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Birds have been message-carriers longer than humans have been recording time. Of course, their amazing success in protecting and delivering these messages led to the thought: “How can we use them to help in our petty human conflicts?”

It’s like when you’re watching Braveheart and you see a horse get speared by some Scottish guy trying to get the best of some English guy. What did the horse ever do to deserve it?

In any case, pigeons are particularly successful in long-distance message delivery — with a lot less risk involved than a battle horse. Their earliest known military use was by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. The United States Army established a pigeon service in 1917.

Here are 15 cool facts about war pigeons:

1. Pigeons were still vital in WWII

War pigeons were standard in the Great War, but the following two decades showed a lot of technological advancement. Even though WWII soldiers had the means to communicate by wire and radio, they still used pigeons to deliver vital messages. Why?

• Radio messages had the potential to be intercepted behind enemy lines
• In emergency situations, radio comm could be disabled or otherwise not possible
• Difficult terrain made certain posts unsuitable for wire or radio communication
• For fast deliverance of cross-continental news, pigeons were still the best option

2. The Normandy landings were first reported by a pigeon

Gustav the pigeon brought the first word of the Normandy landings to the British. He was a grizzle-colored cock pigeon in the RAF, known by his service number NPS.42.31066. He was trained by pigeon handler Fred Jackson and given to the National Pigeon Service for use in the war.

For his valorous delivery of the Normandy news, Gustav was awarded the Dickin Medal, also known as the animals’ Victoria Cross. 32 war pigeons were given this medal in WWII.

3. Naturally, they all had kick-ass names

Even though each pigeon was designated by their service number, many of them were also given names. A handful include: Lady Astor, Holy Ghost, Pepperhead, and Commando.

What would you name your pigeon?

4. They had an astounding 90% delivery success rate

Of the 54,000 carrier pigeons that the Army used in WWII, they got the message delivered 90% of the time. In fact, the Army didn’t even bother coding their messages because they were so reliable. Around 1% of pigeon-carried messages were coded.

5. Pigeons were paratroopers, too

Sometimes dropped in special containers with their own parachutes, and sometimes strapped to the chests of Army paratroopers, war pigeons were especially useful in airborne operations.

The main reason for airborne missions was to quickly and efficiently drop behind enemy lines, which made achieving the objective that much easier. Pigeons were also quick and dependable; if everything went wrong and all else failed, at least word of the failure and potentially useful information could be returned home.

The birds were fastened to soldiers’ chests by a special vest that could be moved to their backs once they landed. It looked a lot like a sling and was actually made by a bra company. One paratrooper pigeon named Thunderbird made 10 jumps; he received a pair of miniature wings from Ft. Benning after his service.

6. 1941 headlines read: “Cheer Up, Men, Birds Also May Be Drafted”

News stories like this spread across the nation and raised morale among troops. The Army was buying civilian-trained pigeons for $5 a pop, and also taking them on loan or donation. Additionally, they were recruiting special soldiers as pigeon masters to handle the birds.

After they’d built up a solid base of carrier pigeons, the Army started their own breeding program for the strongest birds possible.

7. WWII pigeons could fly triple the distance of WWI birds

The Army’s breeding program was successful in that its birds were much more fit for combat. The average pigeon in World War I could fly only 200 miles at a time; the average World War II pigeon could easily manage 400, and sometimes 600 miles.

They also flew faster. They could reach up to 60 miles an hour, though they averaged 35 to 40 on longer flights. What’s more – on these long flights it was typical for a pigeon to lose one-fifth of its body weight. This is why the Army used younger, more fit birds, around one to four years old.

Fun fact: pigeons can live up to 15 years! They are smart and generally healthy birds with only one known predator, the coastal peregrine falcon. In urban populations, however, it is much more common for them to die after 3-5 years.

8. A war pigeon could be deployed at a mere 8 weeks old

The training process is simple, and goes as follows:

• At 4 weeks old, the chick is taken from its nest and placed in a mobile loft
• The loft is moved daily, and the bird is allowed to fly three times a day to regain its bearings
• By week 8 the pigeon can fly for 60 miles, and knows its surroundings perfectly

From there, it is trained to fly farther and faster, and can reliably be used as a messenger.

9. Carrier pigeons’ greatest motivator? Sex

Handlers tried just about everything to make a pigeon’s flight faster. The first trick in the book was to withhold food. A hungry pigeon will fly faster in order to eat. Pretty basic stuff.

