By Amy Reast via SWNS
A rare World War II ‘pigeon parachute’ used to carry messages to the French resistance in Normandy ahead of D-Day landings has been found in a tatty old shoebox.
The artifact was donated by a family to House on the Hill museum after an elderly relative, Mrs. Ellington, passed away.
It had been kept in the loft in a tatty old shoebox which also contained other D-Day related documents.
Mrs Ellington’s family were scratching their heads as to how it came to be there – and had no idea what the fabric item was initially.
They were astonished to discover that she had been keeping in her procession a very rare surviving D-day pigeon parachute.
The pigeon parachutes were used over Normandy in the days before the landings at D-Day on 6th June 1944.
The British gathered homing pigeons from the areas of coastal Normandy and used them to carry messages to the French resistance while the area was occupied by enemies.
The pigeons carried instructions on the blowing up of communication lines, facilities and transports.
The pigeon would have been dropped by light plane low over France and once released the pigeons could struggle free of the parachute and fly off to their home coop.
This method was considered safer than using coded radio message.
The pigeon parachute is now on n display in the D-Day exhibition at House on the Hill Toy Museum in Standsted Mountfitchet, Essex.
