Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Pigeons at War

From the Dec. 14, 2008, People of Pigeons Blog.

Richard Topus, a World War II pigeon trainer died at age 84.

In January 1942, the call went out for pigeons. The problem was that trained pigeons were few, mostly in Brooklyn, NY, where pigeon racing was quite popular.

World War II became the last large-scale use of pigeons in war. More than 30,000 pigeons served. They were assigned to the Army Signal Corps as part of the US Pigeon Service.

Many were shot down and the Germans used falcons to intercept and kill them.

About twelve were at Camp Ritchie, Md., and several other installations had the pigeons. The army phased out pigeons in the fifties.

And You Didn't Like Pigeons? --Cooter

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