In brief
Julia Parsons, known for her significant contributions as a U.S. Navy code breaker during World War II, died on April 18 at a hospice facility in Pennsylvania. Her code-breaking work was instrumental in aiding Allied forces against German submarines, showcasing her lifelong talent for solving puzzles.
Julia Parsons, a groundbreaking U.S. Navy code breaker during World War II and one of the few members left from a classified squad of women who decoded messages from German U-boats, passed away on April 18 in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania at the impressive age of 104. Her daughter, Margaret Breines, confirmed her death at the Veterans Affairs hospice facility.Growing up in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Parsons developed a passion for puzzles and crosswords, which later propelled her into a pivotal role in the war effort. She played a vital part in deciphering military messages created by the notorious Enigma machine, a device famed for its complex code-generation capabilities. Her pioneering work supplied Allied forces with essential intelligence that enabled them to avoid, target, and successfully sink enemy submarines.The Germans maintained that their Enigma codes were unbreakable, a belief firmly held until efforts from code breakers like Parsons proved otherwise. Commenting on this, Thomas Perera, an academic and Enigma machine collector, noted the significant intelligence the Germans unwittingly shared through their coded messages detailing precise locations daily.The origin of breaking the Enigma code can be traced back to the late 1930s when Polish mathematicians, utilizing intelligence from French sources, reverse-engineered the machine and developed the Bombe, an early code-breaking device. Their findings were later shared with the British. In 1941, a significant turning point occurred when the Royal Navy seized a German submarine equipped with an Enigma machine. Alan Turing, a prominent British mathematician, further advanced the Bombe with this machine's aid while working in secret alongside British intelligence. This information was subsequently passed on to the U.S. Navy, helping bridge the gap in code-breaking efforts during a pivotal time in history.
