MEDALS and MEMORIES: Feathers, Fur and Hide
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MEDALS AND MEMORIES: Feathers, Fur and Hide Character Education • Distinguish between instinctual, learned and voluntary behaviours • Explore the motivations for going beyond minimal expectations • Develop a broader understanding of service Facts MEDALS AND MEMORIES MINUTES • Pigeon 1060 of the Royal Canadian Air Force flew many successful missions from submarines Another Look at • Of the 30,000 messages sent by the American Pigeon Service, 96% reached their destination Monte Cassino • The Royal Air Force (RAF) estimated that one in seven At the beginning of 1944 forced down airmen owed his life to a pigeon during the battle for Monte Before the Reading Cassino on the outskirts of Rome, a company of Nepali • List all the good and bad characteristics of pigeons Ghurkhas and British troops • Bird-brained, stool pigeon, etc. What other phrases or sayings do you know that have to do with birds? What were pinned down on People’s Dispensary for do they mean? Sick Animals Hangman’s Hill, a rock out- PDSA Dickin Medal • Tell any stories that you know that have to do with cropping near the monastery birds; list any songs. What do the birds stand for in on the hill. American bombers dropped food and these stories and songs? water for them, but, much of it fell into German Reading # 1 hands. Cut off from their lines for nine days, the situ- ation seemed hopeless. Finally three British volun- Feathered Warriors and the Meaning of Service teers, each with a haversack containing an American The feathered warriors of WWI and WWII made significant contributions to the Allied war efforts. Mary served with the homing pigeon, set off by three different routes to try Allied Forces for five years in WWII during which time she to penetrate the German lines. One man was pinned was wounded 22 times; she died in action. A wounded down by machine gun fire, but, the other two man- G.I. Joe flew 32 km in 20 minutes to save 1000 British FUR AND HIDE aged to get through. All three men sent messages , lives. In WWI in Alsace-Lorraine, a grievously wounded Mocker provided the location of punishing enemy guns so about their routes to headquarters. That night Allied FEATHERS that artillery could silence them. Before his last fateful guns provided the fire to clear an escape route along 2009: flight, Mocker had completed 52 missions. the safe paths the scouts had identified. Three men For their extraordinary efforts these three received among and three pigeons saved the day. EMEMBRANCE them a Distinguished Service Medal, a Croix de Guerre R EADING AND 8 R OF 1 Reading and Remembrance 2009 | ReadingAndRemembrance.ca PAGE and three PDSA Dickin Medals, the equivalent of the Victoria Cross. In WWII nearly 250,000 military pigeons MEDALS AND MEMORIES MINUTES served with British, American, Australian and Canadian forces in Italy, Greece, North Africa, India, Middle and Far Mon Cher Ami East. The homing pigeon unit in the U.S. Army Signal October 4, 1918, the Corps contained more than 3000 soldiers and 150 offi- American 77th Infantry cers who cared for 54,000 military pigeons and deployed them for reconnaissance, espionage and search and res- Division of 500 men was down cue missions. to just around 200. The men A British bird, called White Vision, provides an example of were trapped in a small how homing pigeons aboard RAF aircraft enabled search depression on the side of a and rescue. In October 1943 a Catalina Flying Boat with hill and surrounded by enemy radio and engine failure ditched in the sea off the soldiers. Major Whittlesey had unsuccessfully sent out Hebrides. The search was called off when thick mists several pigeons to tell his commanders where the divi- made locating the plane impossible. Nine hours after the sion was. When the American command, not know- plane was stranded, White Vision set off with the plane’s ing exactly where the 77th was located, started drop- location. Flying almost 100 km over rough seas against a ping big shells right on top of them the Major sent headwind of 40 kph and a visibility range of 180–270 metres, White Vision delivered her message. The search for his last bird, Cher Ami. resumed and all 11 crew members were rescued. The Germans saw Cher Ami rising out of the brush During WWII, 717 pigeons brought back news of downed and opened fire. For several minutes Cher Ami rose planes. Pigeons carried maps, photographs and cameras. through the hail of bullets, but then, he was hit. The Britain’s Secret Service MI5 trained pigeons for espionage doomed American infantrymen looked on in despair and kept them in secret lofts in Dover. These avian spies