Wheels & Tracks Gallery: Soviet Union

T-26B-1 light tank was based on the Vickers 6-ton Model B.

T-26B-1(V) commanders tank with frame antenna followed by an OT-130 flame-throwing version of the T-26.

T-26B-2(V) (commander’s version) light tank.

T-26B.

T-26Bs, September 1941.

OT-130 flamethrowing tank. These vehicles were in service from 1939 to 1941.

OT-130 flamethrowing tank, second version.

Comparison of the flame guns of the two OT-130 models.

Three T-26C light tanks knocked out and abandoned during the early days of Operation Barbarossa.

T-26C light tank knocked out in a sunflower field in Russia during the early days of Operation Barbarossa.

T-26 Model 1939 light tank being examined by British officers during the British/Russian invasion of Iran.

T-26B-2 light tank reworked to T-26S standard.

T-26S light tank. This was the considerably redesigned final production version of the T-26.

T-26S, knocked out, burning, as a German horse-drawn artillery unit moves past.

T-26S knocked out, its turret blown completely off.

OT-133 flamethrowing tank based on the T-26S, was in service between 1939 and 1942.

An early T-28 with its short 16.5 caliber 76.2mm gun up-armored to T-28C standard. There is heavy extra protection around the turret and on the hull front. Two auxiliary turrets can be seen in front of the main one. The T-28s were classified as medium tanks and their performance was adequate but wasted by poor strategy at the beginning of the hostilities on the Eastern Front. The turret is the same as the T-35.

T-28 medium tank, saw service until 1941.

T-28 medium tank prototype.

T-28B medium tank was the original T-26A with a turret basket, visors for the driver and a longer and more powerful L/26 76.2mm gun.

T-28C medium tank were T-28Bs given increased armor on the hull front and turrets as a result of early experience in the Russo-Finnish War, and fitted with a longer L/26 gun. Saw service against the Germans in 1941.

T-28.

T-28.

T-28(V) (commander’s version) medium tank with radio and frame antenna around the turret.

T-28 medium tanks, 1941.

German soldiers examine a knocked out T-28(V) commander’s tank.

T-28 medium tanks on parade.

T-28 medium tank.

Experimental T-29-5 medium tank was an attempt to combine the Christie suspension with the T-28 chassis.

Experimental T-29 medium tank prototype was a further refinement of the Christie idea with the ability to run at the same speed on wheels or tracks.

T-30 light amphibious tank. Did not enter production.

A-20 medium tank prototype was developed from the BT-1S as an alternative to the T-111 and lead to the development of the A-30.

T-32 medium tank based on experience with the A-20 and A-30 models.

T-33 prototype light amphibious tank developed into the T-37 light amphibious tank.

T-33 second prototype.

T-34, original version with 76mm gun.

T-34/76A medium tank with welded turret and L/30 76.2mm gun. Production design based on the T-32 prototype with pilot models produced in 1940 and full production beginning in June 1940.

T-34/76A with cast turret and L/30 76.2mm gun.

T-34/76.

T-34 during a night attack.

An early T-34/76A put out of action during the German advance in 1941. This exceptional tank was the first to really shake the confidence of German tank crews, but the strategic mistakes made by the Soviets during the first year of the war meant that T-34s were often thrown into battle in isolation and were overcome by the inferior but more numerous German tanks.

T-34/76B medium tank with rolled plate turret and L/40 76.2mm gun. Late production models had cast rather than welded turret and many had all-steel wheels instead of rubber-tired wheels owing to rubber shortage.

A line of T-34s almost ready to leave the factory.

T-34/76D medium tank with new hexagonal turret and wide mantlet for gun.

T-34s group for an attack.

Capture of a T-34 and its crew.

T-34/76E medium tank with added cupola and all-welded construction and cooling improvements.

German troops view the smoldering remains of a destroyed T-34.

T-34/76F medium tank with cast turret and mechanical improvements. Production was terminated after 100 vehicles in favor of the T-34/85.

T-34/76F with commander’s cupola.

T-34/76F with mine rollers.

T-34/85 medium tank with a new enlarged turret with 85mm gun which entered service in 1944.

