Read e-book online Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the PDF

Secret Pigeon provider is an unique piece of research, bringing a new desiring to ‘air force’. Corera makes use of declassified records with unique reporting from throughout Europe and can pay homage to the households of these who risked their lives to ship again messages, melding the human tales with the broader tale of the war.

Everyone has heard of MI5 and MI6. a few will also have heard of MI9 which helped downed airmen break out in international warfare II. yet few will recognize of MI14(d) – the ‘Special Pigeon Service’.

From 1941 although 1944, 16 thousand pigeons have been dropped in an arc from Bordeaux in Southern France to Copenhagen in Denmark as a part of ‘Columba’ – a mystery British operation to deliver again intelligence from these dwelling less than Nazi profession. In a conflict that started with Blitzkrieg and ended with the atom bomb, pigeons had a distinct position in intelligence. lengthy sooner than Twitter, social media and glossy communications know-how, the near-miraculous skill of expert pigeons to come back to their domestic loft whether dropped in a wierd position countless numbers of miles away provided an unrivalled technique of receiving information and speaking in mystery in near-real time.

In a formerly unheard account, which follows the Belgian intelligence mobilephone named ‘Leopold Vindictive’, led by way of a clergyman named Jozef Raskin, Gordon Corera uncovers the secrets and techniques of this such a lot designated aerial mystery unit. Columba tells the compelling tale of ways a clergyman, a flock, and 3mm tubes containing conflict intel conspired jointly and have become an important strength on the planet of intelligence through the moment global War.