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A small group of soldiers headed off through dense jungle with a radio and a basket of pigeons, including Q879, to investigate reports that enemy troops were preparing for a counter-attack. In 1944, the blue chequer pigeon known as DD43 Q879 was sent to help United States forces attempting to recapture Manus Island, north of New Guinea. “A lot of men enlisted to become pigeon couriers for the army and pigeon fanciers around Australia donated their birds.” “In the early years of the war, Australia decided that we should probably look at creating a pigeon service signals corps, so in 1942 they put the call out to the pigeon fanciers of Australia,” Dr Hampton said.
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The Australian Corps of Signals Pigeon Service was established, and thousands of birds were used to help solve the military’s problems with communication. But particularly in the Pacific, the mountains and the humidity meant that the wireless radios didn’t work very well, so pigeons were actually the most effective way of getting messages up and over the Owen Stanleys, and throughout the islands.” We’ve got our trucks instead of horses, and wireless radio, and sophisticated radar signals, and all those sorts of things.
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“We often think about the Second World War as a time when technology has taken over. “One of the surprising things about pigeons is how widely they were used in the Second World War,” Dr Hampton said. These being Herman Ceusters, Keith Sagger Jurions, Silver Shadow Van Loons, Houbens and of course the old Australian long distance blood lines being Dangerfields and Goodgers.īoth boutique studs are concentrating on performance.When the Second World War broke out, soldiers turned to pigeons for help once more. Of course both Andrew and Paul have other birds for sale to compliment their winning families. To compliment this family Paul has introduced the Van Loons as a cross with excellent results. This hen was stocked and bred the National winner the following year for the Greater Melbourne Pigeon Federation.This family is a blend of Red Fox, Honeysuckle and Marilyn Janssens and has a phenomenal strike rate for Paul. As an example a pure Janssen hen had won the prestigious Produce race by 100 mpm. His Paramount Janssens have won in big competition in Victoria. Paul on the other hand has achieved fantastic results with his Janssen family. They have all been found to be a fantastic cross for the Vandenabeele pigeons which are currently the backbone of the stock loft. All these new introductions will be bred 'pure' and 'crossed' in the future. In 2020 the stock loft was further enhanced through the introduction of Flor Engel pigeons. Since 2017 Andrew has introduced the Herman Ceusters & Houbens to his stock loft due to the phenomenal success these birds have achieved for multiple flyers both in Australia and around the world. Due to the phenomenal success of these birds in big competition Andrew will be concentrating on enhancing this family by sourcing more Vandenabeeles both locally and abroad to strengthen the genetics. Andrew has had great results with his Vandenabeeles mainly through the exploits of Nick Lakiotis who flies in the Victorian Homing Association. The birds from Rainbow Lofts are currently based around the Vandenabeele family. If they are not competitive they do not stay. The emphasis on birds sold from both studs is performance. Both Andrew and Paul currently race with the Victorian Homing Association (VHA). The Aussie Pigeon Sales website has been developed through the partnership of Andrew Demidowski (Rainbow Lofts) & Paul Bryant (Paramount Lofts).