American Signal Intelligence in Northwest Africa and Western Europe. Sources in Cryptologic History Series IV, Volume I.

摘要

Production of signal intelligence during World War II for use by American armed forces was a process more elaborate than the creation of a set of oriental rugs. Looking back today, patterns are recognizable but variations abound. The interdependence of different participants in production is as evident as that of the shepherds, spinners, loommakers, dyers, and weavers, whose common product, like SIGINT, might end up in an office with a parquet floor under a handsome chandelier or in the tent of a nomad, or in something in between those extremes. But in any setting, it would be highly prized. During World War II, Americans preferred the term .communications intelligence. (COMINT) as a near equivalent to the British term .signal intelligence,. but they accepted the abbreviation, SIGINT, and used it. After World War II, the United States armed forces distinguished electronic intelligence (ELINT) from COMINT, and for several years reserved control over ELINT matters from the province of the U.S. Communication Intelligence Board. When that segregation ended, the term SIGINT soon displaced COMINT in general practice. Without wishing to predate American use of the term .SIGINT. instead of COMINT, I have used it in this account of events in World War II.