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Meet the First American Military Spouse Codebreaker
This four-rotor Enigma machine is what German Naval traffic began transmitting on in 1943. (U.S. Navy/Moneé Cottman)
Historical fiction plays up places like Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England, as romantic and exciting despite the very real threat of Nazi invasion and bombing during World War II. Women made up about 75% of the workforce at Bletchley Park, which consisted of jobs operating cryptographic and communications machinery and translating documents. Some even were breaking code with the legendary Dilly Knox, who helped decrypt the Zimmermann telegram that brought the U.S. into World War I and broke the German Naval and Abwehr Enigma codes during World War II.