However, one fascinating motivator for war pigeons was their mating instincts. Pigeons tend to mate for life – although there are exceptions – and male pigeons especially are jealous little birds.

A handler would spark this jealousy by introducing a new male to the loft right before the mated male left on his flight. In turn, the mated male would perform his task much quicker than before, to ensure that his lady didn’t have time for any funny business.

10. They directly saved pilot lives

This fascinating statistic was released by the RAF during the war: one of every seven crewman who survived a flight failure owed his life to a carrier pigeon. This led to the United States placing war pigeons on pretty much every American bomber.

The really neat things about pigeons on bombers was that they needed no special flight equipment. The average man at 20,000 feet had to wear an oxygen mask and a heated suit to withstand the altitude. Pigeons, however, could function perfectly normal, even at 35,000 feet.

Even though the Army had designed special drop boxes for pigeons, it was discovered that they could be released from planes in thin, paper-like bags and survive just the same. A slit was cut into a bag, the pigeon placed headfirst, and then thrown from high altitudes at 375 miles per hour. The bird would emerge from the bag and fly down to a better altitude before returning home.

11. How do the pigeons always find their way home?

It’s a bit of a mystery to us useless humans how a bird can magically know its way home from almost anywhere on earth. So how do they do it?

Through research using artificial lighting, it was discovered that pigeons do in fact use the sun’s position to direct themselves. On overcast days, however, they are able to tune in to the earth’s electro-magnetic fields for orientation.

“The brain cells signal the direction, intensity, and polarity of the earth’s magnetic field,” says J. David Dickman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “These signals could be used like a GPS.”

Scientists still don’t know exactly how their brains are capable of this.

12. Main causes of death were bomb shrapnel and friendly fire

While they were sometimes victims of enemy shootings, carrier birds were often killed by errant bombs or even the very men who sent them.

One pigeon – named Blackie Harrington – was assigned to the Catcher’s Mitt on Guadalcanal. It was called this due to the many bombs that fell there. Blackie was fitted with a message detailing information on 300 Japanese troops, but on his delivery route he was hit by bomb shrapnel, and spiralled into a thicket.

Suffering terrible wounds to his neck and chest, Blackie somehow regained flight and delivered his message successfully. When a soldier tried to give him water, it dribbled from his throat and out of his chest wound. Quick medical attention miraculously saved his life, and he was retired to breed with his mate Madame Murphy.

13. POW pigeons were a thing

Certain German and Japanese troops were issued shotguns just so they could shoot down American birds. Others decided to capture them.

In 1944, Lucia di Lammermoor the pigeon was delayed in flight. When she returned to her post, she carried a new message: “To the American Troops: Herewith we return a pigeon to you. We have enough to eat. —The German Troops.”

14. This celebrated pigeon saved an entire brigade

The situation was dire. An aerial bombing attack had been ordered on Calvi Vecchia, Italy, which was occupied by German troops. However, at the last minute, the German troops retreated and the British 56th Infantry Brigade moved in on the town.

American troops desperately tried to call off the attack, but any radio attempts failed to go through. In a last ditch effort, they sent the carrier pigeon GI Joe.

Joe amazingly covered 20 miles in a mere 20 minutes, reaching the Allied Support Command in the nick of time. As one soldier recalled, five minutes later would have been too late. GI Joe was awarded the Dickin Medal — the only American pigeon to achieve it.

15. War pigeons are overlooked heroes

Much like the many dogs who saved American lives, war pigeons are overlooked veterans who very well could have won the war. We see them in city streets and think of them as trash birds who are dumber than doorknobs, when in fact, their ancestors delivered some of the most important messages in American history.

For more, read about the canine veteran Sgt. Stubby, and what he did to achieve his rank.

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Homing 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^{[citation needed][clarification needed]}.

During World War I and World War II, 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 or she 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[edit]

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, Julius Caesar used pigeons to send messages to the territory of Gaul.^[4]

During the 19th-century (1870–71) Franco-Prussian War, besieged Parisians used carrier pigeons to transmit messages outside the city; in response, the besieging Prussian Army employed hawks to hunt the pigeons.^[3] The French military used balloons to transport homing pigeons past enemy lines.^[5]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 traveled this way during the four-month siege. They were then discovered to be very useful, and carrier pigeons were well considered in military theory leading up to World War I.

