Pigeon Questions and Intelligence on Coastal Defenses

 

(c) Crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, Kew, UK

Catalog numbers: 

ADM199/2475  #201, #202, #203, #204, #206, #207, #208, #409, #410, #411

 

This post includes the list of questions for the questionnaire referenced in the letter above, a pigeon message, and intelligence on  the defense system built by the Germans on the coast of France.  I included the defense pages because I found it interesting to

read what was known in early 1943 and to learn the sources of that intelligence.

     The questionnaire was dropped with pigeons into Occupied Europe as part of Operation Columba.  When people found the pigeon, they sent the pigeon back with their answers. Operation Columba produced useful intelligence, but thousands of pigeons didn’t return because they weren’t found and died alone in their containers, they were eaten, they were shot by snipers, or killed by hawks.  R.I.P. brave birds.