Selmer Norland, who has died aged 99, was a US Army officer who served with the original American contingent of cryptanalysts assigned to Bletchley Park.
Fluent in German and with a good memory for the names of German military units and their locations, he was assigned to a unit that handled evaluation and translation of already-decrypted messages from the Enigma machines. He was able to make quick judgements on which intercepted messages were significant enough to require the immediate attention of higher-ups. After the war, Norland settled in the Washington area and was a cryptolinguist with the US National Security Agency, from which he retired in 1974.
He was born in 1916 on a farm near Garner in Iowa. His father was a Norwegian immigrant, his mother was a daughter of Norwegian immigrants. Norwegian was the language spoken at home. In 1942 he began his Army career, and a year later was among a group of officers selected for joint service with British intelligence. They sailed for Britain and a posting at Bletchley Park under the coded job description of “pigeon experts.”
After the war, Norland worked as a translator at the Nuremberg trials before returning to the US and joining what became the NSA. In retirement he continued to carry out work for the NSA, and also prepared income tax returns for clients until shortly before his death.
BART BARNES
Selmer Sevryn Norland, soldier and cryptolinguist: born Iowa 8 January 1916; OBE 1947; married Dorothy Martin (died 2011; two daughters); died Silver Spring, Maryland 5 December 2015.
© The Washington Post
