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- When Tokyo Naval Intelligence intercepted the dispatch and relayed the news onward, reporting that the “AF” air unit was in dire need of fresh water, their American counterparts finally confirmed what they had long suspected: Midway and “AF,” cited by the Japanese as the target of a major upcoming military operation, were one and the same.
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Nov 6, 2019 · Station Hypo had little doubt as to what “AF” referred to: the U.S. naval and air base on Midway Atoll, two tiny islands located in the central Pacific, around 1,200 miles northwest of Pearl...
- Sarah Pruitt
- 15 min
It was initially not known where "AF" was, but Commander Joseph Rochefort and his team at Station HYPO were able to confirm that it was Midway: Captain Wilfred Holmes devised a ruse of telling the base at Midway (by secure undersea communications cable) to broadcast an uncoded radio message stating that Midway's water purification system had ...
On 22 May, following a radio deception operation, Melbourne completely confirmed that "AF" indicated Midway. Hypo then discovered the date cipher used in Japanese message traffic. This meant analysts could determine exactly when the attack would take place. After examining previously intercepted messages, Hypo predicted an attack on Midway on 4 ...
Rochefort was convinced “AF” stood for Midway, but his superiors in Washington disagreed. To prove his suspicions, Rochefort devised the “low supplies” ruse, confirming “AF”’s ...
Jun 5, 2017 · Japanese communications kept referring to a location code-named “AF.” The Navy guessed it was Midway, but it had to be sure. To find out, Navy Capt. Joseph J. Rochefort, a code breaker ...
Breaking the Code: The United States was aware that the Japanese were planning an attack in the Pacific (somewhere they code-named “AF”) because Navy cryptanalysts had begun breaking Japanese communication codes in early 1942.
Dec 10, 2019 · The operation was coded ‘MI’ and the objective ‘AF’. Numerous transmissions containing these codenames were transmitted, but the Magic cryptanalysts did not know what they meant. One of the Hawaii-based cryptanalysts set out to test his hunch that AF meant Midway.
