by Carson McRae
In 1982, homeowners David and Anne Martin were in the process of renovating a chimney when they discovered the bones of a pigeon inside. Attached to one of the legs was a red canister that contained an unusual message that was, for the most part, unreadable. After passing the message off to various sources, it was deemed that the message had been sent from a British soldier, Sergeant W. Stot, who was gathering intel behind enemy lines for the D-Day invasion of June 6th, 1944.
Join us on this episode of One-Time Pod to explore the mystery behind this couple’s discovery. We will take you through the details of the story, explore the narrative of D-Day, hear from an expert on carrier pigeons, and look at potential encryption methods for the message.
Special Thanks:
Dr. Jonathan Hagstrum
Voices:
- Jerry Ji
- Aidan Ho
- Adrian Florea
Sources:
- “Has the D-Day Pigeon Riddle Been Cracked?” – The Telegraph
- “Pigeon Takes Secret Message to the Grave” – GCHQ
- “Secret D-Day Code Found On A Dead Pigeon Has Historians Scrambling For WWII Codebreakers” – Business Insider
- “D-Day” – History.com
- Singh, Simon. The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography . Anchor Books, 2000. (Pages 120-122)
Audio:
D-Day Radio Bulletin
Going Higher by BENSOUND (CC BY 3.0)
Groove Grove by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Waves sound effect
Pigeons sound effect
Historical photograph via Wikimedia Commons