A coded World War II message found attached to the remains of a pigeon up a chimney in Bletchingley, Surrey may have been cracked by a Canadian enthusiastic amateur.
Using a code from World War I, the Telegraph reports that Gord Young of Peterborough, Ontario was able to decrypt the note in under 17 minutes.
GCHQ -- the UK intelligence service which was responsible for codes and codebreaking during World War II -- has not confirmed the plaintext as correct but is willing to take a look at the proposed solution. "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," said a spokesperson for GCHQ. "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."
The message was discovered, strapped to the remains of a pigeon, by David Martin while he was conducting home renovations at his Bletchingley residence and 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
According to Young the message was written by Sergeant William Stott of the Lancashire Fusiliers who was parachuted into Normandy to report on German positions.
Rather than make use of a fiendish coding system, Young says the note is largely composed of acronyms. "It's not complex," he added.
As it currently stands, the plaintext is thought to read: "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."
Image: Shutterstock
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
