Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

Joint Congressional Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack: Part 3 777
Kramer was also asked why there were occasional gaps in the
numbered intercepts. Sometimes the numbering machine would
skip a number, he said. Army and Navy both often worked on
decryption of the same intercept, he said, and both would assign
it a number. When it was discovered later that the same message
had been given two diff erent numbers, one was canceled. 161
When asked to explain the missing “Winds Execute” teletype,
Kramer said he believed
the purpose of having duplicates for any of this traffi c, whether
encoded or plain language, was to have an extra copy for systems
which we were not reading so that more than one person
could work on that system in attempting to break it down. 162
As for the “Winds Execute,” Kramer had not had anything
specifi cally to do with it; it had gone directly to Noyes’s offi ce and
had not been handled through Kramer’s offi ce. 163
Representative Cooper, vice chairman of the committee,
questioned Kramer about how all the documents relating to the
“Winds Execute” could have vanished from the fi les. He could
off er no explanation. Given the precautions that had been taken
to conceal the combination to the safe in which these papers were
kept, Kramer couldn’t understand it. Only he and two others
knew the combination, and if anyone had broken into the double-sealed
envelope in the Navy Department’s front offi ces where
the combination was kept, someone would surely have known. 164
Vice Chairman: I understand then, Captain that these messages,
including the number 7001, were in your custody. . . .
And were kept in your safe in your offi ce?
161 Ibid., p. 3931.
162 Ibid., p. 4140.
163 Ibid., p. 3978.
164 Ibid., p. 3939.