Evening star., 1943-03-25
Pigeons Substitute
For Radio in Fight
On Axis Submarines
Carriers Also Doing Job
For Air Forces; One Duty
Is d Military Secret
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Pigeons are helping to fight Axis
submarines off the coasts of North
and South America.
The husky little birds, which can
fly hundreds of miles day. also are
saving lives and winning decorations.
Despite the mechanization of mod
ern war-in fact. because of it
pigeons are again gaining promi-
nence in the war picture.
Radio for a time threatened to
push them aside. Walkie- -talkies
took their place for short distance
communications. Short-Wave radio
handled messages over longer dis
tances more speedily.
But there was hitch or two. For
one thing radios could 60 out of
order and repairs couldn't be made
on the spot
More important, though, was the
fact that the enemy always could
pick up radio signals. Maybe he
couldn't read the codes, but he could
tell message was being sent.
Ail-Important Factor.
That is all important in anti
submarine work. A plane flying high
over the seas can spot sub well be-
meath the surface. But the pilot isn't
always ready to dump bombs. Some
times he has to call for help. has
already used his bombs. When he
radioed the subs location to his base.
the sub heard his signals and headed
away-fast.
Now, when a sub is sighted, the
pilot doesn't have to open his radio
key. Instead he opens hatch and
releases a pigeon. The bird heads
for home at better than 40 miles an
hour-some with favorable winds
have done close to 100-and delivers
the information on latitude and
longitude of a sub, Other planes ar
rive without radio silence being
broken. They'll get the sub.
Just how many times pigeons have
played part in Kidding the seas Of
another underwater raider can't be
disclosed. Air Force men merely
smile-"They're doing their work"
They're doing lot more than
battle the subs, too. Under the re-
Gently established program to use
pigeons in the Air Forces, pigeons
are working in the Ferry Command,
the Transport Command, with aerial
troop transports, with paratroopers,
and in the big bombers that are
smashing at Axis industry and ship
ping. Perhaps they'll soon fly with
the fighter pilots.
Fly 500 Miles in Day.
In ali those jobs their principal
duty still is substitution for radio
in event OF radio failure or under
conditions when radio silence must
be maintained.
In their new assignments the
pigeons are expected to fly home with
information in the event a plane is
forced down at sea or in the wilder
ness. They can travel an average of
500 miles day over the sea. and
when they tire, they'll go to the
nearest ship and perch in the rig
ging. A message attached to the
leg of pigeon would bear the lati-
tude and longitude of the disabled
plane and help can speedily be dis
patched.
IT Capt Rickenbacker had had
pigeons are expected to fly home with
would have landed on the first ship
and rescue parties would have
reached him in possibly a couple of
days" said Capt. Thomas MacClure
who is directing the pigeon program
for the Air Forces. Capt. Ricken-
hacker was at sea in a rubber raft
for 81 days.
Capt. MacClure, a Scot who has
raised carrier pigeons since he was
8 years old, has every statistic at his
finger tips about the use Of the
teathered members of the Air Forces.
Military Secrets.
Most of the figures are military
secrets, They include data on
heights at which pigeons can be
released from planes-weu above
the height where humans must don
oxygen masks; speed of planes
at the time pigeons are released
we haven't found too fast a speed
yet and the number of pigeons to
be used by the Air Forces-"you can
say scores of thousands"
Thousands of the birds already
are in service outside the United