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Thread ID: 150639 2022-04-29 21:56:00 The Shark of War - Harding Waipuke Leaf and use of the Maori language in WW2 Roscoe (6288) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1485894 2022-04-29 21:56:00 Just reading in The Listener about Harding Waipuke Leaf who was a captain in Maori units in both world wars. A very interesting tale.

The article said that, "Like some other Maori officers, he would sometimes issue orders in Maori when within earshot of the enemy, to confuse them."

That reminded me of learning about cryptology in WW2. Apparently it was quite a job to encrypt a radio message, but it was necessary to keep their messages from being read by the enemy. And then the recipient would need to decode the message. It was quite involved.

But then some bright spark came up with a much quicker and easier way of sending private messages. They had Maori speaking soldiers on the radio at both ends. There was no need to encrypt messages. The enemy had not heard of the Maori language and so the messages were secure. Very clever. :thumbs:
Roscoe (6288)
1485895 2022-04-30 04:27:00 Sounds much like the Navaho code talkers that America used. gary67 (56)
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