Operation PUZZLEBOX

"During the winter of 1927-28 officials of the Federal government made a strange and secret investigation of certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. The public first learned of it in February, when a vast series of raids and arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning and dynamiting - under suitable precautions - of an enormous number of crumbling, worm-eaten, and supposedly empty houses along the abandoned waterfront. Uninquiring souls let this occurrence pass as one of the major clashes in a spasmodic war on liquor."

- "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", Howard Phillips Lovecraft

### Location

Innsmouth, MA

Operation PUZZLEBOX, formerly Operation COVENANT and also known as the 'Raid on Innsmouth', was a 1927 law-enforcement operation conducted by the United States Secret Service, aided by a force of Marines, Coast Guard troops and a deployment of agents from the Office of Naval Intelligence's P4 Division. The raid revealed to the Federal Government the existence of the unnatural, in particular the presence of the Deep Ones and their half-human hybrids, living in colonies on American soil.

The raid resulted in the capture of a large number of both hybrid prisoners and occult artefacts, both of which were remanded into the custody of the P4 Division. The study of these prisoners and artefacts would lay the foundation of the future Delta Green.

## Background

Prior to the raid, a team of U.S. Treasury Department agents under the command of Special Agent Wade of the Secret Service conducted an investigation of the townsfolk of Innsmouth. Their findings prompted President Calvin Coolidge to authorize a raid under the code name Project PUZZLEBOX. The Department of the Navy, in the form of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) agents from the P4 Division, U.S. Marines, and U.S. Coast Guard troops, provided both firepower and manpower. The Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation, under director J. Edgar Hoover, was brought on board for its legal authority to seize “suspected aliens and seditionists” for deportation.

## The Raid

The raid itself was a bloody affair. Despite the overwhelming advantage in firepower held by the Government forces, the townsfolk of Innsmouth defended their land and their unnatural faith relentlessly against the invaders. The seizure of the town would more closely resemble a pitched battle in war than a mere law-enforcement operation.

Despite the resistance, the government advantage in manpower and firepower wore down and defeated the defenders. The town itself was seized entirely, its population captured and interned and the town itself dynamited.

## Consequences

As a direct result of the raid, the town of Innsmouth was destroyed. The two-hundred and nine Deep One hybrids captured were taken to concentration camps deep within the American interior, far away from any body of water, for later study. Additionally a large quantity of occult and unnatural material fell into the possession of the P4 Division, including a copy of the log of the Sumatra Queen, the ship of Innsmouth’s most prominent merchant-captain and founder of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, Captain Obed Marsh; a Marsh family history dated 1862; two copies (one badly burnt) of the Ponape Scripture; five conical stone tablets inscribed with glyphs and an incomplete set translation notes for the glyphs, compiled over many years by Robert Marsh. Rumors persisted for years afterwards that a submarine fired torpedoes off of Devil’s Reef at an unknown target, deep in the ocean.

The capture of live specimens of half-human creatures proved the purpose of the P4 Division of ONI, providing evidence beyond all doubt that mankind was not alone on the planet and that the enemy posed a threat to the United States. The P4 Division began a protracted war against the Deep Ones, employing the Navy to depth-charge suspected Deep One colonies and the Army to destroy Innsmouth-like surface colonies in Central America. These actions laid the foundation of the future Delta Green.

## See Also

Private Arthur J. Macready

Project COVENANT, summary by Raymond H. Rich.

## Publication History

* H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936), excerpted above. Mentions a “series of raids”.
* Kevin A. Ross et al., *Escape from Innsmouth* (Chaosium, 1992). The name “Covenant” is invented for a large raid, described in detail herein as an RPG scenario. The name is explained as a biblical reference, but is not capitalized.
* Adam Scott Glancy with John Tynes, the title chapter in *Delta Green* (Pagan, 1997). The material on the operation itself is consistent with the Chaosium publication. The name is capitalized.
* Adam Scott Glancy, “Once More, from the Top” in *Dark Theatres* (Armitage, 2001). A fictionalized, more or less DG-canonical account of the action on the ground in Innsmouth.
* Delta Green Handler's Guide (2016). Renames Operation COVENANT to Operation PUZZLEBOX to avoid legal issues with Chaosium.