In 1944, The Daily Telegraph used a printable crosswords in several of their editions that Allied security officers didn't like. Some of the answers to the puzzle were in fact secret code names for an upcoming military campaign which was known as Operation Overlord! The word "Utah" first appeared in the May 2nd edition. "Utah" was the code name for a particular landing site. The next few puzzles also contained "Mulberry" and "Omaha", which were harbors.
Four days before the invasion on June 2nd, the puzzle answers consisted of two critical worlds: "Neptune" and "Overlord". The creator of the printable crosswords was Leonard Dawe, a school teacher. He was immediately arrested and spent hours being questioned. It was ultimately decided that it was purely a coincidence, and Mr. Dawe was released and no charges were filed. It is interesting to note that this exact story has been used time and time again to show that pure coincidence and assumptions can often lead to tragic end results!
In 1984, one of Dawe's former students claimed that he had been eavesdropping on the soldiers' conversations, and had suggested to Mr. Dawe that he use them in his puzzles. This of course has never been verified, and the book Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession (which is a very good book, I might add) sites several reason as to why this story is false.
It's amazing that a printable crosswords would stir up such a controversy!
1 comment:
It has been verified a number of times by Ronald French (Gilbert, 2004), Richard Wallington (in Warwick undated)and others who were in the sixth form at the time.
Gilbert, V., (2004) ‘D-Day Crosswords are Still a Few Clues short of a Solution’, downloaded on 24.01.2010 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1460892/D-Day-crosswords-are-still-a-few-clues-short-of-a-solution.html
Warwick, M., (undated) ‘The D-Day Crossword’ downloaded on 23.01.2010 from http://www.bookhamsbulletin.co.uk/
Post a Comment