The charming childrens' book by Mo Willems. It has absolutely nothing to do with the First World War.
The carrier pigeon is a variant of the domestic pigeon, Columba livia domestica. It has been used for at least 3,000 years in both peace and war. For example, pigeons were used in antiquity to spread news of the winners of the Olympic Games. News of victory at Waterloo reached London by carrier pigeon in 1815, and the Indian emergency services retired carrier pigeons as back-up communication in 2002. Today the Taliban supposedly uses carrier pigeons to avoid signals intercept.
However,
during the First World War carrier pigeons remained in use by all warring
parties. Some became quite famous, for example Cher Ami, a pigeon that helped
save the “Lost Battalion” of the United States’ 77th Division during the Battle
of the Argonne in October 1918. Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his efforts. Le Vaillant, the last pigeon released from Fort Vaux at Verdun by
the Major Raynal’s determined defenders was awarded the Order of the Nation.
A plaque dedicated to Le Vaillant.
Despite
the advent of the telegraph in the 19th century and the subsequent development
of wireless communication, carrier pigeons remained quite relevant during the First
World War. They required little food, they were easy to transport and they are
fast fliers, reaching speeds well in excess of 60 mph. As opposed to messenger
dogs, they were not distracted by, say, food. A captured pigeon did
not betray neither its point of origin nor its destination, and they would keep
trying to home even if injured. They could also carry messages through
artillery fire and gas clouds. It is estimated that more than 100,000 homing pigeons
were used by the British Army alone, and it is also estimated that 95 percent of all
messages sent reached their destination. The density of the pigeons loft was usually fairly high, and the French deployed 72 pigeon lofts at the
First Battle of the Marne in 1914.
There were,
however, times when even the carrier pigeons couldn’t make it back to their
lofts. A lieutenant Alan Goring (no relation to the German aviator and future Reichsmarschall) described being cut off
with his men and relying on carrier pigeons to call in artillery support: “We
had two pigeons in a basket, but the trouble was that the wretched birds had
got soaked when the platoon floundered into the flooded ground. We tried to dry
one of them off as best we could, and I wrote a message, attached it to its
leg, and sent it off. To our absolute horror, the bird was so wet that it just
flapped into the air and then came straight down again, and started actually
walking towards the German line. Well, if that message had got into the
Germans’ hands, they would have known that we were on our own and we’d have
been in real trouble. So we had to try to shoot the pigeon before he got there.
A revolver was no good. We had to use rifles, and there we were, all of us,
rifles trained over the edge of this muddy breastwork trying to shoot this bird
scrambling about in the mud. It hardly presented a target at all.”
The
British Army’s carrier pigeons were subordinated to the Director
of Army Signals, General Headquarters, and a number of lofts were deployed with
the divisions. Lofts were either stationary, “motor mobile” or “horse drawn
mobile”. Three signallers in each brigade allocated to carrier
pigeons, with two men tending to the pigeon loft and one motor cycle dispatch rider
who transported wicker baskets with pigeons to and from the front lines. Two
birds were typically sent out with copies of the same message to ensure that
the message reached its destination.
Both
France and Britain used vehicles with pigeon lofts to create communication
networks, not entirely unlike military radio relay systems used today for
higher-level communications. The British may have had the most ambitious vehicle,
though: the 1999-20005 LGOC B-type bus converted into a pigeon loft, which was a regular London public transportation bus converted to military use. These
buses were typically deployed a mile or two behind the front lines to provide
back-up or supplementary communications when telephone wires were destroyed by
enemy action or when the wireless stations didn’t work properly. They were
painted in distinctive patterns to enable the pigeons to recognize their loft.
Bus and despatch cyclist ready for action.
A former London double-decker bus (B.2125),
camouflage painted. Pernes, 26
June 1918 © IWM (Q 9000)
Although
the buses may have been a good way to increase mobility for the pigeon lofts,
finding drivers was a bit more difficult. Drivers needed mechanical skills as
well as driving skills, and both were comparatively rare during the First World
War. Not only bus drivers, but also taxi drivers, truck drivers and the odd
tram driver was recruited to keep the bus fleet moving. The drivers were
provided with little or no military training: one day in the fall of 1914 they
would be following their route in London and a couple of days later they would
find themselves in Flanders. The initial recruitment efforts were however deemed
to be less than satisfactory by Frank Pick, the public relations officer of the
London Underground, and London Underground posters were printed to stimulate
recruitment. The British government commandeered over a thousand B-type buses during
the first months of the war to provide operational mobility for the army, and
conversions included turrets, ambulances and pigeon lofts. The buses served the
British Armed Forces up to the Armistice.
Loft and despatch rider with pigeon basket.
Captured enemy carrier pigeons on display by American troops.
Sources:
Le
Vaillant and his Peers. Chemins de Memoire <www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/le-vaillant-and-his-peers>