T-34/85 tanks in the East Prussian town of Heiligenbeil in January 1945. Note the extra track used to improve protection on the relatively thin hull plating.

T-34/85-II medium tank which entered service in 1947. When this vehicle entered service the earlier T-34/85 medium tanks became known as T-34/85-I.

A troop commander leads his T-34/76B medium tanks, early production models, Red Army exercises, 1940. Visible on the turret side is the lozenge with the company or platoon number and call sign. The flag carried by the commander was used to signal those vehicles without radios.

T-34/76B ATO-41 flamethrowing tank with armored fuel tank on hull rear and flame projector in place of the hull machine gun. Only limited production.

Close-up of the flame gun on the T-34/76D ATO-42 (OT-34) flamethrowing tank was a 1944 development of the ATO-41 with fuel tank capacity doubled and carried inside the tank.

T-34 on the Pacific coast, August 1945.

T-34/85 medium tank with mine rollers.

T-34 medium tank. Note cut-away hull and turret.

T-34/85 medium tank.

T-34/76 medium tank.

German troops examine a knocked out T-34/76B medium tank.

T-34/76E medium tank turret blown off a knocked out tank.

T-34/76 medium tanks.

Knocked out T-34/76F medium tank being recovered by German troops.

This T-34 tank was purchased with savings of the Shirmanov family, the mother, Maria, sitting next to her son Andrei, with his crew.

T-34/85 medium tank, passing German prisoners, winter 1945.

T-34 medium tanks.

T-34 medium tanks, Ukrainian Front, 1944.

T-34 medium tank, 1943.

T-34/85 medium tank, 1943.

A Soviet Army official accepts delivery of newly completed T-34 tanks from factory workers.

T-34 medium tanks lined up for inspection.

T-34 tanks with supporting infantry, August 1942.

German soldiers examine a Russian T-34 medium tank apparently used as a static pillbox.

T-34, Berlin, April 1945.

T-34/76F medium tanks on a production line in a factory in the Urals, 1943.

T-34 medium tank performs reconnaissance on the snowbound Russian front.

American Dodge WC-51 truck in Soviet service with T-34s.

T-34 tank crews taking the oath prior to an engagement.

Infantry attacking under cover of T-34 medium tanks.

After forcing the Dniester, Soviet T-34/85 tanks with mounted infantry fight their way forward. Operation Bagration, Odessa, 1944.

Another view of the same unit of T-34s, seconds later, after the infantry has dismounted.

Factory workers in a Urals plant assembling T-34 medium tanks for front line defense.

Red Army men of a T-34 medium tank detachment taking German soldiers prisoner.

A German mortar squad in a bomb crater near a destroyed T-34 medium tank.

Red Army men advancing toward the enemy under cover of a T-34 medium tank.

A tank-borne detachment starts out on a fighting operation on T-34 medium and KV heavy tanks.

Camouflaged infantry are carried behind a T-34 and BT-7 medium tank to advance lines.

A tank-borne detachment mounting T-34 medium tanks in preparation for an attack.

T-34 medium tank and camouflaged troops fighting for a village converted by the Germans into a center of resistance.

T-34 medium tank camouflaged with hay and snow.

A duel between a Russian T-34 medium tank (foreground) and a German tank.

At a signal of alarm crews return to their T-34 medium tank.

A tank-borne infantry detachment boarding T-34 medium tanks for an operation.

Camouflaged T-34 medium tanks headed to the front.

The first Russian tanks, T-34s, enter Berlin, 1945.

T-34/76E medium tanks, west of Kiev, winter 1943.

A Soviet T-34 moves past an abandoned German 3.7cm anti-tank gun.

KV-8 heavy tank.

Captured JS-2 heavy tank.

SU-152 self-propelled gun.

T-35 heavy tank.

KV-1.

KV-2.

KV-2.

KV-2.

T-34/85.

T-34.

T-34/85.

The production of T-34 tanks. In the foreground is a 76.2-mm gun F-34 model 1940.

Anti-tank dog with T-34.

KV-1.

Winter-hardened Red ski troopers and tankmen counterattacked while the Germans were holed up in “hedgehog” positions.

