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The Great Messengers of War


jimmy white
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all r,a,f  bombers and reconnaissance aircraft carried pigeons,and, if the aircraft had to ditch,,the planes co-ordinanates,   were sent back with the pigeon, to its r a f base and rescue operation was effected   thousands of servicemen's lives were saved by these birds that often flew in extreme circumstances , thus enabling us to be hear today,,,,yes we have a lot to thank these soldiers and these gallant pigeons for  :)

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another of these fantastic dicken medal winners was simply,",pigeon nurp 38 bpc 6."

date of award   aug 1946

" for three outstanding flights from france while serving with the special section pigeon service  i,e,  11th july 1941 ,,,    9th sep 1941 ,,and 29 nov 1941,,,,,

,,,,just one other of these true" champions" :)

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at the outbreak of world war 2 ,,,,thousands of British  of pigeon fanciers  gave their pigeons to the war effort [THIS MUST NEVER BE FORGOTTEN] to act as message carriers. during the period of the war nearly quarter of a million birds were used by the army, the r.a.f. and the civil defence services,including the police, the fire service, home guard and even bletchley park. pigeon racing was stopped,,, and  BIRDS OF PREY, ALONG THE COASTS OF BRITTAIN , WERE CULLED, so that British pigeons could arrive home unhindered  BY THESE PREDETORS, there was  tight controls on the keeping of pigeons and even rationing for pigeon corn ,,

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THE DICKEN MEDAL,,WAS AWARDED  FOR ANY ANIMAL DISPLAYING  CONSPICUOUS GALLENTRY AND DEVOTION TO THEIR DUTY, DURING WORLD WAR 2 , AND ITS AFTERMATH ,,,,,,,,,OF THE 53 DICKEN MEDALS PRESENTED 32WENT TO PIGEONS.

 

THE FOUNDER OF THE P.D.S.A  " PEOPLES DISPENSARY FOR SICK ANIMALS"   MRS MARIA DICKEN , INSTITUTED THE AWARD, POPULARLY REFFERED TO ,AS THE ANIMAL  V.C. AND WAS MADE ONLY UPON  OFFICIAL  RECOMENDATION , AND WAS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

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  • 3 months later...

Dr William Anderson, Armadale, Scotland, writing in 1947 chose to start his book 'The sport of pigeon racing' thus:-

 

"During the recent World War, racing pigeons, in spite of the development of wireless communication, were more widely used than in the 1914-18 war and public interest ws stimulated by reports of flights and rescues as a result of their use by the Air Force and other Services.

 

Pigeons were used after the fall of France in 1940 to send information in both directions. There was less risk of leakage than by wireless. The birds were carried in special small parachutes and were dropped by planes at arranged locations over enemy-occupied territory. They could then be used to carry messages and to return with messages from our agents abroad.

 

There was no novelty in this , because a similar service had been used during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War and even before that at the battle of Waterloo when the historic message of victory was conveyed to London in a similar fashion.

 

One of the earliest records of the use of pigeons for message carrying is by Pliny, the Roman historian, who mentions their use at the seige of Modena in 42 BC [2049 years ago!]. They are also mentioned by Virgil and were used in the Punic Wars [Carthage -vs- Rome, Hannibal and Alps and elephants etc]. Later they were used at the seige of Leyden in 1574 during the Dutch War of Independence.    "

 

Seems they have all been unsung heroes for a long, long time, with spotlight falling perhaps unfairly, only on the famous few.

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For a ball of feathers the racing pigeon must be one of the resilient creatures on this Earth outwith the war how many times have we had birds ripped to shreds  for one reason or another home to their lofts in terrible physical condition and defy all the odds to fly again. Years ago I read of one bird that was in Africa with a famous General who set the bird off home with the news of a victory the bird was found dead a few miles from its loft after covering an amazing distance (BHW Diary)  

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  • 1 month later...

some of britain,s most unlikely warr heroes will finally be honoured this week [on line times 7th jan 2008] when a collection of oil paintings of pigeons  will be sold on auction.

 

jack lovel, a pigeon breeder, assembled a crack squad of birds which were used by the brittish secret service to carry messages eo and from enemy lines , during the second world war.

 

he was so attached to them , that he collected a serious of portraits by french and brittish artists to celebrate their wartime role, which will be sold at bonhams on 15th jan.

 

lovell was approached by mi5 in 1939 to supply his best birds for active duty. they were based at four secret lofts near dover, called" xx"  lofts , where they were trained to form a unit called m114.

 

from there the birds were parachuted behind enemy lines from bombers to return messages from resistence fighters for decoding at bletchly park.

