Wartime puzzles hide military secrets in plain sight
This now seemed to be more than mere 'remarkable coincidence '. Dawe was taken to be interrogated by MI5, although he was finally released. (More on that later, but please share your guesses as to how this 'coincidence' came about in the comments!)
As well as puns and anagrams (and apparently military secrets), the puzzles of this era begin to incorporate many techniques now common in Cryptic Crosswords.
One clue requires us to insert one word inside another to arrive at the solution. Another is what's now called a charade: adding two words together to produce the solution. Yet another is a homophone.
Not all the clues are cryptic, but the modern crossword as we know it is emerging. So did you find this crossword easier than some of the earlier entries? Which clues left you stumped – and which were surprisingly gettable? Let us know in the comments.
P.S. During the war, paper shortages reduced The Telegraph newspaper to just six pages. However, the crossword was published every day without fail. Why do you think it was such an indispensable feature?
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