Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe
Resource Information
The work Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Normal Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.
The Resource
Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe
Resource Information
The work Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Normal Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.
- Label
- Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe
- Title remainder
- the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe
- Statement of responsibility
- Gordon Corera
- Subject
-
- Belgium
- Communications, Military
- Great Britain
- Great Britain, MI6
- Great Britain, MI6 -- History -- 20th century
- HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century
- HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century
- HISTORY / Military / Strategy
- HISTORY / Military / Strategy
- HISTORY / Military / World War II
- HISTORY / Military / World War II
- Homing pigeons -- War use
- Homing pigeons -- War use -- Great Britain
- Military intelligence
- Nonfiction
- Underground movements, War
- World War (1939-1945)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Communications
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Military intelligence -- Great Britain
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium
- History
- 1900-1999
- Language
- eng
- Summary
- The fascinating, untold story of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons as part of a clandestine espionage operation to gather information, communicate, and coordinate with members of the Resistance to defeat the Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II. Between 1941 and 1944, British intelligence dropped sixteen thousand homing pigeons in an arc across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Bordeaux, France to Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of a spy operation code-named Columba. Returning to MI14, the secret government branch in charge of the "Special Pigeon Service," the birds carried messages that offered a glimpse of life under the Germans in rural France, Holland, and Belgium. Written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the birds legs, these messages were sometimes comic, often tragic, and occasionally invaluable, reporting details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar systems, and even the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets used to terrorize London. The people who sent these messages were not trained spies. They were ordinary men and women willing to risk their lives in the name of freedom, including the "Leopold Vindictive" network, a small group of Belgian villagers led by an extraordinary priest named Joseph Raskin. The intelligence Raskin sent back by pigeon proved so valuable that it reached Churchill and MI6 parachuted agents behind enemy lines to assist him. Gordon Corera uses declassified documents and extensive original research to tell the story of the Operation Columba and the Secret Pigeon Service for the first time. A powerful tale of wartime espionage, bitter rivalries, extraordinary courage, astonishing betrayal, harrowing tragedy, and a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special mission, Operation Columba opens a fascinating new chapter in the annals of World War II. It is ultimately, the story of how, in one of the darkest and most dangerous times in history, under threat of death, people bravely chose to resist
- Cataloging source
- PUL
- Dewey number
- 940.54/8641
- Illustrations
-
- illustrations
- maps
- plates
- Index
- index present
- LC call number
- D810.S7
- LC item number
- C635 2018b
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
Context
Context of Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in EuropeWork of
No resources found
No enriched resources found
Embed
Settings
Select options that apply then copy and paste the RDF/HTML data fragment to include in your application
Embed this data in a secure (HTTPS) page:
Layout options:
Include data citation:
<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.normalpl.org/resource/tjzHw2nY3EY/" typeof="CreativeWork http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Work"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.normalpl.org/resource/tjzHw2nY3EY/">Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.normalpl.org/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="https://link.normalpl.org/">Normal Public Library</a></span></span></span></span></div>
Note: Adjust the width and height settings defined in the RDF/HTML code fragment to best match your requirements
Preview
Cite Data - Experimental
Data Citation of the Work Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe
Copy and paste the following RDF/HTML data fragment to cite this resource
<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.normalpl.org/resource/tjzHw2nY3EY/" typeof="CreativeWork http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Work"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.normalpl.org/resource/tjzHw2nY3EY/">Operation Columba : the Secret Pigeon Service : the untold story of World War II resistance in Europe</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.normalpl.org/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="https://link.normalpl.org/">Normal Public Library</a></span></span></span></span></div>