(OT) How codes in the post told the real stories of wartime
Martin Postranecky <mp-/[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
THE TIMES August 06, 2005 How codes in the post told the real stories of wartime ------------------------------------------------------ By Lewis Smith CODED messages on postcards from British prisoners revealed the horrors of captivity under the Japanese during the Second World War, newly released documents show. Captured servicemen used a variety of secret codes to get news home about terrible conditions and brutal treatment, despite strict censorship by camp commandants. The postcards, limited to a handful of words, were passed to a code-breaking team that specialised in deciphering hidden messages from intercepted mail. The writers, some civilian internees, used anagrams, Morse code annotations, shorthand and other devices to get information home. Documents made public this week by the National Archive show that the code-breakers sifting through the mail were full of admiration for the prisoners' imagination and ingenuity in slipping useful intelligence past their captors. A number of postcards from prisoners in the Far East were copied by officials from the British censor's code section, based at 58/62 High Holborn, London, to form part of a file designed as an in-house text book on code-breaking. They reveal details of the treatment meted out by Japanese guards, information on the work that prisoners were forced to do and the locations of camps. Among the messages cited in the 1944-45 volume of History of Censorship (Code Section) was one sent by Pilot Officer Herbert Allard, who escaped the Japanese censor's attention despite addressing it to "Mr Winston, 10 Downing Street"..../snip/ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1723104,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1723213,00.html