La Societé colombophile lilloise, the Lille Society of Pigeon Fanciers, was a society in northern France, with hundreds, if not thousands, of members. After the Germans defeated and occupied France in 1914, they decided to allow this society's members to practice their hobby, though with the stipulation that any attempt to use the pigeons to carry messages would be severely punished. Still, Feldgendarmerie Sergeant Adolf Hitler, who had worked with homing pigeons in the war, knew that the society was likely to be a hotbed of espionage and subversion against the Kaiserreich. He joined the Society in his undercover persona of Koppensteiner, a merchant from Antwerp. At one meeting of the Society, Hitler heard about Madame Lea's meeting house, and found the clue that allowed him to apprehend J