![]() ![]() The reason the Navajo Code Talkers, who served in the Marines, are so well-known is that there were at least 420 of them. There were Code Talkers from a number of other tribes during World War II (at least two of each, unless noted otherwise), including Assiniboine, CherokeeChippewa/Oneida (at least seventeen), Choctaw, Hopi (at least 11), Kowa, Menominee, Muskogee/Creek and Seminole, Pawnee, Sioux (both Lakota and Dakota dialects), and Sac and Fox/Meskwaki (at least 19, who served in North Africa). The Comanche code word for tank was “turtle”, bomber was “pregnant airplane”, machine gun was “sewing machine” and Adolf Hitler was called “crazy white man”. Like the Navajo Code Talkers, they used a substitution method. Two Comanche Code Talkers were assigned to each regiment, and the rest to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters.Ĭomanches of the 4th Signal Company compiled a vocabulary of over 100 code terms using words or phrases in their own language. At least seventeen Comanche Code Talkers took part in the Invasion of Normandy, and continued to serve in the 4th Infantry Division during European operations. The United States knew about Hitler’s attempt to learn train his own code talkers, so they did not use many of them in the European theater. Unfortunately for the Nazis, the languages and their many dialects proved too difficult to learn quickly. Adolf Hitler knew about the Code Talkers from World War I and sent a team of 30 anthropologists to the United States before war broke out to try to learn some of these languages. When the United States entered World War II, Native American Code Talkers were once again used. During World War I, Cheyenne, Comanche, Osage, and Yankton Sioux Code Talkers were also used in various battles. In less than 72 hours the Germans were retreating and the Allies were in full attack. Within 24 hours after the Choctaw Code Talkers began operations, the tide of the battle had turned. They helped the American Expeditionary Forces win several key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. ![]() He found eight Choctaw men in the battalion.Eventually, at least fifteen Choctaw men in the Army’s 36th Infantry Division were trained to use their language in code. Army overheard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb speaking in the Choctaw language. The unit was under British command.Ĭompany commander Captain Lawrence of the U.S. That just shows how little I know.) The very first code talkers were a group of Cherokee troops in the American 30th Infantry Division, which served alongside the British in the Second Battle of the Somme in September 1918. (I thought they were only used in World War II. Native American Code Talkers served in both world wars. I had heard of Navajo Code Talkers before, but then the other day I saw an article about a Lakota Code talker, so I decided to look up the subject, and learned a great deal, which I am going to summarize here. Photos from National Museum of the American Indian ![]()
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