Axis Communication???

Question

I was wondering (for a SOSE project) how the Axis forces in WW2 (germany, italy, japan) communicated with each other? As in what language they used as there is no common language between them...

Answer 1

Telegraph, train (after all the soviet union was an ally of Hitler for a significant part of the war) and later via submarine and ship (several "blockade runners" travelling both ways)

messages exchanged by ambassadors in neutral countries- Turkey or Spain or Switzerland or Sweden

language? theres quite a few translators around. every embassy employs a few.

Answer 2

A good way to approach the study of this problem would be to examine the activities of the three major Axis diplomats: Joachim von Ribbentrop (Germany), Galeazzo Ciano (Italy), and Hiroshi Oshima (Japan). Wikipedia has good articles on all three. Here's the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_von...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeazzo_Ci...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_%C5...

My guess is that Oshima probably spoke German to Ribbentrop, and that Ribbentrop spoke Italian to Ciano. Usually discussions of diplomatic meetings in history books skip over such details.