Knocked out near a burning German supply truck are a BT-7 tank and T-34 tank.

T-34/76 cutaway.

Soviet officers salute American troops during a review, post-war.

Soviet-manned American M4 Medium Tank followed by a T-34 during a review, post-war.

An American officer with two Soviet officers during a review, post-war. American troops and M5 light tank in the background.

Knocked out T-34s.

Japanese soldiers with captured Soviet flamethrower tank KHT-26.

Soviet tanks advancing at Khalkhin Gol.

T-43 medium tank was an improved development of the T-34/76D with a cupola on the turret, five-speed gearbox, increased frontal armor and mechanical changes. Production was limited because of the introduction of the T-34/85.

T-44 medium tank was a total redesign of the medium tank with a lower silhouette, transverse rear engine, reduced depth hull, torsion bar suspension, enlarged turret, thicker armor and the hull machine gun deleted. Early vehicles had an 85mm gun while later versions had a 100mm gun. Designed in 1944 and production commenced in 1945.

T-46 light tank was an intended replacement for the T-26 series in which the Christie suspension of the BT series was combined with the T-26 hull. Only a few were built.

T-50 light tank intended as a replacement for the T-26, but the complicated design forced production to end after only 65 were built and it saw limited service.

T-60 light tank intended as a replacement for all earlier light tank models.

Women electricians checking the wiring of a Soviet T-60 light tank before it leaves the plant.

T-60A light tank was an improved production model of the T-60. Production began in early 1942.

T-70 light tank was produced to overcome the limitations in firepower and armor in the T-60. Production ended in 1944 after 8,226 were built.

A late T-70A, up-armored from 60mm to 70mm maximum thickness. Note the squared-off, as opposed to rounded turret rear.

T-70A light tank had thicker turret armor and squared off turret rear with reinforced corners.

T-80 light tank was an uparmored T-70 with new turret. Few were built as their role was taken over by Lend-Lease American half-tracks when the Soviets discontinued the use of light tanks in 1944.

T-111 (T-46-5) medium tank prototype utilizing the Christie suspension with small road wheels.

Guderian's panzers race toward Moscow. Russian tanks are not capable of stopping them. Knocked out near a burning German supply truck are a Soviet BT-7 tank and T-34 tank.

T-34.

T-26 light tanks.

T-34 medium tank.

T-34 knocked out and burned. The rubber on the roadwheels has been burned off.

German soldiers examine a T-34 that was run on top of a Soviet artillery position.

Knocked out T-34 that ran over a Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun.

Knocked out and burning T-34.

T-34s with mounted infantry on the attack.

Soviet Vickers E Type A in 1932.

Two T-34s and a Churchill (right rear) of the 5th Guards Armored Army knocked out at Prochorovka, 12 July 1943.

Soviet trials of the Vickers E Type A, January 1931.

T-44 with 122mm main gun alongside a captured German PzKpfw V “Panther” for comparison.

BT-7A artillery support tank was a self-propelled gun variant, armed with a 76.2mm howitzer.

BT-7 tanks on parade.

T-28 medium tanks in production.

T–28 tanks, with horseshoe radio antennas.

T-34/85 armed with 85mm gun.

A tank-borne infantry detachment rolls into battle on T-34 medium tanks.

T-34 destroyed at Kursk.

T-50 light infantry tank.

The T-50 light infantry tank was built by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. The design for this vehicle had some advanced features, but was complicated and expensive, and only a short production run of 69 tanks was completed. Furthermore, even before it was ready for mass-production wartime experience invalidated the underlying concept of light tanks.

The people of Belgrade greet the arrival of a T-34 as Soviet forces enter the city.

T-34 crosses a road behind a burning German Tiger I.

T-26 light tanks.

Soviet automatic riflemen going into battle against the Germans, a British Matilda infantry tank in the background.

SU-76. The SU-76 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76) was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II.

SU-76 moves past a destroyed German 88mm gun, Vilnyus, July 1944. The SU-76 was based on a lengthened and widened version of the T-70 tank chassis. Its simple construction made it the second most produced Soviet armored vehicle of World War II, after the T-34 tank.

