Help to decipher code on SOE cable

Hey there - I need some help, I am reseaching on a Danish SOE-agent. I am trying to decipher information on a SOE cable - attached is the top and the bottom. Does anyone here know what this means, refers to?

Thank you so much best,

 

Top image: "TIGHT" most likely operators' (agent or wireless op) codename (the message sender). "WATERMARK" is codename for Special Forces HQ (the message recipients).

Bottom image: "PAD6164A" refers to the onetime pad the agent/operator would have been issued with (a list of pad identifiers and who they were issued to would be held at SFHQ).

Unless the message has already been translated into clear, you will need a copy of the pad used to encrypt it, plus the issued (to agent/op) poem or phrase.

Failing that the knowledge of the late Leo Marks, Bletchley Park, or GCHQ. Notwithstanding that there are some individuals who could crack it for you without the pad or code poem/phrase, but they are few and far between, and it would take longer.
Nowadays the right computer programme would solve it in seconds.

The other possibility would be that a copy of the de-coded message already exists somewhere. If name of agent/op was known that would help narrow the field. For Denmark, one of (at most) fifty-seven possibles.

Good luck with your quest, kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Mette,

It is worth noting that during WW2 SOE activity in Denmark was strictly controlled by SIS, who preferred no sabotage etc. I encountered this aspect a few years ago before looking for another Dane and made no notes sadly.

In 2010 wtd45 posted some book recommendations:

 

Thank you, Jim!

 

Thank you, David!

 

It is interesting with the SIS vs SOE - she was despatched by SOE from Sweden. If she was involved with SIS in Denmark is that another archive than the SOE? I was hoping the codings on the top and the bottom of the cable would indicate a date establishing her cooperation with the UK - and if it is long before her enrolling with SOE in Sweden - it might have been SIS.

 

I can see that she is being vetted by SOE in Sweden. SD asks Stockholm to ask 7438 to verify. Stockholm answers back to SD that she is wellknown to 7486 and 7473. To your knowledge are these numbers refering to danes og brits, SIS eg.- I am trying to find out when she established her cooperation with the british. Because I think she might have been contacted very early, before the occupation, when living in France. Thanks, Mette

 

The information you seek is possibly buried within the KV (Records of The Security Service) held within The National Archives at Kew (undigitised unfortunately so a visit to Kew or a researcher would appear to be the only options - which may still not find the information you seek)

Link to example of KV and Denmark related file here:

Denmark: file contains two folders representing MI5 action in respect of two possibly... | The National Archives

KV 6/39 and KV 6/40 may also be of interest.

Likely only a trawl of needle in a haystack type looking may find what you seek, with small chance of success.

In the meantime, something that can be listened to remotely that may be of interest (from 1998, courtesy of IWM Collections):

SOE in Denmark

Also the following books:

SOE IN DENMARK: An Official History The Special Operations Executive’s Danish Section in WW2 (link to one current vendor here - note; others may have better pricing: SOE IN DENMARK: An Official History The Special Operations Executive’s Danish Section in WW2 - Naval & Military Press )

Soe and Denmark by Knud J. .V. Jespersen.

No Small Achievement: Special Operations Executive and the Danish Resistance 1940-1945 (again by Knud J. .V. Jespersen).

Kind regards, good luck with all, always,

Jim.

 

I love needles and a haystacks, haha. Thank you so much, Mette