Advertisement

Britons try to decode D-Day pigeon message

Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

CHELTENHAM, England, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A British agency said it is working to decipher a coded message attached to a D-Day pigeon found stuck in a chimney nearly 70 years after World War II.

The Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham, England, said the carrier pigeon, employed to carry messages across the English Channel during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy, was discovered in the chimney in Bletchingley, England.

Advertisement

The message it had carried was in a code that was long ago forgotten by the intelligence community, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

The agency said it is now working to crack the code.

"The aluminium ring found on the bird's leg tells us it was born in 1940 and we know it's an Allied Forces pigeon because of the red capsule it was carrying -- but that's all we know," said Colin Hill, a volunteer for the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. "We suspect it was flying back to [England] from Nazi occupied Normandy during the invasion."

Latest Headlines