All Alone (pigeon) explained

All Alone
Othername:NURP.39.SDS.39
Species:Pigeon
Gender:Hen
Hatch Place:Staines
Nationality:British
Occupation:War Pigeon
Employer:National Pigeon Service
Role:French Resistance
Years Active:1943 and circa
Known:Fast delivery of important message from agent in occupied France
Awards:Dickin Medal 1946 "...for gallantry and devotion"
Owner:J. W. Paulger, proprietor of the Blue Anchor Inn
Appearance:Blue

All Alone (NURP.39.SDS.39) was a war pigeon who was decorated for bravery in service during the Second World War for delivering an important secret message in one day over a distance of, while serving with the National Pigeon Service in August, 1943.[1]

Mission

In the summer of 1943, All Alone, a blue hen, parachuted with a spy into Vienne, France. The agent learned important information about the Milice, a secret paramilitary group that was to conduct assassinations, round up Jews for deportation, and to attack the French Resistance. All Alone carried this information more than four hundred miles, across the English Channel, back to her home in Staines, England, in less than twenty-four hours. The speed of her flight and the urgency of its success earned All Alone a Dickin Medal, an award known as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, "...for Gallantry and Devotion to Duty" in 1946.[2]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dickin medal pigeons . PDSA . 22 February 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100213211708/http://www.pdsa.org.uk/about-us/animal-bravery-awards/dickin-medal-pigeons . February 13, 2010 .
  2. Book: Long, David. Animal Heroes: Inspiring True Stories of Courageous Animals. 2013. Random House. 978-1448165162. 128.