Red Army infantry supported by open-topped armored SU-76 tank destroyers (on T-70 chassis) in East Prussia in April 1945.

SU-100.

SU-76M in Bovington Tank Museum, Dorset.

SU-76M Self-propelled gun in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

SU-85.

SU-85 in Bucharest.

SU-85.

SU-85, knocked out, Eastern front. Note German MP40 carried by Soviet soldier at right.

SU-85 assault guns enter Berlin, 1945.

A late model ISU-122 self-propelled gun advances over the River Spree in Germany in April 1945. This machine is equipped with a D-255 tank gun and displays the distinctive low suspension and high superstructure of the JS chassis, so different from the KV predecessors.

A SU-76l self-propelled gun based on the PzKpfw III chassis utilizing captured vehicles.

ZIS-30 (SU-57) self-propelled gun based on the STZ-3 tractor which was an improvised SU used mainly in the Moscow area, 1941.

SU-5-1 self-propelled gun of the Triplex Program armed with a 76.2mm Model 02/30 gun.

SU-7 self-propelled gun with 203mm gun/howitzer.

SU-14-Br2 self-propelled gun with 152mm Model 1935 gun which saw limited service in the opening months of World War II.

SU-100 Y “Igrek” self-propelled gun based on the T-100 tank series which saw very limited service in the early months of World War II.

ISU-122 (D-25-T) self-propelled gun showing the later ball socket gun mounting.

T-37 light amphibious tanks.

T-37 light amphibious tanks on review. The three lead tanks are the T-37(TU) command vehicles. Based on the Carden/Loyd A4EII amphibious tank purchased from Britain. Vehicles were still in service until 1942 although production ceased in 1936.

A T-37A light amphibious tank; this model used more welding in its construction than the original T-37 to keep out water. Its armament was a single 7.62mm DT machine gun. These vehicles were used against the Finns and then against the Germans until 1942.

T-37 light amphibious tank.

T-37A light amphibious tank. The T-37 light amphibious tank was a Soviet amphibious reconnaissance vehicle of the 1930s. It was designed by N. Kozyrev's team at Moscow Factory No. 37, which had studied the British Carden Loyd tankette Mark VI and VCL amphibious light tank, and produced several light tank designs.

T-37 light amphibious tanks disabled during the Winter War of 1939-40 between the Soviets and the Finns. The vehicle in the foreground is a T-37(TU) command tank; note the remains of the aerial around the hull.

T-37 light amphibious tank, on display near the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev, Ukraine.

T-38 light amphibious tank, left, with a T-37 light amphibious tank.

T-38 light amphibious tank was in service until 1942.

T-38M-2 light amphibious tank with uprated engine and detail changes.

T-38M light amphibious tank armed with a 20mm gun.

T-40A light amphibious tank.

T-40 light amphibious tanks, September 1941.

T-40S light tank was an improved version of the T-40 but was not amphibious. Production began in 1942.

The driver of a T-40 light amphibious tank. In 1941 Soviet tanks were weak, but Russia sacrificed enough of the strong men inside them to finally stop the German advance.

Winter-hardened Red ski troopers and tankmen in T-40s counterattacked while the Germans were holed up in “hedgehog” positions.

T-41 light amphibious tank prototype. Did not enter production.

T-37 light amphibious tank crossing river. The T-37 had a suspension based on the French AMR 33 and was approved for production as the T-37. It was the world's first amphibious tank in service, and replaced the T-27 in production. Further development of the design by Kozyrev and Nicholas Astrov led to an advanced version which was designated T-38.

The T-40 amphibious scout tank was an amphibious light tank used by the Soviet Union during World War II.

T-40 amphibious scout tank.

Russian soldiers in snow camouflage move off from a column of T-40 light tanks.

A German grenadier dug in in front of a Soviet Komsomolets artillery tractor.

Soviet motorized column, including artillery tractors.

Germans use a captured Soviet tractor to pull a wheeled trailer along one of the better Russian roads during the early stages of Barbarossa.

Studebaker US6.

Soviet motorized sled captured and in use by a Luftwaffe unit.

Katyushas in action.

On the Second Baltic Front, January 1945: Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers are moved up. Lacking the accuracy of conventional artillery, they were, however, an efficient psychological weapon, with a high blast effect.

