Two unlikely World War II heroes lauded for their bravery under fire have been immortalised in bronze at Anzac Station in Melbourne.
Located at one of the station’s entrances on the outer edge of the Shrine of Remembrance Reserve, these decorated heroes are a little different to most.
The Victorian-bred carrier pigeons, known as DD.43.T.139 and DD.43.Q.879, were awarded the Dickin medal for bravery, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
DD.43.T.139 served in New Guinea with the Australian Army Signal Corps. In 1945 during a severe tropical storm, he delivered a message from a foundering army boat: “Engine failed. Wash on to beach at Wadau owing very heavy seas. Send help immediately”.
Successful delivery of the message summoned help and meant the boat and its valuable cargo of equipment and ammunition was salvaged.
DD.43.Q.879 served with the Australian Army Signal Corps and allied American Forces on Manus Island. In 1944 during a Japanese attack on a U.S. Marine Corps patrol, he was one of three pigeons released under heavy fire to carry a message back to base warning of an imminent enemy counter-attack.
The first two pigeons were shot down immediately, but DD.43.Q.879 delivered the message, allowing Allied Forces enough time to mount a defence.
The artist behind the work, Fiona Hall, said she hoped that visitors moving through Anzac Station on their way to the Shrine of Remembrance “will look up at the pigeons, read the descriptions of what they achieved, and be totally amazed by their heroic acts”.
The artwork also includes images of plant species that have symbolic connections with military service, etched on glass wall panels located on either side of the pigeons.
The plant species include Lone Pine, Gallipoli Oak, Gallipoli Rose, Flanders Poppy, Lombardy Poplar and Rosemary – all species that grow where Australians fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the First World War.
The avian heroes are ready to greet Shrine of Remembrance visitors, who will be able to catch a train to the war memorial for the first time when the Metro Tunnel opens later this year.
