Well, they thought the Japanese was going to hit Aleutian Islands(they did anyway as a distraction), but someone wasn't convinced about it and asked Midway to broadcast that message. The rest is pretty much history.
The Americans prior to the Battle of Midway were intercepting some of the Japanese codes. From these interceptions, they were able to decipher the next Japanese target which they called "AF". The Americans were unsure whether this was Hawaii or the Aleutian Islands. So it was suggested that Midway send an uncoded message saying that their water filtration unit was out of commission, this was to help identify what AF was. The Japanese intercepted this and then transmitted "AF has water filtration problems. This led to the Americans finding out the next battle was to be Midway. The rest is history.
And here you thought ships even today are very innate with Morse.
At least Kamikaze's being nostalgic about the key
Iowa's an American ship, and Kongou's most likely using Wabun Morse instead of International Morse.
zgryphon said:
Iowa understands the code, she just either doesn't know that Japanese phrase or can't figure out why Kongou is transmitting it.
To expand on zgryphon's point, try putting yourself in Iowa's shoes. You're not completely fluent in Japanese, you probably only had a crash course in the Japanese variant of Morse recently, and then along comes this message that makes you wonder if you messed up interpreting the code, the language, or whether the message is enciphered or just padding for some other message.
whether the message is enciphered or just padding for some other message.
TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS
