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 partly 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.
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