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| Can you crack the pigeon's second world war code? | Can you crack the pigeon's second world war code? |
| (4 months later) | |
| AOAKN HVPKD FNFJW. Confused? You're in good company. These inscrutable letters mark the start of a 143-character coded message sent during the second world war, and found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon down a chimney in Surrey earlier this month. | AOAKN HVPKD FNFJW. Confused? You're in good company. These inscrutable letters mark the start of a 143-character coded message sent during the second world war, and found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon down a chimney in Surrey earlier this month. |
| The UK's chief codebreakers – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – were asked if they could decode the message. But though it is thought to have been sent from occupied France during the D-day landings, so far none of the country's best number-crunchers have been able to fathom what it actually says. | The UK's chief codebreakers – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – were asked if they could decode the message. But though it is thought to have been sent from occupied France during the D-day landings, so far none of the country's best number-crunchers have been able to fathom what it actually says. |
| So they're appealing for help. What do you think the code might be about? Fowl play? Or something more pheasant? Pitch in – or pigeon in – with your suggestions below. It may require ostrich of the imagination – but let's leave no stone un-terned. | So they're appealing for help. What do you think the code might be about? Fowl play? Or something more pheasant? Pitch in – or pigeon in – with your suggestions below. It may require ostrich of the imagination – but let's leave no stone un-terned. |
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