Sheridan Man Recruited to Work with Carrier Pigeons in WWI

Today, most people consider pigeons a nuisance bird. They are messy, leaving feathers and their calling cards on buildings and statues. But, carrier pigeons, which are somewhat different from the Rock Pigeons seen on city streets, being leaner and faster, are an important part of history.

Carrier pigeons have been used for thousands of years as messengers. The first recorded use of these birds was in Ancient Egypt and Greece, where they were used by military forces to carry communications back and forth from the commanders to the troops.

They were used in Roman times and brought news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo back to England. They were used extensively for carrying messages during both of the World Wars, especially during World War I. Fast, small and almost insignificant, the birds could go almost undetected in many instances.

This from the Sheridan Post, February 26, 1918, about a Sheridan man who was recruited due to his work with carrier pigeons. Man Leaving for the Front Enlists at Local Office – Francis W. James, whose family reside at 117 South Sheridan Avenue, departed Saturday for Denver where he will Join the signal corps having been enlisted at the local recruiting station through special permission of the military authorities. James goes to the front to serve as a carrier pigeon expert.

While carrier pigeons have been used to a more or less extent for many years. It seems that there is a scarcity of men capable of handling them and James was accepted for enlistment notwithstanding the fact that he was forty years of age and not up to the regular physical requirements. James has fifty pair of pigeons at his home and for years has used them for carrying messages although he has derived little practical benefit from the birds.

He is an Englishman by birth but made his application for enlistment m the American army. He was turned down by the recruiting sergeant on account of eyesight, but persisted and finally was accepted on orders from Denver.

The Cowley Progress, June 13, 1919, has an article about how pigeons were used in WWI. Pigeons have been Carriers of Vital Messages Ever Since Battle of Marne in 1914. News From Trenches Taken at Full Speed to Headquarters and Supply Lines Information Gained from Captured Pigeons. – Paris, at the Ternes gate may be seen a memorial, on which is Inscribed: “Monument to the Balloonists and Carrier Pigeons of 1870.” What the memorial will acknowledge about the services of carrier pigeons in the world’s war of 1914-1918 remains to be seen, but that their work amid the barrage fire, bursting shrapnel, the zip-zip of machine-gun bullets and the death destroying gases was of enormous value.

Carrier pigeons were used on all the battlefronts, but their best work was on the western front, from the channel to the Swiss border and from the Alps to the Adriatic gulf. They carried messages at the Marne, when the Huns were driven back by Marshal Jeffre. Hundreds were used in the battle of Yser. In Flanders, where the Belgians and the French halted the German advance; and they made many and frequent trips In the first battle Ypres, in the drive on the channel ports when the British, French and Belgians stopped the Germans in 1914. They aided in the capture of Neuve Chapelle by the British and they died in numbers with the British Tommies at the second battle of Ypres, when the Germans advanced toward the Yser canal using for the first-time, poisonous gas. Again, the birds did valiant service when the French tried to break through in the Champagne in the fall of 1915, and in the whole series of the Verdun attacks lasting through July, oftentimes the only communications with men m advanced stations were the dogs that crept through the barrages and the carrier pigeons that returned with messages. Where telephone and wireless broke down, and men could not survive the storm of shell, it is recorded that 97- per cent of the messages carried by carrier pigeons came safely through.

The article continues with this report, U- Boat Is Trapped by Bird– A British patrol boat was discovered by a German submarine and torpedoed and shelled. The skipper, saving on board a carrier pigeon, wrote a brief message, telling his position and what had happened. As the boat sank, the skipper began swimming for some wreckage to cling to. The pigeon went up gradually In it spiral, and the Germans, seeing it began shooting at the bird. The skipper, drifting on the wreckage, gave up hope when he saw the bird had been hit. Twenty miles away, however, it lighted on a patrolling destroyer, its silver-gray plumage specked with blood, its tail feathers shot away, and one of its wings wounded. The commanding officer read the message, the destroyer was rushed at full speed to the place indicated, and within three-quarters of an hour from the time that the pigeon was sent off, the officers and crew of the patrol were picked up where they clung to the wreckage.

As can be seen in this article in the Cowley Progress Big Horn County, December 13, 1919, the pigeons were so important the government waged a war on hawks that would attack and kill the birds. – War on Hawks: So important are the services of carrier pigeons in time of war that any birds that prey upon them are promptly marked for destruction. That is why hawks have been the special target for the American soldiers, as there fierce birds that are so swift of wing take great delight in chasing down the carrier pigeons in active service and making a feast on their tender flesh. To keep the carrier pigeon in active service the hawk must be exterminated, for in attacking the carrier pigeon the hawk virtually attacks the army whose message is entrusted to the carrier pigeon.