Katyushas in firing position.

M-8 rocket launcher on Lend-Lease 6x4 Studebaker 2.5-ton truck.

M-8 82mm rocket launcher mounted on a ZIS-6 2.5-ton truck.

132mm rockets on an M-13 launcher.

M-13 rocket launcher on a ZIS-6 2.5-ton truck.

M-13 rocket launcher on a T-60 light tank chassis.

BM-13 Katyusha. Russian soldiers loading rockets on the truck’s rails, 1945.

Katyusha M-13, Manchuria, 1945.

M-13 rocket launcher on a STZ-5 artillery tractor.

M-31 rocket launcher.

Loading M-13 rocket launchers.

Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on tractor, captured by German forces in Russia, 1943.

M-31 310mm rocket launcher mounted on a GAZ-AA truck.

Soviet armored train car under construction.

BA-10 armored cars converted for traveling on railroad tracks alongside an armored train.

Soviet armored troops manned the converted tank turrets on armored trains.

Soviet armored train with a variety of cannons, guns and machine guns.

German soldiers pose alongside a derailed Soviet armored train.

Wrecked Soviet T-34 tank in Stalingrad, Russia, 8 October 1942.

A T-34 destroyed at the Battle of Prokhorovka, 1943.

Soviet KV-85G prototype. It was just a KV-1S with an 85mm gun jammed in the turret. It was rejected for having insufficient internal turret space.

Soviet T-100 tank. It was a similar design to the SMK, but nevertheless, its construction was different. Both were considered too bulky and unreliable to warrant production.

Soviet MBV-2 armored train at the Leningrad front. The USSR had many built before the war (as a result of successful use during the Russian Civil War), but many were lost in 1941. This is an early train, as the later ones featured T-34/76 and KV-1 turrets.

KV-2 heavy tank.

A KV-2 with a 107 mm gun. The KV-2 was similar to some superheavy tank projects the gun was intended for use with.

KV-2.

KV-2.

KV-2.

Destroyed KV-2.

KV-2.

KV-2.

Soviet artillery tractor with ammunition trailer and anti-tank gun.

Universal Carrier in Soviet service.

Universal Carrier in Soviet service slung underneath a plane.

Soviet M4 medium tank in Romania.

M3 light tank in Soviet service.

M4 medium tank of the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps in Vienna.

Men of the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps gets off its tank a1-01 and take Maria Theresia Platz, Vienna.

M4A2 (76mm) in Berlin.

Captured German Panther tanks in Soviet service.

British Matilda IIs in Soviet service.

T-34 tanks under fire with supporting infantry.

Captured German Panzer IV in Soviet service.

Abandoned KV-1 with main gun barrel destroyed by crew to prevent its use by German forces.

Soviet soldiers aim their Thompson submachine guns and M2 Browning machine guns at the skies from their M3 light tanks.

Trucks move supplies across frozen Lake Ladoga during the siege of Leningrad.

Destroyed Russian tank with crew caught trying to escape. Notice penetrating hits on hull and turret.

M4A2 (76) medium tanks of 1st Battalion, 46th Guards Tank Brigade, 9th Guards Mechanised Corps, in Vienna. Note the StuG in the background.

Soviet infantry hitching a ride on a M4 medium tank.

STP-S-53 stabilizer in a T-34-85 tank. 1. Hydraulic cylinder 2. Oil tank 3. Hydraulic pump 4. Electric motor 5. Damping gyroscope 6. Force gyroscope 7. Vertical aiming flywheel 8. Stabilizer switch 9. Hydraulics switch 10. GKZ-T modulator.

Knocked out KV-1.

A Soviet KV-1 rammed a German 88mm gun.

Aftermath of battle between German and Soviet tanks, in defense of the city of Pskov, in the region of Solovyi-Lopatino, July 7, 1941.

German soldiers are on a T-34-76, abandoned in Lvov, in 1940.

German soldiers inspect a dug-in T-34.

German soldiers inspect abandoned T-34s.

KV-1S hull with the 203mm gun – S-51.

M4 medium tank converted by the Soviets into a prime mover.

