Operation Columba
As part of Operation Columba , the British Army obtained information that was important to the war effort by means of carrier pigeons during World War II . In France, Belgium and the Netherlands, aircraft in cages dropped pigeons from England over occupied Western Europe. In this way, the civilian population could send messages to Great Britain without encryption technology.
Course and Success
From April 8, 1941, the British Secret Service ( MI14d ) sold such pigeons. They were intended to be used as flying couriers for reports from areas occupied by the Wehrmacht.
Operation Columba ended on February 14, 1945. 17,000 birds had been dropped in three and a half years. Only ten percent made it back alive, about 1000 messages were delivered with them and evaluated.
A message exposed u. a. the location of the German Wehrmacht communication center near Bruges for the entire canal coast in the Belgian castle Château de Tilleghem (near Bruges / Bruge; nl: Kasteel van Tillegem). As part of the Dutch resistance against Nazi Germany , the Catholic priest Joseph Raskin reported on it and sent a precise map of the situation of many military facilities. Raskin was therefore murdered on October 18, 1943 after a judgment by a special court under Freisler .
The Wehrmacht used snipers and hunting falcons against these pigeons.
See also
- Taubenpost (history of the T.)
literature
- Gordon Corera: Operation Columba - The Secret Pigeon Service: The Untold Story of World War II Resistance in Europe. Publisher William Morrow Paperbacks, 352 pages (English)
Remarks
- ↑ Arne Molfenter: With carrier pigeons against the Wehrmacht . Spiegel Online , April 3, 2019; accessed on April 3, 2019
- ↑ Pater Raskin in de both wereldoorlogen, J. de Vroey, Hertogelijke Aarschotse Kring voor Heemkunde, 1992 (language: nl)