How about a spot of light relief from from the SDSR, leaks, slagging off the other services and upsetting other forums?
In the Second World War the Army’s Pigeon Service was run by Loftsmen of the Royal Signals (a trade that continued until 1946). The birds were used for many reasons but usually in an emergency such as by agents behind enemy lines or by ditched RAF aircrew. The birds were often able to avoid enemy fire and fly through the fog of war at great speed. They were specially trained for this task.
The Battle of Arnhem is renowned for its communications failures. But this was in no way due to Pigeon NS 15125 William of Orange whose loyalty and endeavour under extreme conditions cannot be faulted. He was released from Arnhem, with a message fixed to his leg, at 1030 hours on 19th September 1944 and arrived at his loft in England at 1455 hours having flown over 250 miles. It was one of few messages to make its way back to the UK. For his efforts he was awarded the Dicken Medal; the animals’ Victoria Cross.
The medal was instituted in 1943 as the highest award of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals and named after its founder Mrs ME Dicken MBE. It was only awarded under conditions of conflict and William was the 21st recipient. The medal is inscribed PDSA, For Gallantry, We also serve and engraved on the reverse with the details of the event.
William was bred by Sir William Proctor Smith of Cheshire and trained by the Army Pigeon Service of the Royal Signals. After the war he bought him out of service for £185 and ten years later reported that, ‘Although now retired, he is the grandfather of many outstanding racing pigeons’. The medal was presented to the Royal Signals Museum in 1965 by Lady Smith.
Royal Signals Museum
For an update on the Dicken medal, have a look here
From the outset there had been a number of serious failures in communications. Divisional and brigade command wireless links failed. There was no direct communication to UK or Corps HQ and air support communications were non-existent. There are many reasons given for these breakdowns. It must be remembered that the whole plan was developed very quickly; that complicated tactical groupings demanded complicated networks and time was not available for training or rehearsal. Both US and British procedures and ciphers had to be used and all the material for the Signal Instruction had to be disseminated and absorbed very quickly. Frequency selection was poor and frequencies were not monitored beforehand. The Division was more dispersed than usual and on this occasion, in the suburbs of a major town. In spite of these awesome setbacks, the men of 1st Airborne Divisional Signals performed their duty magnificently.
It was during this operation that William of Orange, a cock pigeon, earned the Dickin Medal, the animal’s VC. 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment decided to send their pigeon when they were unable to get through on their wireless from the bridge. The bird was released at 1030 hours on 19 September from Arnhem and was back in his loft in London at 1455 hours. He had flown 260 miles of which 135 miles were over open sea in 4 hours 25 minutes at an average speed of 61 mph. Lieutenant Colonel Stephenson recalls that William of Orange actually had to be persuaded to take off with a burst from a sten gun! Pigeons were issued to the units in the Division before an operation by the Divisional Signals Pigeon Officer at the airfield transit camps. Scale of issue varied depending on the operation but a normal issue might be 36 to Divisional HQ, 6 to Brigade HQ, 2 to Battalion HQ and 12 to the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment.
216 Parachute Signals Squadron
I hope that the SDSR considers the vital contribution that combat pigeons can make in modern operations, after all, they cost nowt but bird seed!
Even the RAF may be able to use them instead of buying expensive RPAS and recce pods!
Go on then I’ll comment on this one.
Are we obsessed with electronics theses days.
Along with pigeons, how about Sun compasses, Theodolites etc for open area navigation?
Admin gets obsessed with Aerostats: -
WW1 “Womens auxillery Balloon Corps” anyone. Talk on this website about Mules etc.
What about the Selous Scouts in Rhodesia they used cavalry/ mounted infantry: – Mobility good / relativly logistic light/ can be quite stealthy.
Heliograph has no batteries!
Just a thought
IXION,
There is a bit of truth in what you say. I get pretty worked up about aerostats (and for that matter, airships) myself. Also the first teams on the ground in the ‘Stan from the US’s 5th Special Forces Group, back in 2001, bopped around comfortably on horseback and got as much or more “strategic traction” than anyone since then.
