War pigeon

British WW1 poster regarding the killing of war pigeons being an offence under Regulation 21A of the Defence of the Realm Act

Pigeons have long played an important role in war. Due to their homing ability, speed, and altitude, they were often used as military messengers. Carrier pigeons of the Racing Homer breed were used to carry messages in World War I and World War II, and 32 such pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal.^[1] They ceased being used as of 1957.

During the First and Second World Wars, carrier pigeons were used to transport messages back to their home coop behind the lines. When they landed, wires in the coop would sound a bell or buzzer and a soldier of the Signal Corps would know a message had arrived. He would go to the coop, remove the message from the canister, and send it to its destination by telegraph, field phone, or personal messenger.

A carrier pigeon's job was dangerous. Nearby enemy soldiers often tried to shoot down pigeons, knowing that released birds were carrying important messages. Some of these pigeons became quite famous among the infantrymen they worked for. One pigeon, named "The Mocker," flew 52 missions before he was wounded. Another, named "Cher Ami," lost her foot and one eye, but her message got through, saving a large group of surrounded American infantrymen.^[2]

History

Before the advent of radio, carrier pigeons were frequently used on the battlefield as a means for a mobile force to communicate with a stationary headquarters. In the 6th century BC, Cyrus, king of Persia, used carrier pigeons to communicate with various parts of his empire.^[3] In Ancient Rome, within many texts, there are references to pigeons being used to send messages by Julius Caesar .

During the 19th-century (1870-71) Franco-Prussian War, besieged Parisians used carrier pigeons to transmit messages outside the city; in response, the besieging German Army employed hawks to hunt the pigeons.^[3] The French military used balloons to transport homing pigeons past enemy lines. Microfilm images containing hundreds of messages allowed letters to be carried into Paris by pigeon from as far away as London. More than one million different messages travelled this way during the four-month siege. They were then discovered to be very useful so were used in World War One.

World War I

Dispatching of a message by carrier pigeon within the Swiss Army during the World War I

Homing pigeons were used extensively during World War I. In 1914 during the First Battle of the Marne, the French army advanced 72 pigeon lofts with the troops.

The US Army Signal Corps used 600 pigeons in France alone.

One of their homing pigeons, a Blue Check hen named Cher Ami, was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre with Palm" for heroic service delivering 12 important messages during the Battle of Verdun. On her final mission in October 1918, she delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast or wing. The crucial message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of her shattered leg, saved 194 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division's "Lost Battalion".

German unmanned camera pigeon (probably aerial reconnaissance in World War I)

United States Navy aviators maintained 12 pigeon stations in France with a total inventory of 1,508 pigeons when the war ended. Pigeons were carried in airplanes to rapidly return messages to these stations; and 829 birds flew in 10,995 wartime aircraft patrols. Airmen of the 230 patrols with messages entrusted to pigeons threw the message-carrying pigeon either up or down, depending on the type of aircraft, to keep the pigeon out of the propeller and away from airflow toward the aircraft wings and struts. Eleven of the thrown pigeons went missing in action, but the remaining 219 messages were delivered successfully.^[4]

Leg canister for a war pigeon, U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War I. 1 x 2.9 cm, 1.7 gm

Pigeons were considered an essential element of naval aviation communication when the first United States aircraft carrier USS Langley was commissioned on 20 March 1922; so the ship included a pigeon house on the stern.^[5] The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while Langley was undergoing conversion. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while Langley was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard.^[6] The pigeons never went to sea again.^[5]

World War II and later

During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons. The Dickin Medal, the highest possible decoration for valor given to animals, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.

The UK maintained the Air Ministry Pigeon Section during World War II and for a while thereafter. A Pigeon Policy Committee made decisions about the uses of pigeons in military contexts. The head of the section, Lea Rayner, reported in 1945 that pigeons could be trained to deliver small explosives or bioweapons to precise targets. The ideas were not taken up by the committee, and in 1948 the UK military stated that pigeons were of no further use. However, the UK security service MI5 was still concerned about the use of pigeons by enemy forces. Until 1950, they arranged for 100 birds to be maintained by a civilian pigeon fancier in order to prepare countermeasures. The Swiss army disbanded its Pigeon section in 1996.^[7]

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  A member of the crew of an RAF Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson holding a carrier pigeon, 1942

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  "William of Orange" that served in the military World War II

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  Left: Swiss homing pigeon service sergeant major, Women's Military Service, uniform of 1986

21st Century

Between 2009 and 2015, many pigeons have been reported to carry cell phones, SIM cards, phone batteries and USB cords into prisons on the Brazilian state of São Paulo.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

In 2010, Indian police expressed suspicion that a recently captured pigeon from Pakistan might have been carrying a message from Pakistan.^[13]

Decorated war pigeons

In total, 32 pigeons were decorated with the Dickin Medal^[14] including:^[15]

• "Commando" (1944)
• "Paddy" (1944)
• "William of Orange" (1944)
• Mary of Exeter (1945)
• "G.I. Joe" (1946)
• Gustav (1944)

Popular culture

• Yankee Doodle Pigeon was an American homing pigeon in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
• The 2005 British animated movie Valiant followed a unit of homing pigeons during World War II and their efforts to evade German falcons.
• The second episode of the BBC series Blackadder Goes Forth revolves around Captain Blackadder killing and eating a carrier pigeon belonging to General Melchett, only to be court-martialed and brought before a firing squad for the offence.
• In the video game Team Fortress 2, the Medic is shown to keep several doves in his quarters; these birds cannot be used in gameplay, but they are seen occasionally in one of the Medic's taunts.

See also

• Homing pigeon
• Pigeon post
• Olga of Kiev, used pigeons and sparrows to set fire to villages in the 10th century
• Jean Desbouvrie
• Military animals
• Pigeon intelligence
• Pigeon photography
• Project Pigeon
• Beach House Park, Worthing: site of a memorial to war pigeons

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to War pigeons.

• fbipigeons.com
• Smithsonian page on Cher Ami, a decorated World War I pigeon
• History of the 77th
• Pigeons and WWI
• "UK Mulled Using Birds for Bio-War After WW2 - Files" Reuters (May 21, 2004)