Posted on 12/26/2012 10:44:36 AM PST by Red Badger
The intelligence agency GCHQ has dismissed claims that a coded message from the Second World War found tied to the remains of a pigeon in a chimney has been cracked.
A team of Canadian researchers claimed earlier this month that the code contained details of German tank movements which had been sent by a British soldier.
However, Michael Smith, a trustee of Bletchley Park, said the claims were "nonsense". He said the Canadian academics had used a World War 1 code from the First World War as the basis of their research.
He said: "The idea that a World War 1 code would have been used during the second world war is just silly. It wouldn't have been used because it would have been well known to the Gemans and insecure.
"More to the point you don't have to take my word for it. GCHQ have looked at it. They are very good at diagnosing codes and ciphers as the people at Bletchley Park were in the war. They can be pretty specific about it."
The letter was discovered by David and Anne Martin while they were ripping out a fireplace at their house in Bletchingley, Surrey, thirty years ago.
They discovered the bones of a pigeon and were about to throw them away when they noticed there was a red container attached to one of the bird's legs.
It is now believed the message, which had stumped Britain's finest codebreakers, was battlefield intelligence from a British Army paratrooper pointing out German tank and infantry groupings to RAF Bomber Command.
Inside was a small slip of paper with a series of 27 coded messages, made up of a mixture of letters and numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
David Martin with the remains of a WW2 carrier pigeon which he discovered behind his fireplace Photo: Lee Sanders/SWNS.com
The message reads:
AOAKN HVPKD FNFJW YIDDC
RQXSR DJHFP GOVFN MIAPX
PABUZ WYYNP CMPNW HJRZH
NLXKG MEMKK ONOIB AKEEQ
WAOTA RBQRH DJOFM TPZEH
LKXGH RGGHT JRZCQ FNKTQ
KLDTS FQIRW AOAKN 27 1525/6
De rigeur translation attempt for this subject:
“Drink more Ovaltine.”
Someone has been trying to give ‘em the bird...
I wonder why the pigeon wound up in the chimney in the firt place.......
The idea that the last barrels of Civil War I hardtack would be used in the Spanish American War is just silly, too, except that it was.
/johnny
“Winston, Adolf is getting suspicious, we have to stop meeting. Eva.”
All the more reason to use it. I can hear the krauts now..."ha, ha, those yankees can't fool us. Who would be so dumb to use a code from the last war..."
The message never arrived. Now we know why “Market Garden” failed. It wasn’t Montgomery’s fault after all.
Canada Ping!
Oh for goodness sakes. How important could a message from a pigeon be?
“I need more bird food. Cats are bad.”
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
Thanks a fool in paradise. |
|
|
|
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.