Royal Signals Museum - Postal Covers - The Pigeon Loft

The Hindenberg Line 1918 - The Pigeon Loft

After their successful advance to the east of Amiens, in August 1918, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's armies were well prepared to commence the final assault on the Hindenberg Line, the German defence positions in Picardy. Preliminary actions began on 12 September, with massive attacks by the newly formed Royal Air Force, and were followed by the British 1st and 3rd Armies attack on 27 September. They were followed by the British 4th and French 1st Armies on the 29 September, and soon forced the German defenders to yield the St Quentin canal, and then Cambrai. By the 4th October the Allies (British, French, Belgian, and newly arrived American troops) held all the former German defensive positions and the enemy was in full retreat. The Great War was now in its final days, the end coming not unexpectedly for the generals but sooner than the politicians expected with the Armistice on 11 November.

The envelope features the use of pigeons as a means of sending reports back from forward positions when the telephone or wireless was not available or over stretched. The cover illustrations shows a London bus converted to a pigeon loft. The Royal Signals Museum at Blandford displays the body of pigeon 2709 of IX Corps which died of wounds on 4 October 1917. The pigeon was despatched with a message from Div HQ on 3 October at 1.30 p.m. It was hit by a bullet, which broke both legs, but the bird struggled home to its loft miles away and the message was retrieved at 10.35 am on 4 October. The bird died soon afterwards.

The cover illustration also shows the RAF SE5 aircraft which played a prominent part in the battles of 1918. The divisional sign illustrated is 4th Division, a regular army division.