Ilsa how do you know the basic story?
For years after the war, he would say that he was a radio operator. Finally, after the 25 years, he said he was in naval intelligence and expanded on the story.
His radio station was one of 5 others along the South American eastern seaboard. They were all using a new technology that was highly classified. It was called HuffDuff for short. I stood for Hi-Definition Radio Directional Finding, They were able to locate the subs by triangulation and then task flying torpedo planes to attack the subs.
The German's kept very specific records about their subs from the date of manufacturing, the crew, the captain, their battle actions, including where they were lost (sunk).
He told me that his unit was award a presidential unit citation. Although I was able to acquire his nearly complete military records with the help of a congressman. I did not get the entire record because part of it was still classified.
OK, the rest from here to the end is pure speculation based on my research.
The German records indicated that one of the subs in that region of the South Atlantic was boarded and captured. And that an Enigma machine was captured. Enigma history did reveal that the German's upgrade the original Enigma to a model that doubled the number of interchangeable wheels in the device. Make the breaking of the coded message even harder.
I have speculated that they might have captured one of the newer machines from that boarded ship. And for that action were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. My dad was never really clear about details. Either from lost memories or honoring an oath, he took to not divulge details. He passed away in 1999. He had a service-connected disability and suffered from a parasitic jungle disease in the hot sweaty summer months. He never let his disability slow him down and worked at his beloved trade as a printer.
Back to factual info. He often had a second part-time job to help raise 6 kids.
Two quick notes when I was a teenager I would go with him on Sundays to a ham radio buddy (W1KBV) of his to search the dials for folks to "talk" to. These Sundays were in the early 1960s. My dad at that point nearly 30 years after the fact could still read morse code faster than the young ham operator.
Point two my dad loved to fish on one of his trips to where we live he went on a day fishing trip with a brother-in-law ex USGC. They fished and talked. My dad told the brother in law that after the jungle station he was transferred to Washington state code school to learn Japanese code and was scheduled to be inserted into a listening post to intercept Japanese communications in preparation for an invasion of Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Saved him that trip. And if not I might not be telling this story
Remember some of this is pure speculation although his military records support all the assignments and the code training schools.
Oh, one other thing I was able with the invent of the internet (Circa1978) to locate one of his buddies from the Amazon jungle radio station. He confirmed the things my dad had told me.
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