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PG - 106C/B Pigeon vest


ken88
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Johan Willaert

Latest MDT book ( D-Day minus, 17 Sep 1944) has a couple of pages about the use of carrier pages within the 101AB Div during market Garden, illustrated with some pictures showing the PG-51 being taken aboard glider for the flight towards Holland..

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  • 3 weeks later...
craig_pickrall

That is amazing! Thanks for posting Ken. Sure would be embarrassing if the code breakers can't decode the message. They may need to pull one of the WW2 code breakers back to active duty.

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General Apathy
That id amazing! Thanks for posting Ken. Sure would be embarrassing if the code breakers can't decode the message. They may need to pull one of the WW2 code breakers back to active duty.

 

Hi Craig, thanks for the comment, when I heard about this story I thought that it would fit this topic on pigeons nicely, however the capsule is obviously a British version of the American leg capsule shown earlier in this topic.

 

ken

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  • 1 year later...

Carrier pigeons were also very valuable for Air Sea Rescue purposes. The AAF utilized more than 20,000 pigeons activated as the AAF Pigeon Service in Feb. 1943 following success by the Royal Air Force. Pigeons were principally first used in the Caribbean and slightly unique from the combat theaters. Each aircraft carried two sets of birds, one set would be homed to the point of departure and the other set destination. The idea was the appropriate birds would be released on which ever homing point is closest. In the combat theater typically only two birds were carried homed from departure point only. Typically the birds have numbered leg bands and upon distribution those numbers would be recorded to the aircraft they were aboard. If a bird should return without a message the leg band number can at least help identify the plane it came from. Pigeons are reported to have saved many lives.

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