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Much more than flying rats — how pigeons became decorated war heroes

Much more than flying rats — how pigeons became decorated war heroes
This metal statue, designed by Georges Hano and sculpted by Victor Voets, honors the war pigeons who died in World War I (Image: Supplied by the author)
Don Pinnock
By Don Pinnock
16 Jan 2024
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They’re a maligned and misunderstood fact of urban life, but pigeons are part of our history and mythology and more important than you might imagine. Many have been decorated for bravery.

I have a friend who hates pigeons. He calls them flying rats and once asked if I had a pellet gun to shoot the ones who coo on his apartment’s window ledges. He’s a novelist who specialises in World War 2 and because of this fact I’m writing this for him (the reason will become clear) and because I love pigeons. They are beautiful and have near-magical abilities.

Pigeons are an ubiquitous presence in most cities across the globe and have established populations on all continents but Antarctica. There may be no bird that inspires as much disdain. Pigeons are generally as loathed as they are common.

In languages other than English all pigeons are doves, but Pigeon of Peace doesn’t sound right somehow. They’ve had an honoured place in many ancient and modern religions (the Holy Spirit is said to have attended the baptism of Jesus as a white dove).

Both feral and domestic racing pigeons are mostly descendants of the African rock dove and are thought to have been the first wild creature we domesticated, predating dogs.

pigeons The original pigeon – an African rock dove. (Photo: Supplied by the author)



They first appear in written history on Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets from more than 5,000 years ago, though they might have been our companions for twice that time. The reason for their early domestication is that, for some reason, pigeons are friendly to humans. 

Of course that did mean they often ended up as food, but at some point another use was discovered – they had a strong homing instinct. It most probably happened when someone gave a pigeon to a friend which then escaped and flew back to its original owner.

They have an uncanny ability to find their way back to their home cote from great distances. Of course, in the avian world they are not alone in this, but unlike birds other than sparrows, pigeons seem to like hanging around with us.

As with all migratory birds, we don’t really know how they navigate, though there are many theories: Using Earth’s magnetic field, polarised sun and moon light, a sense of smell or their ability to remember linear features on the ground. 

This brings me to the story I want to share.

In 1938 Hitler invaded Austria and the following year both Germany and Russia invaded Poland, triggering World War 2. This was followed by the lightning invasions by the Nazis of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France.

Would the UK be next? It was clearly on Hitler’s list. But when? The collapse of free Europe was so sudden that Britain had almost no intelligence systems on the ground. The “spy” agencies MI5 and MI6 had no idea where German troops were moving or massing. 

pigeons War pigeon post. (Wikimedia Commons)



Then two men came together with an audacious plan, which first seemed like a joke but turned out to be deadly serious. One was a pigeon fancier named Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Henry Osman and the other was a former spy with a drinking problem, Rex Pearson.

Pearson conceived the idea of dropping pigeons into Europe in cages containing feed, thin rice paper, a pencil, a British newspaper (to signal authenticity) and instructions on how to report on troop movements and strategic sites. The reports could be placed in the pigeon’s leg capsule before releasing it. Local people, with no love for the German invaders, would surely respond.

There was a precedent: Julius Caesar reportedly sent news of his conquest of Gaul back to Rome via pigeons, as did Napoleon Bonaparte following his defeat by England in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo.

A German wartime pigeon coop. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)



British Military Intelligence approached the plan with bewilderment – and annoyance when Pearson and Osman persisted. But, desperate for information out of Europe, they finally relented and the Special Continental Section of the Army Pigeon Service was born. Everyone has heard of MI5 and MI6, but few will have heard of MI14(d) – spy pigeons. It was code-named Columba.

A call went out to local lofts to donate birds for “service” and report back to the military, with strict instructions not to open their leg pouches when the birds returned. Thousands responded and at the end of 1940 planes on bombing raids began dropping pigeons in small cages with pigeon-sized parachutes over occupied Europe. A big issue, evidently, was whether to drop them head down or tail down to avoid being hit by the plane’s structure.

The vital messenger in flight. (Wikimedia Commons)



According to an obscure but fascinating book, Operation Columba – The Secret Pigeon Service, its author Gordon Corera, notes that in June 1940, though Churchill’s famous speech, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds” is now remembered as one of defiance, it was in reality to prepare the public for what was thought almost inevitable: The possibility of German troops arriving over the Channel.

