WWII carrier pigeon message discovered in Surrey chimney

[v2]

Do the remains of a carrier pigeon found in a Surrey chimney hold the secrets to a WW2 mystery? Codebreakers are working on deciphering the message now.
BBC News - WWII carrier pigeon message discovered in Surrey chimney

 

[T Bolt]

Will be interesting to see what it says

 

[meatloaf109]

The world deadliest joke perhaps?

 

[clinton78]

Will be interesting to see what it says

Hopefully nothing that was that important....

 

[Capt. Vick]

The world deadliest joke perhaps?

Hahahahahaha!

 

[Crimea_River]

"Cancel Arnhem - too far. Montgomery"

 

[Airframes]

"Hey, Ike. I can see my house from here".

 

[meatloaf109]

From Monty to Ike,
Sure do like that Bradley chap, perhaps we could all have dinner sometime? And bring that fellow Patton, I hear he does an excellent rendition of "Lilly Marlene"; Can't get enough of that song!

 

[Wayne Little]

Jolly Jokers....

 

[Airframes]

Seriously though, this might be a hard one to crack. It's been done using a 'one time pad', where the sender and recipient have a pad of identical letter sequences used once only for each message, then destroyed. Possibly the hardest code to crack, unless in possesion of the original pad(s).

 

[A4K]

Hard alright, Terry. My grandmother had a bit to do with codes and said they were changed constantly.

 

[stona]

It's been done using a 'one time pad', where the sender and recipient have a pad of identical letter sequences used once only for each message, then destroyed. Possibly the hardest code to crack, unless in possesion of the original pad(s).

If that's what it is and was done properly (no lazy repetition etc) then it actually is impossible.

Steve

 

[Airframes]

Exactly - which was the whole reason for the one time pad. In terms of freqeunt use, it was (and still is) slow and cumbersome, as a user had to have a supply of the pads, which were printed, in duplicate, in huge numbers. Encoding and decoding took time of course, and the users had to have the correct, identical pair of pads.
The identification for which pad was being used was given at the start of the message, or in the first letter group - for example EXGHL, which might mean PAD 12. Each pad had pages of code groups, each page being for one message, or part of a message. Once a message had been encoded, the page was torn from the pad and destroyed.
Even if today's 'computer power' can break into this message, there is absolutely no way it can be certain that any 'translation' is accurate and correct and, in addition, any actual code words used in the message, and then re-coded using the pad, would be impossible to identify.
The beauty of the system, still in use today, is that it is a simple code, but only used once, so therefore foolproof.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

If its like several of the cartoons I saw growing up it will probably say... "Hitler is a stinker"

 

[T Bolt]

I've heard a one time pad code can be broken if the message is long enough by matching letters to figures in the coded message based on the frequency of use of letters in the English language and matching it up with the frequency of use of symbols in the message, but the message has to be quite long. Don't think they will get this one.

And yes I read Tom Clancy

 

[fubar57]

Geo

 

[v2]

The pigeon that saved a World War II bomber crew: BBC News - The pigeon that saved a World War II bomber crew

 

[stona]

I've heard a one time pad code can be broken if the message is long enough by matching letters to figures in the coded message based on the frequency of use of letters in the English language and matching it up with the frequency of use of symbols in the message, but the message has to be quite long. Don't think they will get this one.

And yes I read Tom Clancy

If Tom Clancy (who I haven't read) wrote that then he is wrong.
The frequency of letters in the encrypted message has no mathematical relationship with the frequency of letters in the original in the "one time pad" system.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Capt. Vick]

For those interested in codes and codebreaking during WWII, I recommend the book "Between Silk and Cyanide". A good read.

 

[R Pope]

Probably says, "Screw Poland, we're staying out of this one..."