Louise S. Kettle has an interesting article titled “Operation Bunnyhug: What’s in a Name?” She explains, “This year’s First World War centenary also marks another unusual anniversary—the birth of military operational codenames.” The Germans were the first to use codenames during “The Great War,” and those became increasingly important as communications by radio became more common and more vulnerable to interception by the enemy. The Germans used some unwise codenames in World War II that, with minimal thought, revealed the nature of the mission. For example a planned invasion of England was named “Operation Sealion.” It referred to “an attack across the sea to the island with lions in the coat of armor,” which was, of course, England. The invasion of the Soviet Union began as “Operation Fritz,” but was changed to “Barbarosa,” which referred to the Roman Empire expanding power to the east.
American codenames began using colors. Examples were Operation Indigo, Gray, and Black. Winston Churchill might have approved of those names, and he set out some basic rules for establishing codenames:
- Operations where large numbers of lives might be lost must not be boastful or overconfident
- Codenames shouldn’t require a mother or widow to need to say their son/husband was killed in an operation called “Bunnyhug or Ballyhoo”
- Proper names are good
I’m not certain what Churchill would have thought of descriptive American codenames such as “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” He might have been perplexed that the United States refused to give a name to the operation against the Islamic State militants for at least a couple of months. One “unnamed Defense official” explained that the Obama administration was reluctant to name the mission because, “If you name it you own it…And they don’t want to own it. “ Another official explained the delay in naming the mission was because of the “…complex evolution of the mission.” I’m admittedly confused about the codename that was selected, which was “Inherent Resolve.” I understand that “inherent” means …existing in something as permanent, essential or characteristic attribute,” but I have no real idea how that has anything to do with the campaign of air support against ISIS. “Resolve” makes more sense. I admit “Inherent Resolve” is a better selection than “Bunnyhug.”