Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
WWII pigeon message stumps GCHQ decoders
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Recently a dead pigeon was found in an English chimney which contained a secret message dating back to WWII!
WWII pigeon message stumps GCHQ decoders
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20456782 -
What a brilliant story. Thanks.
I can’t help thinking of the episode: Corporal Punishment, Blackadder goes Forth.
It is an excellent comedy series and set in WW1. Captain Blackadder, the main character, shoots a “plump breasted pigeon” with his revolver and eats it.
It turns out to be the General’s favourite bird and Blackadder is sentenced to death in a farcical court scene.
Not sure if you know of the series; it features Rowan Atkinson and is one of my favourite comedies. -
A couple of items of WWI homing pigeon trivia:
The pigeon “Cher Ami” was awarded the French Croix de Guerre Medal with a palm Oak Leaf Cluster for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages in Verdun, despite having been very badly injured.
During the siege of Fort Vaux (the second fort to fall in the Battle of Verdun), one of its commanders, Major Sylvain-Eugene Raynal, sent several messages to his commanding officers via homing pigeons. His final message carried the phrase “This is my last pigeon.”
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Test summary from TripleA, engine version: 1.6.1.4, time: 15:48:04
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Can you move your Triple A test post to software or play games area please?
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