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some secret messages

secret coded messageMy father has been going through some boxes from his parents, who died about 15 years ago. He found these post cards/telegrams, scanned ‘em, and sent them along:

Here’s a challenge for you.

I found a series of letters from Grandpa to Grandma — some from before they were married some after. The ones in envelopes were postmarked either NY of DC — most were in envelopes with a Company in NYC. Grandpa was recruited to possibly serve in the Cape Verde Islands with a group that was to become the OSS (predecessor to the CIA). He went through training — apparently in NYC and DC. The letters are interesting, but incomplete because they only reflect one side of a conversation. But there’s reference to my father working — and finally getting paid, and being able to then afford to by something for my mother. I’m guessing a ring. There were reference to my father spending a lot of time learning aircraft silhouettes — and practicing shooting.

my grandparentsWhat I found more interesting were these two post cards and telegram all in code Maybe you can figure the code. I assume its a substitution code which should make it easy to break. I bet there’s even some program online to do that now.

None of us know what the postcards say. My grandfather would have been in the Army Air Corps when by the time he sent them, I believe. Here’s the thing typed out:

OEANR SDRET CUGVT EKYXD FSBDE WWYTH
AHHEH NEOEO EINMR EULNS DRLVH LDMDA
EYWIH EEBYH WUBCV AAUDD MIRTW LIEAO
MEEOE TRSAD AEERR EOINS EAERR YSRIA
OHOAN UACIA TIU -133

grandparentsEYEUG RSIEO VAOXF LAELH ETNWR
ERVET TNSYH EIREO SYSDR YNUBI
TDLDI ULOEG TOEDN LIUTO WASOI
AECHF OELXE LFIAT TMEOM YEE -98

I’m hoping someone on the Interweb might be able to help us with this.

May 24th, 2006 | Category: genealogy | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL

33 Responses to “some secret messages”

  1. 1
    CL [f/5nkP] :
    May 24th, 2006 at 23:53:30 +0000

    Sounds like a Daily News column to me…

  2. 2
    Gpa [4lJX2F] :
    May 25th, 2006 at 20:51:08 +0000

    Be sure to drink your Ovaltine

  3. 3
    Kalixis [3tY5Gt] :
    May 25th, 2006 at 23:38:14 +0000

    Hell, i think i have it. second one:

    Feelswe
    lltoday
    afterse
    eingyou
    lastnig
    htyouar
    ethebes
    tmedici
    neinthe
    worldfo
    rmeilov
    eyoudea
    restilo
    veyouxx

  4. 4
    Kalixis [3tY5Gt] :
    May 25th, 2006 at 23:57:12 +0000

    Got the first one.

    dreamto
    fyoudre
    ssedasa
    bridean
    dinmydr
    eamiwas
    worried
    whether
    youwere
    tallert
    hnnibec
    auseyou
    hadahig
    hcrownv
    eilmust
    havebee
    nthecak
    eilovey
    oudearx

  5. 5
    Kalixis [3tY5Gt] :
    May 26th, 2006 at 00:00:59 +0000

    Correct formatting:

    1st:

    dreamt of you dressed as a bride and in my dream i was
    worried whether you were taller thnnn i because you
    had a high crown veil must have been the cake
    i love you dear x

    2nd:

    Feel swell today after seeing you
    last night you are the best medicine in the world for me
    i love you dearest
    i love you xx

  6. 6
    Zippy [rMBlLv] :
    May 26th, 2006 at 02:25:20 +0000

    Kalxis was the man on this one…

  7. 7
    themofo [ivtYdX] :
    May 26th, 2006 at 08:57:34 +0000

    How the hell did you figure that out?

  8. 8
    derek rose [zHE4vW] :
    May 26th, 2006 at 13:00:26 +0000

    I was wondering the same thing, so I wrote to Kalxis. This is what he wrote back:

    Heya!

    I spotted a link to your site originally on totalfark.com – a bit of discussion there led me to the transposition page on wikipedia. A bit of reading there indicated columnar transposition was in use up to the 50′s. I gambled that that would be the code your grandpa was using, and in the end I was right.

    So, here’s how you decode it. You take the original code

    OEANR SDRET CUGVT EKYXD FSBDE WWYTH
AHHEH NEOEO EINMR EULNS DRLVH LDMDA
EYWIH EEBYH WUBCV AAUDD MIRTW LIEAO
MEEOE TRSAD AEERR EOINS EAERR YSRIA
OHOAN UACIA TIU -133

    Strip the spaces and the -133, the 133 refers to the number of chars in the message to worry about

    OEANRSDRETCUGVTEKYXDFSBDEWWYTHAHHEHNEOEOEINMREULNSDRLVHLDMDAEYWIHEEBYHWUBCVAAUDDMIRTWLIEAOMEEOETRSADAEERREOINSEAERRYSRIAOHOANUACIATIU

    Pick two factors of 133 – in the end, 19 and 7 were needed – and make 7 rows of 19 chars, then number each row.

