How would cryptographers break this type of code?

[SunUp]

@Chronos

There was one incident where two American battleships mistook each other for hostiles, at a range too long for clear identification. The incident was resolved by both ships putting their code talkers on the radio, where they presumably just conversed colloquially in Navajo. That’s something much harder for an enemy to learn to do.

I’m intrigued. When did this happen?

[griffin1977]

@Pleonast

If I remember correctly, they only used the letter-by-letter codes when the word they wanted to say wasn’t in their code book. They had general codes (use this word for “Sherman tank”, that word for “Wildcat fighter”, etc). And then they had code words for specific tactical instructions (“climb the hill”, “flank to the left”, “enemies advancing”, etc). The boundary between “cryptographic code” and “enhancing existing language for tactical combat situations” is blurry.

And they also had whole word replacements for common terms that didn’t exist in Navajo (e.g. iron fish for submarine)