INTERCOMMUNICATING WITH TEMPORARY CODES AND INCIDENTS
GRAMMATICAL CODE--A TÊTE-A-TÊTE--CONFIDENCES--MISCONSTRUED MESSAGE
LEADS TO DOMESTIC TRAGEDY--LOCAL CODES--AN ALTERED MESSAGE--AN
IMPORTANT MISSION--SHADOWED--ATTEMPTED THEFTS OF PAPERS--A
CONTRETEMPS--LEAKAGE OF NEWS FROM ENGLAND--WATCHING A
SUSPECT--FALSE MESSAGE DISCLOSES AN OPEN CODE--GEOMETRICAL
CODES--THE KNOT CODE--A FASCINATING ACTRESS, A CONFIDING ATTACHÉ,
AND A MYSTERIOUS CHESS PROBLEM--CLEVERNESS OF FRENCH SECRET
SERVICE.
No reader must expect or anticipate a disclosure of the direct methods
which the British Secret Service uses for communicating with
headquarters. That is a carefully-guarded secret which no one in or out
of the Service would dream of referring to. Suffice it therefore to say
that it is difficult to conceive anything more clever or effective than
it is, both as to its efficiency and its celerity in use.
On the other hand, when Secret Service agents are working abroad they
must perforce rely upon codes of sorts, for means of intercommunication
between themselves, their friends and supporters. These codes are
invented by them entirely at their discretion. If they are wise in their
generation they never keep the same code too long in use, but change it,
at frequent intervals, for another entirely different in every respect.
Such codes cannot be too carefully prepared; whilst every user knows
that if his deception is discovered the consequences to himself might be
serious indeed. Simplicity is invariably the safest and most effective
rule to follow. In order to give the reader a good idea of how the work
was accomplished a couple of these codes are roughly outlined, with
examples of their working in each case.
One was used for sea work. It was a grammatical code, which, although
simple enough in its patent aspect, was not easy to memorise with that
strict accuracy which is so essential to future use. Shortly, this code
ran somewhat on the following lines, although English names are therein
substituted in order to give better illustration. Needless to add, these
messages were worded in the language of the country in which they were
despatched, and signed with an assumed name which would be in common use
in that country.
EXAMPLE 1.
I. Communications signed with _Christian Name_ refer to _War
Ships_.
Communications signed with _Surname_ refer to _Merchant Ships_.
II. _Please send a copy of_ "_The Times_" _to_ ... means "a base is
being formed at ..."
III. I received a letter from ... _on_ ...
means {German auxiliary cruiser(s) in port at ...
{German battleship(s) hanging about near ...
IV. I received a message from ... _on_ ...
means {German large merchant ship in port at ...
{German cruiser hanging about near ...
V. I am hoping to hear from ... _on_ ...
means {German small merchant ship in port at ...
{German torpedo-boat(s) hanging about near ...
VI. I am expecting a message from ... _on_ ...
means {German collier(s) in port at ...
{German submarine(s) hanging about near ...
VII. The _first blank_ in the sentence is to be filled in with the
_name of the place_ at which the base is being formed, or at which
the ships have been seen.
VIII. The _second blank_ in the sentence, after the word "on" is to
be filled in with a _day of the week_ indicating the number of
ships seen (_see_ over, IX).
IX. 1 is Monday
2 is Tuesday
3 is Wednesday
4 is Thursday
5 is Friday
6 is Saturday
7 is Sunday
8 is Monday-week
9 is Tuesday-week, and so on.
15 is Monday-fortnight, and so on.
X. If, _instead of the singular person_ "I am (had)," the _plural_
"We are (had)" is written, it means that the ships in question, if
merchantmen, have left port and are _going South_.
XI. If neither the first person singular nor plural is written and
the communication begins, for instance, "Letter from ... _on_ ..."
it means that the ships in question, if merchantmen, have left port
and are _gone North_.
XII. Any mention of _illness_ means that the ships are _disabled_.
XIII. _I am expecting a letter from_ ... _on_ ... means that
several German warships (or merchantmen) of different classes (or
sizes) have been seen.
XIV. _Specimen message_:
We are hoping to hear from Newcastle on Sunday.
_signed_) CHARLES.
_Decoded_, means 7 German warships have been observed outside
Newcastle, proceeding South.
