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Military officials considered sending flocks of homing pigeons armed with biological warfare agents against enemy targets, a secret report for British intelligence chiefs said.
The plan, developed by an enthusiastic wing commander immediately after the second world war, is revealed in MI5 files released today. There were also plans to train birds carrying explosives to fly into enemy searchlights.
By the end of the war conventional uses of pigeons had been rendered obsolete by radio and telephone, and the armed forces told Whitehall's Joint Intelligence Committee they would no longer pay for bird lofts. The re-evaluation is documented in three files labelled "Pigeon Policy", which record inter-departmental disputes over budgets.
To keep the birds on hand just in case, the military decided to maintain a loft in peace time. MI6 offered

Pidgeons as flying bombs - those military guys can be real a$$holes!  >:(

[quote]Pidgeons as flying bombs - those military guys can be real a$$holes!

Yup Felix, the feathered b******ds frequently 'bomb' my car once I've finished washing it!
I hate pigeons >:( >:( >:( >:( Anyone know where I can pick up an AA gun cheap to use in the park behind my flat?

Yup Felix, the feathered b******ds frequently 'bomb' my car once I've finished washing it!
I hate pigeons >:( >:( >:( >:( Anyone know where I can pick up an AA gun cheap to use in the park behind my flat?

Helium filled balloons, with razor wire; or lifting an electrified wire mesh?

You know, this may just solve our over weight JSF problem. Pigeons are smaller, lighter, cheaper and can land and take off vertically, no doubt with their full 2oz war load, and from one of our toy aircraft carriers.

Now THAT was funny Roger

This thread is getting dangerously close to getting moved to the Caf

Also during WWII the U.S. military experimented in using bats with small explosives attached to them for use in starting fires in Japan.  I don't think it got beyond experiments but the thought was that most of the buildings in Japanese cities were wood and the bats would find dark places to hide til the timers ignited the explosives.  I read this in a magazine several years ago.

Jim

The problem with Homing Pigeons is that they home to their home and nowhere else.  You can just imagine trying to get them into Moscow, then back to London for Arming and then released in time to win a war.

Bad idea IMHO.

[quote]Pidgeons as flying bombs - those military guys can be real a$$holes!

It's always seemed a shame to me that the human race would even consider training animals to (unwittingly) sacrifice themselves for our stupid quarrels. I think we've always been quite capable of finding effective ways of sending ourselves to oblivion without their help.

Didnt the Navy experiment with using dolphins as torpedos?  Or at least to seek out underwater mines?  Seems like I remember reading/seeing that somewhere.

Yup both the US and Soviets trained dolphins to place mines on ships in port