NOTE: COORDINATES ARE NOT FINAL CACHE –
just a place you might want to park – especially if you are
in the running for FTF! This cache will probably require
substantial time in preparation and some work ‘in the
field’.
February 12th, 1942
"Ah, there you are. I have good news and bad
news – mostly bad news and that means some work for you. As
you know, Bukit Timah has been overrun along with most of our
vehicles, ammunition and water. Our boys fought bravely but the
odds were overwhelming. Latest estimate is that we have less than a
week’s worth of water left and Percy has put a ring defence
around the city.
“One of the last units left at Bukit
Timah were our mates in SIGINT, Jones and SamsonThe runner sent
with the retreat order never returned and we assumed they’d
been captured. Then 2 hours ago we heard Lieutenant Jones almost
made it back from behind enemy lines. He was shot by sniper fire
only yards from our forward gunner. The gunners pulled him out of
the line of fire along with a large sealed duffel bag of equipment
which he made them promise to pass on to us. Jones must have given
him a scare, grabbed him by the collar, gave him the bag, and
pushed a few sheets of paper into his trouser pocket, while he gave
the gunner his dying words.
“Machine 29, come back to me
Charlie.
Rotor's edge rails papa. Ring 2-25-8.
Four plugs 21 match 39.
Started first time with key 37.”
You’d be tempted to pass them off as
half-conscious ramblings and that is obviously the story Jones and
Samson had agreed just in case, but he was deathly serious –
if you’ll excuse the pun. He made the gunner repeat the
phrase until he was word perfect - every word. And he made him
promise to burn or eat the papers if he was caught. Then he
collapsed and never regained consciousness.
When the gunner’s officer saw the seal
on the duffel bag, he sent the gunner to us post haste. Poor chap
was almost neurotic by the time we could give him a cup of tea but
he is certain he’ll never forget that phrase. He handed over
the bag and the few sheets of paper – a coded message, a
burnt scrap of newspaper, and … a crossword puzzle.
Here’s the message:
======================================
SIGINTMC TO MCGOC 0130 =82= EBG-PTL
AZCGI QMUBJ BQXOC XYUSP KAABE
VVYAW MUSEW QLMJH ZECMI HDUMR
NAZHV ICYVQ ONVFI NURDD ABPDQ
DXIFZ ZLGJB BPTUI WBBOQ GGOWC
XTRSY SJEMA MJQUO TXVIY KNJKK
RDXAS DLBEM UFKSU VMJBU RULVO
OZPWO GXKQU IESMC YJZSO SWRWC
LJNKV MEWWA DXNAA QUNRJ WGLNP
KNXEX HTQZP KBSMI HPFPM WZXIE
WRNSF XZNSR UWLPP ARIPK RPTPU
UFLTG UKKPJ ROPYB KWRXV FRYJI
XEFLS CEPGL HGUKW YLKTM ZPBJQ
OYOQI OYURQ XIKWC RUULS XMACW
PDUMR DPXSY ERSOS MOJBN GZSUY
STVCT MYHBR MONFM DGESL ZCCKL
DNJLE CYXIG RJZTU XGWPM CYAGR
SPVDY SMTBL
======================================
... and here’s the crossword puzzle, 3
sheets on lined paper …
The gunner’s sorry about the tea stains
too. I mean no disrespect, but there wasn’t a chance he was
going to crack the crossword in his state and the bag still had the
seal so no security breach. On the other hand, I’ve heard the
initials BP whispered of you, so hoping you can still solve the odd
cryptic – and you’d have to admit this one looks pretty
odd. Samson always was a bit of a cryptic nut – a very
‘punny’ person … ah yes … poor chap. At
this point I guess we have to presume he’s kicked the old
bucket. Seriously though, I’d guess he’d been working
on this one for a while – maybe it was his way of remembering
operational code-words or something. Anyway, he’s used it in
the 20 hours or so they must have been stuck in the back of that
tunnel – so just maybe there was some kind of plan in his
crazy head. No doubt they destroyed all their own coding machines
but it looks like they found this box afterwards and it was
obviously too important to leave behind. We don’t know how he
got it, but it looks pretty dirty, as if it was buried. There seem
to be some other papers in the bag, more coded messages but
I’m pretty sure they aren’t as important as what you
now have.
By the way, I wish I had more time to help you
but let me give you my thoughts on this.
I think there is some kind of plan in
Samson’s mind. The phrase from Jones seems to fit with the
crossword and it seems to be the initial settings for the machine.
The box is German, marked “Wehrmacht” - Army. And I
think ‘29’ means 29 Down. I think that one should be
easy enough. There are also 2 wheels marked B & C and 5 wheels
marked I to V, and there are rings on each which can be set up.
There are also some patch cords, but only 4 on this one are in
usable condition. I think you need to work out what wheels go in
the machine and in what positions.
What else now. Oh yes! That newspaper …
just a burnt scrap. Didn’t make much sense of it myself. A
page from the Straits Times of 8th of December, 1941
– the afternoon edition I guess. I remember it has some
really interesting information like how the Japanese embassy in
London was discovered burning documents … before the attacks
on Pearl Harbour and Malaya. But there’s an arrow drawn on it
pointing off the scrap and some references: 21D, 22A, 1D, 7D, 1A,
11D. You’d better see if you can work out what it was
pointing to, so try to find a back issue somewhere – …
December seems such a long time ago … they might still have
one in a museum!
On another matter … No doubt you
realize that if Percy has to surrender then we’ll have to
destroy everything before hostilities cease. In that case,
we’ll revert to the Pencil and Paper Code. I thought
you’d like to be reminded of how it runs – we may need
to send some urgent messages before final deactivation of our
forces – and then around whatever camps too I guess.
I’ve brought along page 23 from the training manual just in
case you need to brush up.
Look, I have to go now. But when I get a
chance I’ll try to work on this as well. If I come up with
anything I’ll let you know somehow, maybe I’ll have to
just leave a message somewhere for you to pick up.
Additional notes:
This cache is intended to help you learn a
little about the Fall of Singapore, an event that Churchill
described as the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British
history (try Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org).
You will get to visit a fascinating museum
where an important event took place. (The sign now has charges for
admission but in fact admission is free up until the 65th
anniversary of the Fall of Singapore, 15 Feb 2007).
Did you know that cryptic crosswords were used
to find and test potential cryptologists? Rest easy, for this one
you can take longer than the 12 minutes the potential recruits were
usually given.
In order to solve this puzzle fully, you will
need to find a way to decode the German cipher machine signals.
There are several web-based simulators around, but I found one to
download at http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/index.htm.(You
might have to solve the crossword to work out which one to
use!)
Once you have the crossword solved and the
first message decoded you should be able to use your solutions to
decode the remaining messages ‘in the field’ using
pencil and paper. Further note ... the Decoy micro disappeared and
it is not worth replacing. If you get to that point then 'Bang!'
consider yourself booby-trapped!
Further note June-2011. I have uploaded the artwork for the
micro (and the decoy) as it seems like the micro location might be
demolished in the near future. Enjoy!