CIS 270
Information technology, as we know it today, was drastically different over a century ago. Today we are complacent with the ability to contact anyone, at any place in the world in the matter of seconds. We would not even know how to live without our iPhone on us 24/7 and we would certainly not know how to communicate over long distances. In the early 1900’s, during the height of WWI, the form of communication used by the allied powers is far from that of an iPhone. The allied powers relayed important information, over great distances, with the help of pigeons.
It is not very uncommon for a group to communicate through the means of birds, especially pigeons the same way that the French and US forces used them during WWI. As you should already know, WWI was a large-scale war, which made communication especially tough. The way this was done is fairly simple because of the pigeon’s excellent homing ability. The French or US would simply keep pigeon lofts at their respective trenches or headquarters ready for use. When a message needed to be sent, the sender would simply tie a small message around the pigeons leg and send the bird on it’s way. Since the war was very slow moving, the headquarters (where the lofts were located) did not move very far or at all making this very beneficial to the pigeon because it always knew where home was. Not only was the pigeon reliable in the sense that it can get to and from the destination easily, but also it was also incredibly fast making it almost impossible for the enemy to shoot from the sky.
A major setback to this means of communication, especially in the middle of a war, is that only small sized messages can be sent on each pigeon. A pigeon is a relatively small bird, which has its ups as well as downs, but it can only fly with only so much extra weight. This did not affect the soldiers tremendously because they were able to send more than one pigeon at a time. Another setback of communicating with pigeons was speed. Although the pigeon is a relatively fast bird, it is nowhere near as fast as a radio transmission.
Although technology in the 1900’s was nowhere near where it is today, you might wonder why pigeons were used instead of other available technology. The main reason is that the pigeon was actually much more reliable than the radios during that time frame. It has been said that entire battalions of soldiers were unable to communicate via radios and had to rely solely on pigeons. Over the course of time, allied powers became frustrated with the reliability of radios and adopted pigeons as the main source of communication. During the end of the war, October 1918 to be specific, 194 American troops were saved because of the pigeon. When the Americans realized they were surrounded and none of the radios worked, their only hope was to send a pigeon over 25 miles with a call for help. Despite being shot, the pigeon completed the mission and the troops were saved. This story is the prime example for why and how the pigeon was adopted for use during the First World War.
Pigeons have been used to communicate for centuries before the First World War so the questions that comes in to play is what made it different in this specific environment. First off, pigeons were normally used during a time of peace for communicating between two areas that would usually not move. Secondly, the soldiers using the pigeons had to learn how to work with homing pigeons very quickly. Although it does not seem like a difficult task, imagine yourself sitting in a cold, muddy hole in the middle of Europe trying to learn how to communicate using pigeons so you can rely messages to survive. It is remarkable that troops were able to train themselves and the pigeons to deliver messages across terrain they both knew little of.
The way pigeons were used during the war is a excellent example of human instinct. Humans are fighters and are always coming up with new ways to improve, adapt and overcome. In this case, they did all three using information technology. Their main method of communication, the radio, was not working so they took a step back, and began looking for alternatives. This shows the importance of information technology to groups, because without information technology, the soldiers would have had no way to communicate and therefore would have been left to die.
Works Cited
http://armedforcesmuseum.com/carrier-pigeons-used-during-world-war-i/