(c) Crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The
National Archives, London, UK
Catalog numbers: CAB154 #35001,
#35002, #35003, #35004, #35005, #35006, #35012, #35013
British War Office and War
Cabinet correspondence from 1943 points to the use of pigeons to drop
questionnaires written to fool the Germans and the local population about where
subsequent Allied military operations would take place.
This was just one component
of Operation Cockade. Here is a link to
an explanation of Operation Cockade:
Pigeons had been dropped with
questionnaires into occupied Europe by the British since 1941. This was Operation Columba. Residents of occupied Europe sent the pigeons
back to Britain with intelligence about the Germans. There is more information about Operation
Columba in an earlier post “The Brave Message Writers of Occupied Europe-WW2.”
What you can see from this
correspondence is that the questionnaires dropped with the pigeons into certain
regions were rewritten as part of the deception plan which was Operation
Cockade.
Note above the handwritten reference to the the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E).
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