二次大戰盟軍軍用信鴿連同秘密訊息被發現

Last month the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

第二次世界大戦の連合軍によるノルマンディー上陸作戦（１９４４年６月）の際、ナチス・ドイツ占領下のフランスから放たれたとみられる英空軍の軍鳩（ぐんきゅう）（伝書バト）の骸骨が英国の民家で見つかった。ハトには暗号が付けられ、英国立暗号センターで６８年ぶりの解読作業が始まった。

　英南部ブレッチングリーに住むデビッド・マーチンさん（７４）宅で、改築のため暖炉を壊そうとしたところ、煙突内側から見つかった。脚に小さな赤いカプセルが付けられ、中の薄紙に通信文（暗号）が書かれてあった。

　差出人は「Ｗ・Ｓｔｏｔ」で英空軍所属の軍曹。宛先は「ＸＯ２」とあり爆弾司令部を意味するという。暗号は計２７の文字列で構成されている。英メディアによると、仏ノルマンディー地方から英バッキンガムシャーの暗号センターに向け放たれたハトが、気象条件など何らかの事情で疲れて煙突に入った可能性が高いという。

　英王立伝書バトレース協会によると、軍鳩骸骨から約３０の通信文が見つかっているが暗号通信文の発見は初めて。極秘情報だった可能性が高いといい、早くも爆撃を依頼する内容だったのではなどの観測が飛んでいる。

　英軍は当時、通信用に約２５万羽の軍鳩を使っていた。軍鳩は約１１００キロ先までの飛行が可能という。仏ノルマンディー地方からマーチンさん宅までは約１５０キロ。そこから暗号センターまでは約１３０キロだった.

(試譯文)

The skeleton of an army pigeon belonged to the English Air Force was found in a private house in Britain; it was thought to have been released by the Allied Forces out of France during the Nazi Germany occupation at the time of the Normandy landing operations (June, 1944) of World War II. Codes were attached to the pigeon and decipher works started in the British Code Processing Center for the first time in 68 years.

David Martin Mr. (74) lived in his house at the southern part of Blethingley in England. When he tried to demolish a fireplace for reconstruction, he found the pigeon inside the chimney. A small red capsule was attached to its leg and inside there was a thin paper written with correspondence (code).

The sender was a staff sergeant belonged to the English Air Force at "W-Stot". It was said that the delivery address was "XO2" and it meant the bomb headquarters. The code consisted of a string of 27 characters in total. The English media said that there was a high possibility that the pigeon was released out of the French Normandy district towards English’s code processing center at Buckinghamshire, but got tired due to some situations, such as a climate condition, and went into the chimney.

According to the English Royal Carrier Pigeon Racing Association, although so far about 30 correspondents had been found from the army pigeon skeletons, it was the first time to discover an encrypted communication document. There was a high possibility that the content was a top secret information; and the contend being flown could be some observations that were needed to guide early bombing etc.  

The English army used about 250,000 numbers of army pigeons for communication in those days. It was said that army pigeons could fly up to to about 1100-km. It was about 150 km from French Normandy district to Mr. Martin’s house, and about 130 km to the code processing center.

It is an interesting discovery and may help historians to study the WWII history.