Hello, you're listening to the We Are History podcast with me, Angela Barnes and...

John O'Farrell joining Angela here.

And if you haven't listened before, we are a pair of history nerds, aren't we, John?

That's right. We have very scant history qualifications between us, but we are very interested

in the olden days. Yes, yes. And they're not so olden days. And not so olden days.

Apparently, A-level history now goes up to the early 2000s, which makes me cry.

It's a bit depressing when you remember history.

It is.

So what are doing here, John?

Today we are talking about pigeons.

We are talking about how World War II was won by some little birds.

Yeah.

Well, I, this was, had you heard about the pigeons at war before I raved on at you about

them after my little visit to Bletchie Park?

No, I was intrigued, actually.

And when you first suggested this as a subject for a podcast, I was like, is there much in this?

I was just imagining them as homing pigeons, sending messages, like, you know, courier pigeons.

And that's what I started to read about.

And I read about how they had been used since, you know, ancient times.

In 1150 BC, I read.

The Sultan of Baghdad was sending messages in war via pigeons.

They were used in the siege of Paris in 1870 to get messages out.

...