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January 8, 2008 at 4:51 AM EST They flew countless perilous missions in occupied Europe for the British Secret Service during the Second World War, braving attack by deadly German aerial foes and bringing home information vital to the war effort. They wer= e the courageous carrier pigeons of Britain. Now, they are being honoured in London with an auction of portraits of the champion birds that sired this elite force. The story began in 1939 when Britain's MI-5 decided to form a crack squad o= f pigeon messengers. Jack Lovell, a British "pigeon fancier" renowned for the quality of his birds, was asked to put together an avian undercover unit. Mr. Lovell's pigeons were descendants of birds bred by famous Belgian breeder Jule Janssen. Charlotte Wood, a spokeswoman for Bonhams auction house, said in a telephone interview from London yesterday that Mr. Janssen was renowned for the quality of his birds, which won numerous races. PHOTO:=20 <http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080108/wa2pigeon= s 08/0108pigeon400big.jpg> Painting of one of Jule Janssen=92s pigeons by French artist J. Baldaus. "Jack Lovell, who's now selling these paintings, had gone over to Belgium i= n the 1930s and bought eight pairs of these Janssen pigeons and brought them back to England and started breeding them," she explained. "So it was the descendants of those pigeons that fought in the Second World War." Mr. Lovell signed the Official Secrets Act and started to supply four lofts in Dover, which were known as the "XX" lofts. The birds operated under the auspices of what was then MI-14 in an operation codenamed Columbia. The homing pigeons were placed in containers fitted with parachutes and dropped by British bombers behind enemy lines, where they were picked up by Resistance fighters or sympathetic locals and used to send coded messages back to the Britain. To counter the threat, the Germans deployed squadrons of falcons, the pigeon's deadliest natural enemy. Some pigeons even acted as double agents. The capture of two German pigeons meant that copies of the specific Nazi leg tags could be fitted to Mr. Lovell's birds. This allowed them to infiltrate German lofts in the hope that the Germans would give them messages that would end up back in England= . Among the information brought back by Mr. Lovell's pigeons was film of the V-1 flying bombs being built in German factories as well as important information used for the D-Day landings in 1944. In all, more than 200,000 pigeons served with British forces during the war= . "I couldn't talk about what my pigeons were doing until recently because of the Official Secrets Act," Mr. Lovell, now 92, told The Sunday Times, "but it is important that people realize the role the birds played." The eight paintings of Janssen pigeons (six by French artist J. Baldaus and two by British painter Edward Henry Windred) are expected to fetch between $440 and $1,000 each at the auction on Jan. 15. The pigeon portraits are part of Bonhams' annual Gentlemen's Library Sale, which tends to feature items that are a little, well, unusual. Other offerings this year include one of Robert Baden Powell's Scout hats; = a mounted lock of hair from Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII; and two glass cucumber straighteners. "And there's a huge section on taxidermy," added Ms. Wood. "This year we've got an albino stuffed hedgehog." With a report from Associated Press --Boundary_(ID_0u1PiTM1TcLG3SdMOjPX/w) Content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>The homing front -- Auction honours wartime birds that braved all fo= r Britain -- Jan. 8/08</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <BR> I sent this a second time because earlier I sent it mistakenly with attachm= ents. Sorry from Jim in Wolfville.<BR> --------------------------------<BR> <FONT FACE=3D"Arial"><H2>The homing front<BR> </H2><H3>Auction honours wartime birds that braved all for Britain <BR> </H3><FONT SIZE=3D"2"><BR> PHILIP JACKMAN <BR> <BR> From Tuesday's Globe and Mail <BR> <BR> January 8, 2008 at 4:51 AM EST<BR> <BR> They flew countless perilous missions in occupied Europe for the British Se= cret Service during the Second World War, braving attack by deadly German ae= rial foes and bringing home information vital to the war effort. They were t= he courageous carrier pigeons of Britain. <BR> <BR> Now, they are being honoured in London with an auction of portraits of the = champion birds that sired this elite force. <BR> <BR> The story began in 1939 when Britain's MI-5 decided to form a crack squad o= f pigeon messengers. Jack Lovell, a British "pigeon fancier" renow= ned for the quality of his birds, was asked to put together an avian underco= ver unit. <BR> <BR> Mr. Lovell's pigeons were descendants of birds bred by famous Belgian breed= er Jule Janssen. Charlotte Wood, a spokeswoman for Bonhams auction house, sa= id in a telephone interview from London yesterday that Mr. Janssen was renow= ned for the quality of his birds, which won numerous races.<BR> <BR> PHOTO: <http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080108= /wa2pigeons08/0108pigeon400big.jpg> <BR> Painting of one of Jule Janssen=92s pigeons by French artist J. Baldaus. <BR> <BR> "Jack Lovell, who's now selling these paintings, had gone over to Belg= ium in the 1930s and bought eight pairs of these Janssen pigeons and brought= them back to England and started breeding them," she explained. "= So it was the descendants of those pigeons that fought in the Second World W= ar." <BR> <BR> Mr. Lovell signed the Official Secrets Act and started to supply four lofts= in Dover, which were known as the "XX" lofts. The birds operated = under the auspices of what was then MI-14 in an operation codenamed Columbia= . <BR> <BR> The homing pigeons were placed in containers fitted with parachutes and dro= pped by British bombers behind enemy lines, where they were picked up by Res= istance fighters or sympathetic locals and used to send coded messages back = to the Britain. <BR> <BR> To counter the threat, the Germans deployed squadrons of falcons, the pigeo= n's deadliest natural enemy. <BR> <BR> Some pigeons even acted as double agents. The capture of two German pigeons= meant that copies of the specific Nazi leg tags could be fitted to Mr. Love= ll's birds. This allowed them to infiltrate German lofts in the hope that th= e Germans would give them messages that would end up back in England. <BR> <BR> Among the information brought back by Mr. Lovell's pigeons was film of the = V-1 flying bombs being built in German factories as well as important inform= ation used for the D-Day landings in 1944. <BR> <BR> In all, more than 200,000 pigeons served with British forces during the war= . <BR> <BR> "I couldn't talk about what my pigeons were doing until recently becau= se of the Official Secrets Act," Mr. Lovell, now 92, told The Sunday Ti= mes, "but it is important that people realize the role the birds played= ." <BR> <BR> The eight paintings of Janssen pigeons (six by French artist J. Baldaus and= two by British painter Edward Henry Windred) are expected to fetch between = $440 and $1,000 each at the auction on Jan. 15. <BR> <BR> The pigeon portraits are part of Bonhams' annual Gentlemen's Library Sale, = which tends to feature items that are a little, well, unusual. <BR> <BR> Other offerings this year include one of Robert Baden Powell's Scout hats; = a mounted lock of hair from Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII; and tw= o glass cucumber straighteners. <BR> <BR> "And there's a huge section on taxidermy," added Ms. Wood. "= This year we've got an albino stuffed hedgehog." <BR> <BR> With a report from Associated Press<BR> </FONT></FONT><BR> </BODY> </HTML> --Boundary_(ID_0u1PiTM1TcLG3SdMOjPX/w)--
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