Is that pic for real? is there a story?

email (option): marcus@glassenbury.plus.com

Clearly smoking is not good for you

Get the message

:-D

email (option): Jonnyob1@googlemail.com

It's genuine...though the bird was found in 1982 so not that recently. The pidgeons number was 40TW94...the first two digits indicating its year of birth. The message it carried was unusual in that it was encrypted and therefore more 'secret' than general messages.
It is thought the bird became lost/exhausted on its way back from France. Due to the encrypted message it was thought to be heading for Bletchley Park...and it was found approx. 80 miles from there. It is believed the bird was released on D Day to carry the message back to England...Bletchley park were reported at the time (1982) to be deciphering the message....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

This news message was broadcasted just a few weeks ago in Holland.

http://www.zie.nl/video/opmerkelijk/Man-vindt-postduif-uit-WOII-in-schoorsteen/m1nz2mcf75o7

Regards,
Peter

Here some more info on that pigeon story.

Henk

pigeon

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

I have to say that it's not a very pleasant looking photograph to have at the top of the page but I've never liked anorexic-looking birds.

what did the message say or is it still a secret

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

Apperently it will never be decoded, it's not just as simple as saying A equated to B from 1939 to 1945. You would need to have the specific secret code and cipher books for a specific day, as being used by a specific unit of a specific force.

Here a message in a Dutch newspaper today.

Is says "Specialists cannot cranck the code:


http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1013/Buitenland/article/detail/3352745/2012/11/23/Experts-kunnen-code-postduif-uit-WOII-niet-kraken.dhtml?utm_source=RSSReader&utm_medium=RSS


André

email (option): vplrn@hotmail.com

The secret message from the Second World War that a few weeks ago at the skeleton of a pigeon in an English chimney was found, by specialists is not yet deciphered, so reporting experts today. The handwritten message on a sheet of paper with 'attract international acclaim Service' was found in a red jewel case that was attached to the leg of the animal. The bird was found in a house in Surrey, in the south of England.

email (option): unpob@yahoo.com

todays sun newspaper are asking whether anybody out there can decifer the message as none of their computer can do it so forein states will be using the secret code from now on as we cant decifer it there is a rumour that they know what it say and dont want to let us know what it is it say nothing much going on today running out of tea and biccies

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

send 3'4d ?

email (option): chris.astinbarker@btinternet.com

If 'Stot' really is the name of the chap who sent it then it is an uncommon spelling ('stott' is more common) and that should make it possible to trace his service records and from there the war diaries of his unit. It should be possible to get a fair idea of what sort of work he was involved in.

I would imagine that for every real message sent, there were probably ten or twenty despatched during home front exercises.

Stot is an odd name, but if the message was top secret, it could easily be a code name or even a name that has been encoded?

latest info on this topic;

The Telegraph Dec16, 2012

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.
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.
The couple sent it to Colin Hill, curator of the Pigeons at War exhibition at Bletchley Park, but he found the code, believed to have been sent by a unit in Normandy shortly after D-Day to Bomber Command, impossible to crack.

Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, to examined code in November this year. The eavesdropping agency also appealed for former codebreakers to come forward to suggest how the code might be understood. Daily Telegraph readers also sent in their suggestions.

But it is a team of Canadian researchers at Lakefield Heritage Research who claim to have cracked the short-form code, using a First World War artillery code book.
The message was sent to XO2 at 16:45 and contained 27 codes, each made up of five letters or numbers.
The destination X02 was believed to be Bomber Command, while the sender's signature at the bottom of the message read Serjeant W Stot.
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
It can now be revealed the message was sent by Sergeant William Stott, a 27-year-old paratrooper from the Lancashire Fusiliers who was parachuted into occupied Normandy on a reconnaisance mission.
It is believed he was sent there to assess the strength of the German occupation in that area, and then sent the message to HQ Bomber Command at RAF High Wycombe.
His message told RAF officers that he was updating as required, and he was also requesting information after being parachuted behind enemy lines early in the morning.
He was killed in action a few weeks after sending the message, which has now been party decoded by the Canadian research team.
Gord Young, a researcher from Peterborough in Ontario, said: "We have been able to unravel most but not all of the so-called unbreakable code of the pigeon remains.
"The message is indeed breakable."
The researchers now believe the message reads: "Artillery observer at 'K' Sector, Normandy. Requested headquarters supplement report. Panzer attack - blitz. West Artillery Observer Tracking Attack.
"Lt Knows extra guns are here. Know where local dispatch station is. Determined where Jerry's headquarters front posts. Right battery headquarters right here.
"Found headquarters infantry right here. Final note, confirming, found Jerry's whereabouts. Go over field notes. Counter measures against Panzers not working.
"Jerry's right battery central headquarters here. Artillery observer at 'K' sector Normandy. Mortar, infantry attack panzers.
"Hit Jerry's Right or Reserve Battery Here. Already know electrical engineers headquarters. Troops, panzers, batteries, engineers, here. Final note known to headquarters."
Other parts of the code require further deciphering but Mr Young thinks they may be confusing on purpose to dupe German soliders who may have picked up the letter.
He said: "Maybe these are 'fillers' just to confuse the Germans or anyone else who might have got the message.
"We have written to the Canadian War Museum to see if they can find somebody who understands artillery short forms."
The task was complicated by the fact that all the code books and computers at Bletchley Park, the wartime predecessor to GCHQ, were destroyed after the war.
The Royal Pigeon Racing Association believe the bird probably either got lost, disorientated in bad weather, or was simply exhausted after its trip across the Channel.
Due to Winston Churchill's radio blackout, homing pigeons were taken on the D-Day invasion and released by Allied Forces to inform military Generals back on English soil how the operation was going.
The crack team of birds were a secret wing of the National Pigeon Service - which had a squadron of 250,000 birds during the Second World War.
They can reach speeds of 80mph, cover distances of more than 1,000 miles and are thought to use the Earth's magnetic fields to navigate.

email (option): teladelujo@msn.com

There are still a lot of 'believed to be' and 'probablys' in their explanation? Why would this Para operating behind the lines be using a short form code based on out of date, easy to crack 20 year old WW1 Artillery codes? Their final message sounds very plausable, but the problem is that if it is 'uncrackable', these folks can say what they like? Who can argue with them? I could come up with my own version of what I 'believe' the message reads, but without seeing their working out and knowing exactly what system they have used, it's still only a theory?