
Crossword Panic of 1944 - yread
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Crossword-Panic-of-1944/
======
duxup
>Why, the officers demanded to know, had he chosen these five words within his
crossword solutions?

>“Why not?” was Dawe’s indignant reply. Was there a law against choosing
whatever words he liked?

That's one of those cases I kinda fear being in.

How do you prove you're not giving away secrets in some secret way when the
clue is some random events in life that have little behind them other than
happenstance.

~~~
nemo44x
> How do you prove you're not giving away secrets in some secret way when the
> clue is some random events in life that have little behind them other than
> happenstance.

Isn't this the entire foundation of the fundamental right of innocent until
proven guilty? Of course in practice it isn't so simple. In an extreme
condition that is extremely unlikely, you could be found guilty exactaly for
that reason perhaps. At what point statistically is it on the wrong side of
"reasonable doubt"?

~~~
Iv
In that case, the probability of choosing 5 words so relevant at random
(including the two main targets, the code name of the whole operation and the
code name of the most crucial part of it) are so small that their suspicions
were totally warranted statistically.

They tried to transform their suspicions into material elements and came empty
handed, and left the man alone, which is the core difference between a
democracy and an authoritarian regime.

However this coincidence is so strange that on that basis alone I am wondering
if they did not miss something.

~~~
SomewhatLikely
Read the footnote, the compiler had a habit of asking around for words.

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Thrymr
The linked article is rather thin. There is more detail on Wikipedia [0],
including links to more thorough Telegraph stories from 2004 [1] and 2014 [2].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Day_Daily_Telegraph_crosswor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Day_Daily_Telegraph_crossword_security_alarm)

[1] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1460892/D-Day-
crossw...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1460892/D-Day-crosswords-
are-still-a-few-clues-short-of-a-solution.html)

[2] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/10789884/Who-
put-s...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/10789884/Who-put-secret-D-
Day-clues-in-the-Telegraph-crossword.html)

------
SolarNet
This almost reminds me of the Foundation series. Where with enough
math/statistics one can extract the future. Except here applied to 6th
graders, distilling the information they had heard, and breaking an operation
that way.

~~~
electronstudio
6th _formers_ are aged 16-18. I think 6th _graders_ are much younger?

~~~
mattlondon
Correct. 6th form (lower sixth and upper sixth) is the two academic years
prior to going to uni in the UK. 16-18 year olds.

~~~
KuiN
It's an England and Wales thing, not a UK thing.

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mbrd
I first heard about this on the Omnibus Project podcast (Ken Jennings & John
Roderick).

Here's the link if anyone would like to listen to some light-hearted
discussion on the topic: [https://www.omnibusproject.com/podcasts/the-d-day-
crosswords...](https://www.omnibusproject.com/podcasts/the-d-day-crosswords-
entry-318pr2019.htm)

------
goda90
I read a theory that the crossword maker had unconsciously picked up these
words being used by kids, who themselves would like to hang out near soldiers
that would use those code words.

~~~
cbsks
That is mentioned in the footnote: “it was often his practice to call in 6th
formers and ask them for words for inclusion. At that time the US Forces were
liberally strewn through Surrey, particularly in the Epsom area and there is
no doubt that boys heard these code words being bandied about and innocently
passed them on.”

~~~
jimnotgym
This sounds absurd to me. Ordinary soldiers are unlikely to have been told the
codewords for their area of operations until the last minute. They certainly
wouldn't have been told about other code words for other areas of operation
that they were not part of!

I don't buy it one bit. I also find it unlikely that the bulk of the invasion
force was in Surrey in May '44\. I think they might have moved to the coast by
then.

~~~
ggggtez
The wikipedia article on this topic also indicates that there is some reason
to suspect that the crossword author was not being entirely truthful about it,
but at the end of the day, who knows.

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danielparks
I’m having a hard time imagining what value putting _code names_ in the
crossword would have. Did they suspect the compiler was encoding information
in the position of the words or something?

Seems like an unnecessarily hard way to exfiltrate data.

~~~
ceejayoz
If you had limited bandwidth, but knew other agents existed, "have the other
guy ask about Operation Overlord" would be a useful message to get out.

~~~
mhh__
Although one shouldn't assume, the Abwehr was so totally outgunned in WW2 that
they did not successfully insert any agents into Britain. All who landed were
either converted to double agents (Some just volunteered without being asked)
or captured (and presumably some "dealt with")

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teddyh
“ _Coincidences are strange and dangerous things._ ”

— Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

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vmilner
BBC TV drama "The Mountain and the Molehill" (1988) at:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nANoCftnK0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nANoCftnK0)

