Information Systems in World War II: A case study in innovation
Information systems are widely thought of as an esoteric discipline, the refuge of pimpled ‘computer geeks’ who play World of Warcraft. But this view is a serious underestimation of the power of information and the systems that control it. Indeed, information systems can alter the course of war. This was the case in World War II.
As the Allied commanders prepared for their 1943 invasion of southern Europe (i.e. Italy), they became convinced that Axis forces in Italy and Sicily were too powerful to defeat in a purely military campaign. So they hatched Operation Mincemeat, possibly the most ambitious and daring mis-information campaign in the history of war. The story of the operation unfolding is a remarkable one. In April 1943, a fisherman off the coast of Spain found a corpse floating in the sea off the coast of Spain, the body was clothed in full Royal Marine uniform. The fisherman brought the body to shore and soon the local German intelligence agent took possession of all documents found on the body. These documents led Nazi commanders to believe that the Allies intended to invade Greece en route to Italy and die Vaterland. The Axis initiated a massive movement of troops to counter, leaving Sicily and Italy less well fortified.
But the Allies had no such intention, the body was that of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man who died in London with no next of kin. British spy masters conspired to build a fake identity for the man, calling him Captain William ‘Bill’ Martin and forging all required documents. The body was preserved aboard the HMS Seraph until the misleading documents were placed on the body, which was dropped into the sea. The rest is well documented history: the Allies took Sicily with little resistance from the ill-prepared Axis forces, and Italy too fell in time. The Allies took advantage of a gap, or even an arrogance, in Nazi information systems security.
The Allies benefited further from their own superior information systems studies, particularly with regard to the US Signal Corps. The unit was founded at the outset of the US Civil War, gathering and communicating information with air balloons and 
telegraph machines. Later in the Great Wars, these soldiers played a crucial role in documenting the war. Interestingly, noted Hollywood producers, directors, and photographers (such as Darryl Zanuck, Frank Capra, John Huston, and George Stevens) all served in the Signal Corps. Members of the unit landed on Omaha beach on D-Day, forwarding the first films of the invasion on to London by carrier pigeon. Later, the 
footage and pictures taken by the unit in Concentration camps was used to try Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg.
The Signal Corps were early adopters of radar technology, concealing the radar in radio sets. These allowed them to assess the threat of aerial bombardment while in the field. Additionally, the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth developed the first FM backpack radio, the SCR-300, in 1941.
Simultaneously, the British were working in Bletchley Park to decrypt Axis codes, specifically the Enigma enciphering machine. Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer, developed his ‘Enigma’ machine, capable of transcribing coded information, in the hope of interesting commercial companies in secure communications.
Soon the German navy was producing its own version, followed by the army in 1928 and the air force in 1933. The high-level intelligence produced at Bletchley Park, code named Ultra, provided crucial assistance to the Allied war effort. The Signal Corps were early adopters of radar technology, concealing the radar in radio sets. These allowed them to assess the threat of aerial bombardment while in the field. Additionally, the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth developed the first FM backpack radio, the SCR-300, in 1941.
Quantifying the role of information systems in World War II is a tall order, even here we have just a sample of the systems in use. But it’s indisputable that on more than one occasion information systems, and the men and women behind them, changed the course of war. We would be remiss, however, to not point out that information systems were also the lifeblood of the bombing campaigns that devastated millions of civilians and, arguably, the Holocaust. Like almost any remarkable technology, information systems are equally a tool for good or bad.
Cave Drawings and the birth of Information Systems
Social networking has become synonymous with modern information systems like Twitter and Facebook. They are the go to method for communicating news, gossip and even work assignments. One could be forgiven for thinking ‘networking’ began with these new technologies. But, in fact, social networking is as old as the human species. The most well-known form of early information system is cave drawings, which first appeared in their most primitive format around 130,000 BC. At this time Homo sapiens had just appeared on the island of Crete, most likely arriving there by boat.
With their new nautical and technological prowess, they appear to have set out to document their skills in cave paintings, possibly in an effort to pass along their knowledge. They used the juice of fruits and berries, coloured minerals, or animal blood to make their paintings, at this point primarily of hunting and killings animals. By the year 30,000 BC, cave drawings were being made wherever man walked the earth. Many of the drawings were artistic beauty in their own right; when Picasso visited the Lascaux caves, he remarked that “we have invented nothing” if our ancestors were creating such art in 17,500 BC. Here, we have a painting of a bison in the Cave of El Castillo, Spain, dating from around 36,000 BC.
Another common painting from this period is of hands out-stretched. It was not until later than full humans were drawn, suggesting that religion played a role in cave art.
Eventually, cave drawings were used to communicate information directly. In this scene from the Alta Caves, Norway from 6,000 BC, a hunter and sailor work together to find prey.
It has been further hypothesised that cave drawings from this period were an early attempt at written language. Often, animals were depicted by their head followed by a wavy line, almost an abbreviation of previously stated information. Similar symbols were used in specific patterns, the basic template II ^ III X II being of seemingly particular importance.
All of this points to our ancestors’ use of primitive tools to record information. Cave drawings may have indeed been our earliest form of information system and cave dwellers our first data scientists, the Real IT Crowd.
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