In Which I Reveal My Ignorance

Remember me talking about how cool a pigeon/falcon conflict would be, if brought on by the use of pigeons to convey sensitive information? Check it out:

Under interrogation, captured "German pigeon personel" told how the birds were a vital component of Hitler's plans to invade Britain.

The MI5 report on the phenomenon, released with a batch of wartime secret service documents this week, said: "From these prisoners of war it was learnt that it was anticipated that the birds would be used to convey information obtained by short-term pre-invasion agents."

To counter the menace, MI5 tamed and trained its own crack force of peregrine falcons, with the aim of felling incoming pigeons.

Mea culpa. I had no idea this had ever happened. But hey: real life should always be more complicated than we can handle.

I note also that the captured Nazi pigeons were treated as though part of una guerra dichiarata, but not una guerra ad ultimo sangre. Later in the War, things might have been different, as this rather serious arruixada played itself out.

In keeping with the title of this post, I should confess that only immediately recent research has enabled my to use the above foreign terms at all. Google and a decent library trump real knowledge any day, at least online.

Edited for clarity.