Pigeons at War

W/O MacKinnon holds his Coastal Command's B-24 Liberator's two carrier pigeons.

Homing pigeons have long played an important role in war. Due to their homing ability, speed, and altitude, they were often used as military messengers. Carrier pigeons of the Racing Homer breed were used to carry messages in World War I and World War II, and 32 such pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal. Medals such as the Croix de Guerre, awarded to Cher Ami, and the Dickin Medal awarded to the pigeons G.I. Joe and Paddy, amongst 32 others, have been awarded to pigeons for their services in saving human lives.

During World War I and World War II, carrier pigeons were used to transport messages back to their home coop behind the lines. When they landed, wires in the coop would sound a bell or buzzer and a soldier of the Signal Corps would know a message had arrived. The soldier would go to the coop, remove the message from the canister, and send it to its destination by telegraph, field phone, or personal messenger.

A carrier pigeon's job was dangerous. Nearby, enemy soldiers often tried to shoot down pigeons, knowing that released birds were carrying important messages. Some of these pigeons became quite famous amongst the infantrymen for whom they worked. One pigeon, named “Spike”, flew 52 missions without receiving a single wound. Another, named Cher Ami, lost his foot and one eye, but his message got through, saving a large group of surrounded American infantrymen.

Before the advent of radio, carrier pigeons were frequently used on the battlefield as a means for a mobile force to communicate with a stationary headquarters. In the sixth century BC, Cyrus, king of Persia, used carrier pigeons to communicate with various parts of his empire. In Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar used pigeons to send messages to the territory of Gaul.

During the 19th-century (1870–71) Franco-Prussian War, besieged Parisians used carrier pigeons to transmit messages outside the city; in response, the besieging Prussian Army employed hawks to hunt the pigeons. The French military used balloons to transport homing pigeons past enemy lines. Microfilm images containing hundreds of messages allowed letters to be carried into Paris by pigeon from as far away as London. More than one million different messages traveled this way during the four-month siege. They were then discovered to be very useful, and carrier pigeons were well considered in military theory leading up to World War I.

Homing pigeons were used extensively during World War I. In 1914, during the First Battle of the Marne, the French army advanced 72 pigeon lofts with the troops. The US Army Signal Corps used 600 pigeons in France alone.

One of their homing pigeons, a Blue Check cock named Cher Ami, was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre with Palm” for heroic service delivering 12 important messages during the Battle of Verdun. On his final mission in October 1918, he delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast or wing. The crucial message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of his shattered leg, saved 194 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division's “Lost Battalion".

United States Navy aviators maintained 12 pigeon stations in France, with a total inventory of 1,508 pigeons when the war ended. Pigeons were carried in airplanes to rapidly return messages to these stations, and 829 birds flew in 10,995 wartime aircraft patrols. Airmen of the 230 patrols with messages entrusted to pigeons threw the message-carrying pigeon either up or down, depending on the type of aircraft, to keep the pigeon out of the propeller and away from airflow toward the aircraft wings and struts. Eleven of the thrown pigeons went missing in action, but the remaining 219 messages were delivered successfully.

Pigeons were considered an essential element of naval aviation communication when the first United States aircraft carrier USS Langley was commissioned on 20 March 1922, so the ship included a pigeon house on the stern. The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while Langley was undergoing conversion. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while Langley was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. The pigeons never went to sea again.

During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons for many purposes, including communicating with those behind enemy lines such as Belgian spy Jozef Raskin. The Dickin Medal, the highest possible decoration for valor given to animals, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.

The UK maintained the Air Ministry Pigeon Section during World War II and for a while thereafter. A Pigeon Policy Committee made decisions about the uses of pigeons in military contexts. The head of the section, Lea Rayner, reported in 1945 that pigeons could be trained to deliver small explosives or bioweapons to precise targets. The ideas were not taken up by the committee, and in 1948 the UK military stated that pigeons were of no further use. During the war, messenger pigeons could draw a special allowance of corn and seed, but as soon as the war ended this had been cancelled and anyone keeping pigeons would have to draw on their own personal rationed corn and seed to also feed the pigeons. However, the UK security service MI5 was still concerned about the use of pigeons by enemy forces. Until 1950, they arranged for 100 birds to be maintained by a civilian pigeon fancier in order to prepare for any eventuality. The Swiss army disbanded its Pigeon section in 1996.

