02-17-2015, 05:48 AM
During World War 2 there were two invasions that occurred on France between 1942-1944. You probably all know what D-Day, but the other one was the "Dieppe Raid"
Now, to cut a long story short the Dieppe Raid in 1942 was meant to be a small recon mission in which the allies would gather some intel for a bit, and then retreat destroying as much as they could along the way. It was a total failure with none of those objectives achieved.
As for D-Day, if you don't know it. It was a large invasion force sent to Normandy to liberate France and in the long run was to be the final push to Germany to end the war.
What's interesting about both of these is a man called Leonard Dawe, a person who wrote Crosswords for the Daily Telegraph. Two days before the failed Dieppe Raid, the crossword had the clue "French Port" and the solution being "Dieppe" in it. The War Office detained Dawe thinking he was trying to send over intel to the enemy, but eventually was let go and it was "just a remarkable coincidence—a complete fluke."
Two years later in 1944 leading up to D-Day, the words "Juno", "Gold" and "Sword" (These were the codenames for the D-Day beaches assigned to the British (Gold, Sword) and Canadians (Juno)) also appeared in the Daily Telegraph by the same person. It was also treated as a coincidence.
The run of D-Day codewords as Daily Telegraph crossword solutions continued:
In May 1944: 'Utah' (clued as "One of the U.S."): codename for the D-Day beach assigned to the 4th US Assault Division (Utah Beach). This would have been treated as another coincidence.
On the 22nd of May: 'Omaha' (clued as "Red Indian on the Missouri"): codename for the D-Day beach to be taken by the 1st US Assault Division (Omaha Beach).
Then on the 27th of May: 'Overlord' (codename for the whole D-Day operation: Operation Overlord)
Again on the 30th of May: 'Mulberry' (Mulberry harbour)
And finally on the 1st of June: 15 Down was 'Neptune' (codeword for the naval assault phase: Operation Neptune).
He was detained a lot during that period and was interrogated intensively by MI5 before he was deemed innocent and was let go. Under everything being a coincidence.
The interesting reasoning behind this is that Dawe who was also a Headteacher for a local school would ask young boys for words to use for his crosswords, at the time there was also an American/Canadian infantry division stationed close to where he was living. The defences were poor and many of the soldiers were lazy and used to talk to the young boys as well as in general to one another, so overhearing certain words and phrases was not uncommon for local people.
Now, to cut a long story short the Dieppe Raid in 1942 was meant to be a small recon mission in which the allies would gather some intel for a bit, and then retreat destroying as much as they could along the way. It was a total failure with none of those objectives achieved.
As for D-Day, if you don't know it. It was a large invasion force sent to Normandy to liberate France and in the long run was to be the final push to Germany to end the war.
What's interesting about both of these is a man called Leonard Dawe, a person who wrote Crosswords for the Daily Telegraph. Two days before the failed Dieppe Raid, the crossword had the clue "French Port" and the solution being "Dieppe" in it. The War Office detained Dawe thinking he was trying to send over intel to the enemy, but eventually was let go and it was "just a remarkable coincidence—a complete fluke."
Two years later in 1944 leading up to D-Day, the words "Juno", "Gold" and "Sword" (These were the codenames for the D-Day beaches assigned to the British (Gold, Sword) and Canadians (Juno)) also appeared in the Daily Telegraph by the same person. It was also treated as a coincidence.
The run of D-Day codewords as Daily Telegraph crossword solutions continued:
In May 1944: 'Utah' (clued as "One of the U.S."): codename for the D-Day beach assigned to the 4th US Assault Division (Utah Beach). This would have been treated as another coincidence.
On the 22nd of May: 'Omaha' (clued as "Red Indian on the Missouri"): codename for the D-Day beach to be taken by the 1st US Assault Division (Omaha Beach).
Then on the 27th of May: 'Overlord' (codename for the whole D-Day operation: Operation Overlord)
Again on the 30th of May: 'Mulberry' (Mulberry harbour)
And finally on the 1st of June: 15 Down was 'Neptune' (codeword for the naval assault phase: Operation Neptune).
He was detained a lot during that period and was interrogated intensively by MI5 before he was deemed innocent and was let go. Under everything being a coincidence.
The interesting reasoning behind this is that Dawe who was also a Headteacher for a local school would ask young boys for words to use for his crosswords, at the time there was also an American/Canadian infantry division stationed close to where he was living. The defences were poor and many of the soldiers were lazy and used to talk to the young boys as well as in general to one another, so overhearing certain words and phrases was not uncommon for local people.