Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe

Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe
Gordon Corera

Gordon Corera uses declassified documents and extensive original research to tell the story of MI14(d) and the Secret Pigeon Service for the first time.‘This is an amazing story’ Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 2Between 1941 and 1944, sixteen thousand plucky homing pigeons were dropped in an arc from Bordeaux to Copenhagen as part of 'Columba' – a secret British operation to bring back intelligence from those living under Nazi occupation. The messages flooded back written on tiny pieces of rice paper tucked into canisters and tied to the legs of the birds. Authentic voices from rural France, the Netherlands and Belgium – they were sometimes comic, often tragic and occasionally invaluable with details of German troop movements and fortifications, new Nazi weapons, radar system or the deployment of the feared V-1 and V-2 rockets that terrorized London.Who were the people who provided this rich seam of intelligence? Many were not trained agents nor, with a few exceptions, people with any experience of spying. At the centre of this book is the ‘Leopold Vindictive’ network – a small group of Belgian villagers prepared to take huge risks. They were led by an extraordinary priest, Joseph Raskin – a man connected to royalty and whose intelligence was so valuable it was shown to Churchill, leading MI6 to parachute agents in to assist him.A powerful and tragic tale of wartime espionage, the book brings together the British and Belgian sides of the Leopold Vindictive’s story and reveals for the first time the wider history of a quirky, quarrelsome band of spy masters and their special wartime operations, as well as how bitter rivalries in London placed the lives of secret agents at risk. It is a book not so much about pigeons as the remarkable people living in occupied Europe who were faced with the choice of how to respond to a call for help, and took the decision to resist.

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Copyright (#u675bfe2d-21ea-5908-80be-4903809010e1)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018

Copyright © Gordon Corera 2018

Gordon Corera asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover images: Map © INTERFOTO/Sammlung Rauch/Mary Evans

Other images © Shutterstock; Design: Ben Gardiner

Map © Martin Brown

While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers will be glad to rectify any omissions in future editions.

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Source ISBN: 9780008220303

Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780008220327

Version: 2018-08-13

Dedication (#u675bfe2d-21ea-5908-80be-4903809010e1)

In memory of Leopold Vindictive

and others who made their choice.

Contents

Cover (#u44bae9e6-b388-5885-ad18-3e102f4038e3)

Title Page (#ub90f0f1c-a1f6-5441-abc7-782b4f9b8474)

Copyright (#u326e0318-d59d-5a2e-92ec-b21cab1889f4)

Dedication (#u220ffee3-f69b-5f5d-acf5-aedd8972b78d)

Map (#uc513c18a-5be2-519c-9c3f-7282ad08caf2)

Prologue (#u6c7fd326-c21c-5875-aa49-2bcf14e68ede)

Introduction (#uad4faef5-8449-5823-8ece-edc3d6b5ef23)

ONE: Birth (#u55fb45e3-e171-5d95-b43e-dfee440b91e5)

TWO: The Special Pigeon Service (#uedbcdf51-64e1-5cf0-8934-2d4df06aa1c9)

THREE: Leopold Vindictive (#ud8a8f47a-6084-59c9-9c81-f403fe22bbaa)

FOUR: Arrival (#u676ca609-0135-5d36-80e6-26569bd947d6)

FIVE: Listening (#ua87b1695-7748-5cab-9dd2-219cafb51dee)

SIX: Battle of the Skies (#litres_trial_promo)

SEVEN: Reaching Out (#litres_trial_promo)

EIGHT: Resistance (#litres_trial_promo)

NINE: Secret Agents (#litres_trial_promo)

TEN: Undercover (#litres_trial_promo)

ELEVEN: Battle of the Skies II (#litres_trial_promo)

TWELVE: Capture (#litres_trial_promo)

THIRTEEN: Interrogation and Infiltration (#litres_trial_promo)

FOURTEEN: The Viscount (#litres_trial_promo)

FIFTEEN: Trials and Tribulations (#litres_trial_promo)

SIXTEEN: Deception (#litres_trial_promo)

SEVENTEEN: The Americans are Coming (#litres_trial_promo)

EIGHTEEN: Fates (#litres_trial_promo)