In 2010, Indian police expressed suspicion that a recently captured pigeon from Pakistan might have been carrying a message from Pakistan. In 2015, a pigeon from Pakistan was logged into Indian records as a "suspected spy". In May 2020, another suspected Pakistani spy pigeon was captured by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. After finding nothing suspicious, India authorities released the pigeon back into Pakistan.

In 2016, a Jordanian border official said at a news conference that Islamic State militants were using homing pigeons to deliver messages to operatives outside its "so called caliphate".

In total, 32 pigeons were decorated with the Dickin Medal including:

Winkie (1943)

Commando (1944)

Paddy (1944)

William of Orange (1944)

Mary of Exeter (1945)

G.I. Joe (1946)

Gustav (1944)

Beach Comber (1944)

 

Canadian PO (A) S Jess, wireless operator of a Lancaster bomber operating from Waddington, Lincolnshire carrying two pigeon boxes. Homing pigeons served as a means of communications in the event of a crash, ditching or radio failure. October 1942.

The seven man crew of an Avro Lancaster bomber wait near the crew room at Waddington, Lincolnshire for transport out to their aircraft. The pigeons seen in boxes in the foreground are homing pigeons carried for communication purposes in case of ditching or radio failure. October 1942.

Royal Blue receiving his Dickin Medal. The first pigeon to deliver a message from a downed aircraft on the continent was one with a royal pedigree. This was Royal Blue who came from the royal lofts. He flew 120 miles in 4 hours and 10 minutes on the 10 October 1940 after the aircraft he was on had been forced to make a landing in occupied Netherlands. Delivering his message with the aircrew's whereabouts he was awarded the Dickin Medal in March 1945.

Winkie the pigeon with PDSA founder Maria Dickin. Winkie. The first pigeon to receive the Dickin Medal was Winkie, she served with No. 42 Squadron, RAF Leuchars and with a number of sorties already completed it would be for her actions on the 23rd February 1942 that earned her the award. On this day the Bristol Beaufort she was on was returning from a sortie over Norway where it had been subject to flak and damaged. Whilst trying to return to their home base the aircraft was too badly damaged and ditched into the North Sea. As a result of the impact Winkie's cage opened and her instincts kicked in and she flew the 120 miles home. When she returned to her loft covered in oil and exhausted she didn't have a message detailing the crew's location. Despite this the Royal Air Force were able to work out where the aircraft could be by the birds time of arrival and other factors which enabled the crew of four to be rescued. To show their appreciation a dinner was held by No. 42 Squadron with Winkie the guest of honor and on the 2 December 1943 she received her Dickin Medal.

One of the very first recipients of the Dickin Medal was White Vision, she was serving with No. 190 Squadron, RAF Sullom Voe when on the 11 October 1943 the Consolidated PBY Catalina she was in had to ditch in the North Sea. With the radio of the aircraft out of action and other aircraft unable to see the crew due to bad visibility, which was down to 100 yards, a message detailing the crew's location was sealed in her leg canister. White Vision was then released and flying against a formidable headwind she arrived back at her loft. With the details of the crew's location the search was underway again and after 18 hours in the North Sea all eleven members of the crew were finally rescued. She would receive her Dickin Medal on the 2 December 1943.

Gustav receives his Dickin Medal from Mrs AV Alexander with W/C Rayner and Cpl Randall. Serving aboard an Allied warship during Operation Overlord off the Normandy coast on the 6th June 1944, Gustav would bring the first message of the landings back to the United Kingdom. He had been one of six carrier pigeons issued to Montague Taylor a war correspondent for Reuters by the Royal Air Force. With a headwind, sometimes as much as 30 mph, and a 150 mile journey ahead, Gustav arrived with his message 5 hours 16 minutes later at RAF Thorney Island. He was awarded his Dickin Medal on the 17 November 1944. The message delivered by Gustav read: “We are just 20 miles or so off the beaches. First assault troops landed 0750. Signal says no interference from enemy gunfire on beach... Steaming steadily in formation. Lightnings, Typhoons, Fortresses crossing since 0545. No enemy aircraft seen.”

