Photograph of US soldiers from a Joint Assault Signal Company (JASCO) with a type M-209 cipher machine

The M-209 was designed by the Swedish cryptographer Boris Hagelin in 1940. This portable mechanical cipher machine was the American counterpart to the German Enigma in World War II. 140,000 machines were in use, such as this combined communications unit to coordinate ground, naval and air forces during the invasion of Lingayen on the Philippine island of Luzon in January 1945.