TheCodeBreakers
tidbits from native allies, and radioed their information to Allied military
commands. They frequently gave valuable early warning of Japanese
bombing raids and ship movements, and they assisted in the rescue of
downed Allied airmen.
In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, coast-watcher
Lieutenant Arthur Reginald Evans of the Royal Australian Naval
Volunteer Reserve saw a pinpoint of flame on the dark waters of Blackett
Strait from his jungle ridge on Kolombangara Island, one of the
Solomons. He did not know then that the Japanese destroyer Amagiri
had rammed and sliced in half an American patrol torpedo boat, PT 109,
Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, United States Naval Reserve, commanding.
But at 9:30 that morning he received a 20-group message enciphered in
Playfair, the coastwatchers' cipher system. He deciphered it with key
ROYAL NEW ZEALAND NAVY and learned, PT boat one owe nine lost in
annaabi.ee 
