Tex Biard
Captain Forrest R. "Tex" Biard (December 21, 1912 in Bonham, Texas[1] – November 2, 2009[2]) was an American codebreaker and linguist during the Second World War. A pre-war student of Japanese, Biard's translation work is considered to have been a crucial part of American military success.
In September 1941, Biard (then an Ensign) was stationed at Pearl Harbor, as part of American attempts to break JN-25. In the spring of 1942, he was transferred to the USS Yorktown, where his earlier decryption of JN-25 contributed substantially to Allied efforts in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.
In February 1944, Biard worked with Tom Mackie to decrypt and translate captured Japanese Army code books for Douglas MacArthur; MacArthur was able to use Biard and Mackie's data to accelerate his "island-hopping" strategy to liberate New Guinea and hasten the end of the war.
Notes
- ↑ Biography of Biard explaining the Biard Lectureship in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Ohio State University
- ↑ Biard's obituary from the Dallas Morning News (archived at legacy.com)
References
- Layton, Rear Admiral Edwin T., U.S.N. (Ret.), with Captain Roger Pineau, U.S.N.R. (Ret.). and John Costello, “And I Was There” - Pearl Harbor and Midway – Breaking the Secrets, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York (1985) at 51 (hereinafter “R. Adm. Layton”).
- Kahn, David, The Codebreakers, The MacMillan Company – New York (1967) at 565
- Dear, I.C.B., and Foot, M.R.D. (Eds.), The Oxford Companion To World War II, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York (1995) at 1174 (hereinafter, “Oxford Companion to World War II”)
- Oxford Companion to World War II at 796 (emphasis added). The work of Lt. Cdrs. Biard and Mackie made this achievement possible.
