operation being planned against a target only identified as . LCDR Wilfred J. Holmes at was responsible for the ruse which identified : a false report of a fresh water shortage on Midway was radioed in clear, evoking an encrypted Japanese response noting that was reporting water troubles; had to be Midway. As mid-1942 approached, was under high pressure, and there are tales of 36-hour stints, of Rochefort working in his bathrobe and appearing for briefings late and disheveled besides. This effort climaxed in the last week of May with the decryption of enough JN-25 traffic to understand the Japanese attack plan at Midway in some, but not complete detail. This allowed Admiral Nimitz to gamble on the ambush that resulted in the Battle of Midway, the loss of four Japanese carriers and many naval aviators for much lower Allied losses, and what is generally agreed to have been the turning point of the Pacific War. Post-Midway transfers and changes In October 1942 after Midway, power struggles within the Navy resulted in the sidelining of Laurance Safford, with the support of Admirals Ernest King and Richmond K. Turner (and Joseph Redman). Control of naval intercept and codebreaking was centralizing in OP-20-G in Washington, where two new sections were headed by John R. Redman (Communications Combat Intelligence section) and Joseph Wenger (Communications Cryptanalytical section; to handle decryption and translation). Safford was shifted to an administrative support and cryptographic research role; so was sidelined for the remainder of the war (doing no further crypto work); as was Joseph Rochefort in Hawaii (he was assigned to command a dry-dock on the West Coast). After Midway, Rochefort was recommended for the Distinguished Service Medal to Admiral Ernest King. However, personal enmity from his chief of staff due to a prior passing encounter, and non-support from his immediate supervisors, led King to deny the award. Nimitz, when he learned of Rochefort's treatment some years later, was quite displeased. Rochefort was posthumously awarded the medal after a campaign by his intelligence officers galvanized Admiral D. "Mac" Showers and eventually CIA head William Casey to rectify the oversight. Having commandeered a girls' school in Washington (the Army took over one too), Naval Intelligence and OP-20-G expanded greatly. became a smaller proportion of the total Navy signals intelligence effort in the Pacific. References Bibliography External links Cryptography organizations Signals intelligence of World War II Battle of Midway