THE truth over the death of a duck-billed platypus sent to Winston Churchill as a wartime gift has finally been uncovered.
Researchers found the baby monotreme cooked to death on its long journey to Britain from Australia.
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Its fate was covered up to avoid a public outcry and when it leaked a few years later was blamed on shock from German U-boat attacks on the ship on which it was carried.
The truth was uncovered by students who found the ship was never bombed — and the platypus succumbed to the 27C-plus heat as it crossed the equator.
Researcher Ewan Cowan said: “It’s way easier to just shift the blame on the Germans, rather than say we weren’t feeding it enough, or we weren’t regulating its temperature correctly.”
Australia, fearing the Japanese were moving ever closer, sent the platypus to curry favour with wartime PM Churchill in 1943.
It was plucked from a Melbourne river, nicknamed Winston and shipped off on a 45-day voyage, pampered with 50,000 worms, duck-egg custard and even its own full-time minder.
But after crossing the Panama Canal into the Atlantic, it was found dead in its purpose-built pen.
The mission was hushed up while Winston was stuffed and shelved in Churchill’s office.
But Australian students got to the truth by trawling archives in Canberra and London.
They found an interview with Winston’s minder, who insisted the crossing was peaceful.
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