COMMUNICATIONS : Carrier Pigeons Make Comeback in War

On missions that take him deep into war-torn Croatia, one special courier for the Serbian fighters travels to the front in a ventilated cake box.

His journey through enemy lines to meet his contact can take days of stealthy movement, but the courier, known simply as Whitehead, is usually back home within two hours after being handed his dispatch.

Whitehead is a homing pigeon, and for Pozarevac fighters at the Croatian front he is the swiftest means of getting word to worried loved ones at home.

In a war fed by centuries-old hostilities and carried out with a crude vigor reminiscent of the Middle Ages, it comes as little surprise that such an ancient method of communication must be relied on for families to stay in touch.

“We began by reading the messages over local radio, because people here had no word on their boys at the front,” explained Slobodan Brkic, president of the Yugoslav Carrier Pigeon Assn. “People were so happy to hear from their sons that they would come up to me on the street and kiss my hand.”

The Yugoslav war that has severed phone lines, disrupted mail and blocked all inter-republic transport has bestowed new purpose to the hobby of carrier-pigeon breeders and brought fame to this provincial Serbian city renowned for rearing the fastest birds.

Brkic got the idea to employ carrier pigeons to get news from the front from reading the history of World War I, when carrier pigeons were used to relay word of troop movements to the Allies during the liberation of Europe.

Homing pigeons, which are a special breed of common rock pigeons, were first used for racing and relaying messages by the Egyptians and Persians 3,000 years ago. They served in various military capacities up until the Korean War, after which most courier units were disbanded in favor of new electronic devices.

While modern technology allows battlefield commanders to confer with Belgrade’s military headquarters, the war’s disruption of all conventional communication has thwarted the rank and file’s best efforts to keep in touch with home.

“In this day when satellites can photograph us sitting on a beach, people are amazed that this is the only means of getting instant information from the front,” Brkic said of the pigeons he began shipping to the battle zones through the army in mid-October.

The pigeons are trucked in among other supplies and handed over to Pozarevac fighters who attach messages to their leg bands and then release them.

Whitehead, the star of Radisa Radunovic’s decorated flock, was the first to complete a war mission, bringing home word that brother Dragisa was alive and well and fighting with the army in the Croatian town of Mirkovci.

At least 90 successful carries had been completed by the end of November, with most of the brief messages being read on local radio.

“Dear father: I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be home soon. Dule,” read one recent missive to the Radunovic family.

Homing pigeons are known to have flown as many as 1,000 miles across unknown territory to get home, and female birds with young at their nests have posted phenomenal speed records across Europe.

Radunovic said one mother pigeon in his coop has made the 125-mile trip from Mirkovci in just over an hour.

How they find their way back from distant locations is one of the mysteries of science, as their swift flight allows little leeway for trial and error. Radunovic said the birds are known to have an unusually high level of magnesium in their systems, which he believes bolsters the theory that the birds’ homing abilities are in some way related to the Earth’s magnetic fields.

Only one of the Pozarevac birds failed to return after being delivered to local handlers on the Croatian front, an experienced racer named Big Red.

“We think there may have been foul play involved,” said Radunovic, explaining that falcons and hawks can be trained to attack carrier pigeons in flight. “Or maybe he was shot by a Croatian sniper.”