D-Day Daily Telegraph crossword security alarm facts for kids

In 1944, secret code names for the D-Day invasion plans showed up as answers in crossword puzzles in a British newspaper called The Daily Telegraph. The British Secret Services (like spies for the government) first thought this might be a way for enemies to get secret information. It caused a big alarm!

How the Words Got There

Leonard Dawe was the person who made the crosswords for The Daily Telegraph. He created these puzzles at his home in Leatherhead. Mr. Dawe was also the headmaster of Strand School. During the war, the school had moved to Effingham, Surrey.

Right next to the school was a large camp where American and Canadian soldiers were getting ready for D-Day. Security around the camp wasn't very strict. The schoolboys and soldiers often talked to each other. Because of this, the boys might have heard soldiers talking about secret D-Day code words.

First Alarm: The Dieppe Raid

Something similar happened even earlier, on August 18, 1942. This was just one day before a big military attack called the Dieppe Raid. The word 'Dieppe' appeared as an answer in The Daily Telegraph crossword. The clue for it was "French port."

This caused a security scare! The War Office (the government department in charge of the army) thought the crossword might be used to send secret messages to the enemy. They asked Lord Tweedsmuir, a senior intelligence officer, to investigate. He later said it was just an amazing coincidence.

D-Day Code Words Appear

In the months leading up to D-Day, more code words started appearing in the crosswords. Words like 'Gold' and 'Sword' (names for British D-Day beaches) and 'Juno' (a Canadian D-Day beach) showed up. At first, these were seen as just coincidences because they are common words.

Mr. Dawe had a clever way to save time when making crosswords. He would call boys into his study and ask them to fill in blank spaces in the puzzles with words. Then, he would create clues for those words. This is how war-related words, including the secret code names, ended up in the crosswords. Mr. Dawe later said he didn't know these words were military secrets.

More D-Day code words kept appearing in The Daily Telegraph crosswords:

• May 2, 1944: The word 'Utah' appeared. This was the code name for a D-Day beach where American soldiers would land (Utah Beach).
• May 22, 1944: The word 'Omaha' appeared. This was another code name for a D-Day beach for American soldiers (Omaha Beach).
• May 27, 1944: The word 'Overlord' appeared. This was the code name for the entire D-Day operation (Operation Overlord).
• May 30, 1944: The word 'Mulberry' appeared. This was the name for special temporary harbors built for the invasion (Mulberry harbour).
• June 1, 1944: The word 'Neptune' appeared. This was the code name for the naval (sea) part of the D-Day invasion (Operation Neptune).

D-Day itself happened on Tuesday, June 6, 1944.

The Investigation

The secret service, MI5, got involved. They arrested Mr. Dawe and another crossword maker, Melville Jones. Both were questioned very carefully. In the end, it was decided that they were innocent. Mr. Dawe almost lost his job as headmaster.

Afterward, Mr. Dawe asked one of the boys, Ronald French, where he had heard these code words. He was very worried when he saw what was in the boy's notebook. Mr. Dawe gave Ronald a serious warning about keeping secrets and national security during wartime. He told the boy to burn the notebook and swear on the Bible that he would keep it a secret.

Publicly, it was announced that the appearance of the code names was just a coincidence. Mr. Dawe kept his interrogation a secret until he talked about it in a BBC interview in 1958.

After the War

In 1984, as the 40th anniversary of D-Day approached, people remembered the crossword incident. This led Ronald French, who was 14 years old at Strand School in 1944, to come forward. He said that he had put the D-Day code names into the crosswords. He believed that many other children must have known what he knew.

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