British WWII pigeon parachutes?

eldots53,

this is really a mixed bag of sorts; sorry I didn't answer sooner. First, and for fun go to this link and you can actually see what the pigeon parachute looked like you'll have to scroll down a bit but you can see what they look like still. http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/equipment-field-gear... and second you can follow this link to get the nomenclature http://www.qsl.net/pe1ngz/army/army-us/us-pigeon.h... and you may be able to garner additional information based on just the nomenclature alone.

Here is why the effort on the pigeons were sort of "mixed"; first, they were dropped in behind the lines as we know in an attempt that some person would "know" they were message birds and then they'd be able to write notes of information and send them back. Some times they ended up in the hands of resisters, sometimes they ended up in the hands of the enemy, and sometimes they ended up in the hands of a very hungry person or group of people. The interesting thing here is that roasting a pigeon is almost no effort at all. "Eating" a pigeon isn't your question so I will stop here.

Lastly, I would recommend maybe reviewing this site http://www.history.army.mil/reference/Finding%20Ai... there are links embedded within and there could be much more quantifiable answer from a researcher within the US Army that could provide the best help for you in this regard.

Let me know if you'd like the "roasted pigeon" story and I'll expand upon it. *snicker*

Have a great day,

Gerry