Pigeons for the Air Force

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 171, 22 July 1939, Page 10

Pigeons for the Air Force

THEIR WORK IN THE WAR The establishment of a Nationa Pigeon Service, announced by the British Air Ministry recently, recalls the work done by homing pigeons dur ing the Great War—work immensely valuablo at the time and commoraeratc< now by memorials in Belgium, France and Germany, and iu the windows o the National War Shrine on the Castle Rock of Edinburgh. Major W. H. Osman, editor of Tin Racing Pigeon, who is on the new com mitteo and who conducted the Govern ment Pigeon Service under the Admiralty and Air Ministry in the Great War, told a representative o the Observer about some of the famous birds. The body of one of them is now ir the United Service Museum in White hall. This pigeon was among the heroei of the Meniu Road in October, 1917. “It was carrying a message,” Majo Osman explained, * 4 from the front lin< to divisional headquarters at 3 in thi afternoon. A bullet struck it, broke i leg and drove the message carrier int< its body and through the back. All tha long wet night it was out; but it man aged, nevertheless, to struggle home an* deliver its message at 11 next morning before it died.” Italians Rescued Two other pigeons did great servic on tho Piavo in July, 19f8, when 150 Italians wore surrounded by Austrian and in danger of capture. The pigeon carried messages for help; relief cam

\ at once-—and 3500 Austrians were taken C prisoner. , One of tho pigeons of the war, a British bird called Cher Ami, which is I now in a Washington museum, was responsible for saving the 44 105 t” AmerielJ can battalion on the Argonne. Thanks ie to the messages this bird carried, relief is reached the troops, and although Cher r- Ami lost a leg he managed to fly 25 \y miles in 25 minutes—a terrific perid forraance. ;c Pigeons, Major Osman said, served magnificently in bringing back messages lc from advanced positions. Indeed, British pigeons used during the war delivered ie safely nearly 95 per cent, of all the n . messages entrusted to them, a- I Several countries have remembered xe the work done by the birds during the ie war. Belgium, where every village has 3f a “Societe Colorabophile, ” has a pigeon is metaorial. The French, too, issued special gold bands to the pigeons at in Verdun and erected a memorial there, e- I Visitors to Edinburgh will see a es carrier pigeon in one of tho great win dows of the War fcjhrine, where even the Dr canaries and tho mice have not been ie forgotten. This is a portrait of one of ie birds actually employed during the war o Tho now organisation, said Major to Osman, will assist tho delenee service at to make full use of the homer—moxt n- intelligent and reliable of birds—for id communication in war and peace, g, When an aeroplane is lost and its wireless has failed a pigeon can always bear a message. The birds may share, ce too, in A.R.P. work. And there is aa other point; firms who find their use o* n.* the telephone restricted, as it ii bourns to be in wartime, will realise the vain, no of pigeon post service.