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The Great Messengers of War


jimmy white
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Cher ami is one of the most famous first world war pigeons

 

Cher Ami (French for "Dear Friend" [male]) was a famous homing pigeon who was owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I. He helped save the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division in the battle of the Argonne, October 1918. In his last mission, he delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast. The bird was awarded the Croix de Guerre, for heroic service delivering 12 important messages in Verdun.

 

He is enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution, and is currently on display in the National Museum of American History's "Price of Freedom" exhibit.

 

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again in the first world war we had these hroic birds,brief details on three of them were,

 

THE MOCKER, born in 1917, he was wounded on his 52cnd mission,,he lost his left eye, and part of his cranium, the mocker died at 20 years old on june 15th 1937.

 

PRESIDENT WISON, was injured and lost his foot on nov 5th 1918, it seemed an impossible task that the bird reached its destination, but saved the lives of 100,s of american infantrymen,,,wison died june 8th 1929 at ii years of age.

 

SPIKE. was born jan 1918,he flew 50 missions and was never injured, spike died on april 11th 1935 at 17 years of age

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PART OF THE RAF COASTAL COMMAND OPERATED FROM THE SHETLAND ISLES, USING CATALINAS TO PATROL THE NORTHERN SEA ROUTES LOOKING FOR U BOATS RETURNING TO GERMANY. THE CREWS USED TO GO OUTON 22 HOUR MISSIONS, SEARCHING FOR , IF POSSIBLE, SINKING ANY  U   BOATS. AS EACH PLANE WAS READY TO LEAVE THE CREW COLLECTED 2  PIGEONS, FROM THE LOFTS, JUST AS A FAIL-SAFE IN CASE THE RADIOS PACKED UP OR ANY OTHER EMERGENCIES AROSE. IN OCT 1942, "TED SOUTHERN" WAS ASKED TO SUSTITUTE FOR ANOTHER CREW MEMBER ON A MISSION, SO HE WAS NOT FLYING WITH HIS OWN CREW, WHICH WAS ALWAYS A LITTLE UNSETTLING. TOWARDS THE END OF THE FLIGHT, THE WEATHER TURNED REALLY NASTY WITH , GALES , AND FOG, SO THE CATALINA WAS NOT ALLOWED TO LAND AT SULLOM VOE IN THE SHETLANDS, AND WAS DIRECTED TO ABERDEEN, BUT THE STORM CONDITIONS WERE JUST AS BAD, OR WORSE, AND THE PLANE WAS WAS THEN DIRECTED TO OBAN. WITH PETROL RUNNING LOW. AND FINALLY RUNNING OUT, THE PLANE WAS FORCED TO DITCH IN THE ATLANTIC. THERE WAS NO RADIO CONTACT, SO THE CAPTAIN PUT MESSAGES AS TO THEIR LOCATION INTO THE LEG CAPSULES OF EACH PIGEON, AND SENT THEM OFF. THERE WERE TWO LIFE RAFTS, BUT ACCIDENTALLY ONE OFF THEM DRIFTED OFF WITH ONLY TWO MEN IN IT, WHICH LEFT TO MANY MEN FOR THE OTHER RAFT, AND EVERYONE VOTED TO STAY ON BOARD THE PLANE.

ONE OF THE PIGEONS NEVER MADE IT HOME, BUT" WHITE VISION" FLEW 60 MILES AGAINST THE GALEFORCE WINDS WITH VISABILITY DOWN TO ZERO.IT LANDED, HAWK ATTACKED AND COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED,WITH MOST OF ITS FEATHERSMISSING. FROM THE MESSAGE IN THE CAPSULE, CALCULATING THE WIND SPEED AND THE TIDAL DRIFT, THE RAF SENT OUT THE LAUNCH AND CAME ACROSS THE CATALINA AFTER ABOUT 40 HOURS, AS THE LAST MAN JUMPED THE GAP BETWEEN THE TOSSING PLANE AND THE LAUNCH,THE PLANE IMMEDIATELY SANK, AS THOUGH SOMEONE,,,,OR SOMETHING, HAD BEEN HOLDING IT UP TO THAT VERY MOMENT. THE TWO WHO HAD DRIFTED OFF , MEN WERE PICKED UP LATER,,,WITH THE RESULT THAT WHITE VISION WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SAVING 11 MEN, AND WAS AWARDED THE DICKEN MEDAL, ONE OF ABOUT 33 PIGEONS TO BE HONOURED IN THIS WAY. "WHITE VISION WAS" BRED BY" FLEMING BROS OF MOTHERWELL"  , AND SHE LIVED TILL 1953.    HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE CAN SAY THEY OWE THEIR EXISTENCE TO A PIGEON? IF SHE HAD NOT REACHED HER LOFT , THE CREW WOULD HAVE DROWNED. ,,,,,TED SOUTHERN WOULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED AND MARRIED MY MUM, AND I WOULDNT BE HERE WRITTING THIS.,,,,,,,,,PAT SOUTHERN , DAUGHTER OF   TED [ONE OF THE CREW THAT WAS SAVED, THANKS TO "WHITE VISION"

