Report on pigeons in East Africa, April 29, 1943

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/6546  #02, #41, #42

Royal Air Force Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, 1939-1943

Supermarine Spitfire Mark Vs of No. 322 Wing RAF, parked in their dispersals at Tingley, Algeria. In the foreground Mark VBs ES187 'C' and ES191 'T' of No. 154 Squadron RAF are being brought to readiness for a patrol. Note the extensive use of pierced steel planking (PSP) to surface the dispersals and taxiways.  Photo by Official RAF photographer Flight Lieutenant Bertrand John Henry Daventry.  Imperial War Museum  © IWM (CNA 278)

2500 pigeons needed from South Africa, May 1943

Commonwealth Joint Air Training Plan, No 23 Air School at Waterkloof, Pretoria, South Africa, January 1943

Training air machine gunners at No 23 Air School. Pupils waiting to take a turn in the power turret rig. The target is a motorized rail buggy which orbited the track at around 40 mph. The Askari native orderlies replenished the ammunition and collected the cases from fired rounds.

Photo by Lt. L. Chetwyn, War Office official photographer.  Imperial War Museum  © IWM (TR 1260)

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

AIR23/6546  #24, #25, #35, #36

Commonwealth Joint Air Training Plan, No 23 Air School at Waterkloof, Pretoria, South Africa, January 1943

An RAF pipe band formed by Group Captain Dalzell marches towards the entrance of a camp at Kumalo, near Bulawayo.  Photo by Lt. L. Chetwyn, War Office official photographer.  Imperial War Museum         © IWM (TR 1257)

Commonwealth Joint Air Training Plan, No 23 Air School at Waterkloof, Pretoria, South Africa, January 1943

An Askari native guards an aircraft with an assegai.  Photo by Lt. L. Chetwyn, War Office official photographer.  Imperial War Museum © IWM (TR 1262)

NOMAD pigeons, April 1943

Nomad | Definition of Nomad by Merriam-Webster

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nomad

Nomad definition is - a member of a people who have no fixed residence but move from place to place usually seasonally and within a well-defined territory.

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

Catalog numbers: AIR23/6546  #28, #29, #30, #31, #32,

Plot of 2019 novel centers around Britain's National Pigeon Service

From John Scognamiglio Books, Kensington Publishing

Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours—a moving, masterfully written story of love and sacrifice.

It is September 1940—a year into the war—and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan—loyal, intelligent, beautiful—but none more so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather’s desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world. 

Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements—and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe.

The friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens as the mission date draws near. When Ollie’s plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess’s devotion and her singular sense of duty will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on—and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.

568 pigeons sent on service, Cyprus, November 1943

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/1002  #01, #17, #20, #23

Portsmouth museum displays Gustav's Dickin Medal

The D-Day Story is located in Portsmouth on the south coast of England.  On June 6, 1944 Gustav was released from an Allied ship off the coast of Normandy.  He flew to Thorney Island, near Portsmouth, with the first message from the beaches.  In 1944, Gustav was awarded the PDSA Dickin Medla, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.  Gustav was owned by a Portsmouth man and his Dickin Medal is on loan to
 The D-Day Story. His owner's Identity Card and Pigeon Service Badge are also on display along with a pigeon message container and a bronze model of Gustav that visitors are invited to touch.

Below is a photo taken by Frank A. Blazich, Jr., Curator of Modern Military History at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., of the plush Gustav available for sale in the museum gift shop.