The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, thirteen Comanches serving in the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Signal Company came ashore at Normandy. Under German fire, they laid communications lines and transmitted messages in coded Comanche—a language the Germans never successfully decoded. Throughout World War II, the Comanche Code Talkers remained essential to relaying orders and messages. This book presents the first complete account of the Comanche Code Talkers. Drawing on interviews with surviving unit members, their original training officer, fellow soldiers, military records, and news accounts, William C. Meadows traces the group from recruitment and training through active duty in World War II and into their postwar lives. The book also offers the first comparison of Native American code talking programs, examining the Comanche Code Talkers alongside the better-known Navajo code talkers in the Pacific and other Native Americans who used their languages for secret communication. Meadows situates this history within the broader development of Native American code talking in World Wars I and II, identifying two distinct forms, exploring military attitudes toward Native American code talkers, and analyzing the cultural factors that motivated Comanche and other Native Americans to serve in this capacity.