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as a means for locals to convey information, such as troop movements, to
British intelligence. From 1940 onwards, hundreds of pigeon cases were parachuted into Europe, each case including – apart from the pigeon – sheets of very thin paper, a special pencil and a tube for storing the message, as well
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by dropping pigeons of their own. These pigeon cases, accompanied by a packet of
English cigarettes, were purporting to be British also and carried instructions to communicate the names of the local patriots to the Allies. The
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Despite such interference, the operation was reported to have been remarkably successful, yielding useful intelligence in over fifty percent of the received messages. 31
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208:, for its part, let it be known that the best way to deal with these false birds would be to smoke the cigarettes and eat the pigeons.
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files relating to it were released in 2007. However the method and a few actual cases were described in some detail in Dr
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Operation
Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service—The Untold Story of World War II Resistance in Europe
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instructions on how to fill in a report. A recent copy of a
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Most Secret War: British
Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945
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The Wizard War: British
Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945
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newspaper was also included as proof of good faith.
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281:. R.V. Jones. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1978.
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