How a Typo Helped End World War II

Let me tell you a story about how a typo helped end World War Two... (thread) pic.twitter.com/HxismWwlzE

— Florence Schechter (@floschechter) April 9, 2018

Geoffrey Tandy was a highly-regarded marine biologist at the Natural History Museum in 1939, when he volunteered for the Royal Navy Reserves. The powers-that-be saw Tandy's information and immediately summoned him to Bletchley Park for a secret mission, cracking Axis codes.

They show him the enigma machine and are like "dude, you gotta help us crack it - you're the best cryptogrammist in all of the UK!". And poor Geoff is like "this is super awks, I'm a cryptoGAMMIST not a cryptoGRAMMIST. I'm not a specialist in codes, I'm a specialist in algae..." pic.twitter.com/tJymArsZ1k

— Florence Schechter (@floschechter) April 9, 2018

Once the mistake was revealed, they couldn't just dismiss Tandy from the secret project, but what could he do? So Tandy remained attached to Bletchley Park, and two years later, became the hero of the secret cryptography department when his exact expertise was needed. Comedian Florence Schechter tells the entire story in a thread at Twitter, with illustrations. Even if you hate reading Twitter threads, this one is well worth the effort, and she has a list of sources at the end in case you want to read more about Tandy and his adventures during the war. -via Mental Floss