Carrier Pigeon message found

I believe I have it correctly deciphered.

Germans have captured Company supply hut and stolen all the sausages. Please send more, but not so many snorkers this time. Regards, O'Reilly

 

Might well be the last word on this-
"The GCHQ code-breakers were set an intriguing challenge following the discovery of a carrier pigeon skeleton by David Martin in the chimney of his house in Bletchingley, Surrey. The message – hand-written on a small sheet of paper headed “Pigeon Service” – was found in a small red canister still attached to the pigeon’s leg bone.-
Unfortunately, much of the vital information that would indicate the context of the message is missing. It is undated, and the meaning of the destination – given as “X02” – is unknown. Similarly, while the sender’s signature appears to say “Sjt W Stot”, nothing is known of this individual or their unit.-
During the war, the methods used to encode messages naturally needed to be as secure as possible and various methods were used. The senders would often have specialist codebooks in which each code group of four or five letters had a meaning relevant to a specific operation, allowing much information to be sent in a short message. For added security, the code groups could then themselves be encrypted using, for example, a one-time pad.
The message found at Bletchingley had 27 five-letter code groups, and the GCHQ experts believe its contents are consistent with this method. This means that without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, it will remain impossible to decrypt."
Archaeology News : WW2 Pigeon takes secret message to the grave | Heritage Daily - Latest Archaeology News and Archaeological Press Releases : Archaeology Press Releases

 

They could have been SOE agents or Resistants too. This would explain the personalized signature which is most likely a code name. Also the SJT is most likely Sgt = Sergeant both in English and in French .
Just a guess ( as a mind twister )but Stot could be S.T.O.Tricheur = Forced Labour evader , or STO TODT. = forced laborer at Todt organisation.
"W" appears as a first letter, but if it's related to Todt then it could be short for W (Atlantic Wall) .

 

And I thought I needed my chimney cleaned. Yikes.

Pretty cool. It will be interesting to see what it says.

I have to wonder at a find like this, though, how it was discovered. You know, is it the junior chimney sweep that has to go through the rot cleaned out to see if there is anything interesting in it, like pigeon skeletons with attached WWII era coded messages, errant Santa Claus remains, etc.

(Would that be Father Christmas? Does he slide down chimneys?)

 

You do need your chimney cleaned. At least once a year... I'd be happy to go yonder and help out. Just say the word.

 

Apparently not everyone has given up!
"It was the Second World War code no one could crack – a message from 1944 found decades later attached to a dead carrier pigeon in a fireplace.
Wartime code-breaking analysts and experts from GCHQ were all left stumped.
But now a historian has come forward with the right codebook to finally reveal what it says.
The despatch, sent by 27-year-old Sergeant William Stott, identified German troop and panzer tank positions in Normandy and highlighted ‘Jerry’ headquarters and observation posts to target for attacks.
It read: ‘Hit Jerry’s right or reserve battery here.
'Troops, panzers, batteries, engineers, here.
'Counter measures against panzers not working.’
Expert Gord Young deciphered it by consulting a Royal Artillery codebook which had been kept by a relative who fought in the conflict.
Mr Young, who works at Lakefield Heritage Research in Ontario, Canada, says the message proves paratrooper Sgt Stott went behind enemy lines to help military planners direct the D-Day offensive.
Mr Young said: ‘We have been able to unravel most, but not all, of the so-called unbreakable code of the pigeon remains.
'The message is indeed breakable.’
The message was originally discovered by retired probation officer David Martin, 74, when he was renovating his home in Bletchingley, Surrey."
'Hit Jerry's panzers here'... code on dead wartime pigeon is cracked | Mail Online

 

So this would lead to a Royal Artillery unit. But why fly to England then? You'd expect a local flight from the front to the artilley positions in Normandy. Maybe the pigeon got deorientated and flew home instead of to its meant destination

 

Sounds like it has been successfully cracked. Brilliant little article.
Terrific research. Terrific little piece of detective work.
I would like to know more about this guy. Hope he drops in here.
I would like to hear more. The whole story.

BBC News - Has World War II carrier pigeon message been cracked?

 

And all of a sudden, it hasn't been cracked. Wish they would make their minds up.
"A team of Canadian researchers claimed earlier this month that the code contained details of German tank movements which had been sent by a British soldier.
However, Michael Smith, a trustee of Bletchley Park, said the claims were "nonsense". He said the Canadian academics had used a World War 1 code from the First World War as the basis of their research.
He said: "The idea that a World War 1 code would have been used during the second world war is just silly. It wouldn't have been used because it would have been well known to the Gemans and insecure.
"More to the point you don't have to take my word for it. GCHQ have looked at it. They are very good at diagnosing codes and ciphers as the people at Bletchley Park were in the war. They can be pretty specific about it.""
GCHQ dismisses claims D-Day pigeon riddle has been cracked - Telegraph

 

I have to agree with what Bletchley says. I was scratching my head a bit when I saw the story of the Canadian 'decoders' in my local newspaper -- they just seemed to be picking words that work without backing them up. Would they even have 'Panzers' in a WWI codebook?

As a side note, you've got to love the reporter who wrote that article: "a World War 1 code from the First World War"

 

So my Resistance hypothesis still stands, yoohoo!!!!

 

Aye...clearly a cub reporter!

 

Instead of a WW2 code from World war two

 

The jist of the message is this: It is to a certain German infantry in wait and the message is to the infantry apprising them to come home due to war being over.