[Cindy Smith]

World War II secret coded message found on deceased pigeon in chimney in Nov? 2012:  British intelligence is asking anyone who feels inclined to help decode the message.  It is at the following website (this is the longest web address I've ever reproduced):

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/23/15384954-experts-unbreakable-code-message-found-on-wwii-carrier-pigeon

I've reproduced the coded message as best I could.  I welcome others to check the NBC News website to see if I read it and copied it correctly.

PIGEON SERVICE

To:   X05
From
   Originator's No.   Date.   In reply to No.

AOAKN   HVPICD   ENFJU   YIDDC
RQXSTC   DIHFP      GOVEN   MIAPX
PA302      WYYND   CNPNW   HJRZH
NLXKG   MEMISK   ON01B   AKEEQ
UAOTA   RBQRH   DJOFM   TPZEH
LKXEH   RGGHT   TRZCQ   FNKTQ
KEDTS   AQIRU   AUAKN   07   2525/6

   NURP   40 TW 194
   NURP   37 OK     76
Lib. 1625

Time of origin.   Date and time of return at loft.   Number of copies sent.
  1522                           2

Sender's Signature   W STOT - SJT

Yours,

Cindy Smith
cms@smith.org

[Phil_The_Rodent]

I've also been looking at this tonight. I guess Cindy mailed my newsletter.



Anyways, here is the transcription I am looking at:
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

I'm looking at running keys. Assuming the starting and finish block are addendum, and not part of the cipher text, duplicate letters starting with DD in an even position pushes me away from Playfair. One Time Pad is a possibility, but the appearance of the repeated JRZ trigram in such a small text wants to lead me away from a random pad. Almost certainly this is not a transposition.

Running Key seems a sensible starting position.

Aside from the noted trigram, we also have a few digrams to work with. They are listed here:

AOAKN HVPKD FNFJU YIDDC
RQXSR DJHFP GOVFN MIAPX
PABUZ WYYNP CMPNW HJRZH .
NLXKG MEMKK ONOIB AKEEQ
UAOTA . RBQRH DJOFM TPZEH
LKXGH RGGHTJRZCQ FNKTQ .
KLDTS GQIRU AOAKN

[Cindy Smith]

I've found what I think is a better reproduction of the pigeon service message because it's clearer so that I believe I can reproduce it more accurately.

[Aaron]

Cindy, I decreased the size of that url since the essence of it came before the ? in the url. The rest came from redirects/etc.

It's certainly an interesting case, and that last bit with the numbers seems odd...

[Phil_The_Rodent]

The last bit with the numbers are pigeon identifiers. Two messages were sent, as you see. One of the two was found.

So far as I see online,
NURP = National Union of Racing Pigeons
The first number is the date (year) the pigeon was registered
The two letters are the location of the registrar
The last number is the pigeon's number.

Check out:
http://www.ciphermysteries.com/

Based on a new higher-rez scan, I also adjusted my transcription, above.

[Aaron]

I was talking about the 27 1525/6 bit.

[Cat]

A Wild Pigeon Theory (that could still be shot down):

I: Take letter groupings vertically to the first period mark.

AOAKN
RQXSR
PABUZ
NLXKG
UAOTA.

II: Let the period mark the beginning of the current sentence, and arrange words to be read from bottom to top, right to left fashion.

AOAKN RQXSR PABUZ NLXKG UAOTA.

III:  Look for military and common abbreviations, and divide by trial and error.

ATO : AU : GK : XL : NZ : UB : APR : SX : QR :  NKAOA

IV: Translation attempt (with most likely Huge Errors (tm))

Allied Theatre of Operations: Gold : General 1000 : 40 : Nazi : U-Boats : Approach : Essex : Quarter