Pigeons in Wartime

My father, along with lots of other miners in the Nottm area kept and raced pigeons.
When the war started in 1939, he joined the National Pigeon Service, mainly I think because by doing this, he was allowed a ration of corn which kept his birds in better condition for racing. Pigeons were used by the military for carrying messages.Troops sometimes took them on operations, and each bomber in the RAF on operations carried one to use in the event of the aircraft being shot down.Each week, usually on a Tuesday,army transport would arrive at our house and request 6 birds.These birds were selected by us, not the army, as being more suitable for the task.I understand, from speaking to the drivers that they were taken to Louth in Lincolnshire where lots of bombers operated from and were distributed from there. Some were sent on missions,and the others, if not used, would be released after 5 days to return home to us.Each bird was fitted with a bakalite ring (plastic was not invented yet)with a slot in it.The message container was slotted into it and twisted to secure it.When a bird arrived at the loft,(we had to keep a constant vigil) we had to check whether or not it carried a message.If so (and this happened quite often)we had to twist the container to release it, then dash to the nearest telephone and phone a special number.I can still remember that number,it was Nottm 77841 and ask for ext14.Within about 20 mins an army despatch rider would come roaring down the street to collect it. I thought it was most exiting at the time,as I was only a kid at school and I felt quite important supporting the war effort.We actually got paid 2d for each phone call, and I believe 6d for each message.Sometimes the birds never returned, and we could only guess at what had happened to them.we did get one back covered in blood with amessage on, but I suppose that it could have been caught by a bird of prey, or touched some wires on its flight back.The government gave us a lovely lapel badge with a pigeon on and inscribed NPS.Unfortunately,dad is now gone and I am not sure what happened to it.I would have loved to have kept it.I was always late for school on Tuesdays as I had to wait for the army to collect the birds (dad was usually at work down the pit)and no one else knew which birds were to be sent, or how to catch them. Fortunately,the teaching staff fully understood and I had no problems there.On the second year of the war,the NPS gave us 6 rings and asked us to breed 6 birds for them.They were taken by the military before they could fly, to be placed in official RAF pigeon lofts, as by this time, the RAF had decided to set up their own lofts so that birds could be trained by them, and fly directly to them. (sort of cut out the middle man) We remained in the NPS right until the war ended, and never got as much as a thank you.

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