Running head: KNITTING AND ESPIONAGE IN WORLD WAR II
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KNITTING AND ESPIONAGE IN WORLD WAR II
Knitting And Espionage In World War Ii
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Research Proposal
My proposed final project is a fill a gap that focuses primarily on knitting and espionage during WWII. My inspiration for this project is my urge to know the kind of methods people would use to communicate in case such a phenomenon was to happen again. My focus, in this case, inclines towards women spies during WWII. In World War I and II, Knitters, primarily women, wove fabrics with coded messages that became espionage tools. The reason behind this espionage is that these messages became the guideline for ways to respond. Notably, this conveyance of coded messages caused an increase in spying where emissaries focused on the clicks and movement of the knitting needles. Steganography, as famously known, in WWII, established a strong foundation for hiding messages physically and visually for knitters and those with specialized knowledge to encode. The planned scope of the project is to describe the role of knitting in espionage during World War II. The project builds the foundation of art and its influence on World War II.
Annotated Bibliography
Zarrelli, N. (2022, March 17). The wartime spies who used knitting as an espionage tool: Grandma was just making a sweater. Or was she? Atlas Obscura. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii
In this article Zarrelli (2022) captures significant insights about messaging in World War II and how spies used knitting to conceal their surveillance. The author uses the reading to present knitting as a way of coding information and one used to enable their masters to read secret messages that enemies could not understand. The text also highlights individuals who used knitting to code messages, including Phyllis Latour and interpreters such as Madame Levengle and Gyles Daubeney. The author also showcases how knitting gained popularity during and after World War II to gather information and cover certain information. The source is significant in demonstrating the effects of knitting and coding in World War II, mainly as applied to leading participants such as Germany, Britain, and Belgium. The source is credible since its contents also appear on other internet platforms, including PubMed and Google scholar.
Fear, J. (2017, October 5). The Knitting War Spies of History. Handwoven. Retrieved from https://handwovenmagazine.com/knitting-war-spies-history/
Fear in this article showcases how America and other nations during World War I and II used citizens to engage in supporting their war troops. For example, as highlighted, females, such as Elizabeth Bentley, used knitting to pass coded messages about the U.S to Soviets. Other spies, such as Phyllis Latour Doyle, utilized knitting as a tool for espionage. As pinpointed by Fear in this reading, the female spy pretended to be a helper for Germans yet used coded knitting to pass messages to the British, giving them an upper hand over the Germans. This topic links significantly to my projects because it addresses how people used knitting as espionage tools during the first and second world wars. Although retrieved from a blog site, I believe the information is credible because the content matches others from peer-reviewed sources.
Chandler, N. (2020, September 28). Crafty Wartime Spies Put Codes Right into Their Knitting. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from https://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/spies-codes-knitting.htm
In this reading, Chandler shows how people from different parts of the world, such as the Dutch, used coded messages to plan their war strategies. Women hid messages in their knitting through steganography to pass secret messages to undercover agents. Similar to previous authors, Chandler, in this reading, believes that the act of knitting coded messages was an intelligent move. Chandler’s topic relates to my project because it also addresses the impact of knitting on espionage during WWI and WWII. I would say the information gathered from this article is credible because many statistics match that found in peer-reviewed articles.
References
Chandler, N. (2020, September 28). Crafty Wartime Spies Put Codes Right into Their Knitting. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from https://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/spies-codes-knitting.htm
Fear, J. (2017, October 5). The Knitting War Spies of History. Handwoven. Retrieved from https://handwovenmagazine.com/knitting-war-spies-history/
Zarrelli, N. (2022, March 17). The wartime spies who used knitting as an espionage tool: Grandma was just making a sweater. Or was she? Atlas Obscura. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii