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Pigeons in the Siege of Antwerp, 1832
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 is perhaps the most well known instance of pigeons being used to carry information in and out of a city during a siege. But nearly 40 years earlier, the Dutch military used pigeons in a similar fashion during the Siege of Antwerp in 1832. In this post, we examine the…
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Pigeons in the Hut Tax War of Sierra Leone, 1898
When did the British Army first use pigeons in combat? World War One? The Boer War? The answer is the Hut Tax War of 1898, a relatively obscure colonial uprising in Sierra Leone. This week, we take a look at how the British Army, for the first time ever, relied on pigeons to communicate with…
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Pigeons in the Arctic: Part III: Sir John Ross’s 1850-51 Search for the Lost Franklin Bay Expedition
We’ve previously written about how Arctic explorers relied on homing pigeons in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Recently, we uncovered facts demonstrating that Royal Navy personnel brought homing pigeons with them as they searched for the Lost Franklin Bay Expedition in the 1850s. Given that homing pigeons were very much a novelty amongst…
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“Little Feathered Heroes”: Camp Pike’s Pigeon Service, 1917-1919
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Pigeons in the Yugoslav Wars: The Croatian War of Independence (1991 A.D.)
In reading about military pigeons, one might be tempted to think that such services ended after the Second World War. For the most part, that’s accurate. Once electronic communication became cheaper and widespread in the post-war era, most militaries happily disbanded their pigeon services, eager to get rid of a seemingly archaic system. By the…
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The Finnish Defence Forces’ Pigeon Service: 1923 – 1940s A.D.
Finland emerged as a latecomer to the pigeon arms race—while other countries had started supplying their militaries with pigeons in the late-1800s, it wasn’t until the 1920s that Finland implemented its own military pigeon service. This late start is unsurprising, as Finland was a possession of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917, known formally…
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The Martyrs of Nomain: A Tale of Pigeons and Spycraft During the Great War
For all practical purposes, the Great War began when Germany invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914. Despite the valiant efforts of the Belgian Army, it was an unfair fight and the small country was quickly overrun. For the duration of the war, German military authorities occupied nearly the entire territory. This is common knowledge, yet…
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The Kingdom of Serbia’s Pigeon Stations: 1908 – 1918 A.D.
The Balkan Peninsula was a hotbed of activity during the latter-half of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire had ruled the region for centuries, but a rise in ethnic nationalism challenged the status quo. Following a series of wars and rebellions, the Sick Man of Europe gradually receded from the Peninsula. At the close of…
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Pigeons in the Eighty Years’ War: The Siege of Leiden (1574-75 A.D.)
A European city encircled by enemy forces. The inhabitants—cut off from food and communication with the outside world for months—recruit pigeons to fly messages into the city. Sound familiar? Readers of this blog will undoubtedly be reminded of the 1870-71 Siege of Paris, but this scenario has happened several times in European history. This week,…
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Pigeons in the Iraq War: Interview with Stacy Jeambert, former Chief Warrant Officer for the 1st Marine Division
Several weeks ago, we wrote about how the 1st Marine Division used pigeons for chemical detection in the first months of the Iraq War. A rare instance of pigeons being used in modern warfare, the article has become the most popular one featured on this blog. To shed more light on this fascinating story, we…
Pigeons of War 