 

some even acted as" double agents", wearing leg tags found on captured german birds, infiltrating nazi lofts and then, when used by the germans. carrying the intercepted messages back to brittish lofts.

 

the pigeons were credited with some important missions . dodging bullets and falcons deployed by the germans to intercept  them. they brought back film of v1 flying bombs being built in german factories, as well as information on the    d-day landings.  they also returned with some of the first pictures of concentration camps.

 

the 8  works on sale are by j. baldus, the french painter, and edward henry winfred, the brittish artist, portrayingchampion pigeons owned by jule janssen, a famous breeder, they are expected to sell around £700 each. the subjects of the paintings are not the original "war" birds , but may be their close decendants.

 

" some people think of  pigeons and call them rats with wings" said lovell , who now lives in cheam, surrey " i couldnt talk about what my pigeons were doing until recently because of the official secrets act, but it is important that people realise the role the birds played in winning the world wars by bringing back secret information"

 

lovell was asked to supply pigeons for the" house of commons pigeon service".for the secret project,  he was told to transport birds in cardboard boxes instead of baskets , and , to use only st james,s park underground station in london .

 

animals, particularly pigeons, have a long history as messengers in wartime. they were used to relay the news to rome of caesar,s conquest of gaul, as well as napoleon,s defeat at waterloo.during the second world war more than  250,000 pigeons were used to relay information, and every r a f carrier flight left brittain with two birds on board , which the crew could release to give their location if the plane came down.

 

a total of 32 pigeons , later were awarded the dicken medal - the animal version of the victoria cross.

  

one of the first pigeons to be honoured was winkie [a scottish bred bird] who saved the lives of four r. a. f. airmen by flying 140 miles , through the night, covered in oil, to raise the alarm after the airmens  bomber was forced to ditch in the north sea  from a mission in europe.    [see "winkie" in dickin medal winners ]

 

another wonderfull message to all,fanciers and public alike,  about these wonderfull birds , who saved so many lives,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,we should never forget that ,,,jimmy

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  • 4 months later...
Guest challengerlofts
Brave birds aren't they and people have the neck to call them flying rats

 

I agree a million times with you, sir.

 

They're not only brave birds. But, also great hero birds.  :)

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Guest challengerlofts
infantrymen are trained to fight on the ground artillerymen are responsible for the big guns, armor refers to men who fight in tanks , and the air force for a group of soldiers who fought in the air, during world war 1 one of the oldest groups of soldiers was the members of the  U,S ARMY SIGNAL CORPS,since the birth of our nation, it was these men that were responsible for insuring that messages between all units [including messages to other branches like the navy and marines ] got through, the army signal corps identifies itself by a torch with two crossed flags, these reprisent SIGNAL FLAGS], a common way that messages were passed using code.

when the u,s, entered world war 1 in 19 17 , the army signal corpswere given 600 PIGEONSfor the purpose of passing messages when it couldnt be done by signal flag or feild phone. THE PIGEONS WERE DONATED BY PIGEON BREEDERS IN GREAT BRITTAIN, then trained for their jobs by american soldiers.

 

during the meuse-argonne offensive, the 2 month battle that finally ended world war 1 ,,,,,442 PIGEONS were used in the area of verdun, to carry hundreds of messages ,this is how the system worked;

 

when a commander in the feild needed to send a message, he first wrote the message out on paper, trying to be both breif and yet as detailed as possible, then he called for one of signal corps officers, who would bring one of the PIGEONS that went with the soldiers in battle, the message would be put in the capsule on the birds leg, and the bird would be tossed high in the air to fly home,

the carrier pigeon would fly back to his base ,behind the enemy lines . when landed, the wires in the coop would sound a bell or buzzer, and another soldier of the signal corp would remove the message ,from the cannister and then send a telegraph. feild phone or personal messenger, to the right persons .

 

carrier pigeons did a most important job. it was also very dangerous. if the enemy soldiers were nearby when a pigeon was released ,they tried to shoot the pigeon down,so the message couldnt be delivered.

 

some of these pigeons became very famous [as mentioned in all previous posts] one pigeon, known as the mocker flew 52 missions before he was wounded, another was named president wilson ,,,,,,he was injured in the last week of the war, and it seemed impossible for him to reach his destination.though he lost his foot , the message still got through to save a large group of surrounded american infantrymen,,,,,,,,,,,,the pigeon keepers of today are still keeping and racing the relatives of all these brave birds ,that saved litterally thousands of lives ,,,,,just think about it ,quite amazing ,,,,,,jimmy white

 

hi jimmy,

i'ts manny from warrington, originally from the Philippines. i'm a newbie on this website & still learning from the masters.

