I’d assumed, due to technological advances in communication, that war pigeons did not serve in great numbers after the First World War. But today, this encrypted message has stumped the world’s best cryptologists, and the pigeon’s message remains a secret.ĭid you know that homing pigeons played an important role in World War II? I must admit, I knew little-prior to conducting research for this book-about pigeon fanciers or the heroism of their war pigeons. In fact, the GCHQ has stated, “Although it is disappointing that we cannot yet read the message brought back by a brave carrier pigeon, it is a tribute to the skills of the wartime code-makers that, despite working under severe pressure, they devised a code that was undecipherable both then and now.” I find it intriguing that British codebreakers, during World War II, cracked the Nazi Enigma machine and turned the tide of the war. Attached to the pigeon’s leg was an encrypted message, one that has yet to be decrypted by code breakers around the world, including Britain’s Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ). While conducting research for this book, I became captivated by a 2012 British news report about the skeletal remains of a war pigeon that was found in a Surrey chimney, decades after the war.

The Long Flight Home was inspired by Britain’s darkest days of World War II, and one remarkable discovery-made many years after the war-which remains a mystery. Will Duchess's devotion and sense of duty become an unexpected lifeline, and prove that hope is never truly lost?.I’ve always been fascinated by true, yet little-know historical events. When Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know that the chances of a reunion are very remote. As the mission date draws near, the friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens. The mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France, where many will not survive. His quest brings him to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. Duchess has proven to be the most extraordinary of all Susan's birds, as the two share a special bond and an unusual curiosity about the world. After losing her parents as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons.

Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around Epping Forest, the home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. It is September 1940, and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion.

The long flight home book review