FIELD CIPHERS.
Description and use.—Field ciphers include all systems and the apparatus connected therewith which are ordinarily employed in enciphering and deciphering field messages. Field ciphers are intended for use when code books are not available, and hence the employment of cipher code is precluded. Some methods of field cipher employ simple forms of apparatus, while others require the use of no apparatus at all.
Forms of field cipher.—There are two general classes of field cipher. The first class employs the transposition or reversal of the letters or words of a message according to some preconcerted rule as a means of secrecy. The route cipher hereafter described is an example of this class. The method used in ciphers of the second class consists in the substitution of certain letters or symbols for each of the individual letters composing the words of the message. Both classes of cipher can be rendered more efficient by a judicious use of inversions and by the concealment of terminations.
Inversions.—By the inversions of the whole or certain parts of messages, according to some preconcerted arrangement, the complications of cipher can be greatly increased. If a message is to be inverted, either as a whole or by clauses, it should be inverted before the cipher letters are written over it. Messages may be further complicated by sending the letters of each word backward in various other prearranged combinations.
Concealment of terminations.—To evade the discovery of the key or keys employed, it is most important that the termination of the words of a message should be concealed. The best method to conceal the beginning, and at the same time the termination of words, is to divide them into arbitrary groups of four or five letters each. This procedure will add immeasurably to the strength of the cipher and should in no way confuse one in possession of the key. For instance, the words "sufficient time" would be divided "suff" "icie" "ntti" "me," and such blind letters as may be agreed upon to fill the last two spaces of the last group. All such artifices as this will surely delay a translator not in possession of the key.