“The World Wonders”

“The world wonders” was the message inadvertently sent in an encrypted transmission from US Admiral Chester Nimitz to Admiral William Halsey, Jr. on October 25, 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Admiral Halsey, was commanding Task Force 34 when he made the decision to pursue a Japanese decoy fleet and leave the landing beaches at Leyte Gulf unguarded. (Watch a video of the history about this naval battle.)

When American landing forces sent a desperate request to Halsey for support, Admiral Nimitz, sent Halsey the following question seeking his task force’s location: “Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty-Four?”

Due to the code transmission tactics used by the American forces at the time, “padding” was added to the beginning and end of the message to hinder Japanese attempts at cryptanalysis.  The words chosen for padding were meant to be obviously irrelevant to the actual message, however Nimitz’s enciphering clerk used a phrase that “[just] popped into my head“.

The message that was sent to Halsey was:

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS

Since the padding at the end of the message, “the world wonders”, made sense to Halsey’s decoder he left it in. Admiral Halsey therefore received the message: Where is, repeat, where is Task Force Thirty-Four? The world wonders.

Halsey read this message, as a stinging rebuke from Nimitz, of Halsey’s decision to pursue the decoy carriers and leave the landings unprotected. He later recounted that: “I was stunned as if I had been struck in the face. The paper rattled in my hands. I snatched off my cap, threw it on the deck, and shouted something I am ashamed to remember. . . I was so mad I couldn’t talk.”

Finally, his chief of staff had to tell him: “Stop it! What the hell’s the matter with you? Pull yourself together.”

For reasons unknown (but generally attributed to his sulking), Halsey didn’t turn around for another hour; and even then he slowed down to allow his ships to refuel, causing further delay and resulting in the US forces guarding Leyte Gulf fighting a desperate battle against great odds and losing an escort carrier and three other ships.

Many senior executives harbour an irritated and angry persona (maybe that is why they made it to the top) which can get in the way when they are confronted with criticism of their actions.  Such was the case in this encounter.  It is a good example of how temperament can turn the tide of a battle.

It is speculated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_wonders) that the padding phrase may have been inspired by both a sense of history and a knowledge of poetry. The day the message was sent was the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.

A famous poem about the charge was written by Tennyson, and contains the stanza:

Flash’d all their sabres bare,

Flash’d as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army while

All the world wonder’d:

Of the Charge of the Light Brigade, French Marshall Pierre Bosquet, who served in the Crimean, campaign uttered the memorable line:

“C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c’est de la folie”.
(It is magnificent, but it is not war: it is madness).