The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 320 pages
• Published by: University of Texas Press
• Edition: 1st Edition February 1, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0292752741
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0292752740
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

Product Review
Of all the books on Native American service in the U.S. armed forces, this is the best. . . . Readers will find the story of the Comanche Code Talkers compelling, humorous, thought-provoking, and inspiring. (Tom Holm, author of Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War )

Product Description

"Of all the books on Native American service in the U.S. armed forces, this is the best. Readers will find the story of the Comanche Code Talkers compelling, humorous, thought-provoking, and inspiring."

-Tom Holm, author of Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War

Among the allied troops that came ashore in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, were thirteen Comanches in the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Signal Company. Under German fire they laid communications lines and began sending messages in a form never before heard in Europe-coded Comanche. For the rest of World War II, the Comanche Code Talkers played a vital role in transmitting orders and messages in a code that was never broken by the Germans.

This book tells the full story of the Comanche Code Talkers for the first time. Drawing on interviews with all surviving members of the unit, their original training officer, and fellow soldiers, as well as military records and news accounts, William C. Meadows follows the group from their recruitment and training to their active duty in World War II and on through their postwar lives up to the present. He also provides the first comparison of Native American code talking programs, comparing the Comanche Code Talkers with their better-known Navajo counterparts in the Pacific and with other Native Americans who used their languages, coded or not, for secret communication. Meadows sets this history in a greater discussion of the development of Native American code talking in World Wars I and II, identifying two distinct forms of Native American code talking, looking at the attitudes of the American military toward Native American code talkers, and assessing the complex cultural factors that led Comanche and other Native Americans to serve their country in this way.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II (Hardcover) The first two chapters have a lot of statics and history in them. The interesting part begins at chapter 3 when the author includes interviews with the actual participants and their experiences during the war.