Last week , when Uzzi and I were check into the news , we translate about apigeonthat carried messages for the British Army during World War II , more than 70 years ago . Somehow the pigeon fell down a chimney in Surrey , England , and die . A man discovered the pigeon ’s skeleton just last workweek . There was a cod message in a canister impound to his leg . Pretty nerveless !
Carrier pigeon are home pigeons used to carry subject matter . Usually , people would contain them off at a distance , sequester message toter to their leg , then they fly back to their home coop again . They ’ve been used in this way for 1000 of years . In the sixth hundred B.C. , King Cyrus of Persia used pigeon to intercommunicate with the far - flung corners of his imperium . In the late 1800s , the Great Barrier Island Pigeongram Service used them to establish post route between Auckland , New Zealand , and Great Barrier Island , 62 miles off the coast .
World War I come before modern - day radio made communication relatively easy , so 100 of 1000 of carrier pigeon carried messages that saved countless lives . Cher Ami , a homing pigeon belonging to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in France , helped economise the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division during the Battle of the Argonne Forest . This 600 - humankind battalion was being shelled by Allied power after they go on too far into opposition district . Pigeoneers with the battalion direct Cher Ami to severalize them to bar . German soldiers shot Cher Ami down , but he took flight again and despite having been shot through the breast , blinded in one eye , covered in blood and with a leg hang only by a sinew , he arrived back at his loft at division headquarters 25 international mile out in just 65 minutes , helping to economise the animation of 194 soldiers . Army medic were unable to save his leg , so they carved a small wooden leg for him . The French awarded Cher Ami the coveted Croix de Guerre medal for present 12 important subject matter , including his last one . He pall at Fort Monmouth , N.J. , on June 13 , 1919 , and when animal stuffer fix to mount him they get a line “ he ” was a hen !
Many M of carrier pigeon also served in Europe during World War II . In 1943 , the British established the Dickin Medal to observe the sprightliness of animals that dish during wartime . The medal was awarded 54 times between 1943 and 1949 to 32 carrier pigeons , 18 pawl , three horse and onecat . One of the winners was G.I. Joe , a penis of the United States Army Pigeon Service that saved the life of the denizen of the settlement of Calvi Vecchia , Italy , and the British scout group post there . The Greenwich Village was scheduled to be bombard by Allied forces on October 18 , 1943 , but G.I. Joe carried a message to Allied headquarters tell the British had captured the Greenwich Village so please give your fire . It arrived just in time to halt the bombing . More than 1,000 lives were saved . G.I. Joe lived to the ripe sure-enough geezerhood of 18 . He was mounted and is still on display at the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Museum in Fort Monmouth , N.J.