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MARY, of exeter, owned bycharlie brewer, a shoemaker from west st in exeter, made a significant contribution to war time communications with his pigeons. many ferried secret information between london and plymouth and france and london. mr brewer had to be sworn to secrecy over the activities of his pigeons and the messages they carried. he had a pigeon loft above his home  ,just behind thecity wall,.MARY OF EXETER, in 5 years war service,received 22 stiches [a lot for a small bird]   attacked by a hawk in 1942 while carrying a message-got home needing 7 stiches. 5 months later was shot under the wing, while carrying a message and again got home-shotgun pellets removed and stiched up again. during the blitz of exeter a bomb exploded, blowing her basket to bits, but she stayed waiting for her owner. missing for 10 days, with no food or drink, she was picked up from a field nearly dead, wounded from the top of her head to her neck,,,the muscles were so torn she had to have a collar to hold her head up. even after this she did another 2 years active service, and did even more missions,,,,,,what can one say??? , apart from truly amazing.

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White Vision - (see Jimmy White's post No. 63) This awesome pigeon's achievement is the story I tell people who don't know what pigeons did during the wars. There are so many people who have no idea what they did. And of all the ones I have read about, for some reason White Vision has captured my imagination.

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thanks morton for the feed back,,,,,,,another short story on" TOMMY "

THIS STORY HAS BEEN SUBMITTED BY GEMMA BELLING HAM ON BEHALF OF RICHARD HIGGIN,

MY GRAND FATHER LIVED IN DALTON IN FURNESS, HIS HOBBY WAS RACING PIGEONS

IN THE AUTUMN OF 1942, HIS PIGEON WAS TAKING PART IN A RACE AND BECAME LOST AND ENDED UP IN HOLLAND. IT WAS FOUND BY THE DUTCH RESISTANCE MOVEMENT, AND NURSED BACK TO FULL HEALTH. AS ALL DUTCH RACING PIGEONS HAD BEEN DESTROYED BY THE GERMANS, IT WAS A PRIZED POSESSION.

THE MEMBERS OF THE RESISTENCE HAD INFORMATION, REGARDING THE LOCATION OF A GERMAN U BOAT BASE, WHICH WAS VITAL TO GET TO ENGLAND.THEY THEN ATTACHED THE CODED INFORMATION TO THE PIGEONS LEG IN A METAL CANISTER AND SET IT FREE, DESPITE BEING SHOT AT BY THE GERMAN SOLDIERS, THE PIGEON RETURNED TO MY GRAND FATHERS LOFT AT DALTON,

MY GRAND FATHER WAS PUZZLED TO FIND THE CANNISTER AND TOOK IT TO THE POLICE, THE INFORMATION WAS DECODED AND PASSED TO THE RAF WHO CARRIED OUT A SUCCES FUL BOMBING RAID ON THE GERMAN BASE. A MESSAGE WAS SENT OUT TO THE BBC WHO INCORPARATED IT IN TO A RADIO SHOW.

AFTER THE WAR , "TOMMY "THE PIGEON WAS AWARDED THE DUTCH MEDAL FOR BRAVERY AT THE DUTCH EMBASSY IN LONDON,,,,,MY MOTHER STILL HAS THAT MEDAL TO THIS DAY,,,,,,,,,,,,,,SOME WONDERFULL TRUE STORIES ,,,J,W

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White Vision - (see Jimmy White's post No. 63) This awesome pigeon's achievement is the story I tell people who don't know what pigeons did during the wars. There are so many people who have no idea what they did. And of all the ones I have read about, for some reason White Vision has captured my imagination.

