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.

New Orleans Glassworks and Printmaking Studio Honors World War II Pigeons

Check out the photos on their site:

http://neworleansglassworks.com/

Pigeoneer's Operations Manual

On training pigeons, from “Loft Manager and Pigeons,” Racing Pigeon Digest, July 2019:

“With the young pigeons it is exactly the same as with the old pigeons.  They like to train, listen well and eat as if their lives depend on it.”

                                                          Pigeon in Rome
                                                       Photo by D. Truong

Elizabeth Macalaster contributed this link to Frank Hauck’s Operations Manual.  Macalaster is working on A Call to Duty, a book about the American World War II pigeons.

https://frankhauck.blogspot.com/

 Poem from The Pigeons That Went to War by Gordon H. Hayes

 Far Up Front

The American Pigeon, brave and bright

Awaits the signal for another flight

To carry a message for the commander’s sight.

The whir and whistle of the flying shell

Envelops the platoon in a fiery hell.

The prospect fierce, the strain intense-

A pigeon released to call for defense.

The message delivered

It zooms skyward

For instinct sure and valiance known,

Back to its loft it speeds alone.

The roar of battle, the mortar mid-air

Would slow it not nor cause despair

The hawkish shrapnel claims its prey-

Another war pigeon aft a hapless fray.

Some are fortunate, others are not,

While many live, many may not.

Struck in the heart the pigeon bled

It faltered not, nor its courage fled-

Desperate and struggling to reach its goal

To deliver the SOS of many a soul

Hands went quick and minds click,

Instantly the action went thick

Out went support, the situation won,

The weary soldiers thanked a pigeon.

The even sun sank westward ho;

The course of battle to and fro;

Another death has stirred the scroll-

A pigeon was etched on the honor roll.

                                               Sgt. Edward E. Reicher

Florence, Italy

May 23, 1944

Middle East Pigeon Service Report February 24, 1943

Pigeon in Rome
Photo by D. Truong

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/998  #45, #46

Instructions for Middle East Pigeon Service Personnel, 1943

RAF Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, 1939-43

Westland Lysander Mark I, L4677, of No. 208 Sqn RAF, flying along the waterfront at Beirut, Lebanon, shortly after its capture.  Photo by RAF Official Photographer.  Imperial War Museum.  © IWM (ME(RAF) 1783)

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/993  #04, #05, #06, #07, #08, #09, #10, #11

Pigeons in Iraq, April 1943

Pigeon in Rome

Photo by Dora Truong

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/998  #40, #41, #42, #43, #44

Report on Visit to Western Desert, March 1943

 

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

Catalog numbers:  AIR23/998  #01, #36, #37

You can use the scroll bar at the bottom of the page to center the documents.

The British Army in North Africa, January 27, 1943

General Montgomery stands beside a Grant command tank near Tripoli, January 27 1943.

Photo by Captain Poston, No. 1 Army Film and Photographic Unit.  Imperial War Museum © IWM (E 21701)