Follow-Up: Any Amateur Cryptographers Out There?

The pigeon leg code from WWII, which I first mentioned in this post, has been broken.

It was the Second World War code no one could crack – a message from 1944 found decades later attached to a dead carrier pigeon in a fireplace.

Wartime code-breaking analysts and experts from GCHQ were all left stumped. But now a historian has come forward with the right codebook to finally reveal what it says.

The despatch, sent by 27-year-old Sergeant William Stott, identified German troop and panzer tank positions in Normandy and highlighted ‘Jerry’ headquarters and observation posts to target for attacks.

It read: ‘Hit Jerry’s right or reserve battery here. 'Troops, panzers, batteries, engineers, here. 'Counter measures against panzers not working.’

Expert Gord Young deciphered it by consulting a Royal Artillery codebook which had been kept by a relative who fought in the conflict.

Mr Young, who works at Lakefield Heritage Research in Ontario, Canada, says the message proves paratrooper Sgt Stott went behind enemy lines to help military planners direct the D-Day offensive.

Looks like they found a copy of that one-time pad, Ted.