And I think there’s a good case to do a quick post on your hyperlink, for the good services of Treo the bomb-sniffing Lab in Afghanistan. (I’m a “cat person” by nature, but a sucker for water dogs.) A case where well-evolved sensory tools that match high-end technology wed to the “fuzzy logic” of an organic brain are at least as useful as the tech. Interesting that it’s so, but after all, there’s snout as queer as folk
Cats have better sence of smell than dogs but are far too smart to go looking for explosives!
Given the recent attacks on fuel trucks, perhaps it’s time to break out the horses.
IXION,
Hah! Amen on both counts. I think the latter actually is the start of the Afghan endgame for the West. Not because of some grand, concerted effort to cut supply lines (although, if Iraq had ground cover, a quick case of “common cause” among all the rival insurgencies could have starved the American forces out years ago) but because that’s a lucrative business in banditry just starting to gear up. And they’re on the wrong side of the border to be bribed.
One other thought:
while the Dickin Medal is a fine institution, frankly this sort of work ought to be recognized with at least some, if not all, the same honours as humans in uniform receive. If an EOD tech of similar achievement might have received the QGM, or even a GM, for the same work, no reason to cut Treo out just for walking around on all fours. Seems as fair or more so than other forms of bending over backwards for inclusion — reward of effort. Many a cavalry horse deserved more mentions in despatches than their rider
This is an interesting reminder that technology does not always offer the best option. The Taliban use carrier pigeons thus denying us acces to that comms “traffic” the Mujahadeen/insurgents used horses extensively in the 1980s and maintained impressive logistics (as do many naroctraffickers)
I cant see BAE/VICKERS/McDonnel-Douglas etc getting excited at the use of animals……money talks.
marvellous, this is definately my kind of article.
Could we have a follow up on Railway Artillery please.
Didn’t know the Taliban used pigeons…. should I get my 12 bore out of the safe and wait for the call?
ixion,
It was always a standing joke that we had put in a posting to the ballon corp, However I must take umbrage with the description, it’s the Womens ROYAL auxillery balloon corps, matron does get upset if you miss the royal off!!
Mental Crumble
No but Reserve officer 56734 Dasterdly and Reserve Flight Sgt Mutley will be getting their call up papers any day!
Seriosly a lot of effort went in to trying to shoot down the othersides pigeons pre Mr Marconi, including I believe using Hawks.
On a more serious note the level of consumption of ..er consumables, of a modern Army is just stupid. The Achellies heel of modern superdooper profesional armies are their logistical trails.
I wondered aloud 2 0r 3 years ago to then serving sgt about the vulnerabilty of our supply lines in Afghan, it is no exageration to say he went white, and confessed to having sleepless nights about it, and admitted if he was running the taliban that where pretty much all their attacks would be concentrated.
Rule 1.1 page one rules of war.
Never get your army involved in a land war in Asia.
We are on our 2nd in 10 years!
oh you don’t know how nostalgic i went then for vulture sqn, if muttley was a sgt does that mean clunk was a chief tech? I can’t believe they still bring vital fuels up through bandit country especially after the drone attacks keep killing locals in the area, time for the walrus airships to be built to bring it straight in to theatre.
I use to have a pigeon that would come walks with me.
I would set off with the dog and once he realized I had gone he would leave home to come find me. He would ride on my shoulder for a while, go off fly, come back on so, until I returned home. Very clever birds. I keep cockatiels now and they are brighter than most people I know.
I hope I get to post this without being accused of talking bollocks again.
The Supply Lines from Karachi to Bastion and Khandahar are kept open by bribing any warlord along the way not to attack them, or allow them to be attacked.
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-think-we-said-that.html
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2009/09/protection-money.html
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2009/09/bigger-picture.html
Its not in their interests to cut our supply lines, its a nice little earner if they dont and an invitation to Predators to come visit if they do.
My Grandad trained these pigeons, i wish I had a photo of him with the birds
Are there any existing diaries from the trainers of war pigeons? Could you point me in the direction if there are?