 

watta amazing story about .'The Great Messengers of War'  . These messenger birds, must never be forgotten.

 

Could you please give me the author & shop, where i could purchase these 'The Great Messengers of War' book.

 

Thank you for sharing this story. regards  :)

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

 

hi jimmy,

i'ts manny from warrington, originally from the Philippines. i'm a newbie on this website & still learning from the masters.

 

watta amazing story about .'The Great Messengers of War'  . These messenger birds, must never be forgotten.

 

Could you please give me the author & shop, where i could purchase these 'The Great Messengers of War' book.

 

Thank you for sharing this story. regards  :)

 

 

so sorry to have just seen your post,, im afraid i dont know if theres a book as such, [maybe someone could advise] this was merely made up of collected info and put together myself,, but really some great true stories,,,

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for the younger generation , of to-day :)

 

disneys" valient" which was released on dvd, tells the story of pigeons, who helped the brittish war effort, in world war 2 .

"pigeons" you say, for all its flightiness, is a story thats based on  FACT.  hundreds  of thousands of pigeons have been used to carry messages back and forth during wartime,, called homing pigeons.   these pigeons have the uncanny ability to fly home,no matter where they are. the birds would be taken along into battle; if the troops needed help or wanted to relay information, they would put a note into a tiny canister attached to the birds leg, the birds would then fly home and , if all went well,, they would make it back to their homes, with the message.

  

who knew pigeons were so useful?   the truth is , animals of all kinds have been given assignments and responsibilities in war . dogs, horses and other animals have,  and often still are,used to carry supplies, find weapons and detect danger.

 

in 1943, a british woman named maria dicken decided these animals and especially pigeons, should be rewarded for their acts of bravery and valor during wartime.   a true animal lover, maria dicken, had started the p.d.s.a. ,, "the peoples dispensary for sick animals"   giving medical care to animals  free of charge, and since the 1940,s  28 animals[24 dogs, 3 horses and one cat]  and 32 pigeons [the highest of all]  have been given the DICKEN MEDAL, this is a bronze medal for valor [equal to the victoria cross  in humans] it reads " FOR GALLANTRY , WE ALSO SERVE"

 

in the past posts are the pigeons that won this medal, and  who saved many  lives and helped their fellow fighters during wartime ,

 

it could be said if it were not for these gallant pigeons, you or i , might not even be here to-day.

 

this must never be forgotten.  

 

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again for the younger members,

 

in world war 2,  only about 1 in 8 pigeons survived its assigned  mission, after all, they were un-protected birds flying through extremely difficult war zones .  enemy troops were shooting at these birds, and they had to avoid the hawks, that the enemy had trained to kill them, plus they had to travel , long distances, often under fire and in shocking bad weather.

 

a pigeon [mentioned before in these posts ] was " WINKIE" a scottish pigeon was the first bird to receive the  "DICKEN MEDAL",,,,In 19 43 , a british bomber made a crash landing over open waters , into the north sea, in february 1942.  during the crash, WINKIE,S crate was damaged, and she escaped; the men on board assumed she was gone for good.  but WINKIE flew the 129 miles , over rough seas, back to her home on the east coast of scotland,, the weather was so bad and the sea so rough, she took 16 hours to struggle home, and when she arrived ,,,,,,,,she didnt have a message to deliver,,,,,,,,,but,,, her handler, could tell how far and  fast she had probably flown, and after a few estimations, and calculations, a rescue team set out over the rough  north sea, to find the missing men,, thanks to WINKIE , the mens lives were saved   , although WINKIE was the first pigeon to win this medal, there was a further 31 pigeons to win this medal ,

 

each and every one has  a story to tell,,altogether,  saving thousands of lives ,,,,,,,,, maybe just   ONE of these lives was  a relation to you, therefore if WINKIE and his fellow messenger war pigeons, hadnt saved these lives,,,,,,,, YOU,   might not have been here to-day,, ,, god bless these gallant birds and the soldiers who fought for us

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  • 1 month later...

in some of the back posts on this thread you will read of the war pigeon " paddy" and the great feat that won it the "dicken medal"

  

the trainer of " paddy" john mullen sadly passed away on the 23 october 2009 at the age of 88 years old.  

                          

        

 

although suffering from cancer , and  very ill,   a few days before he passed away, john mullen managed to unvail a plaque in remembrance of this bird,

 

may we remember john mullen for  his deeds and actions , right up to his last few days,

                          

                         rest in peace john mullen

 

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