Navajo Code Talkers – America's secret WWII weapon

Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell present the not-so-serious podcast unravelling fascinating and down-right bizarre historical events.

This week; our history enthusiasts discuss how the US military used an indigenous American language to outfox the Nazis. By taking a gamble that there weren’t many natural Navajo speakers in Berlin, the Americans kept their secret messages unbreakable by the enemy.

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• “You couldn’t choose just any language for coded messages; for instance; ‘we’ll just send all our messages in french’ as if the Nazi’s couldn’t speak french.” – Angela Barnes
• “The Navajo language hadn’t ever been written down in 1940; there was no Duolingo for Navajo.” – John O’’Farrell
• “They created a new code, as a crossword nerd I love this.” – Angela Barnes
• “Their name for Adolf Hitler was ‘crazy white man’, doesn’t narrow it down, does it?” – John O’Farrell

Reading List: 

Navajo Code Talkers by Nathan Aaseng

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 

We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell. Audio production by Simon Williams and artwork by James Parrett. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production.

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