CARRIER PIGEONS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21379, 23 June 1939, Page 4

CARRIER PIGEONS

FOR ROYAL AIR FORCE PLANES Pigeons and pigeon fanciers are to be brought into national service under a scheme announced by the Air Ministry on June 10, says the “Manchester Guardian.” The Ministry has established a national pigeon service to assist the defence services to make full use of the homing pigeon as a means of communication in peace and war. A committee has been appointed by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Kingsley Wood, in consultation with the representatives of the various pigeon fanciers’ organisations, to manage the new service under the general direction of the Air Ministry. Membership is open to fanciers who breed and train homing pigeons and maintain lofts of at least 20 pigeons of approved quality. A register is being prepared of members who will supervise the organisation of pigeon lofts which will be required to work with the Royal AilForce in peace-time. From this register one of the first needs of the service will be met—that is, the equipment of reconnaissance aircraft with pigeons as an additional safety measure for use when wireless communication breaks down. Pigeons for this special service will be drawn from the lofts of members living in the neighbourhood of certain Royal Air Force stations. A grant of £5 a year will be paid to cover the use of ten birds at any one time. There will also be a grant to cover the use of a telephone. Members in other parts of the country will be asked to supply birds for the Air Force service both in peacetime and in an emergency. [Pigeons were used for carrying messages in the last war. The service was organised in the winter of 1916 under the direction of an officer at that time serving in the line with a Leeds Territorial battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Lofts were established at corps headquarters in France, and part of the equipment a battalion signalling officer took with him into the trenches was a basket of pigeons, small aluminium cylinders by which messages were attached to the bird, and special message forms made of exceedingly fine paper.]