Hi morton

White Vision was bred by Fleming Bros of Motherwell My wifes late father and his

brother

 

 

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just goes to show homer, its a small world, ill bet there will be more people related to the owners, breeders of these messengers of war, it would be very intresting to hear from them, their all my favs, but the story on" cher ami " for me , takes the biscuit,,but every one of them has a story to tell, quiet amazing really :)

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KENLEY LASS   AND PHILLIPE

i would now like to relate another war story and the work of the nps [national pigeon service]  and the soe[special operations executive] in the opening ofthe duties that caused the jerries a great deal of trouble and prompted them to take severe action against anyone being caught, this was the death penalty, after the ss had obtained as much information regarding our agents operating in occupied countries.

the starting of these oprations as prompted by winston churchill, was the beginning of many.

brave and couragous operations that were "classified""regarding the work of s,o,e,  and the national pigeon service. now the agent known as" phillipe" was instructed to land by parachute and contact the resistance movement, and was to be picked up by a" lysander" aircraft and collate as much info as poss. for further action against the germans. the using of radio signals, was subject to location bythe enemy and was unreliable in the early days of these operations. phillipe now carried two pigeons, and being a frenchman was familiar with the area and new an old freind that kept a few pigeons but now had an empty loft where he could keep the birds from the prying eyes of the" jerries". he was advised by sqd leader lea rayner to cut the toes out of two socks and place the bird in the sockwith the head sticking out the  hole before placing these birds in his back pack before his para drop, this was to protect the birds during landing, and was successfull. his instructions were that in 10 days time lysander would pick him up, in a prearranged spot in darkness by the light of hand held torches, by members of the underground movement. after some delay due to bad weather, a bird arrived at home, in EAST GRINSTEAD with a message container, to be collected by a dispatch rider, and on to" wing house" piccadilly london, the order was given to the o.c. tangmere, but the weather was notfavourable for take off, after a slight delay the pilot of the" special duties" squadron of the r, a, f. decided that allthough the operation was risky [ to say the least]in veiw of the danger to our agent from the jerry forces,, he took off and was able to pick up phillipe, thereby achieving complete success,,,,,this now was the starting of many more future operations to be carried out by raf special duties and s,oE,   from oct 1940,,,FOR HER PART IN THE SUCCESSFULL RESCUE OF ONE OF OUR AGENTS THE PIGEON , NAMED ,,",KENLEY LASS " WAS AWARDED THE ANIMAL V,C, [THE DICKEN MEDAL] THIS IS JUST ANOTHER EPISODE IN THE EFFORT OUR BIRDS PLAYED IN HELPING DEFEAT THE JERRIES IN EUROPE, IN THE WAR OF 1939-1945.

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"TYKE" ,,ANOTHER DICKEN MEDAL WINNER, WAS REARED IN CAIRO,AND SERVED WITH THE MIDDLE EAST PIGEON SERVICE,,,,IN JUNE 1943, HE CARRIED A MESSAGE 100 MILES IN MIST AND FOG , AND VERY POOR VISABILITY,, AS A RESULT OF THIS MESSAGE ,THE WHOLE AIRCREW, WERE RESCUED, ANF OFF COURSE ALL THE CREW OWED THEIR LIFE TO THIS PIGEON,,,,THE DICKEN MEDAL REFERRED TO AS THE ANIMALS V, C.WAS AWARDED ON 53 OCCASIONS BETWEEN 1943 TO 1949, THE DICKEN MEDAL THAT "TYKE" WON, WAS PUT UNDER THE HAMMER FOR SALE AT SPINK IN LONDON, THE MEDAL FETCHED £4830 A THOUSAND POUND MORE THAN PREDICTED.

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Not sure if his been put up yet but the blue cock 'Billy' awarded dickin medal NU.41 HQ.4373 was released with a message from a forced landed bomber crew in the netherlands at 10.0 hours on the 21st of february,1942 and delivered its message the following day at 13.40 hours in a state of complete collapse.The weather conditions could hardly have been worse a gale driven storm(snow)'Billy was 11 months old at the time and  the distance approximately 250 miles.

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