    
1 OEANRSDRETCUGVTEKYX
2 DFSBDEWWYTHAHHEHNEO
3 EOEINMREULNSDRLVHLD
4 MDAEYWIHEEBYHWUBCVA
5 AUDDMIRTWLIEAOMEEOE
6 TRSADAEERREOINSEAER
7 RYSRIAOHOANUACIATIU

    If you rearrange the rows correctly, you’ll find the message – from the background, i thought something like “I love you” would be in the codes somewhere – so i juggled the rows around until i found it in there.

    
2 DFSBDEWWYTHAHHEHNEO
7 RYSRIAOHOANUACIATIU
3 EOEINMREULNSDRLVHLD
5 AUDDMIRTWLIEAOMEEOE
4 MDAEYWIHEEBYHWUBCVA
6 TRSADAEERREOINSEAER
1 OEANRSDRETCUGVTEKYX

    Then, starting at the left column, you read the message from top to bottom, moving to the next column when you’re done with one. any x’s at the end were just filler to pad out the message to some multiplication of 7. The same code is used for both messages, you have the same amount of rows, just a different amount of columns, in the case of the second code, it’s 7 rows of 14 chars. Putting the rows in the order 2735461 will provide you with the finished message.

    I have to say, that was a lotta fun :) I’m glad you now know what your grandad was saying back in ’42.

    All the best,

  9. 9
    CL [DfK5w/] :
    May 27th, 2006 at 01:59:23 +0000

    Holy
    crap.

  10. 10
    mum [u8fxYY] :
    June 3rd, 2006 at 05:01:52 +0000

    Thats amazing!!!!

  11. 11
    Christopher S. Penn [uARsLx] :
    March 3rd, 2007 at 08:49:53 +0000

    That’s a wonderful story.

  12. 12
    Christopher S. Penn » Blog Archive » What is Twitter? [jmAjec] :
    March 3rd, 2007 at 08:55:43 +0000

    [...] gentleman named Derek Rose found a telegram in his attic, a message that was encoded and only 133 characters long, from his grandfather to his grandmother, [...]

  13. 13
    the derek rose blog » Blog Archive » my grandpa in world war ii [Us856w] :
    June 17th, 2007 at 01:17:04 +0000

    [...] Verde islands as a spy. Grandpa went to New York City for training. There he learned the basics of sending coded messages. (see post cards at left) He learned Morse Code and had a practice key that I used to play with. He [...]

  14. 14
    Mark [h4Vutl] :
    July 24th, 2008 at 22:57:57 +0000

    You should call the local paper or tv station. I’m betting they would do one of those cheesy little segments at 5 o’ clock or something.

  15. 15
    Originalpatricia [VblRZP] :
    July 27th, 2008 at 10:39:56 +0000

    Tricia Pendragon dot com is under construction but I think Kalixis has a most brilliant brain – Gods!! I went Cross eyed – Is Kalixis a Cryptographer – myself – I am Heathen
    Gpa’s admonition to drink your ovaltine was a trifle unkind – why even I saw it as a genuine request for assistance with a problem – and I am one of the World’s Registered Accredited Sceptics, besides that is, being totally certifiable
    Thankyou Kalixis – Fine work
    Patricia

  16. 16
    alittlepotty [DoME/o] :
    July 27th, 2008 at 12:32:41 +0000

    Either Kalixis is a genius or he has way too much time on his hands. Maybe both!

  17. 17
    SPANKIE [amS30L] :
    July 28th, 2008 at 02:22:04 +0000

    NOW THE FBI WILL KILL U 4 LEAVING TOP SECRET MESAGES ON THE INTERENT

  18. 18
    noelhx [+9UeAI] :
    July 28th, 2008 at 08:43:05 +0000

    sounds like it is straight out of the cryptonomicon. very cool, and kudos for Kalixis!

  19. 19
    Rosa [d/w8nE] :
    July 29th, 2008 at 12:52:28 +0000

    Wow! That’s lovely!

  20. 20
    Jonathan [+9KKyw] :
    July 30th, 2008 at 05:58:46 +0000

    Well done that man. Must be a Dr of something, and deservedly so!