GI Joe with its Dickin Medal which was awarded in August 1946. “This bird is credited with making the most outstanding flight by a USA Army Pigeon in World War II. Making the 20 mile flight from British 10th Army HQ, in the same number of minutes, it brought a message which arrived just in time to save the lives of at least 100 Allied soldiers from being bombed by their own planes.”

War Pigeon Carrier at the History on Wheels Museum, Eton Wick, Windsor, UK. The pigeon would be released from this carrying important messages back home.

War pigeon G.I. Joe mounted and on display at Fort Monmouth.

Examination and treatment of Army pigeons at the Signal Pigeon Center Tidworth, England, UK. This was a part of the European theater's veterinary program to obtain and maintain an efficient Army Pigeon Service in the armies and divisions in continental Europe.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Chief Warrant Laity instructing class.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Releasing pigeons.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Loading K-ship before patrol flights.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Serving the pigeons.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Disbursing pigeons to K-ship for patrol flight.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Releasing pigeons. Note dog in the background.

WAVE pigeoneers in training, February 15, 1944. Muster in front of cages.

The crew of a Lockheed Hudson Mark I, N7318, of No. 206 Squadron RAF which rescued the Commander in Chief of Free Polish Forces, General Władysław Sikorski and his staff from Bordeaux, France, in June 1940, gather by the door of their aircraft at Bircham Newton, Norfolk. They are (left to right): Leading Aircraftman Garrity (from USA), navigator; Flight-Lieutenant W Biddle, pilot; unknown; Leading Aircraftman W D "Spike" Caulfield, wireless operator/air gunner, who holds a wicker carrier containing a homing pigeon.

The crew of a Lockheed Hudson of No. 224 Squadron RAF, prepare to board their aircraft at Leuchars, Fife. The wireless operator/air gunner (far right) is carrying his log book, rations and a homing pigeon in a wicker carrier for emergency communications.

Norwegian airman John Ryg with pigeon, Grimbergen, 1944.

A pigeon in a sling ready for a jump with a US paratrooper.

Crewmen of Consolidated Liberator GR Mark VA, BZ818 'C', of No. 53 Squadron RAF handling carriers containing homing pigeons at St Eval, Cornwall, after a patrol over the Bay of Biscay. Sergeant J Knapp of Toronto, Canada, (in the hatchway) hands a carrier to Sergeant W Tatum of London, while Warrant Officer A Mackinnon of Auckland, New Zealand, holds a second carrier.

An aircrew sergeant of No. 209 Squadron RAF about to launch a carrier pigeon from the side hatch of a Saro Lerwick flying boat.

Homing pigeons, in their containers, being fed by the airman responsible for their care at St Eval, Cornwall.

Two Canadian soldiers strap a basket to the back of an Airedale dog during a training exercise, somewhere in Britain. The basket contains carrier pigeons. 1940.

A message written on rice paper is put into a container and attached to a carrier pigeon by members of 61st Division Signals at Ballymena, Northern Ireland, 3 July 1941. (Imperial War Museum)

Half-buried, a camouflaged combat loft at the Anzio beachhead, Italy. 

Men of the 21st Signal Loft release pigeons in March 1943.

A paratrooper releases a pigeon in training for the Normandy invasion.

The Kaiser, captured from World War I Germans and used for World War II breeding.

Pigeons in a mobile loft during training in the Carolinas.

Title page, US Army Air Forces technical manual, "Handling and Releasing Homing Pigeons from Aircraft in Flight", T.O. 01-1-120, August 1, 1943.

From "Handling and Releasing Homing Pigeons from Aircraft In Flight".

From "Handling and Releasing Homing Pigeons from Aircraft In Flight".

A Finnish soldier releases a pigeon.

Finnish soldiers working with pigeons.

Finnish soldier with pigeons.

Torokina, Bougainville Island. January 20, 1945. Lance Sergeant V. Blandin, 7th Pigeon Section "B" Corps of Signals, using a mobile loft to train young message carrying pigeons.