COO BLIMEY ! RIDDLE OF PERCY THE PIGEON AND A WARTIME MISSION (fwd)

Saturday August 18, 2012

COO BLIMEY ! RIDDLE OF PERCY THE PIGEON AND A WARTIME MISSION
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By Giles Sheldrick

THEY were the army of unlikely heroes who helped us defeat Hitler in the 
Second World War.

More than 250,000 pigeons were trained to carry coded messages from the 
front line to generals back home.

Almost all made it, except one.

The story of Percy, the pigeon who died in the line of duty, can now be 
told for the first time after being unearthed by the Daily Express.

While ripping out an old fireplace at a derelict house in Bletchingly, 
Surrey, David and Ann Martin found what they thought to be a discarded 
chicken bone.

But on closer inspection it turned out to be the remains of a pigeon.

A fairly unremarkable find, you might think. But just as Mr Martin was 
about to bag up the soot and twigs and throw them away he noticed a small 
red cylinder attached to the bird's foot. 

Inside was a highly sensitive document that was almost certainly 
dispatched from Nazi-occupied France.

Mr Martin had stumbled upon a coded message which, until now, has been 
gathering dust on a shelf.

The Pigeon Service document is so sensitive it is now being analysed by 
codebreakers at the Government listening post GCHQ.

Until the message, which is not dated, is fully decoded its contents will 
remain a mystery.

However, military historians think it might have been sent on D-Day - 
June 6, 1944 - when tens of thousands of Allied troops landed on the 
beaches of Normandy.

The message contains 27 codes, each made up of combinations of five 
numbers and letters, and was sent to X02 at 16.25.

Pigeons were crucial during the Allied invasion because Churchill had 
ordered a radio blackout. At Bletchley Park the elite loft of birds were 
trained and looked after by Charles Skevington.

Every message sent from the frontline was duplicated. Although the bird 
found by Mr Martin and nicknamed Percy by him died in the chimney, it is 
not known whether the other pigeon carrying the same message made it home.

The destination X02 is believed to be the secret code for Bomber Command 
while the sender['s signature at the bottom of the message appears to say 
Serjeant W. Stot.

The spelling of serjeant is crucial.

The RAF used a J while the army used a G, leading some to conclude this 
was sent by an airman..../snip/

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/340486/340486

http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/285x214/340486_1.jpg#David-Martin

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/340483/Discovery-of-secret-message-stopped-Britain-s-real-life-007-in-his-tracks

http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/285x214/340483_1.jpg#Cmdr-Biffy