Daily Telegraph Crosswords Alarmed MI5

In the 35 days before D-Day, five top-secret Allied codewords appeared as answers across several Daily Telegraph crosswords. Utah and Omaha were named landing beaches, Overlord referred to the full invasion, Mulberry to the artificial harbors, and Neptune to the naval assault. Their appearance so close to June 6 alarmed MI5, which suspected someone might be using the puzzles to leak invasion plans and interrogated compiler Leonard Dawe. Investigators cleared him of espionage and initially treated the episode as a remarkable coincidence, although a former pupil later claimed he had overheard soldiers using the codewords and suggested them to Dawe.

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