The week after my arrival, this code had been completed and put into
use. I was one evening sitting in the best and most popular restaurant
in a certain town. The place was crowded with customers and business was
brisk. The walls were decorated with magnificent frescoes by a
celebrated German artist. Hundreds of electric lamps added warmth and
attractiveness, whilst dreamy valse music from Wald Teufel, given by a
German orchestra, seemed to help the digestion. Between bites and sips
of German lager I was absorbed in the perusal of an evening news-sheet
wherein every belligerent army was reported to be making marvellous
forward movements, which, if half true, would have carried them
respectively quite through Europe and back again in the course of a few
weeks. Whenever my eye shifted from the newspaper to my plate an
opportunity offered to note casually my surroundings, as well as my
immediate neighbours. Two seats only were vacant. They were located next
my own and in due course were occupied by a young naval lieutenant
accompanied by an outwardly appearing charming demi-mondaine. The
champagne of sunny France soon loosened their tongues. But the more
their voices became raised the more absorbed I became in my reading.
Presently snatches of conversation drifted my way. The lady was
complimenting her gallant upon his patriotism and prowess. He, as the
Americans say, was blowing hot air. A listener's difficulty was to sift
the substance from the imaginary boasting. Subject matters dealt with
were mostly of a frivolous nature, but ever and anon the lieutenant
would return to his sea trips and the results from their patrolling.
_Inter alia_ he related the number of drifting mines taken up, vessels
sighted and submarine visitation, which matters only were of interest to
me. Presently he paused, then, sinking his voice almost to a whisper,
informed his enchantress that just before his ship entered port, that
very afternoon, a German cruiser had been sighted going full steam north
and close in shore. He proceeded by giving at length his personal
opinions and suppositions as to her destination and objective. Now I
happened to be aware of several objectives which would be very
attractive to such an enemy vessel. For some weeks I had been
over-anxious regarding the safety of a line of steamers, the
uninterrupted running of which was a matter of some importance to
England. And although I entertained considerable doubts regarding the
truth of the latter part of the young lieutenant's statement, yet I felt
that I should send the information along to headquarters for what it was
worth. So I despatched the following telegram:
"Received letter from B ... on Monday about you from a chic lady
although do not believe what she says.--CHRISTIAN."
Which on being decoded would run:
"One enemy battleship is stated to be hanging around B ... going
North. Information obtained through female source and doubtful."
It had been previously arranged that all local wires should be sent to a
certain individual at his private residence, who conveyed them to
another who had his fingers on the reins of management.
If the news contained was sufficiently important it would be transmitted
home, which would mean a duplicate communication and ensure a double
chance of safe arrival.
The first recipient at local headquarters was a man of gentle
disposition, a domesticated and homely parent, whose many years of
connubial bliss had never been marred by a single cloud of unhappiness.
He was one of those lovable personages who is generally captured by a
lady who may have enjoyed numerous innocent flirtations before marriage,
and consequently might perhaps be of a suspicious and jealous
disposition, who, knowing the goodness of heart of her spouse, might
imagine that every woman showing an amiable or friendly spirit towards
him was trying to wean his affections from herself; and who might
accordingly be always on the watch for all possible emergencies.
Never having seen, nor met, the good lady, I had no accurate data on
these points, but the fact is recorded that when the telegraph official,
who happened to be a personal friend of the addressee, received the
aforesaid message, he warned the telegraph delivery boy to give it only
to the addressee.
Unfortunately the addressee did not happen to be at home when the
message arrived, and his faithful wife answered the door. Having been
advised to a certain extent regarding these matters, and recognising the
boy who brought the message, she naturally pressed him upon the nature
of his errand and soon persuaded the reluctant youth to hand over the
missive, which she at once opened and read. Not knowing its hidden
meaning she jumped to wrong conclusions.
From the scraps of news which reached me afterwards relating to the
domestic tragedy which followed, I pieced together that the
believed-to-be wronged wife immediately donned her outdoor apparel in
order to seek out her Judas in lamb's-skin. Before she ran him to earth,
she had imagined the worst, and had worked herself up into a veritable
furore of unnecessary excitement.
What really happened when they met, what was said, or done, were details
which I never knew. But the unfortunate message-receiver implored me to
invent another code at my earliest convenience; one, for choice, which
was not quite so open to dual construction.
Most local codes, when and where possible, were worked out on domestic
lines. By way of example, familiar and commonplace names were selected
which could be found in an ordinary directory. To each was attached a
definite meaning, and the message would be worded so that anyone seeing
it would think it related to an ordinary everyday event. Christian names
might be coded to mean definite objects; to wit--Bertha, a battleship;
Dora, a torpedo boat destroyer; Sarah, a submarine; Tiny, a torpedo
boat; Mary, a merchantman; Connie, a collier; Trina, a trawler; Louisa,
an airship; and so on.
Surnames were useful to designate numerals; to wit--Oldman, one; Turner,
two; Truman, three; Smith, four; Jones, five; Robinson, six; and so on.
