The pigeon stuff was very interesting, but there was a lot of stuff only tangentially related to the pigeons that really weighed down the text. Also very sad.

Fascinating subject

As someone that hasn’t read a lot about WWII and has never approached the subject in depth, I honestly didn’t expect to love this read as much as I did. I found myself so incredibly moved by this at times funny and eccentric tale of individual resistance. The intermixing of complex political war games, flamboyant spy dramas, whimsical pigeon stories and heart wrenching tales of the endurance of the human spirit when faced with tyranny kept me in every moment at the edge of my seat, made me chuckle from time to time and brought me to the brink of tears.

The writer’s quick and dynamic prose, alongside his ingenuity when intertwining the drama of individuals with the more Europe-encompassing events of course only helps portray this amazing and still rather unknown story within probably the most well understood conflict of human history.

Truly an unmissable read for lovers of History that I only regret keeping for so long in my bookshelf. Definitely a contestant for favorite book of the year.

This book started out great, but didn’t stay great.

A little-known episode of WWII (at least by me) was the use of homing pigeons/carrier pigeons by the Allies against the Nazis.

Pigeons were dropped into occupied territories, like France and Belgium, with instructions for the finders to observe and write all they could and then send the pigeons back to England.

It was only somewhat successful, but Operation Columba (being the species of pigeon) had one major success, and this is partly a story of that success.

But that’s mostly the first couple of chapters. The book then turns into a look at spying and resistance in general during WWII – which is great, but that’s not what I was reading the book for. I was reading for the pigeon program.

It’s an interesting subject, but it got away from the central thought, I thought, and that diminished it.

I won this book from LibraryThing.

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It's hard to find new approaches to WWII nonfiction, but this is spectacular (I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend, but make sure to check the print copy so you can see the pictures). I was amazed and enthralled--it's a delightful mix of "ridiculous hobbies that have a brief tenure of importance" and "deeply human attempts to fix what is unfixable." I liked this book so much that I created an impromptu discussion club by making both of my parents read it. It was poignant and made me wonder about how the course of the war could have changed...if only there had been more pigeons.

I’m not going to say I was on the edge of my seat or anything (turns out there’s quite a lot of *waiting* in espionage and resistance) but I did come away with a fondness for pigeons I wasn’t expecting.

The middle part was pretty dry, but the first and last thirds were fantastic. So much heart and humor!