The aim of MIK14(d) was to answer three simple questions: Where, when and how would an invasion of Britain take place?

No one was quite sure the pigeon mission would succeed. 

One official reckoned there were four options for a pigeon. It might not be found and simply die. It might be picked up by a local, as hoped, and a message sent back. It could be found by the Germans and dispatched back with a fake message or grabbed by a hungry patriot and find itself in a pigeon pie.

Protection for the war messengers flying home.



Top priority, said the attached instructions, was to provide information on a planned invasion of England: details of any troops in the area, enemy morale, significant addresses the Germans were using, the locations of airfields, the effect of any recent bombs dropped by the Allies and the extent to which people could hear BBC radio. It ended with the words: “Thank you. Take courage. We will not forget you.”

Many birds did not return, some came back with useless comments (send food) or simply “no troops here”, but there were those that were pure intelligence gold. 

Over three months, 221 birds were released over Flanders, Normandy and Brittany. Forty-six returned, 19 with messages, 17 of which contained information. Particularly important was the fact that intelligence would be in the London War Office within hours of a message being written. 

One message contained rich details of troop movements in Brittany and the site of camouflaged aircraft hangers. But astounding was the information from a priest in Belgium, Father Joseph Raskin with the help of the Debaillie family who ran a grocery store in Lichtervelde. They travelled the area noting key sites and movements and Raskin, who had honed his skills as a calligrapher, wrote precise details plus maps and bombing instructions.

Pigeon drop parachute. (Wikimedia Commons)



Pigeon cage with parachute. (Wikimedia Commons)



Packing a pigeon ready for an assignment over Europe. (Wikimedia Commons)



War pigeon. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)



In almost microscopic writing on the two rice paper sheets provided (typed out it covered 70 pages), the priest – labelling his “unit” Leopold Vindictive – composed precisely the type of intelligence the team had dreamed of. According to Gordon Corera, the text referred to “maps and specific symbols employed to indicate hidden German emplacements and munitions depots. 

“An old submarine base was now being used to repair boats and was carefully concealed by shrubs and buildings, Leopold Vindictive noted. “Bombs would need to fall over an area of 200 by 300 meters to destroy it.” Raskin explained when to attack to avoid civilian casualties. 

The Shell depot near Neder-over-Heembeek should be bombed “without delay” and a map indicated exactly where the key parts of the oil facility lay. Another important fuel dump was protected by concrete, he wrote, and so would need larger bombs.

Sadly, after considerable success as a spy and reams more information, the priest was betrayed and shot. But his work underlined to Churchill the value of war pigeons. They had become recognised as invaluable for fast intelligence.

They provided the first report of massive losses suffered by the 1st British Airborne at the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. During the D-Day landings at Normandy which began the liberation of Europe, hundreds of birds were deployed by the United States First Army to keep track of troop movements. 

After the war, 32 pigeons were decorated with the Dickin Medal honouring the contribution of animals to the war effort. Other recipients were 18 dogs, three horses and a ship’s cat.

PIGEONS Don Pinnock Pigeons silhouetted by the sun, which is tinted orange from wildfire smoke, in Medford, Oregon, on 11 September 2020. (Photo: David Ryder / Getty Images)



PIGEON_Don Pinnock A child tries to catch pigeons despite a sign warning against it in a public park in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 14 March 2003. (Photo: Ian Waldie / Getty Images)



This metal statue, designed by Georges Hano and sculpted by Victor Voets, honors the war pigeons who died in World War I (Image: Supplied by the author)



At the end of World War 1, Major-General Fowler, chief of signals and communications of the British Army, wrote that “if it became necessary immediately to discard every line and method of communications used on the front, except one, and it were left to me to select that one method, I should unhesitatingly choose the pigeons.” 

Osmand and Pearson, who fought so hard to form the Army Pigeon Service, would have agreed that the comment held for the world war which was to follow. They would prove their worth in spades.

Since then, efficient radio and secret codes have made the heroic birds redundant in war. The division was closed in March 1950 and pigeon breeding returned to being a matter of competitive pleasure. 

But to my friend the war novel writer I say: Pigeons are much more than flying rats. It’s time to cut them some slack. They’d make a good sub-plot in your next book. DM

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