Secret Letters

When Claude Tongue was sent to europe as a signalman with the British Liberation Army in 1944 he was anxious to let his wife know where he was - in contravention of the rules of censorship. This letter illustrated his ingenious code. If the letter started ‘My Darling’ rather than ‘My own Darling’ then a new location was implied.
Then one found the 7th line and the first letter of the last word, the 9th line and the first letter of the first word, the 11th line and the first letter of the last word, and so on, alternating until the place name was spelled out. Bear in mind that he wrote this four page letter at 4.30 a.m., while working with the communications of a moving army, and had to phrase his sentences to conceal the code.
It is left to the reader to find the five lettered town...! (the capital of Nord department). His son, Christopher, has all Claude’s war letters, which contain place names in code across France to Belgium.
In civilian life Claude was a bank official with Messrs. Kleinworts of Fenchurch street, London, commuting from Cambridge every working day. He also served in the Cambridge Home Guard, before being “called up” to the Royal Corps of Signals. He was de-mobbed in December 1945.

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