As some of you may know, B.F. Skinner proposed using pigeons as a guidance system in America's first anti-ship missile the Pelican. http://www.bfskinner.org/project-pigeon/ My question is very simple. If the idea worked and the pigeon was able to guide the missile... how would you defeat such a weapon? What defense was available in 1943-45 to spoof, misdirect, destroy this weapons system?
Barrage balloons with ships painted on the sides. Smoke screens. Flack to jostle the bird inside the missile.
Good ones. They tried to distract them with loud noises and such and it didn't work. The barrage balloons might work. Don't know if you would have time to do a smoke screen.
Well, obviously things would have advanced since the first war, but the technological groundwork had been laid: Sorry... Getting coat.
They weren't very fast so anti-kamikaze tactics like flak might work. Much slower than a fighter but much smaller too. How about painting a big hawk silhouette on the side of ships?
Cammo might have worked especially if you had dummy ships that looked like the intended targets. One of the real problems though is knowing how they are guided. Radar controled guns with proximaty fuses would likely help.