The also protected them from hunters, as in the article in the Kaycee Independent, February 21 191 Carrier Pigeons Are Bring Killed by Hunters. Complaints have been made to the pigeon section of the Signal Corp that carrier pigeons of the racing homer type, being trained throughout the United States for communication service with the American Army, have been shot by persons on hunting expeditions. Because of the important part carrier and homing pigeons are playing in the war, and the need for their breeding and development in this country, the War Department has considerably expanded the pigeon section of the Signal Corps. Homing pigeons constitute one of the most effective means of communication in the Army. Any pigeon in the air may be a carrier pigeon flying from a loft under Government supervision. Its destruction may be a serious loss to the American Army. Anyone coming into possession of pigeons labeled “U. S A. — 18.” indicating they are being trained for Army purposes, is requested to report the fact at once to the office of the Chief Signal Officer, Land Division, Washington, D. C.

After the war, the pigeons were put into service with the Forest Service to send messages about forest fires. In the Laramie Semi-Weekly Boomerang, on November 17, 1919 – Carrier Pigeons for Forest Fire Used By Service Washington, Carrier pigeons and equipment of the navy department will be available for the department of agriculture next season tor conveying messages from forest fire fighters at the front to headquarters, says a recent communication from the Department of Agriculture. To establish a successful carrier pigeon system, It will be necessary to lay plans during the coming winter to have the posts properly located and get the birds acclimated and begin their training, flights of 600 miles in a single day have been made, while a distance of 140 to 200 miles means a two- or three-hour flight for the average bird. The distance which would be covered in forest service work are considerably less than this, in most instances the flights from firefighting areas to headquarters being less than fifty miles. The value of the birds in mountainous regions where travel is difficult would be especially great.

Even though pigeons could fly long distances, didn’t mean they didn’t occasionally get tired and figured out a way to rest on their long journey. The from the Kemmerer, Camera Lincoln County, Wyo., November 17, 1920 – Tired Carrier Pigeon Beats Its Way Home on Overland Limited Mr. D. S. Spencer, General Passenger Agent of the 0. S. L. Railroad, returning to Salt Lake City on the Union Pacific system’s Overland Limited, relates the following remarkable incident:

Just after the Limited had emerged from the west portal of ‘Aspen tunnel in western Wyoming, a carrier pigeon, with a message fastened around its neck, alighted on the sill of one of the windows in the dining car. It is probable that the pigeon had lost itself in the darkness of the Aspen Tunnel, and when the lighted train entered, found its way to the window sill. The bird seemed very weary and welcomed the opportunity to rest and move toward its destination at the same time.

Although its presence was watched with deep curiosity by the passengers in the dining car, no attempt was made to disturb the feathered traveler. Even after the train had regained a high degree of speed, the pigeon continued to ride upon the dining car window. At length, however, apparently rested and refreshed, it again took wing in the same direction that the train was moving.

The route of the Union Pacific is that originally trodden by the vast herds of buffalo, antelope, and other wild game that once roamed the western prairies and plateaus; these paths were adopted successively by the Indians, the fur traders and trappers, the gold seekers, the Mormons, the Overland Stagecoaches and the Pony Express riders. At a more recent date this same route been chosen by motorists and named the Lincoln Highway. And still more recently the Mail Planes of the United State government have selected same route for their flight from Chicago to San Francisco, The course of the carrier pigeon is but an additional case of the agreement between human judgement and the unerring instinct of the wild creatures.

We tend to think of camera equipment during World War I as bulky, they did have tiny spy type camera as well, and these cameras have to be very small indeed. This from the The Rock Springs Adviser-News, May 25, 1916 – Pigeons as Photographers. The pigeon of war, though first cousin of the dove of peace, has become an important factor in modern warfare. In this war he has acquired, it is said, special value as a photographer, a messenger and a spy. Equipped with a camera peculiarly designed for bis purpose, he can dodge shells and aeroplanes and penetrate the enemy’s lines until their Innermost secrets are recorded by his lens.

The tiny camera is fastened under the bird’s body, where It will not impede flying. Its shutter works automatically. The birds are trained as ordinary carrier pigeons— In fact they are still used to some extent to carry messages — but it is as scouts that they have become indispensable to practically every army in Europe. The French have made the most thorough a test of the war pigeons’ efficiency and their conclusions have resulted in the addition of many automobile pigeon houses to the general army equipment.

So, today, when we see pigeons flying around a town, remember that the carrier pigeon once performed a valuable service to our nation, and to many other cultures as well.