A couple weeks ago, I rewatched an old movie that's a favorite of mine, "A Bridge Too Far" about the failed Operation Market Garden invasion of Holland in 1944. Some idiot staff officer (don't know if he was American or British) carried a full set of the invasion plans on a troop glider into Holland. The glider crashed and the plans were captured by the Germans. At first, they didn't believe the plans were genuine until everything in them checked out against what was happening.

This wasn't the only time something like this happened. Of course, some "losses" were deliberate plants to mislead the Germans. The most famous was the "Man Who Wasn't There", a corpse who was dressed in a British uniform and dropped off in the water where the Germans would find him. He had a briefcase of phony invasion plans handcuffed to his wrist. It's always possible that this "found" code book is a ruse to mislead the authorities. Let's hope not.