Watercolor Painting: Joseph Desch (2014)

Background

Inspired by the book The Secret in Building 26 (DeBrosse and Burke, 2004) and the PBS documentary, The Dayton Codebreakers, I wanted to know more about Joseph Desch - a central figure in the book and documentary.  Desch was a pivotal leader in the efforts by the United States and Britain to overcome the threat posed by the U-boats during World War II. He led a team at NCR (National Cash Register Company) in Dayton Ohio, to build machines (bombes) that could decode the secret messages encrypted by the Engima machines used by the German navy.

At first I wanted to create a simple portrait of Desch, but worried his accomplishments would not be conveyed adequately.  Erring on the side of too much information, I planned a large painting composed of sub-images that represented photographs and artifacts from Desch's time.  In essence, the painting would represent the Battle of the Atlantic (running across the painting clockwise from the bottom left to the right).  Given the secrecy associated with the work in building the bombes, I thought it would be appropriate that there would be an envelope with all the secrets tucked away somewhere (e.g. the NSA), and that at some point this envelope would suddenly spill out all the secrets.  This is actually close to the truth.  According to Deborah Anderson, daughter of Joseph Desch, the details of Joe's work and that of NCR in Dayton, did not become known until 1995.  So this painting represents the revelation of these secrets.  In no small measure, those secrets came to light because of Deborah's interest and probing into the history that her father swore to keep private for his entire life.

Knowing a little about the dire situation faced in Britain because of the U-boat imposed cut-off of the supply routes, another reason for me in creating this painting is to say "Thank you Joe".  Because of the top secret nature of the cryptanalysis projects, I doubt that Joe heard many people offering praise.   

Below I have included a photo of my painting along with the text used on its caption.  Details of how the painting was created is also given below.

Caption

Joseph R. Desch
(B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Dayton, Class of 1929)

by David J. Wright (2014)
Watercolor, acrylic, gouache and ink on paper
Permanent loan to the University of Dayton


Joseph R. Desch (1907-1987), was the Research Director of a top secret project housed at NCR (National Cash Register Company) in Dayton, Ohio, during World War II. The involvement of Desch and Dayton with this project were revealed fifty years after the conclusion of the war.

German submarines (U-boats) had been sinking ships sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. When the United States entered World War II, it began an aggressive campaign to remove the U-boat threat. Understanding messages sent to and from the U-boats that had been encoded using the Enigma machines was a top priority. The US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory was setup to support Desch and his team in Building 26 on the NCR campus in Dayton, Ohio. In parallel with a similar operation at Bletchley Park, England, machines called “bombes” were built to decode Enigma messages.

Construction of 121 US Naval bombes, each weighing 5,000 lbs., was undertaken in Dayton by a workforce of civilian and naval personnel including 600 WAVES (women in the US Naval Reserve). Using an innovative combination of mechanical rotors and electrical components (thyratron vacuum tubes), the bombes were precursors to modern computers.

To the very end, German naval officers refused to believe their messages were being read by the allies, even as their submarine fleet was destroyed. Desch also played an important role in helping decode messages from the Japanese naval forces operating in the Pacific Ocean. The strain of this work took its toll on him.

Inventions of Joseph Desch and his team were instrumental in shortening World War II. He received the Medal of Merit from President Harry Truman in 1947. Desch is remembered as a pioneer in the nascent field of computer and information technologies.

Sources

Australian War Memorial (2013) http://www.awm.gov.au 

Bletchley Park Trust (2013) Google Cultural Institute: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute 

Boslaugh D.L. (2013) The Story of the Naval Tactical Data System. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Global History Network, http://www.ieeeghn.org 

Buchheim L.-G. (1986) U-Boat War. Bonanza Books. New York, NY.

Crypto Museum (2013) http://www.cryptomuseum.com 

Dayton Codebreakers (2013) http://daytoncodebreakers.org (Documentary video and Web site)

DeBrosse J. and Burke C. (2004) The Secret in Building 26: The Untold Story of America's Ultra War against the U-boat Enigma Codes. Random House. New York, NY.

Horenberg M. (2013) Enigma Message Breaking Project, http://www.enigma.hoerenberg.com

Lee J.A.N., Burke C. and Anderson D. (2000) The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES: The First Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, spring 2000: pp.1-15. http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/WAVES.pdf  

Mariners’ Museum (2013) http://www.marinersmuseum.org 

Morison S.E. (1956) The Atlantic Battle Won. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Volume 10. Little, Brown and Company. Boston, MA.

NCR Archive (2013) Dayton Historical Society, http://www.daytonhistory.org 

Pitt B. (1980) The Battle of the Atlantic. World War II Series. Time-Life Books. Alexandria, VA.

UK Imperial War Museums (2013) http://www.iwm.org.uk 

UK Royal Navy (2013) http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk 

US Library of Congress (2013) http://www.loc.gov 

US National Archives (2013) http://research.archives.gov 

US National Security Agency (2013) http://www.nsa.gov 

Wikipedia (2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

How the Painting was Made

The painting was created predominantly using watercolor (Winsor and Newton). Acrylic tinting (Winsor and Newton) was used to provide background color to each sub-image.  Some gouache was added in a few places for highlighting, watercolor pencil for the map, and ink-and-pen for the text.  Each sub-image was laid in a specific location based on an arrangement created using Microsoft PowerPoint.  All of the sub-images were created using one or more original photographs.  For example, the portrait of Joe Desch was a merger of a picture of Joe standing at his home and a photo from the NCR Archive showing the front of building 10.  The picture representing Alan Turing is actually of NCR leaders and guests standing on the steps to building 10.  I did this because presumably the Turing visit was so secretive, no photographs were taken (that I am aware of).  Knowing that Turing came to Dayton to see the bombes being designed and created, is an amazing piece of history.  All the original photographic images were reduced in size and printed using a laser printer (and frequently inverted), so that I could copy with tracing paper and graphite onto the much thicker watercolor paper (Arches, 140lb cold press).

The following images show various stages in the creation of the painting.