Knowing that every telegram was stamped with the name of the place it
was handed in at, the points of the compass, north, south, east, and
west were conveyed by including the name of some place which could be
found on any ordinary map within a reasonable radius of the place of
dispatch.
Time spoke for itself.
Thus, a telegram handed in at Lowestoft worded as follows:
"Sent your housemaid Sarah Jones to Felixstowe 4 o'clock this
afternoon,"
on being coded would read:
"Five submarines passed Lowestoft at 4 o'clock this afternoon
steaming south."
Any reference to an illness meant that damage had been done, or that a
vessel had been adversely affected to some extent. Any reference to a
marriage or engagement meant that a combat or battle had taken place.
"In bed" conveyed the news that a ship or ships had been sunk. "Put to
bed" meant sunk, annihilation, or defeat, according to the context;
mention of "delirium or head sickness" conveyed suspicions, or
suspicious circumstances; "doctor called in" that the enemy (or others,
as the context might convey) had retired, or been put to flight, whilst
any direct, or indirect, reference to "remaining here, or at some named
place," that the object or objects in question were still there or
likely to remain.
The above-mentioned outline should be sufficient to convey to the reader
an idea of how the stunt worked out in practice.
That these messages were often tapped and became the subject of racking
headaches to the code decipherers who attempted to unravel them, was
quite probable. When we could we tried on the same thing ourselves; such
was considered only fair in love as well as in war. Lady telegraph and
telephone operators are sometimes amenable to flattery and judiciously
administered attentions. It is also within the bounds of possibility
that an occasional one might be met with who might not object to test a
communication with a semblance of reason; whilst one of the most
interesting enemy codes we managed to intercept during our rambles was
confined to the limits of a postage-stamp. It meant not only
intercepting the letter or postcard but having to unstick the stamp and
test it before the message could be copied.
It is not at all necessary, however, to pursue this subject further,
but once upon a time during the continuance of this war a certain
message was handed in at a certain telegraph office in Holland to cable
to a certain address in the U.S.A., which ran as follows:
"Father dead."
The telegraph operator, for some reason which we need not trouble to
inquire into, altered the wording to "Father deceased," and then
despatched the message in the usual manner.
Immediately came back the reply:
"Is father really dead _or only deceased_?"
The following up of that simple message cost one Government a
considerable sum of money, but it was well worth the outlay.
To those who seek the sunny side of life, humour can be found in all
things. Once at a funeral, when the author was broken in body and soul
with the painful agony of dry tears, kind Providence sent relief from an
unexpected quarter. In the pew immediately in front were seated two
mourners, one a tiny man, the other about 350 lbs. in weight, whose head
was nearly as big as the puny man's whole body. On leaving the church
for the graveside each took the other's hat by mistake and they got
separated in the crowd. At the close of the service they unconsciously
and solemnly put on the hats they respectively held. That of the tiny
man did not find resting-place until it had covered his head, ears, and
face, and settled on his shoulders. That of the enormously fat man
looked like a pea on a drum.
Likewise it was with our local code messages. Their use in practice was
often the innocent cause of much trouble; more often, perhaps, the
source of some humour. The gentle cherub who had undertaken the
collection of messages and who has recently been hereinbefore referred
to, maybe received another shock to his domestic bliss; and that only a
week after the one before related. It is much to be feared that he did
not fully appreciate the humorous side. However, as it gives an
excellent illustration of the practical and simple working of the
last-mentioned code, it is narrated.
The facts are as follows:
I one day received this request.
"I shall be exceedingly obliged if you will undertake to deliver
this package to ---- personally. If you could start at once it
would be very good of you; but please understand, no living soul
may see the contents of this packet except ---- himself."
I bowed my acceptance of the mission, murmuring how honoured I felt at
an opportunity to render service to the illustrious personage soliciting
my assistance. Then I hastened to my hotel to prepare for immediate
departure.
The midnight express to ---- was crowded. On the platform a few minutes
before the scheduled time of leaving, representatives from almost every
country in Europe could have been picked out. Detectives and Secret
Servant agents glided through the crowd, observing, watching and noting
the many strange and familiar faces. Their work meant an added
consumption of current on the wires. The vacant stare, the side glance,
or the wooden far-away expression of countenance, conveyed much to these
men. To them it was always interesting to try and read the working of
the brain behind. But I was a traveller and the doings of these
night-hawks interested me but little, beyond such casual observation as
could be made during a quick passage to the train.
In the corridor of the car to which I was allotted were several Germans.
