Mathematicians in the Great War
Mathematics played, from start to finish, a significant role in this, one of the deadliest conflicts that was the Great War. Thus, the mathematician Paul Painlevé was involved in developing aviation and organizing operations research which made it possible to best conduct the war. And it is to the tenacity of a brilliant cryptanalyst, Georges-Jean Painvin, that we owe the decryption of the key telegram which would lead the Allies to victory! This conflict, from which many mobilized mathematicians did not return (René Gâteaux and André-Louis Cholesky in France, Eugenio Levi in Italy...) also had very damaging consequences on international scientific cooperation.
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The Great War and European mathematics
The deadly conflict of the First World War shattered international academic cooperation. It also took a devastating human toll, killing many scientists who had seemed destined for brilliant careers. Finally, it profoundly altered the place of mathematics in France.
Mathematicians killed at the front: Gâteaux, Levi and others
Mathematicians, too, paid a heavy price in the Great War, leaving the scientific world with irreparable losses.
Artillery detection: trigonometry in World War I
During the Great War, artillery caused two-thirds of all casualties. Locating enemy batteries was therefore important so that counter-battery fire could silence them. Surprisingly, the search leads to an old geometry problem!
Breaking the ADFGVX cipher in 1914–18
For the second phase of the German spring offensives of 1918, the Germans added the letter V to the ADFGX cipher. But Georges Painvin broke the new cipher within hours… paving the way for final victory. The new system, though apparently more sophisticated, was actually weaker!
André-Louis Cholesky: soldier-scholar and algebraist
In numerical analysis, the Cholesky method is a celebrated example of a scientific discovery made in one field—military geodesy—that went on to find applications in an ever-growing number of others.