This photo is held by The
Imperial War Museum
The
US Army in Britain, 1942-1945
Corporal Florian S. Nowak and Private First Class Ralph
Pellegrin of the 280th US Army Signal Pigeon Company examining a German carrier
pigeon captured in Belgium. Photograph taken in their unit base in an unknown
location in England, 30 March 1945. Captured pigeons were send there for
breeding and all birds in the US Army service were trained by the Company.
Corporal Nowak was a native of Cleveland, Ohio (4110 East
143rd Street) and Private Pellegrin came from 124 Johnston Avenue, Plainfield,
New Jersey. ©
IWM (EA 61372)
Sergeant Gordon H. Hayes served as a
pigeoneer in North Africa and Italy, 1942-45, as part of the 209th
Signal Pigeon Company. He writes in The Pigeons That Went to War of the
important messages delivered by pigeons
such as Rain-in-the-Face, Miss Peggy, Speckel Head, Corn Willy, The Doll Baby,
Lady Linda, Boston Lady, Annie, Trailblazer, Anzio Sal, Mater Brian, The Pretty
Lady, Miss Brooklyn, Bad Eye, Just Jerry, Miss Kentucky, Little Wonder, Yank,
Dogface, Little Girl, Hawk Bait, Wisconsin Boy, Black Magic, Monkeyface,
Captain Fulton, Tru Blu, and Lady Astor.
Here is his story about Rain-in-the-Face.
“I carried with me ten of my best pigeons on
my new assignment. My orders were to
establish my combat lofts on the coast of Massa-Carrara, in the province of
Toscana….Our birds were now being used by British and American intelligence
units operating in this area. One cold
afternoon, a British major came to our lofts, and asked us for our most
reliable pigeon, for a very important mission.
He asked us if the pigeon could go without food or water for two
days. He wanted the bird strapped to an
agent’s body. We had such a bird. Our bird for this critical mission was one
called Rain-in-the-Face.
The black check, splash cock, # S.C. 54 USA
7563, was hatched at the Bizerte breeding base.
As a squeaker, he was picked to go into my mobile loft. He ferried 52 messages, informing headquarters
of enemy positions and movements. He had
done well in fog, rain, and snow in the formidable Futa Pass, and was also
active on the Cassino front. A steady
performer, he was always chosen for tough missions. Big and strong, beautifully feathered, with
bright red eyes, he was every inch a champion.
In December, 1944, he was to carry his last
message out of my loft at Massa-Carrara.
Placed in a pigeon sling, he was taken by an intelligence agent through
the mountains into enemy territory.
Strapped to the spy’s body for two days, he endured a rough deal with
grace. Pvt. Joe Pomianowski and I took
turns waiting for his return. Rain-in-the-Face
hit the loft the fourth day. Unable to
walk, he flapped his wings trying to enter the trap. I went over, picked him up-a mass of dried
blood. One leg was gone. Yet he had made it! A bigger surprise: the leg bearing the message remained intact!
Nothing could be done to save
Rain-in-the-Face, however hard we tried or sad we felt. I comforted myself in the faith that he had
given his life in a soldierly fashion.
We buried him with honor at the base of a cedar tree. Later I learned that the message and map
contained information on German gun positions.
Thanks to our pigeon martyr, Rain-in-the-Face, those guns were silenced
forever. For this reason this brave bird
is permanently etched in my memory.”
Lieutenant Colonel Jerome J. Pratt served as
a pigeoneer in England, France, and Germany, 1944-45, as part of the 285th
Signal Pigeon Company assigned directly under Headquarters, 12th
Army Group. In Courageous Couriers, Memoirs of a Pigeon Soldier, he writes:
“Our assignment to Headquarters, 12th
Army Group, gave us the responsibility of training replacement pigeons for all
the United States and France forces under the Group. As an additional duty, I became the pigeon
advisor for the Chief Signal Officer, European Theater of Operations, and
Signal Officer 12th Army Group.
Also pigeon liaison representative to the British Air Ministry and the
French Army. This gave me the
opportunity to travel all over Europe to observe the employment of pigeons….
To keep up with advancing units, a pigeon
detachment used two lofts in what we called leap-frogging. A loft would be settled near the division
message center at the command post. As
soon as an advance command post was selected the other loft would move up and
start to settle their birds at that location.
When the advance loft became operational, the one to the rear moves
forward to the next advance command post, and so on. From this procedure you can see it was necessary
for the pigeoneers to be up front of the main body of troops at times….
The most needed and desired time for pigeon
communication was at river crossings when the battalion headquarters were
separated from their regiments without wire communications and maintaining
radio silence between the command posts.
Usually the continuous barrage of artillery fire over the river coming
from both sides would delay a foot messenger unit until after dark. When pigeons were available they could be
released during the day and get the message through several hours and sometimes
a full day earlier. Infantry soldiers
carried the pigeons across the rivers in anything they could sling around their
bodies, such as ammunition bags, musette bags, and even a sugar sack.”
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