WWII message is in pigeon English
A SECRET World War Two message found on the leg of a dead pigeon has left 21st century codebreakers flummoxed.
The code, hand-written on a small sheet of paper headed "Pigeon Service", was found in a small red canister attached to the bird's skeleton up a chimney at a house in Bletchingley, Surrey.
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CRYPTIC: The 'pigeon service' message
Experts from UK intelligence agency GCHQ said the message, which has 27 five-letter code groups, is impossible to crack without its codebook.
They were also left stumped by missing details, such as the date of the message and the identities of the sender, "Sjt W Stot", and the recipient, "X02".
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A spokesman said: "Although it is disappointing that we cannot yet read the message brought back by a brave carrier pigeon, it is a tribute to the skills of the wartime code-makers that, despite working under severe pressure, they devised a code that was indecipherable both then and now."
Comments
by Codebreaker
Sunday, November 25 2012, 9:35AM
“@Mercenary. Quite right. Childish prank. Who in their right mind would sign a message from occupied Europe? It would equate to signing your own death warrant if the message was intercepted.”
by Vinnie_Gar
Sunday, November 25 2012, 8:55AM
“It took me a while but I finally cracked it.
It says "CharlieDodd is a d1ckhead".
Can't think why anyone would encode something as obvious as that though.”
by MissAnthrope
Sunday, November 25 2012, 8:40AM
“A code that no-one understands, and that never got delivered in the first place. Speckled Jim springs to mind.”
by CharlieDodd
Saturday, November 24 2012, 10:50PM
“Decoded message reads- 'Nazi tyranny running riot on the continent, two peanuts were walking down the street and one was assaulted"”
by TheMercenary
Saturday, November 24 2012, 2:33PM
“Rather silly signing a secret message don't you think? Careless I would have thought or a war time hoax. Sjt for Sgt a giveaway.”
by kevinretallic
Saturday, November 24 2012, 2:19PM
“"Now, where did I put that pigeon?"”
by Snapdragons
Saturday, November 24 2012, 11:50AM
“Makes more sense than some of the articles on here.”
by jabbathebutt
Saturday, November 24 2012, 9:35AM
“Give it to a chav girl texter from swilly . She will know what it means .”
by mandsu
Saturday, November 24 2012, 8:58AM
“Suggest that the sender is 'Sargent W Stot'?”