Pigeons!

[shrike6]

I wonder if low tech communication solutions might have been brought back toward the back end of the Twilight War.

https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/why-the-army-had-a-highly-decorated-pigeon-unit/

[pmulcahy11b]

I'm sorry -- every time I think of pigeons I think of that scene in High Anxiety where Mel Brooks is running through the park in terror, pursued by dozens of dive-crapping pigeons...

[swaghauler]

"You see rats with wings. I see the internet. It can't be hacked, it can't be shut down."

UNLESS... they fly the wrong way or get hit with a shotgun blast of birdshot.

"You're flying the wrong way! BLOODY TRAITORS!"


bonus points if you identify the two movies these lines come from.

Swag.

[Questerr]

Even Morse code from a spark gap generator radio is going to be more effective than pigeons.

[swaghauler]

Even Morse code from a spark gap generator radio is going to be more effective than pigeons.

We actually had a thread in this forum started by Olefin about telegraphs and telephones. I don't think most people realize just how easy it is to restore ANALOG phone systems. Indeed NATO's whole wired communications systems were DESIGNED to easily integrate into or replace the civilian ANALOG phone system.

[swaghauler]

No guesses on my quotes?

The first is from a very recent movie

The second is from a Classic war movie about WWII.

Swag.

[.45cultist]

Pigeons will most likely be sought as a food instead of a message system. During the depression pigeons replaced the more valuable hen in a pot or two.

[Ursus Maior]

Pigeons will most likely be sought as a food instead of a message system. During the depression pigeons replaced the more valuable hen in a pot or two.

Where I come from in Germay, pigeons were reared by many working class men as both: hobby and food supply until quite recently, i. e. at least the 1990s. Recreational rearing is still a thing with older blue collar type people, but the food aspect is largely gone. There were whole social clubs formed around pigeon rearing as many of these people had small plots of land which was used for vegetable growing, rearing pigeons and chicken as well as recreational gardening and of course parties.

Obviously, chicken were valuable for their eggs, so you didn't slaughter them very often. But a prized pigeon was worth a lot, too, so they weren't exactly a daily addition to menus.

[pmulcahy11b]

Hmmm...do I have pigeons on my Animals page...

[swaghauler]

Ok, my first reference was Lawrence Fishburn in John Wick Parabellum.

The second reference is the English reporter's in the Longest Day (when the homing pigeons fly inland instead of to England).

[Vespers War]

Pigeons will most likely be sought as a food instead of a message system. During the depression pigeons replaced the more valuable hen in a pot or two.

We can't have people eating our bomb guidance systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon)!

[Spartan-117]

There is a great pigeon museum in Oklahoma City that has a good collection of military history about their use in the Signal Corps.

[Spartan-117]

and I found my pics from there...

Combat Jumper w/Pigeons! & Pigeon holsters...

http://harbinger.twilightwar.net/ATW.jpeg

WW2 Mobile Pigeon Loft and radio relay setup.

http://harbinger.twilightwar.net/lofts2.JPG

http://harbinger.twilightwar.net/lofts3.JPG

[The Zappster]

Are those quick draw pigeon holsters ?

[Tegyrius]

High-capacity assault pigeons.

- C.

[swaghauler]

High-capacity assault pigeons.

- C.

I want one!

... as long as I don't have to clean up after it!

[Tegyrius]

I want one!

... as long as I don't have to clean up after it!

Don't worry. The mess will be someone else's problem.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Pigeon_%28project%29.jpg

(Hat tip to Vespers War for already linking to this madness.)

- C.

[Vespers War]

I know we've mostly been joking about pigeons, but a Twitter account dedicated to military pigeons (appropriately, @MilitaryPigeons) posted a sketch from a Marine in Iraq in 2003 of one of their chemical detection pigeons:
https://twitter.com/MilitaryPigeons/status/1562475308858585088?s=20&t=1oaPBLPd11ZU096s9twPJA

There was also a link to a blog post (https://pigeonsofwar.wordpress.com/2022/07/15/pigeons-in-the-iraq-war/) about how the Marines acquired 175 pigeons to serve in that role, after chickens failed because they couldn't survive the climate, along with an interview (https://pigeonsofwar.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/pigeons-in-the-iraq-war-interview-with-stacy-jeambert-former-chief-warrant-officer-for-the-1st-marine-division/) with the CWO responsible for the program.

There are other mentions on that account of the Swiss program that ended in 1994, which likely would have been around longer in a Twilight War scenario. There's also an article on the blog about China's still-active pigeon service, which has been around since 1950. France still has a single military dovecote with around 200 partially-trained birds, used for ceremonial displays but with the awareness that they could be useful in case of a blackout situation.

It would require more logistical preparation than most PC parties could put together, but a network of dovecotes in either CivGov or MilGov territory wouldn't be out of the question, particularly since they only need about 2 ounces of feed per bird per day. It's a relatively low resource commitment in exchange for a reasonably reliable messaging system (British analysis after WW1 was that ~95% of messages got through, and some later breeding/training systems had rates as high as 98%).

[Wolf sword]

This goes into how the use of pigeons for intelligence communications was rebuilt for WW2 (and you will wonder on how the allied intelligence system got anything done or worked at all. My take is the other side was even worse at it then we were.)