as their last hope started to plummet to earth. Then were parachuted behind enemy lines from bombers with somehow miraculously Cher Ami spread his wings instructions for resistance fighters to write messages with and started to climb and climb—out of the reach of significant intelligence. Dodging bullets and German fal- cons, the birds returned their coded messages to Bletchley the enemy guns. When the wounded bird reached Park, home to Britain’s code-breakers. The MI5 flock his coop, the soldier that answered the bell wire he brought back film of the V1 flying bombs being built in had tripped found him lying on his back covered in German factories; they also brought back reconnaissance blood. He had been blinded in one eye and had a for D-Day landings. hole the size of a quarter in his chest. Attached to his Pigeon espionage took on an interesting twist when birds almost severed leg was the silver canister with the wearing the tags of captured German pigeons became life-saving message. double agents and managed to infiltrate Nazi lofts. When the Germans unsuspectingly used the British birds, they Dedicated medics saved Cher flew home carrying their intercepted messages with them. Ami’s life but couldn’t save his Captured German pigeons were even put to work breed- leg; they did carve a small ing English pigeons for the war effort. The most famous wooden leg for him. When the FUR AND HIDE German prisoner of war, named Kaiser, was captured by , American forces in the Battle of the Meuse in 1918. When one legged hero was well Kaiser died at 32 years of age, he had contributed many enough to travel, General FEATHERS intelligent, fast and beautiful descendants. Pershing, the commander of the 2009: Croix de guerre Some pigeons were trained to fly at night; some went U.S. Army personally saw him off. The French presented along with paratroopers and submarines to photograph EMEMBRANCE Cher Ami with a Croix de guerre with a palm leaf. R the enemy’s fleet strength and targets for attack. Feathered service was not, however, one-sided. S.S. Chief Cher Ami had saved 194 lives. EADING AND 8 R OF 2 ReadingAndRemembrance.ca PAGE Heinrich Himmler, a well-known pigeon fancier, used pigeons for what was intended to be pre-invasion intelli- MEDALS AND MEMORIES MINUTES gence. When birds, probably dropped off in baskets by high-speed boats or submarines, were seen winging from The Nine Lives of England towards France, MI5 tamed and trained its own Simon the Cat counter force. The National Pigeon Service Special Simon was a stray cat on Hong Section, “Birds of Prey”, set up an airborne net of pere- Kong’s Stonecutter’s Island grine falcons over the Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast until he was taken on as a early in 1942. mascot for the British Naval In March 1944, knowing that the Allied invasion was frigate HMS Amethyst. Simon’s imminent the Germans started their own pigeon counter playfulness amused the ship’s crew—especially when measures. They parachuted hundreds of supposedly British he fished ice-cubes out of a jug of water. Things pigeons over France with a packet of English cigarettes as became serious for Simon in 1949 when The proof of their bona fides and instructions that the English Amethyst headed up the Yangtze River was bombard- required the names of local patriots. The trick didn’t work ed by artillery fire killing 17 men including the cap- as genuine British birds came with the message to only tain. Simon was sleeping in the Captain’s cabin use a nom de plume and with a copy of the most recent when it took a direct hit from a shell. With whiskers edition of a London-based newspaper. The Free French network of secret agents had also warned of the German and eyebrows burnt off, fur singed, gashes in his “stool pigeons” advising their people to smoke the ciga- back and legs and punctured lungs, the little cat was rettes and eat the pigeons. not expected to survive. Simon’s amazing survival and recovery revived the spirits of the demoralized Remembrance Day allows us to consider and be thankful crew, especially as the grounded ship was soon for the sacrifices of the men and women who fought for invaded by hordes of rats. During the three months the freedoms we enjoy. Let us remember as well the feath- the ship was stranded, Simon took on the task of ered friends who saved many lives through their service to the Allied cause. protecting the ship’s dwindling food supplies. He waged intense war on the rats and hunted down as After the Reading many as he could. When Simon wasn’t on rat-catcher duty, he and the ship’s terrier dog played with and • What parts of this reading did you find funny or sur- comforted their weary shipmates.