Unsolved: An encrypted radio message from the bugging service from the Second World War

There is a World War II radio message being offered on eBay right now. Can a reader classify it? Or even decipher it?

Deutsche Version

The year has just begun, and already there is another exciting puzzle to solve on Cipherbrain. Blog reader Jörg Drobick has thankfully brought it to my attention. It’s about an encrypted text that is currently offered on eBay. It fills one page:

Quelle/Source: eBay

The cryptogram

Unfortunately, I don’t have any information about this writing – except the writing itself. Apparently it is a radio message from the Second World War. The document is dated March 15, 1942. Presumably, the “Abhorchdienst” intercepted the saying and documented it on this piece of paper.

However, the term “Abhorchdienst” is unclear to me. According to some Internet sites an institution of the First World War carried this name. However, that does not fit here. Since there were about a dozen different cryptologic troops in Germany during World War II, I suspect that the Abhorchdienst meant here was associated with one of them. Does any reader know more about this?

The Jerusalem and London locations could refer to the sender and receiver of the intercepted radio message. Chapelry (actually: Sprengel) probably means a district in Great Britain.

Since there are many amateur radio operators among my readers, perhaps someone can explain what the line “wave …” means. Apparently, this refers to a shortwave frequency, which is known to be suitable for longer transmission distances (for example, from Jerusalem to London). I will gladly accept further hints.

Deciphering approaches

Even more difficult than an interpretation of this writing is surely its deciphering. As long as sender and receiver are not clear, it is difficult to identify even the method used. A statistical analysis of the encrypted text could help further.

The handwritten notes on the note could also be helpful in analyzing the text. These indicate that the German codebreakers were able to decrypt the message. That the plaintext is written in English would not be surprising, considering that it was sent to London.

The supposed plaintext passages are usually not the same length as the corresponding ciphertext passages. This suggests that a codebook was used to encrypt them. This would not be a surprise either, as many codebooks were in use during World War II.

Can any reader say more about this coded radio message? I will gladly accept any hints.

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Further reading: The Henry Debosnys Murder Case FAQ

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