Monday, September 29, 2014

Carrier Pigeon For Monday Mystery...!

This mystery comes all the way from World War 2, or there abouts.

As in most mysteries, this one has several unanswered aspects to it. You know, like why and how and what the heck...?

The Homing Pigeon In The Chimney

In 2012, a man named David Martin was renovating his home in Bletchingley, England. After ripping out his fireplace, David was surprised to discover the skeletal remains of a small animal inside his chimney. Attached to the skeleton was a red capsule, which contained a note seemingly written in an undecipherable series of letters and numbers. Upon examination, it became apparent that the note was a coded message and that the skeletal remains belonged to a carrier pigeon from World War II. It seemed likely that the pigeon had been transporting its coded message on June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

Winston Churchill had ordered a complete radio blackout on D-Day, so the Allied Forces used homing pigeons to send reports about the invasion back to England. For unknown reasons, while presumably on its way to Bletchley Park, this pigeon somehow became trapped inside the chimney of David Martin’s home. The destination written on the pigeon’s message was “X02,” believed to be the code for “Bomber Command,” and it appeared to be signed by a “Serjeant W Stot.” There were a total of 27 codes on the note, each made up of five numbers and letters. Since most of the messages carried by homing pigeons on D-Day were not written in code, experts agree that this note must have been particularly important. Unfortunately, since the type of code on this message has not been used for several decades, all attempts to break it have come up empty.

Now all this makes me wonder just what it was that the message said. Why would a pidgeon go into a chimney in the first place? Like I said, lots of unanswered questions surrounding this mystery, don't you think?

Coffee out on the patio this morning. No rain yet today.

8 comments:

Chickenmom said...

That i a strange one! Too bad the war's code books aren't around anymore. Wonder if Sgt. Stot's family could fill in the clues! Beautiful morning here, I'll bring some fresh apple pie!

linda m said...

As you said there are a lot of unanswered questions. And how come we are unable to break the code - especially in this day of computers that can do anything and hackers that can break into anything? Coffee outside sounds good. Rain expected here this afternoon. I'll bring some cornbread and honey.

Mamahen said...

I agree...alot of unanswered questions here...and you would think modern tech would be able to at least break that code.....I think a wedge of sharp cheddar would go well with CM's pie n linda's cornbread n honey :))

HermitJim said...

Hey Phyllis...
Apple pie is one of my favorites!

It would be nice if they could, but being wartime, they probably were not kept in the loop.

Thanks for dropping by this morning!



Hey Linda M...
I was thinking the same thing. You would think that the kids today should be able to break the code!

Thanks for stopping by today!



Hey Mamahen...
All these unanswered questions give us something to think about, for sure!

Bring on that cheese! Goes good with everything!

Thanks for coming over today!

MamaHen said...

I can't believe that some historical archive somewhere has not kept a record of all the codes they used back then! Seems to me that's something that would have been kept up with.

Caddie said...

I wonder what consequence this undelivered message played in history as it is perceived today?

I too would think EVERYTHING is somewhere available - like 'code breakers'.

Dizzy-Dick said...

What I can't understand is how a pigeon got in the chimney. The only thing I can think of is that it got in the house and was trying to get out.

Sixbears said...

I hope they sent the message with more than one pigeon.