Boer War Military codes

[dunnboer]

Does anyone know anything about codes used for military purposes in the Boer War? Whilst sorting through an archive of papers relating to the South African Constabulary I came across these two letters. Can they be broken? What is the type of code?

Paul

[QSVC]

Thats very impressive Paul, very interesting. I would have to say that as the groups are consistent in letter numbers, that each letter group may represent a particular thing or subject and might therefore be part of a daily report or at least a regular request or answer for information like unit status, strengths or position. These codes would be changed very regularly to avoid detection or de-coded, perhaps even daily depending on the likely threat of deciphering.....so you may never find the original code that this represents. Perhaps the unit history for the SAC might give you an insight, the message date is there to narrow it down.Its odd though that part of the message has been sent uncoded.

We were using similar codes with the Australian Army in the late 1980's.

If you do find out, please let us know.

Robert

[heliwest]

Very interesting and I reckon it is code as opposed to cipher and the answer would lie in code books. What is more interesting is that the first letter is signed by Captain Ramon de Bertodano who claimed much of the credit for having Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock arrested and executed. He was born in Australia and in 1921 he inherited a Spanish title and became the Marquis del Morel. Have you got any more of those letters.

[Will Mathieson]

The breaker Morant connection is interesting and adds value to the letters. Possibly an enquiry to the appropriate government office coulkd get some results. Breaking the code could be an exercise for them, though computer programs now break codes quickly. I tried to use some free code breaking programs but could not get them to work, possibly a better web search will find a useable program.

[heliwest]

I have been seeking advice about the code. Apparently this is called an "operations code" and is usually changed every week and without the coded list there is no way to crack it as the cryptograms were randomly generated and allocated to words. It is not a substitution code where if you can work out the key you can translate each word letter by letter. Could it be similar to "Slidex" which used to be around in the 60s and 70s in the British Army?

[Burgher]

I compiled a study on Boer War signalling and heliographs (mostly from the Orange Free State Artillery's perspective) that contains some info on Boer coding. If anyone is interested in receiving a copy of the study piece by e-mail, contact me at:

kruppgun (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk

[QSVC]

I've a particular interest in Heliographs, email sent.........Appreciate your offer.

Robert