Pigeons have long
played an important role in war. Due to their homing ability, speed, and
altitude, they were often used as military messengers. Carrier pigeons of the
Racing Homer breed were used to carry messages in World War I and World War II,
and 32 such pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal. They ceased being used as of 1957.
During the First
and Second World Wars, carrier pigeons were used to transport messages back to
their home coop behind the lines. When they landed, wires in the coop would
sound a bell or buzzer and a soldier of the Signal Corps would know a message
had arrived. He would go to the coop, remove the message from the canister, and
send it to its destination by telegraph, field phone, or personal messenger.
A carrier pigeon's
job was dangerous. Nearby enemy soldiers often tried to shoot down pigeons,
knowing that released birds were carrying important messages. Some of these
pigeons became quite famous among the infantrymen they worked for. One pigeon,
named "The Mocker," flew 52 missions before he was wounded. Another,
named "Cher Ami," lost her foot and one eye, but her message got
through, saving a large group of surrounded American infantrymen.
Before the advent of radio, carrier pigeons
were frequently used on the battlefield as a means for a mobile force to
communicate with a stationary headquarters. In the 6th century BC, Cyrus, king
of Persia, used carrier pigeons to communicate with various parts of his
empire. In Ancient Rome, within many texts, there are
references to pigeons being used to send messages by Julius Caesar.
During the
19th-century (1870-71) Franco-Prussian War, besieged Parisians used carrier
pigeons to transmit messages outside the city; in response, the besieging
German Army employed hawks to hunt the pigeons.
The French military used balloons to transport homing pigeons past enemy
lines.
Microfilm images containing
hundreds of messages allowed letters to be carried into Paris by pigeon from as
far away as London. More than one million different messages travelled this way
during the four-month siege. They were then discovered to be very useful so
were used in World War One.
Homing pigeons were
used extensively during World War I. In 1914 during the First Battle of the
Marne, the French army advanced 72 pigeon lofts with the troops.
The US Army Signal
Corps used 600 pigeons in France alone.
One of their homing
pigeons, a Blue Check hen named Cher Ami, was awarded the French "Croix de
Guerre with Palm" for heroic service delivering 12 important messages
during the Battle of Verdun. On her final mission in October 1918, she delivered
a message despite having been shot through the breast or wing. The crucial
message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of her shattered leg,
saved 194 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division's "Lost
Battalion".
United States Navy
aviators maintained 12 pigeon stations in France with a total inventory of
1,508 pigeons when the war ended. Pigeons were carried in airplanes to rapidly
return messages to these stations; and 829 birds flew in 10,995 wartime
aircraft patrols. Airmen of the 230 patrols with messages entrusted to pigeons
threw the message-carrying pigeon either up or down, depending on the type of
aircraft, to keep the pigeon out of the propeller and away from airflow toward
the aircraft wings and struts. Eleven of the thrown pigeons went missing in
action, but the remaining 219 messages were delivered successfully
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