Cryptographer's Way (1967) [pdf]

Dr. Bradford Hardie III (1920-1999), an ophthalmologist in El Paso, Texas for 40 years, served as a professional cryptologist and cryptanalyst during World War II.

In 1967 Hardie wrote "Cryptographer's Way", a personal memoir that gives a detailed account of his many interesting World War II experiences. In Europe he worked in the Army’s Signal Corps as a cryptographer, spending 17 months of his duty in England, France, Belgium, and Germany. For five months he lived near Hyde Park in London and helped crack messages intercepted from the German Enigma code machines, a device used to send encrypted messages.

On May 8, 1945, he returned to America and worked at Arlington Hall until the end of his four-year tour of duty. He began working in the Research and Development sections with cipher machines and equipment for cryptography.

Hardie's family relates that the memoir was deemed too sensitive by the CIA when it was privately written in 1967, and was largely confiscated and destroyed. This was most certainly due to its highly sensitive and detailed information about Enigma, SIGABA, the T-52 Geheimschreiber, Bletchley Park, and many other revelations that had not been cleared for publication at the time. Fortunately, Hardie was able to preserve and pass down copies to his five daughters, of which this scanned copy is one such copy.

Bradford Hardie is mentioned 16 times in David Kahn's magnum opus "The Codebreakers". The following quote from Kahn's preface should suffice in painting a picture of Hardie: "It is impossible to adequately thank all those who have helped me with this book [...] Foremost is Bradford Hardie, M.D. of El Paso, Texas, who translated a veritable stream of documents in German and read the galleys. His constant warm encouragement was like manna."

"Cryptographer's Way" is currently (2022) catalogued in the library of the National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) adjacent to NSA Headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, and has been cleared and authorized by NCM for general distribution.

Direct link to Archive.org's PDF: https://ia804703.us.archive.org/2/items/cryptographers-way-b...