“I hate my job. I just wanna… pull my leg off just so that I can have something to throw at it.”
And kudos, Koxinga. Choked on that.
The British have a very strong Official Secrets Act that kept a lot of basic info about WWII secret for a long time. It prevented publication in the UK about Bletchley Park and Engima until the 1980s, I think. This message might still fall under the Act and we might not know its contents any time soon.
I noticed there isn’t any sharp complete images of the message. Theres plenty of amateur cryptologists that would enjoy the challenge.
I recall vaguely last year they found a coded tablet or maybe pottery? Cracking the code became a big internet project for awhile.
But, even 70 years later I guess even WWII still has its secrets. Those spooks are so paranoid you know. 
Just because the message was addressed to bomber command, is there any reason to think it was released from a bomber? (My workplace is blocking the linked article so I can’t read it.) Isn’t it more likely it was released from a coastal or offshore spotter?
A spotter on the coast or even an island would likely have a landline to HQ.
It’s clear to me that this pigeon was the forerunner for a general coo.
He flipped us the bird!
“Just picked up a shortwave transmission from Amelia Earhardt. Her plane has gone down over the Pacific but she and the navigator are fine. Reports that they have enough food and survival supplies for eight months. She requests pickup at the following coordinates when convenient.”
Dammit, I came here to post “I was on my way home from Flanders when I was cruelly MURDERED by Capt. E. B.”
You shot my Speckled Jim?!!
She’s in the attic!
Too soon.
Am I the only one who’s not surprised at all that carrier pigeons were used during WWII? They’d provide a way for someone in the theatre of war to communicate with home base, over long distances, with no infrastructure in between, and without drawing attention to the location where the message was sent from. I can’t think of any other communication medium which would meet all of those requirements, especially not at a WWII tech level. Sure, you wouldn’t want to rely on it as your primary mode of communication, but it could be quite sensible as a backup system.
And unlike a human courier, a homing pigeon isn’t going sing under the threat of torture. (Chirp, maybe, but not sing.)
Unless it’s a stool pigeon.
It would have been found in the toilet.
.
snork
"Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"
BMalion laughs himself to death.
Oh, wait. I’m not German, never mind.
Zwei erdnüsse wurden auf der straße und einer war ein gesalzen…erdnüss.