Chapter 634 Major Li Mei (2)

"Ah ha, Major Li Mei, I have long admired your name." Li Mei was taken to Yannick's office, and Yannick greeted him warmly. "I didn't expect to meet in this way." When Yannick heard the name Li Mei for the first time, he thought he was a Chinese-American with a surname of Li and a name of Mei; later he learned that he was a serious American. And although Li Mei sounds a bit girly, she has a Slavic square face and a very tall figure.

Li Mei was usually an unsmiling, taciturn person; now seeing Yannick's enthusiasm, a strong look of vigilance appeared on her tense face.

Yannick laughed when he saw this. "Major Li Mei, do you think I want to inquire about some military secrets from you? You can rest assured that everything in the United States is transparent to me. There are no secrets at all."

He asked his secretary to bring coffee and continued. "Major, do you think I'm bragging? It just so happens that some secrets are hard to hide without showing them off to others. Let's take you as an example."

"Your birth date is November 15, 1906. You were born in Columbus, Ohio. You are the son of an ordinary worker. You did not attend West Point Military Academy. You studied at Columbus Public School and Ohio State University, and received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Bachelor of Science.

In October 1929, after completing flight training at Kelly Base in Texas, you became a second lieutenant pilot in the United States Army Air Forces Reserve, and was transferred to active duty on February 1, 1930. Initially serving with No. 27 Fighter Squadron based at Selfridge Airfield, you performed a variety of missions in several combat operations. In 1937, you were transferred to the 2nd Bomb Group and began to fly bombers. "

Li Mei frowned, with a hint of surprise in her eyes. She couldn't understand why the Germans investigated a major like him in such detail.

At this time, the secretary brought two cups of coffee and placed one in front of Li Mei. Yannick took the other cup and took a sip. "Besides, the B-17 bomber you fly is indeed an excellent bomber, especially the Norton bombsight on it. Is it your secret weapon? I heard that your crew members, especially the bombardiers, are Before officially boarding the plane, I made an oath not to let the Norton sight on the plane fall into the hands of the enemy, and to ensure that it would be destroyed in an emergency."

"This is simply unnecessary. I'm afraid you don't know that as early as 1938, the entire set of Norton bombsight blueprints had been placed on the desks of our German engineers. As for how they got it, Engineer Carl Norton had many German engineers under him. Norton half acquiesced."

Li Mei just picked up the coffee cup and shook her hand, and a little coffee spilled out. He knew that the financial investment in developing the Norton sight project was astronomical, but the Germans actually got the blueprints of this secret weapon without spending any money? ! Carl Norton's behavior is simply traitorous! !

"But this thing is not very useful, is it?" When using the "Norton", the bombardier can theoretically drop bombs from an altitude of about 7,000 meters to a distance of 30 meters in a circle with a radius of 30 meters. However, This cannot be done in actual combat.

Norton's theoretical calculations at the time assumed that the aircraft dropped bombs at low altitude and low speed, but the B17 bombed at high altitudes, and the Norton sight performed poorly at this time. Moreover, the bombardier must visually see the target, and cloudless weather is not always available, which also limits the capabilities of the Norton sight.

“And I also know that the U.S. military has a top-secret unit called ‘Windtalkers.’” Later, there was a war movie called “Windtalkers,” which introduced most people to the Indiana Navajo code warriors during World War II for the first time.

In fact, "wind whisperers" appeared in the US military as early as World War I.

In the autumn of 1918, U.S. troops encountered the Meuse-Argonne Battle on the Western Front. This was one of the largest battles of the US military in World War I, but the dissemination of information on the battlefield was not smooth enough. The German army often destroyed telephone lines and eavesdropped on the contents of U.S. military calls, deciphered the U.S. military's radio codes, and even captured intelligence relay personnel sent by the U.S. military on several occasions.

Just when the US military was struggling with this, it accidentally discovered a solution.

That day, two Choctaw soldiers from the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the US Army were chatting in the camp. A captain happened to pass by and asked them what language they spoke. When he learned that it was a small language of the Indian tribe, the captain suddenly had an idea and immediately asked the two soldiers if there were other people in the army who spoke this language. The two said they knew there were some Choctaw soldiers at the company headquarters. So the captain asked the two men to pass messages in their Choctaw language over field telephones, which were quickly translated into English by other soldiers who also spoke the language.

This is how the Whisperers were born.

Choctaw is a very little-known language, spoken by only a handful of American Indians, so their language is not widely spoken and is rarely used for handwriting, except for handwritten versions of some Bibles and hymns. Used only by local tribes.

The phone team began working almost immediately. Within a few hours, eight Choctaws were dispatched to various strategic locations, and they helped the US military win several key and important battles.

Even if the Germans intercepted the message in Choctaw, they could not understand its content. It is also the fastest way to encode and decode information faster than any other machine, giving the U.S. military a huge advantage.

Until the end of the war, German intelligence agencies failed to crack this "code". They even thought that the US military had invented a wonderful device to enable them to speak underwater.

In World War II, more Indian native languages ​​were used as secret codes, such as Comanche in the European battlefield, Choctaw in the North African battlefield, and Navajo in the Pacific battlefield. Americans believe that these languages ​​are the most perfect code languages. This minority language is only used by local tribes, and they have no written language. They are only passed down from generation to generation through word of mouth. People who have not lived in the tribe for a long time cannot learn this language.

"Fortunately, there are many linguists in your country who specialize in Indian native languages. A few years ago, I invited many linguists from the United States to open these native language courses. Now I have made some achievements."

"!!" Hearing Yannick's words, Li Mei felt a chill rushing from the soles of his feet along his spine to the top of his head.

He had only heard a little about the "wind talker", but the Germans had been preparing to crack their own communications a few years ago? !

Seeing that Li Mei was looking at him as if he were a monster, Yannick was very proud. "In addition, I know the performance of the fighters that you have already served or will serve. For example, the P-39 fighters you sent to the Soviet Union have nothing but strong firepower configuration and advanced communication systems. They are full of shortcomings. For example, the cabin space is small, the pitch control is awkward, the high-altitude power is insufficient, the climbing performance is poor, the maintenance is difficult, and it is difficult to escape in an emergency... and so on."