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Here W9RAN, Bob Nickels stitches it together like this: The majority of Army Infantry communications used low HF frequencies, 2-12 MHz. Sensitive information was always encrypted using the M-209 converter. The decoding process relied upon the M-209, a converter that was designed in Europe years earlier, but manufactured for the U.S. Army by the Smith and Corona Co. of Syracuse, NY. The “converter,” as the machine was called, could both encipher and decipher text, one letter at a time. The mundane name may have been used by the Army to conceal the true identity and function of this device, which was in fact a spy’s tool. The decoded text was printed out on paper tape, to be read by the radio crew, and cataloged by the liaison officer. The text to be encoded was input into the machine, one letter at a time, and the resultant enciphered letters were printed out on paper tape, to be transmitted exactly by the code clerks in the SIAM Company. The SIAM group also monitored short range voice transmission from the front lines that came in the clear. A 32-minute film produced by the army explains in detail, how to operate the encoder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxEkMiAS0Po 
Ebay listed an M-209B encryption machine in 2024, which had been owned by a man who collected typewriters. The device sold for 41000. (Three photos courtesy Steven Mello.)
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(Above)
My father's handwritten cations on the back of the print, identifies the other two men in the photo made in Germany, April25, 1945. Gene Lynch, (rank unknown), holding the M-209 Converter Ed Orloff, (rank unknown) Lt. Abe Sacks |