Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

   Headlines  |  Alternate Histories  |  International Edition


Home Page

Announcements 

Alternate Histories

International Edition

List of Updates

Want to join?

Join Writer Development Section

Writer Development Member Section

Join Club ChangerS

Editorial

Chris Comments

Book Reviews

Blog

Letters To The Editor

FAQ

Links Page

Terms and Conditions

Resources

Donations

Alternate Histories

International Edition

Alison Brooks

Fiction

Essays

Other Stuff

Authors

If Baseball Integrated Early

Counter-Factual.Net

Today in Alternate History

This Day in Alternate History Blog



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Lodge Dilemma by Raymond Speer

Author says: would Winston Churchill have risked revealing that the Enigma Codes were cracked to save the Royal Family? muses Raymond Speer. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).


On June 20th, 1940:

on this day a coded message issued by the Luftwaffe from Normandy was intercepted by the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchey, England, That particular message reused a code combination broken by the British in the period from March 1 to April 30.

White Lodge DilemmaIn is underground bunker in the City of London, Churchill was told of the communication. "Confirmed target 23 JUNE at 13 30 to 14 00, map coords 1422 54 White Lodge. Monarch and brothers present".

It took a moment for the Prime Minister to ascertain that the Royal Family had planned a Sunday luncheon at the White Lodge. When Churchill conveyed the news to his service chiefs, he was sunk to gloom.

"Is this the apogee of good fortune, or a dilemnia fashioned by the Devil at one of Infernal Majesty's factories in Berlin?" Churchill asked his wise men.

In the episode "Shadow of Z'ha'dum" of the Babylon 5 television series, Captain Sheridan repeats the Churchill/Coventry myth in a discussion of "how much is a secret worth".The intercepted message showed that the Royal Family's schedule was read at least this once by the enemy, and it showed that the brutality brought to the air by Goering and Hitler was planned to rain down in ruin on the luncheoners.

Eden said that "we can hardly let His Majesty and his kin be unwitting targets this Sunday".

"Conceded," agreed Churchill. "When the bombers leave White Lodge a rubble strewn basement, won't our enemy question why none of our Royals were in attendence for their loathesome preset trap? Is not this whole experience going to reveal to them our ULTRA operation?"

"Are we now secure in our ULTRA ability?" asked the chief of MI5, codenamed "M" in all correspondence. "The Germans have had the free run in Paris of endless files of security related matters. It is easy to imagine that several such files are on the ENIGMA code machines and show that British Intelligence was expecing imminent breakthroughs in those codes".

A scientist at Bletchey participated in the discussion. "It is interesting that this is a revival of an old code booklet which has no reason to be re-used. Why frame that particular message in a German code that the enemy ought to suspect may be compromised".

"Nastie arrogance," growled Churchill.

"I hope so," said the scientist. "Or it is a deliberate trap to see if we are catching and translating their ENIGMA messages. If we spare His and Her Majesty from that prearranged bombing, we tell Hitler that we are picking up his mail".

Air Marshal Dowding stated that a couple of extra command wings of fighters would greatly toughen the job of the Germans in bombing White Lodge. "We'll play a trick on those devils," said the military man.

"And very covertly we must find the traitor who lets Goering know enough to test us," Churchill said. "Maybe the best outcome we can have here is a deceptive announcement that the King risked injury this Sunday but fotunately escaped tragedy".

"How sad this all is," said Churchill. "We opt for the proper tactic to defend ourselves but we risk revealing to the enemy our best source of information on his plans and intents".

Author says this story was originally posted on Today in Alternate History. Please note that Gossip and not truth holds that Churchill was forewarned of the impending doom of Coventry through ULTRA intercepts but deliberately failed to give civilians adequate warning of the oncoming attack. In reality, no such revelation ever came to Churchill, either through ULTRA or in any other way. As John Keegan writes in his SECOND WORLD WAR, the ULTRA information was sparse and slow to be translated while the Battle of Britain was raging. Not until the Crete campaign was the ULTRA system good enough to provide daily reports on German set-up and plans.


Other Contemporary Stories


alt alt alt
Death of Lawrence Disaster at Dunkirk Suicide by Signature


Raymond Speer, Guest Historian of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.


Sitemetre

Site Meter

 

Hit Counter