Deadly Double: A World War II mystery

     As I have stated in a few earlier posts, I am a huge fan of History, especially WWII. I have read hundreds of books on World War II and can say with all honesty that I could and would debate ANY WWII historian on any part of the war and come out on top or at least equal. I don’t usually boost my low self esteem but when it comes to two topics or ages of History (WWII and Ancient Egypt) I would consider myself an expert. I am bringing this fact up because over the next few posts, with the exception of the ancient humans series, I will be bringing you stories, mysteries and even possible Mandela Effects that pertain to one of those two eras. With that said I want to bring you a little known mystery or perhaps coincidence that occurred just before WWII started. I will tell the story the best I can and then leave it up to you the reader to decide whether it was a coincidence or a message. Intrigued? Well here you go:

     On 22 November 1941- 16 days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor- The New Yorker ran two advertisements for a new dice game called the Deadly Double.  One of the ads carried the headline ACHTUNG. WARNING. ALERTE! At the foot of the column were the words THE DEADLY DOUBLE, and beneath those words were a double headed heraldic eagle (much like the German crest) with a shield on its breast bearing a double cross. The other ad showed two dice, one black and the other white, each with three sides visible. On the faces of the white die were the numbers 12 and 24 and the double cross sign; on the black die were the numbers 0, 5, and 7. Above the dice were the headline words ACHTUNG. WARNING. ALERTE! Once more.

After the attacks on Pearl harbor on 7 December 1941 there was much speculation that the advertisements had been placed by Axis powers to alert their agents about the attack and to prepare. The numbers 12 and 7 could refer to the month and day of the attack, the numbers 5 and 0 coincided with the time of the attack, and the XX, or Roman numeral 20, could have stood for the approximate latitude of the target; the significance of 24 was never discovered but I have a few theories on that. The suspicions were so strong and the coincidence so uncanny that the FBI actually visited the people who placed the ad, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Craig. The investigation into the Craigs turned up nothing. The game of Deadly Double was legitimate and was being sold by several New York department stores in 1941. The government’s suspicions of the game and its creators wasn’t even disclosed until 1967 when a retired Naval intelligence officer, Ladislas Farago, revealed the story in the press release for his book The Broken Seal. Interviewed a short time after Roger Craig’s widow said that any connection between the Pearl Harbor attack and the ads were pure coincidence. (Scientific American, 227:111-12, October 1972)

I am posting the original ads as well so you guys can take a look and deciede for yourself. My personal opinion is that it probably WAS a secret code to Axis agents and it is entirely possible they did it without the Craigs’ knowledge. The Nazi’s had a very extensive and very capable intelligence service and they had numerous agents and sympathizers in the United States that could have made getting these ads out. The numbers are too coincidental as well, the chances of those numbers being on the faces of the dice as random are too high. Somebody with prior knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks made this ad and had it distributed. The Nazi’s were crafty enough to hide such a complex code right out in the open for their undercover agents to find. I would really like to see the actual game so I could investigate the numbers and what the double XX’s might mean in the game. I will have to see if they exist somewhere.

I hope you enjoyed this little WWII mystery and I am curious as to what you the readers think about this. Is it just a random coincidence or was it a complex Nazi code?

Have a great day and as always..............PEACE!

 PS: after an exhaustive search online, I found the game on Etsy, one copy of it and it sold for $20. I will find one for myself.