11-26-2012, 07:00 PM
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#3266
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Person who doesn't update the user title
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Bottom lands of the Missoula floods
Posts: 6,402
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Washington Post
Reuters
11/26/12
WWII code found on long-dead pigeon in England may never be broken
Quote:
LONDON — A World War II code found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon
stuck in a chimney for the past 70 years may never be broken, a British intelligence agency said Friday.
The bird was found by a man in Surrey, southern England,
while he was cleaning out a disused fireplace at his home this month.<snip>
The Curator of the Pigeon Museum at Bletchley Park, north of London,
Britain’s main code-breaking center during World War II, is also trying
to trace the identity numbers of the pigeon found in the message, according to GCHQ.
Pigeons were used extensively in the war to carry vital information to Britain from mainland Europe.
Flying at speeds of up to 50 mph, they can travel distances of up to 620*miles .
But they are vulnerable to hungry hawks; during the war, bored soldiers used to take potshots at them.
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