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Big Top Carnival

Human Cannonball

by Benjamin L de Bivort, Jennifer Erickson
Answer: WAR MUSEUM

Each journal entry describes a particular WWI battle. Teams researched these and noted the battle names. They ordered the battles chronologically. Each journal entry also had some numbers, e.g., "…Perhaps 16 or 17 barrage lines between us and the blue line…" By indexing the numbers into the battle-names, teams got the message BY COALITION USE MEMBERSHIP OF [ GE RU SP AH IT ] OR [ GE UK IT RU AH ] IN CAPS TREATIES.

Battle
Start Date
Battle Name Indices Message
Fragment
Order In
Puzzle
1914.12.16 RAIDONSCARBOROUGHHARTLEPOOLANDWHITBY 11,36,8,5,2,27,3,21,3,5,6,15,7,23 BYCOALITIONUSE 5
1914.12.20 FIRSTBATTLEOFCHAMPAGNE 17,11,17,6,11,3,4,15,2,18,12,13 MEMBERSHIPOF 9
1915.06.28 BATTLEOFGULLYRAVINE 9,6,14,10 GERU 2
1915.11.22 BATTLEOFCTESIPHON 12,14,2,15,13,3 SPAHIT 4
1916.02.21 BATTLEOFVERDUN 7,11 OR 3
1917.04.09 BATTLEOFVIMYRIDGE 16,17 GE 1
1917.04.21 BATTLEOFISTABULAT 14 U 8
1917.07.01 KERENSKYOFFENSIVE 1 K 7
1918.02.18 OPERATIONFAUSTSCHLAG 7,6,4,12,5,17,7,9,16,11,2,13,14,4,3,19,6,7,3,15 ITRUAHINCAPSTREATIES 6

How did an ultimatum from Austria-Hungary to Serbia blow up into a multi-nation "World War"? Nations were allied by several treaties. In each journal entry, the capital letters spelled out treaty names (CAPS TREATIES). For purposes of this puzzle, teams considered the nation-membership of treaties as five-bit binary, either using [Germany Russia Spain Austria-Hungary Italy] or [Germany UK Italy Russia Austria-Hungary] as the digits.

The binary spells the solution, WAR MUSEUM.

Battle
Start Date
Ord. In
Puz.
Treaty Date Treaty Coalition Bits # Msg
GE RU SP AH IT
1914.12.16 5 1887.05.21 MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTBETWEENITALYANDSPAIN
ACCORDINGTOATOPIDTHIRTEENSIXTYFIVE*
Alliance 1 0 1 1 1 23 W
1914.12.20 9 1902.06.30 SECRETTREATYOFJUNETHIRTYNINETEENOHTWO
BACKINGCLAIMSINTRIPOLITANIAANDMOROCCO
Alliance 0 0 0 0 1 1 A
1915.06.28 2 1879.10.07 DUALALLIANCE Alliance 1 0 0 1 0 18 R
GE UK IT RU AH
1915.11.22 4 1887.03.24 MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTSASOFMARCHTWENTYFOUR Entente 0 1 1 0 1 13 M
1916.02.21 3 1882.05.20 TRIPLEALLIANCE Entente 1 0 1 0 1 21 U
1917.04.09 1 1873.10.22 LEAGUEOFTHETHREEEMPERORS Entente 1 0 0 1 1 19 S
1917.04.21 8 1901.02.09 SECRETAGREEMENTCONCERNINGALBANIAOFFEBNINENINETEENOHONE Entente 0 0 1 0 1 5 E
1917.07.01 7 1888.05.15 TRIPLEALLIANCEASOFOCTEIGHTEENEIGHTEENEIGHTYTHREE Entente 1 0 1 0 1 21 U
1918.02.18 6 1887.12.16 MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTSASOFDECEMBERSIXTEEN Entente 0 1 1 0 1 13 M

* MEDITERRANEAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN ITALY AND SPAIN ACCORDING TO ATOP ID THIRTEENSIXTYFIVE. Here, "ATOP" is the Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions Project. In their database, the item with ID 1365 had members Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany. Leeds, Brett Ashley, Jeffrey M. Ritter, Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, and Andrew G. Long. 2002. Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions, 1815-1944. International Interactions 28: 237-260.