Two in particular I instinctively feared. Their faces were familiar. One
of them had secured a berth in my compartment, and addressing me in
excellent Danish, showed a desire to be affable. It was unsought, but it
would perhaps be dangerous not to reciprocate.
Soon after the train had started on its journey I politely offered to
share some refreshment with this fellow-traveller, which, however, that
astute gentleman politely but firmly declined. It was an easy matter to
guess the suspicious working in his mind. He meant to pass a sleepless
night. So did I.
In due course I retired to rest, and the German secured the door of the
cubicle before climbing to his berth, which was above mine. As soon as
he was comfortably settled I opened the door he had closed. The German
waited a while, and then, very stealthily, shut it again. I waited about
a like period and reopened it. So the game proceeded, until about four
o'clock in the morning the German complained of the draught. In the most
polite language that could be commanded I replied by commenting upon the
extreme heat and the unhygienic practice of curtailing fresh air.
At 6 a.m. the German decided to seek another car, at which I inwardly
rejoiced exceedingly. No sooner had he departed than I secured the door
and enjoyed a refreshing sleep of several hours.
Later that morning the door-closing German was observed in close
consultation with his companion. On a ferry which had to be crossed both
of them watched my every movement, and I began to congratulate myself in
that I had taken precautions before departure in order to guard against
contingencies.
Forearmed is forewarned. Before leaving I had prepared another packet in
exact duplicate of the original I had been entrusted with. The dummy
contained only an old newspaper, and it was placed in an inside
bank-note pocket of my waistcoat. Its outline could have been detected
by anyone on the look-out for it. The original packet was elsewhere
concealed, in a secure hiding-place, where it was least likely to be
sought or found.
On leaving the ferry a rush was made at the gangway and I found myself
involuntarily pushed forward and wedged in between the two over-night
observers. I could feel their hands run over my chest, so I took some
interest in the proceedings. I had not been on numerous race-courses,
nor participated in football, boat-race night, and other big crowds in
England, without learning something of the ropes. Every time a hand
entered the inside of my coat it encountered small steel obstacles which
lacerated and hurt. True I lost a few buttons, and my clothes were
damaged, but the dummy packet remained intact, and I noticed with some
satisfaction afterwards that one of the two gentlemen before mentioned
had a hand bound up in a pocket handkerchief when they boarded the
waiting train.
On arrival at ---- my taxi-cab was followed. Having been a constant
visitor to the town in question for many years I redirected my driver to
a public building which had a bolt hole at its back, by the use of which
my pursuers were baffled successfully, and the package was safely
delivered without further trouble or anxiety. After which I despatched
the following cablegram:
"Child delivered safely this morning mother doing well."
Whether this message was also intercepted by the jealous wife of our
temporary receiving agent, history does not relate, but I tremble to
think of the volcanic domestic eruption which must have ensued if it
were so.
When war was declared, cables were cut, a most rigid censorship
installed, and no printed matter was allowed to leave England. Yet news,
most important news, continued to leak through to Germany, and most of
it went through neutral countries.
Before the war, Germany used cyphers, but these were soon dropped. It is
common knowledge that every Government keeps a copy of all cypher and
code messages sent over the cables from every Embassy or Consulate,
whether the countries are at peace or war. The great cleverness of
certain men at unravelling any code, however complicated, is also openly
acknowledged.
Yet, in spite of every precaution and all science and knowledge the
country could bring to bear, news continued to leak through and to fly
across the North Sea. Scotland Yard, to which admirable institution the
whole world owes so much, was put upon its mettle. It proceeded to watch
with still closer scrutiny certain suspected persons who still claimed
the privilege of freedom. One of these was a small London tradesman
whose premises were situated in a remote and quiet back street. He
appeared to have rather more corresponding friends than his position or
his business justified. His correspondence, in and out, was intercepted,
copied, and sent along in a manner not likely to arouse his suspicions.
Nothing, however, occurred which could be looked upon as even
suspicious, until one day a telegram arrived which had been handed in at
a certain naval base of some importance in the U.K. It simply said "Been
ill three days--John," or words to that effect.
Now the sender had also been watched, an attention which had been evenly
divided amongst every one of this tradesman's correspondents. The police
knew that the sender of the message, "John," had been in perfect health
for quite a long time past, which fact was, of course, communicated to
headquarters.
The information caused a flutter in the official dovecots.
Copies of the message, with comments, were forwarded to the War Office,
to the Admiralty, and to other Government Departments likely to be
interested.
To shorten the story, certain gentlemen in the Admiralty were amazed
when they remembered vividly that secret orders had been issued by them
which commanded a squadron of warships to leave the port at which the
message had been handed in, and join up with the High Seas Fleet
_exactly three days_ from the date of the aforesaid message.
