gordon 72B20 signal school, in 1966. The ones we trained on were a little more modern, but very similar. We were instructed to forget everything we learned each day it was so top secret. But it all came back to me as soon as I saw the canvas bag. Amazing how 45 years can go by and then, "total Recall"
Billy

Re: WTB WW2 M-209 CIPHER MACHINE
Postby BillyClanton » Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:13 am

Aside from static displays, what could you do with them?They were decoded every day and even with the current codebook, it would be almost impossible to work. I went to school for 26 weeks and never did figure out how to work them. The one we worked with mounted on top of a radio teletype machine. You typed in plain type and it came out on tape in 5 digit groups that you fed into a sending unit. The other end received it in 5 digits and deciphered it back into plain type, but if you didn't do it exactly correct & updated to the minute, it didn't work. If I remember, it's not much good without the huge radio-teletype machine. All the stuff I collect either works, or are spare parts for ones that do work
Billy

U.S. Airborne in Cotentin Peninsula - 6 juin 1944

    101st Airborne Signal Company:
      (1) Message Center.
          a. Message center at Greenham Lodge will operate continuously.
          b. SIGABA will be used for cryptographic communications with  
             Divisions and Higher Headquarters in the United Kingdom.
          c. The Converter M-209 will be used for cryptographic communications
             with Division Forward Echelon.
          d. Cipher Key List for the Converter M-209 of the 101st Airborne 
             Division will be used for traffic with Forward Echelon of VII 
             Corps to include assigned and attached elements thereof.
          e. Cipher Key List for the Converter M-209 of the IX Troop Carrier 
             Command will be used for traffic with their Headquarters.
          f. Contact with Forward elements of First U.S. Army will be through 
             the Army Signal Center - Plymouth and Portsmouth.
    

Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Infantry Regiment Loading Table 22

 
Truck 1/4-ton (No. 2)

Sgt (Msg Cen chief) (x)
Techn 5th (Sb Opr)
Pvt (Code Clerk)
Pvt (Messenger) (Truck driver) (x)

1 Scabbard, rifle, M1938
1 Set Msg Cen Equip
1 Converter M-209
1 Kit, first-aid, motor vehicle, 12-unit
1 Mount, MG, cal. .30, M48

1 Set T/E Trk Equip

(Approx. weight of load 550 pounds)