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Comanche code talkers at Utah Beach [1]
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Date: 2025-06-06
This extraordinary corner of history deserves a fuller diary than I can manage today. Apologies.
There were Cherokee and Choktaw code talkers who served during WWI.
The US military's first known use of code talkers was during World War I. Cherokee soldiers of the US 30th Infantry Division fluent in the Cherokee language were assigned to transmit messages while under fire during the Second Battle of the Somme .
Comanche code talkers were at Utah beach, serving in the 4th Infantry Division. This article focuses on one of them, Charles Chibitty, and the battles they fought.
Creating a code is always difficult, but aspects of the Comanche language added to the usual challenges. Many military terms had no equivalent in the Comanche language. For example, Comanche has only one word for “airplane” and no way to distinguish between a fighter, bomber, or other type of aircraft. To overcome this problem, the Code Talkers used other Comanche words as substitutes: “tank” became “wah-kah-ray,” meaning “turtle,” Adolf Hitler became “posah-tai-vo,” or “crazy white man,” and so on.
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Once the code was finished, the Code Talkers were ready for action. Two Code Talkers were assigned to each of the three regiments in the 4th Infantry Division. Three stayed at headquarters and the rest were assigned to other Army Signal Corps divisions. According to Chibitty his job was to “be a Code Talker, to get to the frontlines and report back to the command post what kind of artillery was coming in on us” and other information. Every transmission the Code Talkers sent, either by radios or telephone, used the Comanche code. Because their messages were in code, even another Comanche would not be able to decipher the message. The Germans did not stand a chance.
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