MESSAGES BY PIGEONS
VALUABLE WAR WORK. —_— I LONDON, March 27. In six months, 320 messages have been sent from Royal Air Force aircraft by pigeons, anfl only 13 have been undelivered. Here are some of their performances:— News from Holland was received in the East Midlands in 4 hours 10 minutes. Two pigeons were released 340 miles from home in an entirely strange direction. They crossed two countries and a sea. Both homed; the first in 11 flying hours. For eight and a-half hours a young pigeon battled over 175 miles of a channel gale and delivered an SOS. Another bird homed from Norway through a blizzard, but died of strain. Homing pigeons are under the control of the Signals Directorate of the Air Ministry. Officers and N.C.O.’s are experts in pigeon racing and as fanciers. The shooting of homing pigeons is an offence. For their better protection against birds of prey, the destruction of peregrine falcons has been authorised.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1941, Page 10
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160MESSAGES BY PIGEONS Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1941, Page 10
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