Undercover pigeon carrying WW2 secrets found

Seems the bird was liberated at 16:25 and sunset in the area where the bird was found was around 20:20 (June). That gave the bird about 4 hours of flying time. If it started in France that would be about the right distance for that flying time.

I think it landed due to darkness.

Edit:

My thinking is that the bird was used in the spring /.summer time, maybe even near D-Day. I would think a bird handler would not release the bird with a coded message unless he thought it would clear the enemy area at release and have a good chance of delivering the message.

Looks like dodgy activation codes for windows 8

Originally posted by yeebsy
Looks like dodgy activation codes for windows 8

That pigeon was distributing illegal warez lol

TextTop code-breakers at one of Britain's intelligence agencies, the GCHQ, say they have failed to decipher a message found attached to the leg of a dead Second World War pigeon. The code-breakers have been puzzling for weeks over the contents of a red canister found attached to the leg of a dead pigeon discovered in a Surry chimney.

The thin strip of paper, headed with the words, "Pigeon Service", contains 27 groups of five letters.

Code-breakers say it may have been encrypted using a specialist code book, or using a one-time pad. The best guess is it may have been sent by an army unit in Europe, who needed to report a simple message back to Britain whilst on the move. But barring any further discoveries, this pigeon may have taken its secret to the grave.

www.abc.net.au...


Guess we will never know !

It all depends on the code that was used and who the sender worked for. If they worked for SOE then they would have used a Worked out Key or a Letter One-time Pad. If it was the latter then we might never know, as thousands of them were made for agents and SOE lost a lot of their records after the war.

A bit late, but browsing the web, as you do when nothing better comes to hand, I found a reference to MI 14.

One of MI14's most valuable sources, codenamed COLUMBA, consisted of reports returned by pigeons dropped over Nazi-occupied countries in packs containing a miniature spying kit.

Some time after the war, MI14 became part of MI6.

en.wikipedia.org...

I like the idea that a Royal Surgeon was somehow involved, maybe reporting back on a member of the royal familly involved in some forward action?


(thoughtsfull 6/11 ) found a possible link to the message sender, "Major-General (Sir) Arnold Walmsley Stott, KBE, FRCP (with extra t) was (Serjeant)Surgeon to the Royal Household and Adviser in Medicine to the U.K. Emergency Medical Service during WW2."

It would appear that the code may very well have been broken in 17 minutes..

Somebody in Ontario had inherited a book which he believes has helped him to unvover the message.

his theory is that the message was written in a style used during WW1
The style is to keep the message as short as possible but making it look complicated to decypher.

So TPLNR = This Post Links (to) News Report

here are the examples given in the report

AOAKN - Artillery Observer At "K" Sector, Normandy
HVPKD - Have Panzers Know Directions
FNFJW - Final Note [confirming] Found Jerry's Whereabouts
DJHFP - Determined Jerry's Headquarters Front Posts
CMPNW - Counter Measures [against] Panzers Not Working
AOAKN - Artillery Observer at "K'-sector, Normandy
KLDTS - Know [where] Local Dispatch Station
27 / 1526 / 6 - June 27th, 1526 hours

could it be that simple?
Well, yes..if you've got the code book..
www.bbc.co.uk...

But is it the right code book? It requires the full code to be published and allow others to examine it further. Until that happens it is just an interpretation of what the message might break to.

reply to post by tommyjo


They mentioned that in the report

They remain convinced the message is impossible to decrypt, although a spokesman said they would be happy to look at Mr Young's proposed solution,.

So it will need confirmation by the top brass.

PIGEON MESSAGE FINALLY DECODED...

Lieutenant A., in charge of one end of the British line told the partly deaf private to pass the word along via messenger pigeon to Lieutenant B.: “Send reinforcements. We are going to advance”.

When GCHQ. decoded the message in 2012 it read : “ Send three and fourpence. We are going to a dance.”

Hmm , there were no panzers at the beachhead in normandy at the time of thelandings?

how would this message help locate where they where ?The Fortitude operation had fixed German attention on the Pas-de-Calais. They were certain it would be the site of the battle, and they had placed the bulk of their panzer divisions north and east of the Seine River, where they were unavailable for counterattack in Normandy.

Also K sector I believe was a section of gold beach..no panzers there .

My guess it was coded with a M-94 code machine.
en.wikipedia.org...

Small units like the OSS or free french had to be able to hide everything and it had to be small

The first and last 5 letter group could be a unit code or day date code because it might be a couple days before the pigeon made it back to HQ and they would need to know what days code to use.
members.aon.at...

reply to post by thePharaoh


bloody hell, that is amazing. I just hope they don't find the dove from Noah's Ark. That will set the cat amongst the pigeons.

fancy a note lasting 70 years? wow... just wonder what kind of ink and type of paper they used?

Originally posted by ANNED
My guess it was coded with a M-94 code machine.
en.wikipedia.org...

Small units like the OSS or free french had to be able to hide everything and it had to be small

The first and last 5 letter group could be a unit code or day date code because it might be a couple days before the pigeon made it back to HQ and they would need to know what days code to use.
members.aon.at...

If I recall correctly agents were never sent into Occupied France with code machines - that would have been very bad operating practice due to the risk of capture. They used codes printed on silk or even mental codes.

Originally posted by PhoenixOD

Originally posted by hotel1
The characters are grouped into fives that may tell us something. It might suggest that it is not text.

I think where cyphers are concerned letters are grouped like that to make it harder to crack the code by knowing the length of the words used in the message.

that answers my question
and it makes sense

Just seen a report on the BBC , where a GCHQ representative explains to the finders of the bird, that the Canadian explanation doesnt hold up to scrutiny. Interestingly, former members of the Bletchley Park codebreaking team, and those who worked closely with them (those who remain at least) still refuse to comment on this matter in any significant fashion.

As fustrating as that most certainly is, this silence is evidence of an unwavering commitment to the secrecy that helped Britain and the allied nations truimph over the Nazis. Thier solidarity, even now, is inspirational, impressive, and makes my heart full of pride in my nation.

Well, I'm not too sure that this is solved.

Going by the very little amount of info that I've found regarding Allied WWII crypto systems, at least in the public sector... there really isn't much. In WW2 there were a variety of systems in use for such things... ranging from simple strips of paper on grids in aircraft, to mechanical machines like the m-209 used on the front lines, and much more complex things like the SIGABA, ECM Mk. 2, CCM... used on ships, subs... etc.

Looking back on that code, unless we can narrow down from whom that message was sent by, and to who was supposed to receive said message... there isn't much to go on. So I'd agree with GCHQ.


For all of the sleuths still out here - following this -

Possible link?
FK923 (coastal command) VLR B24 Liberator
W/O Stott, W. (wireless operator)
It was in fact... a wing commander's plane.

I'll share more on that angle soon.