General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Groth on March 26, 2015, 10:03:00 PM
Title: Pigeons......
Post by: Groth on March 26, 2015, 10:03:00 PM
"All RAF bombers and reconnaissance aircraft carried pigeons and, if the aircraft had to ditch, the plane’s co-ordinates were sent back with the pigeon to its RAF base and a search and rescue operation was effected. Thousands of servicemen’s lives were saved by these heroic birds that flew often in extreme circumstances." http://www.rpra.org/pigeon-history/pigeons-in-war/ (http://www.rpra.org/pigeon-history/pigeons-in-war/) Fascinating....can't make this stuff up....peoples lives depended on this humble animals... JGroth
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: Ack-Ack on March 26, 2015, 10:07:20 PM
There was a carrier pigeon in WW1 that was given the French "Croix de Guerre with Palm" for delivering messages during the Battle of Verdun and for saving an US battalion. A number of pigeons were also given the "Dicken Medal" by the Allies during WW2.
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: DmonSlyr on March 26, 2015, 10:15:45 PM
How did they know they know where to go? Always been the biggest mystery to me. Crazy stuff how the birds were able to fly to the right location.
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: DubiousKB on March 27, 2015, 08:59:03 AM
They weren't called "homing pigeons" for nothing. It's a going home to roost sorta thing. Same way any migratory bird travels, internal magnetic compass.
I didn't realize they were awarded medals, very cool. :salute
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: caldera on March 27, 2015, 09:40:01 AM
Quote
I didn't realize they were awarded medals, very cool.
Given the choice, they probably would have preferred monuments. ;)
From what I understand, While the Russian where training these dogs, they would use their own vehicles but made them look like german Half-tracks and supply trucks. However during combat, the chaos of battle would frighten the dogs and rather than run to the german vehicles they instead ran to Russian vehicles and positions. Turns out the russians trained they dogs with vehicles that used Diesel, while the Germans used Gasoline in most of their trucks. When they dogs were startled by the loud noises of explosions and gun fire, they'd run to the vehicles that smelled like Diesel.
<S> Russian Anti-Tank Dogs. Gone but not forgoten
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: Chris79 on March 27, 2015, 11:11:33 AM
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: Drano on March 27, 2015, 11:31:30 AM
Those pesky pigeons don't always get it right. Brought this scene to mind. :D
FF to about the 2:00 mark
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: FBKampfer on March 27, 2015, 12:13:23 PM
Was going to say, I thought the Russian suicide dogs hurt them more than they helped. They probably wouldn't have gotten a Hero of the Soviet Union medal even if they had lived.
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: lyric1 on March 27, 2015, 03:23:38 PM
My Pigeon has a bit of a fetish & a lot more freaky.
Was going to say, I thought the Russian suicide dogs hurt them more than they helped. They probably wouldn't have gotten a Hero of the Soviet Union medal even if they had lived.
In the book "Eastern Inferno" the author recounts a battle where the Soviets let loose their anti-tank dogs, the author seemed to be quite terrified of them in his recounting of the story and mentioned the losses of a few tanks by the dogs.
ack-ack
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: DREDIOCK on March 28, 2015, 01:44:08 AM
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: FLOOB on March 28, 2015, 05:13:38 AM
Expermental pidgeon missle guidance was a real thing.
Title: Re: Pigeons......
Post by: eagl on March 28, 2015, 02:12:49 PM
One nation's coast guard was putting pigeons into special windowed areas for oceanic search and rescue. Each pigeon had a window that looked out into a sector (left and right was the minimum setup), and was trained to peck a button whenever they saw international orange. The documentary said the initial results were promising but I don't know if it ever worked out and became widespread.