Military Pigeon History & Research
Pigeons of War explores the history of homing pigeons in military, maritime, and emergency communications, from antiquity to the modern era.
Recent Articles
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Pigeons in the Siege of Antwerp, 1832
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 is perhaps the most well known instance of pigeons being used to carry information in and out of a city during a siege. But nearly 40 years earlier, the Dutch military used pigeons in a…
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Pigeons in the Hut Tax War of Sierra Leone, 1898
When did the British Army first use pigeons in combat? World War One? The Boer War? The answer is the Hut Tax War of 1898, a relatively obscure colonial uprising in Sierra Leone. This week, we take a look at…
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Pigeons in the Arctic: Part III: Sir John Ross’s 1850-51 Search for the Lost Franklin Bay Expedition
We’ve previously written about how Arctic explorers relied on homing pigeons in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Recently, we uncovered facts demonstrating that Royal Navy personnel brought homing pigeons with them as they searched for the Lost Franklin…