  21. 21
    DogBotherer [+7nRd/] :
    July 30th, 2008 at 15:17:32 +0000

    Just a good thing your gramps wasn’t saying anything too racy!!

  22. 22
    Stranger [r+A2iP] :
    July 31st, 2008 at 06:02:23 +0000

    Kudos to Kalixis for solving the code, but I have a different theory about the x’s in the letter – they could denote kisses, like xoxo.

  23. 23
    David S [Zt9OY0] :
    August 1st, 2008 at 00:59:32 +0000

    What a lovely use of the Internet! To have such an intriguing question answered so beautifully. And so fast!

  24. 24
    Snotglobs of the Universe [HLsrD/] :
    August 2nd, 2008 at 23:45:41 +0000

    Those other translation are totally off. Here is the actual transcription:

    Vuntz I had a kendy store
    Bizniss vas so bad,
    I asked mein vife
    vat to do
    And dis is vat she said:
    Take yourself some kerosene
    Pour it on de floor,
    Take a match
    Give a Scratch
    No more kendy store, HEY!

  25. 25
    nolatz [8giqyX] :
    August 9th, 2008 at 19:39:48 +0000

    It is amazing too because grandmother would have to know how to decode it, which means grandpa must have taught her. Very sweet and romantic, don’t ya think, for an OSS officer?

  26. 26
    tim maguire [/RJHHW] :
    August 15th, 2008 at 17:27:41 +0000

    Wow, what a great little story that unfolded here! I was going to mention Cryptonomicon and give the sad information that the code will not be broken without the key that your grandmother had, but not only am I not the first person to mention cryptonomicon, but it’s even been broken!

    I’m a pretty bright guy, but I can barely understand Kalixis’ solution even after the explanation–all the factors and line juggling sounds like stabbing in the dark to me. And yet it worked! How in the world did he arrive at that solution from the clues given?!?

  27. 27
    derek rose [TERMtt] :
    August 15th, 2008 at 20:21:44 +0000

    Tim – Basically, it was a very simple code and Kalixis guessed that “I love you” would be in the text and that it was a columnar transposition code. He was right so it was just a matter of time before he could find a solution. Stabbing in the dark can be effective if you know the general area in which to stab!

    This was never going to be a Cryptonomicon-type code (great book btw). I mean I love my grandmother but she was not going to be doing anything so sophisticated and complex, y’know?

    Nolatz – Well, I never really thought of my grandpa as like an “OSS officer.” (And I dunno his rank, but I’m sure he was more of a grunt than an officer.) He was just an everyday Joe (I say that lovingly) trying to serve his country.

    Did you what came out of the National Archives this week, how even people like chef Julia Child served in the OSS?

  28. 28
    Evan [7uTN7B] :
    August 16th, 2008 at 04:21:40 +0000

    Derek,

    Grandpa was at least a Staff Sergeant (Non-commissioned officer) in the Army Air Corps, so I’d guess he probably did have an officer’s rank in the OSS.

  29. 29
    M. Reed Brooks [JzIo/l] :
    September 27th, 2008 at 17:20:14 +0000

    Amazing solution! I would have never solved it. Remind me to start using chaos theory encryption. You guys are scary! :P

  30. 30
    Ray Rose [+UV2Tx] :
    October 3rd, 2008 at 00:59:48 +0000

    Actually Evan, though Grandpa was a Staff Sergeant when he was discharged, the potential OSS thing happened before he went in to the Army. I think that it was because the OSS thing didn’t happen that he went into the Army. I don’t know if he was drafted or enlisted.

  31. 31
    Adam [+twi+w] :
    October 5th, 2008 at 13:34:27 +0000

    He was drafted – I found a record of it a while back, and I’m pretty positive I sent the link around before.

    http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&tf=F&q=mario+rose&bc=sl,fd&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2538884

  32. 32
    Adam [+twi+w] :
    October 5th, 2008 at 13:36:13 +0000

    There was a POW record too:

    http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=466&mtch=1&cat=WR26&tf=F&sc=11675,11660,11679,11667,11669,11676,11672,11673&bc=sl,fd&txt_11660=rose+mario&op_11660=0&nfo_11660=V,24,1900&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=109309

  33. 33
    James [jVHXVF] :
    August 29th, 2009 at 03:14:08 +0000

    Fantastic Story

    Here’s another code for someone to break.

    http://letter.ie/0029/0001.html

    This time from 1903 written on a postcard, it mite have “I LOVE YOU” too in it but I don’t know.

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