WWII carrier pigeon message discovered in Surrey chimney

1. Pigeons fly, therefore aviation.

2.The type is no longer in active service (although examples do fly under control of hobbyists), therefore historic.

Like the tenuous link that this thread has to “historic aviation” 🙂

I think they are saying the code is from WWI, not the actual message.

This interpretation is rubbish. He hasn’t realised that it is a set of five letter codes and has read one of them as a six. There is also the problem that the term Panzer wasn’t used in WW1, so the codes can’t apply.

Somebody looking to get his name in the press. Seems he succeeded.

I agree, Andy. At the moment it is just an interpretation until a copy of the code book is made public.

Whether or not the decoded message reads correctly, the idea that a squaddie in Normandy would send it direct to Bomber Command’s Head Quarters is pretty absurd in my opinion.

What a fowl joke

Richard

Coo !!! 😀

sorry 😀

Interesting, although it all sounds a bit too simplistic.

The quote from GCHQ about the alleged de-crypt is interesting:

“We stand by our statement of 22 November 2012 that without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, the message will remain impossible to decrypt,” he said.

“Similarly it is also impossible to verify any proposed solutions, but those put forward without reference to the original cryptographic material are unlikely to be correct.”

However, Mr Young, the editor of a local history group, Lakefield Heritage Research, believes “folks are trying to over-think this matter”.

If the code is based on a WW1 simple code, then it seems rather surprising that such a basic (and known) method was being used. Also, cannot help noticing that one of the deciphered words is Blitz. It seems unlikely that this word was used in WW1, although we don’t know, of course, how the code and the words used were actually constructed and it may have been that the system was just based on the supposed WW1 code rather than actually using it.

However, it does seem that a somewhat exciting and sexy message has been constructed. No reason why it couldn’t have been, but I kind of feel I would have been a tad more convinced if it was reporting on something a little more mundane. As GCHQ say, it would be interesting to see the supporting evidence/documentation.

I know. I know. I am just a terrible cynic!

Anyway, it probably says: “Thirty six Spitfires now packed and crated ready for burial at……”. After such a long flight from Burma the poor bloody pigeon just dropped dead and fell down the chimney. Thus explaining why, until now, no traceable record of the burials has been found.

Has the D-Day pigeon riddle been cracked?

A coded message from the Second World War found tied to the remains of a carrier pigeon in a chimney contains details of German tank movements sent by a British soldier, a team of Canadian researchers believe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9748484/Has-the-D-Day-pigeon-riddle-been-cracked.html

Gord Young, from Peterborough, in Ontario, says it took him 17 minutes to decypher the message after realising a code book he inherited was the key.

Mr Young says the 1944 note uses a simple World War I code to detail German troop positions in Normandy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20749632

Yes, does not modern cryptology use a different code for each letter?

When I was down at Cranfield I used to drink with a bunch of post Grad studes, they were solving the world every night, so one day I wrote down a set up numbers like 23 44 28 14 32 11 19 and asked them which was the odd one out……
They spent the night on it and in the end gave up, asking the answer I replied 28, it’s the only one on the local Chinese menu that isn’t a curry 😀 then beat a rapid retreat.

In an ironic kind of a way isn’t that the problem with this message. Your joke points to a one time encryption. You had to know about the menu to solve it. If this pidgeons message is also a one time encryption then unless you find the menu, book or notepad the encryption was conceived on you haven’t got a chance.
Sad rearly. Might be an interesting read.

bad boy!

The Catalina crews loved their pigeons. They had a loft too. When dinghy radios came in they wanted to remove the pigeons. More details in the book!

When I was down at Cranfield I used to drink with a bunch of post Grad studes, they were solving the world every night, so one day I wrote down a set up numbers like 23 44 28 14 32 11 19 and asked them which was the odd one out……
They spent the night on it and in the end gave up, asking the answer I replied 28, it’s the only one on the local Chinese menu that isn’t a curry 😀 then beat a rapid retreat.

My thoughts exactly when listening to Radio 4 this morning…

I have a cunning plan, you take an dead old pigeon you make up a fictitious message of random letters then shove it up a chimney and await the joke to be revealed…

.

Its a classic for a wet day :D:D:D
Stop that pigeon LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSnzOOtHfDo

During the war SOE dropped thousands of pigeons into occupied Europe in the hope that locals would find them and use them to send back intelligence information. The pigeons were dropped by small parachute in special cages. The cages had a timer device to release the pigeon after a couple of days (in case the cage was not found).

I think some useful intelligence was received this way but there would have been no necessity to code any of it.

I’m not sure what the ‘loss rate’ was for these pigeons but it has been speculated that there may have been an upsurge in the popularity of pigeon-pie at certain times in occupied Europe! 😉

GCHQ are beaten !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20456782

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20458792

Anyone able to help them?

Google is my friend:

http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?236-Pigeon-lofts-on-ww2-airfields

http://www.rpra.org/about-rpra/pigeons-in-war/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ERIC-RAVILIOUS-MOBILE-PIGEON-LOFT-1942-ROYAL-AIR-FORCE-RAF-SAWBRIDGEWORTH-/190746528318

Lots of references to mobile lofts – these must have confused a lot of pigeons!!