I'm currently reading " The Genius of Birds" by Jennifer Ackerman , on page 238 she says a pigeon called GI Joe saved a British Brigade from being bombed by friendly forces. I had a quick Google & found this. G.I. Joe (pigeon) - Wikipedia 169th (3rd London) Brigade - Wikipedia Anyone have anymore info, war diaries etc of the units involved. Which battalion was in Calvi Vecchia ? I see one of the links on the wiki page takes us to Lee's website . aka PsyWar.Org Carrier Pigeon 'GI Joe' (arcre.com) Lee posted that report on here too. Pigeons | Page 4 | WW2Talk
GI Joe was posthumously awarded the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery in 2019 to accompany his Dickin Medal . (Photo credit Photra99 Flickr) Kye
If true, it would have been 2/7 Queens, but they don't reach Calvi Vecchia until 19th October. I'm also not sure about the 'saving' civilians seeing as they had shelled targets in the village the day before (this from 56 CRA), Uncle Target at 1020hrs. There is nothing mentioned about cancelled air strikes in the 56 Division message log or the summary. The 2/6, 2/7 Queens war diary or the 169 Brigade WD do not mention any cancelled airstrikes (or pigeons). Far be it from me to deny a pigeon his place in history but....
Thanks for posting those pages Gary, I can read them on my laptop better this morning than my phone last night. I suppose the pigeon would get more of a mention by the US forces involved.
I did just read the original message and it states he flew from 10 Corps HQ. I have the 10 Corps WDs for September and November but not October yet. Maybe there could be something in there.