National Pigeon Service

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The National Pigeon Service (NPS) was a volunteer civilian organisation formed in Britain in 1938 as result of representations made to the Committee of Imperial Defence and the British Government by Major W. H. Osman. [1] During 1939-45 over 200,000 young pigeons were given to the services by the British pigeon breeders of the NPS. [1] The birds were used by the Royal Air Force and the Army and Intelligence Services, Special Section of the Army Pigeon Service (which was formed in World War I by Lt. Col. A. H. Osman). During three and a half years of World War II, 16,554 war pigeons were parachuted onto the continent. [1] One of these was Commando, a red chequer cock bird that became a recipient of the Dickin Medal. [2] Many other NPS pigeons also received the Dickin Medal. [3]

Contents

Canister colour code

Pigeons were used by a variety of services and the canisters affixed to their legs were colour-coded to distinguish recipients. [4]

Pigeon NURP 40 TW 194

NURP 40 TW 194's Pigeon Service message. Large-pigeon-message.png
NURP 40 TW 194's Pigeon Service message.
Army Wireless Operating Signals 1941 (UK) Addresses Army-wireless-addressees.jpg
Army Wireless Operating Signals 1941 (UK) Addresses

In 1982, the skeleton of a carrier pigeon was found inside a home chimney in Bletchingley, Surrey, in the southeast United Kingdom. Inside a red canister (see above) attached to one of its legs was an encrypted message handwritten on a Pigeon Service form. The message was addressed to "XO2," which is thought by some to be RAF Bomber Command, alternatively corresponds to a signals routing code "forward to second recipient", [5] - the recipients being identified in the code text - and is signed "W Stot Sjt." probably Sergeant William Stott. It is believed to have been sent from France on 6 June 1944 during the World War II D-day invasion. The message consists of 27 five-letter groups, with the first and last group identical. As of February 2019, the message has not been deciphered. Britain's GCHQ, the successor to Bletchley Park has asked for any information the public might have about the message. [6]

The cipher text reads:

AOAKN HVPKD FNFJU YIDDC
RQXSR DJHFP GOVFN MIAPX
PABUZ WYYNP CMPNW HJRZH
NLXKG MEMKK ONOIB AKEEQ
UAOTA RBQRH DJOFM TPZEH
LKXGH RGGHT JRZCQ FNKTQ
KLDTS GQIRU AOAKN 27 1525/6

The form indicates that two copies of the message were sent. Additional notations, in a colour different from the code groups and signature, are "NURP 40 TW 194" and "NURP 37 OK(or DK) 76." [7] These identify the specific birds used. [8] NURP stands for "National Union of Racing Pigeons." [9] The pigeon whose remains were found is apparently 40 TW 194. [10] 40 and 37 refer to the year the pigeons were hatched. [11] The code DK and TW are believed to refer to Dorking and Twickenham. [11]

Wide press coverage was given to a solution proposed by Gord Young of Canada, based on a World War I coding book. It explains 7 of the 26 unique code groups as ad hoc acronyms, such as "FNFJW - Final Note [ confirming ] Found Jerry's Whereabouts" [12] — the usual reading of the group is "FNFJU", while the hand has a very square U, the W is quite distinct. However, Michael Smith, a former British army intelligence operator and advisor to Bletchley Park, dismissed Young's purported decryption as "nonsense", [13] explaining "a World War One code … wouldn’t have been used because it would have been well known to the Germans and insecure." The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has stated "without access to the original code books, details of any additional encryption, or any context around the message, it will be impossible to decode. Similarly it means that any proposed solutions sent to GCHQ will, without such material, be impossible to prove correct." [14]

Suggestions that the code was based on a one-time pad [11] seem unlikely as the first and last groups are identical, probably a message start and end block.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Levi, Wendell (1977). The Pigeon. Sumter, S.C.: Levi Publishing Co, Inc. ISBN   0-85390-013-2.
  2. ↑ "PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC', Pigeons — Roll of Honour". PDSA. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  3. ↑ "Dickin medal pigeons". PDSA. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  4. ↑ WO 205/225 – pages 1/2/3 , referenced in At last, the secret history of that dead cipher pigeon...Cipher Mysteries
  5. ↑ "Cipher pigeon message - "X02" decoded!". 27 April 2013.
  6. ↑ "Wanted for one last mission: call for Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the D-Day pigeon cipher". Telegraph. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Experts: Unbreakable code message found on WWII carrier pigeon - World News". Worldnews.nbcnews.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "Pigeon takes secret message to the grave". Gchq.gov.uk. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  9. ↑ "Dead WW2 pigeon – a ring of truth?Cipher Mysteries". Cipher Mysteries. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "World War II Pigeon's Message a Mystery, Alan Cowell, New York Times, 1 November 2012".
  11. 1 2 3 Elonka Dunin, Klaus Schmeh (2023). Codebreaking: A Practical Guide. p. 366.
  12. ↑ "Has World War II carrier pigeon message been cracked?" BBC News, 16 December 2012
  13. ↑ "Expert dismisses claims WWII pigeon code has been cracked". The Independent. 26 December 2012.
  14. ↑ "Pigeon Message Update". Gchq.gov.uk. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
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