RAF Pigeons?

[Rich Rostrom]

An "Antiques Roadshow" episode from 2013 included
a display of medals awarded to heroic carrier pigeons
of WW II. The display was presented by the head of
the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, who said that
every bomber or recon aircraft flying from Britain
carried two racing pigeons, for use in case the
plane went down and the radio was out.

The display included photos of aircrew taking pigeon
cases onto aircraft.

But was it really a universal practice, i.e. every
plane?

Also, the pigeon seems to have been referring to
the RAF, but he said "every bomber.. flying from
the UK"; did the USAF also use pigeons that way?

[Don Phillipson]

Post by Rich Rostrom
An "Antiques Roadshow" episode from 2013 included
a display of medals awarded to heroic carrier pigeons
of WW II. The display was presented by the head of
the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, who said that
every bomber or recon aircraft flying from Britain
carried two racing pigeons, for use in case the
plane went down and the radio was out.
The display included photos of aircrew taking pigeon
cases onto aircraft.
But was it really a universal practice, i.e. every
plane?
Also, the pigeon seems to have been referring to
the RAF, but he said "every bomber.. flying from
the UK"; did the USAF also use pigeons that way?

Only RAF daylight bombers, of course, and probably only
1939-41 at the latest. (Bomber Command casualties in
daylight bombing mean very few crews of 1940 survived the war.)
ISTR pigeon photos in Philip Kaplan's "Round the Clock
The Experience of the Allied Bomber Crews" (1993). By
1943 aircraft radios were sufficiently powerful and reliable
to make pigeons unnecessary, whatever the need (as when
ditching in the sea.)

[Don Phillipson]

Post by Don Phillipson

Post by Rich Rostrom
An "Antiques Roadshow" episode from 2013 included
a display of medals awarded to heroic carrier pigeons
of WW II. The display was presented by the head of
the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, who said that
every bomber or recon aircraft flying from Britain
carried two racing pigeons, for use in case the
plane went down and the radio was out.
The display included photos of aircrew taking pigeon
cases onto aircraft.
But was it really a universal practice, i.e. every
plane?
Also, the pigeon seems to have been referring to
the RAF, but he said "every bomber.. flying from
the UK"; did the USAF also use pigeons that way?

Only RAF daylight bombers, of course, and probably only
1939-43 at the latest. > ISTR pigeon photos in Philip Kaplan's
"Round the Clock The Experience of the Allied Bomber Crews" (1993). By
1943 aircraft radios were sufficiently powerful and reliable
to make pigeons unnecessary, whatever the need (as when
ditching in the sea.)

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17138990
narrates that a carrier pigeon saved a ditched RAF crew
in the North Sea in February 1942 and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_%28pigeon%29
says pigeons brought 6 June 1944 the first news of the
Normandy landings (during radio silence.)

[Rich Rostrom]

Post by Don Phillipson

Only RAF daylight bombers, of course...

Why only day bombers?

Post by Don Phillipson
says pigeons brought 6 June 1944 the first news of the
Normandy landings (during radio silence).

There's a scene in _The Longest Day_ of two war
correspondents sending their dispatches via pigeon.