Military carrier pigeons in the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union sent a total of 150,000 carrier pigeon telegrams

The pigeons are able to discern directions and addresses, and have extraordinary navigational abilities, so they are domesticated by humans for communication and become carrier pigeons. Carrier pigeons are used on the battlefield because of their advantages of accurate transmission of information, strong maneuverability, no terrain restrictions, and no electromagnetic interference. During the Great Patriotic War of the USSR, carrier pigeons performed well. Their timely delivery of information often affects the lives of hundreds of people.

As early as the end of the 19th century, the Russian army introduced carrier pigeons in Germany and other Western European countries. The earliest military carrier pigeon communications department appeared in the fortress of the Warsaw Military District. Before World War I, the Russian army had 10 military carrier pigeon communications departments.

In 1925, the Soviet government adopted a special decision to establish a carrier pigeon sports center "to defend the national interests of the USSR" within the Association for the Promotion of Defense and Aviation Chemical Construction. In 1928, Josef Ürnschlicht, People's Commissar of the Navy, proposed the introduction of the "military carrier pigeon responsibility system" in the Soviet Union to meet the demand for carrier pigeons in the communications sector of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army during wartime.

From 1929 onwards, the Moscow Animal Husbandry Institute began to breed military carrier pigeons for the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army officially included the military carrier pigeon in its equipment. In 1930, the Soviet Union promulgated the "Guide for the Combat Training of the Communication Units of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army on the Military Carrier Pigeon Breeding Unit", which further clarified that the carrier pigeon is an auxiliary means of communication and should be used in special circumstances such as the inability or interruption of technical means. The permanent military carrier pigeon station is included in the military district's communications unit. The mobile military carrier pigeon communications department was incorporated into all infantry and motorized corps sequences of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The training of military carrier pigeon breeders is the responsibility of the Central School of Dog And Pigeon Taming of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

In the first few months after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union, due to the rapid movement of troops and the frequent changes in garrisons, the form of carrier pigeon communication was almost unusable. Each army group of the Nazi Wehrmacht had a fixed pigeon station, and each army had a mobile military carrier pigeon communications department, and it was impossible to use carrier pigeons. However, this did not prevent the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany from closely monitoring each other's carrier pigeons.

Because pigeons were likely to become a secret means of communication in guerrilla warfare, Nazi Germany ordered the occupied inhabitants in an initial directive to have pigeons on the Stock Exchange and eliminate them directly, and to execute them if they harbored disobedience. In the autumn of 1941, the Soviet Union also made regulations for the inhabitants of the Moscow region, prohibiting the hiding of pigeons, otherwise they would be dealt with severely.

There are many surviving military archives documenting the use of carrier pigeons during the defense of Moscow. These tamed carrier pigeons were often released by the command at any time to communicate with the front-line detachments, and they flew regularly in the 7 main and other auxiliary directions in the areas of Moscow, transmitting vital intelligence information.

In the summer of 1942, the reconnaissance group of the Kalinin Front was active frequently in the shallow rear of the Nazi German army, and the pigeons at the carrier pigeon station continuously guaranteed vital communications. In addition, the carrier pigeon "signal soldiers" also made great contributions in the process of the Soviet army's operation across the Dnieper River. In the guerrillas, carrier pigeons are the most reliable means of obtaining and transmitting secret information.

During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, the 12th Guards Infantry Corps of the First Assault Army of the 2nd Baltic Coastal Front was assigned to a carrier pigeon communication company, and the close cooperation between carrier pigeons and scouts effectively guaranteed bilateral communication between the infantry command and the headquarters of various divisions (regiments). The 80 soldiers of the communications company have 90 portable pigeon baskets, and the nearly 500 carrier pigeons they train can fly in 20 directions and pass on more than 4,000 urgent information in half a year. They were sacrificed enormously, either hunted by Snipers of Nazi Germany or killed for other reasons.

According to statistics, during the entire Great Patriotic War, military carrier pigeons sent a total of 150,000 carrier pigeon telegrams, and 30 pigeon trainers were awarded battle medals and medals for participating in the defense of Moscow.

Source: China National Defense Daily