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World War I[edit]

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 ArmySignal 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'.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[9] The pigeons never went to sea again.^[8]

World War II and later deployments[edit]

During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons for many purposes, including communicating with those behind enemy lines such as Belgian spy Jozef Raskin. 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. During the war, messenger pigeons could draw a special allowance of corn and seed, but as soon as the war ended this had been cancelled and anyone keeping pigeons would have to draw on their own personal rationed corn and seed to also feed the pigeons.^[10] 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.^{[clarification needed]} The Swiss army disbanded its Pigeon section in 1996.^[11]

• A member of the crew of an RAF Coastal CommandLockheed Hudson holding a carrier pigeon, 1942

• 'William of Orange' that served in the military World War II

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

• War Pigeon Carrier at the History on Wheels Museum, Eton Wick, Windsor, UK. The pigeon would be released from this carrying important messages back home.

Twenty-first century[edit]

In 2010, Indian police expressed suspicion that a recently captured pigeon from Pakistan might have been carrying a message from Pakistan.^[12] In 2015 a pigeon from Pakistan was logged into Indian records as a 'suspected spy'.^[13] In May 2020 another Pakistani spy pigeon was captured by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.^[14] After finding nothing suspicious, India authorities released the pigeon back into Pakistan.^[15]

In 2016, a Jordanian border official said at a news conference that Islamic State militants were using homing pigeons to deliver messages to operatives outside of its 'so-called caliphate'.^[16]

Decorated war pigeons[edit]

In total, 32 pigeons were decorated with the Dickin Medal^[17] including:^[18]

• 'Winkie' (1943)
• 'Commando' (1944)
• 'Paddy' (1944)
• 'William of Orange' (1944)
• Mary of Exeter (1945)
• 'G.I. Joe' (1946)
• Gustav (1944)
• Beach Comber (1944)

See also[edit]

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• Olga of Kiev, used pigeons and sparrows to set fire to villages in the 10th century
• Beach House Park, Worthing: site of a memorial to war pigeons

References[edit]

1. ^'PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC', Pigeons — Roll of Honour'. PDSA. Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
2. ^'Cher Ami – The Carrier Pigeon who saved 200 men'. HomeOfHeroes.com.
3. ^ ^ab'Carrier pigeons still serve; Even in modern war they do messenger duty', The New York Times. April 12, 1936. p. SM26.
4. ^Levi, Wendell (1977). The Pigeon. Sumter, South Carolina: Levi Publishing Co, Inc. ISBN0-85390-013-2.
5. ^Cleaver, Hylton (June 1951). 'They've earned their corn'. Men Only: 101.
6. ^Jim Greelis. 'Pigeons in Military History'. World of Wings. Archived from the original on 2007-08-25. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
7. ^Van Wyen, Adrian O. (1969). Naval Aviation in World War I. Washington, D.C.: Chief of Naval Operations. p. 30.
8. ^ ^abTate, Jackson R, RADM USN (October 1978). 'We Rode the Covered Wagon'. United States Naval Institute Proceedings: 65.
9. ^Pride, A.M. VADM USN (January 1979). 'Comment and Discussion'. United States Naval Institute Proceedings: 89.
10. ^Cleaver, Hylton (June 1951). 'They've earned their corn'. Men Only: 100.
11. ^'Auflösung des Brieftaubendienstes abgeschlossen'. Admin.ch. July 2, 1996. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
12. ^Express / AFP (May 28, 2010). 'Fowl play: alleged spy pigeon held in India'. Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
13. ^'Pakistanis respond after 'spy pigeon' detained in India'. BBC News. 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
14. ^'Suspected 'spy' pigeon from Pakistan carrying 'coded message' captured in Jammu and Kashmir'. Hindustan Times. 2020-05-26. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
15. ^'India returns alleged spy bird to Pakistan'. DW.COM. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
16. ^'Jordanian military official says ISIS using homing pigeons to carry messages'. Fox News Channel. Foxnews.com. May 6, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
17. ^Flying heroes: The true story, PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC'
18. ^'PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC''. PDSA. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2011.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)

External links[edit]

• 'UK Mulled Using Birds for Bio-War After WW2 - Files' Reuters (May 21, 2004)

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