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The M-209 was a small light-weight portable hand-operated
cipher machine that could print a message directly onto a paper
tape. It was developed by Hagelin especially for the US Army
and is a 100% copy of the commercial C-38. The only difference
with the C-38 is that the latter is grey rather than green.
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The C-38 was developed around 1938 and in 1940 the US Army adopted
it as the M-209. The design was simplified and the mechanics were
made more robust, before the machine went into mass production in
the United States in 1942.
It was first used during the invasion
of Africa in November 1942. Licensee Smith Corona built about
125,000 units before it was discontinued in the early 1960s.
In 1942, the price of a single M-209 was $64. The machine was also
used in the Korean war in the mid-1960s.
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The M-209 was a very popular machine within the US Army,
mainly because it was compact, light-weight and extremely
easy to operate. On the other hand, the machine wasn't very
secure. The Germans were able to decipher an M-209 message
within a few hours. For that reason, the machine could only
be used for low-level tactical field messages.
The US Navy designator for this machine is CSP-1500.
The machine shown in the image above, is an M-209A that was
built in 1942 by Smith Corona under licence from the Hagelin
Company. More pictures of this machine are available here:
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Different versions of the M-209 are in existence:
The M-209, M-209-A and M-209-B. At first sight, the machines
are all identical, but at close examination there are some
small manufacturing differences. In most cases these are
simplifications of the production process.
The differences are fully
described by Nick Gessler on his website.
The image on the right is of an M-209-B that is in mint condition,
complete with the original canvas carrying bag, the instruction
booklet, all tools and an empty paper roll.
Further images are available below.
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The name of the manufacturer, Smith Corona, is printed on the
inside of the top cover.
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This small message book was packed with the M-209 inside a pocket
of the canvas carrying bag. It was used to write down a ciphered
message on a page of the book. A thin carbon sheet is used to make
an immediate copy on very thin paper.
Once a message was enciphered, it could be handed to a radio operator
for subsequent transmission via morse code or telegraphy.
Alternatively, the thin duplicate of the message could be folded
down to fit a small capsule that was attached to the leg of a pigeon.
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Two slightly different variants of the message book are known, with
the only difference that the pages from the M-210 book are slightly
more robust than the pages from the M-210-A book, with the latter
being more suitable for mailing via pigeon.
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The following stamps and markings may be found on M-209 machines:
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| Stamp |
Meaning |
| SC |
Source Control |
| SCD |
Source Control Drawing (or Source Control Document) |
| CACH |
Manufacturer's code for Smith-Corona (the US manufacturer) |
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