Anagramming

Abstract

Transpositions were for a while the favorites of the military, particularly in the late 18th and early 19th century in France, Germany, Austria, and elsewhere. They seemed to be suitable above all as field ciphers (‘trench codes’) above all for the lower ranks. Bazeries, around 1900, made fun of this and generally ascribed to transposition systems that seemed difficult at first sight a complication illusoire. Cryptanalysts usually loved adversaries that used simple transpositions (like the German Abwehr hand ciphers) because they promised to be easy prey; likewise the literature treats crypt analysis of transpositions as relatively unsophisticated.

Abandonner les méthodes de substitution pour celles de transposition a été changer son cheval borgne pour un aveugle. [Abandoning the methods of substitution for those of transposition was like changing one’s one-eyed horse for a blind one.]

Étienne Bazeries 1901