PIGEOM SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 23724, 4 November 1940, Page 2

PIGEOM SERVICE

VALUABLE AID TO THE RAF. It is a strange twist of fata that compels the Air Ministry to request the public to destroy peregrine falcons for the better defence of the realm, writes W. K. Bliss, in the London ‘ Evening Standard.’ Falcons, long sheltered by the Wild Birds Protection Act, are now virtually classed as enemy interceptor fighters, because of their depredations against the messenger pigeons which form the last lino of communications of R.A.F. aeroplanes operating over the sea. The Ministry’s move was timely, for ever since they wont on active service the" pigeons have had to face more enemies than they should be expected to cope with—bullets, weather, birds of prey, and men out with guns shooting for the pot. The last alone at one time accounted for about a hundred birds a week. The penalty for shooting a pigeon has been raised from a fine of £2 to a' fine of £IOO, or three months’ imprisonment, or both. It is possible that tho failure of a pigeon to return homo may mean that two or three airmen arc loft in a precarious rubber boat far out in tho North Sea without hope of rescue. As soon as war broke out tens of thousands, of pigeons wont on active service with tho 11.A.F. All land planes flying over tho sea, and many flying boats as well, carry as part of their routine complement two homing pigeons in a basket. In the event of a forced descent the birds may be released to fly back with an SOS. Tho birds go on duty with a standardised SOS already attached to tho blue-tinted carrier clipped to one leg. On the carrier there is a white-painted patch which acts as a last-minute writing pad. A map reference or bearing is scratched on the white patch just before tho bird is released.

This is the quickest ami most effective method possible, for it gives an opportunity to release the birds while the plane is still in the air, and saves trouble if the release has to bo made from the collapsible rubber dinghy into which the crew tumble immediately their machine strikes the water.

The chief objection to pigeons is their slowness. Their average air speed is 40 miles an hour; they achieve a mile a minute only with the aid of a good tail wind. If the wind is head-on and strong the SOS message and its bearer may never reach homo. Still, birds on active service have been known to average 35 to 40 miles an hour from between 200 and 300 miles out to sea. One brought an SOS from 200 miles elf the coast of Norway. DIFFICULTIES OF RELEASE. A 200-miles-an-hour slipstream is one of the difficulties tho pigeon has to face when released from a plane in tho air. This has entailed special research work to determine tho best place on various types of aircraft from which to release tho birds. In one it may be a turret, in another tho bomb trapdoor. Before this research taught the R.A.F. the lessons they know to-day tlm pigeon suffered severely. Experiments were also made in tossing them out wrapped in newspaper

with just the head showing. Now they are released gently facing tho direction in which the plane is travelling. The birds soon learn by experience, and acquire the knack of dropping clear of the plane with wings closed before attempting to fly. Hundreds of birds are out on service with bombers and Coastal Command planes every day. The scheme run bv tho National Pigeon Every air station which requires pigeons has behind it a local organisation of homin'* pigeon owners possessing not under 2(fbirds. Tho chief of cadi local group is tho P.S.O.—or Pigeon Service Officer a civilian who arranges to collect the necessary number of birds from the lofts of tho local owners and deliver them daily to the signals officer at the .air station. At the airfield they come on (ho official strength, and tho Air Ministry accounts contain chits for

peas, grit, and bird baths. A small payment is made to the owners of tho birds to pay for tho birds’ food. Their lofts aro fitted with an electrical device which causes a bird to register its return home by ringing a bell. If the owner is not already on the telephone it is installed for him. Pigeon messenger services are increasing, and the War Office is now using them to a considerable extent in homo defence plans as a precaution in case other means of communication are destroyed.