Needless to add that the further activities of both the sender and the
receiver of the telegram were forthwith promptly crushed, once and for
all future time.
Scotland Yard also discovered, probably with considerable assistance
from the Censorship Department, that the Germans were successfully
getting out information useful to them through open business letters
addressed to residents in neutral countries, particularly Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, which were decoded by adding certain
geometrical figures. For example, where the sides of an added triangle
or triangles intersected one another, or cut the rim of a circle, there
would be found the words used in the secret messages.
Several of these ingenious codes were described in a most interesting
article which was published in _Pearson's Magazine_, October, 1918, with
illustrations which more clearly demonstrated their latent meaning. Two
of the most brilliant of them were the knot alphabet and the chess
problem.
In the former case a parcel sent to a supposed prisoner in a German
internment camp was found to contain, amongst other things, a woollen
sweater, or knitted sports vest. It was apparently so badly knitted, and
the wool was seen to be so full of knots, that the censor's suspicions
were aroused. Subsequent searches revealed that no such person as the
addressee of the parcel in question was known to exist. His name
certainly did not appear in any Army List. The aforesaid garment was
most carefully unravelled. The wool was found to be whole, with a
multitude of simple knots tied at irregular intervals. Alphabets were
written on a board, each letter being placed at given distances apart,
and very soon a most interesting message was read off.
The chess problem was deeper in its cunning and its intricacy. During
1917, a young and fascinating actress appeared in Paris. She was
suspected and closely watched. In due course she captivated one of the
junior secretaries of a neutral Embassy. His integrity was absolutely
beyond all doubt, but naturally he also was watched and shadowed in
order to learn what was passing, or might be passing, between them or
otherwise.
The watchers' notes, on being compared, revealed certain facts which
when carefully pieced together laid bare the whole plot. The actress
professed to be deeply interested in the serious game of chess. She
inspired a similar passion in the breast of the young and inexperienced
attaché. One day she produced to him a rough illustration of an alleged
chess problem which she had cut from a local newspaper; in all
probability she herself had indirectly caused its publication. She
worried her admirer unduly to help her solve what had been, or were, the
opening moves in the game which had caused the pieces to be left on the
board as shown in the sketch. No one in Paris could be found who could
enlighten or help her; at least, so she represented.
Gentle interrogation of the attaché by his inamorata caused him to admit
the existence of a chess club of some renown in the capital of the
country his Embassy represented. It was a neutral country which bordered
on Germany.
The actress then persuaded him to send this simple problem to the club
mentioned with an urgent request to unravel the problem, if possible,
and to let her know, through him, the result.
She knew, as does everyone who has had any close relationship with an
Embassy, that every Embassy has its own private letter-bag, which is
inviolate, and is passed over all frontiers uncensored and unopened, and
is generally carried personally by some trusted messenger of the
Government interested.
The actress undoubtedly relied on the almost certain chance of her
admirer sending his letters, this one in particular enclosing the
problem illustration, in the Embassy letter-bag. Which indeed he did.
But the very astute members of the French Secret Service were wide awake
to all her carefully-thought-out plans. They took measures accordingly,
and the letter in question never reached its destination.
The watchers had reported that this actress had shown strong outward
charitable dispositions, particularly towards the wounded soldiers from
the war; that she frequently visited them in the various hospitals, sung
to them, entertained them, and took them lavish presents of fruit and
flowers. On one of these most praiseworthy visits she had been observed
to linger unduly at the bedside of a young German aviation officer who
had been shot down well behind the French lines.
The French Secret Service knew that prior to the war Germans had made
many secret surveys of France, particularly of the northern territories
and provinces. Greatly to the credit of the French, and unknown to the
Germans, copies of most of these surveys had been obtained and filed
away for possible future use or reference. Probably it was remembered
that one of these survey maps had been ruled up with diagonal, lateral
and parallel lines dividing the country into squares, precisely as is
shown on a chess-board.
It was not therefore much of a surprise when it was ascertained on
comparing the sketch of the chess problem, which had been brought back
to Paris, with the copy survey plan of the Germans which had been ruled
up as before mentioned, to find that the one exactly corresponded with
the other. But the French War Office was certainly surprised to see
before it, set out on the sketch of the chess-board, an accurate
portrayal of all their reserve forces behind their front lines, posted
in the exact positions which they then held. It required little
perspicuity to understand that pawns on the board, or rather map,
represented infantry; kings, heavy artillery; queens, field artillery;
knights, cavalry; bishops, air divisions; and a castle, the military
headquarters.