Carrier pigeons carried important messages in World War 1

However, the carrier pigeon did not carry a letter in its beak; instead, a dispatch tube was attached to the leg of the carrier pigeon. The message was placed in this sleeve and the carrier pigeon then flew off to its home loft to deliver the message.

From 1916 onwards, carrier pigeons were increasingly used. Even aeroplanes, airships, ships or submarines had carrier pigeons on board to transmit messages. There were bicycle patrols with carrier pigeons in baskets and carrier pigeons were even used in tanks. Tank crews kept in touch with the infantry through carrier pigeons, with the pigeons carrying messages to the rear ranks.

Carrier pigeons were often used as the last available means of communication. Most often, the pigeons were launched when all other means of communication were no longer available.

An English study even proved that 95% of the messages sent by carrier pigeon arrived reliably when the weather conditions were at least average. Here one still has to take into account that the pigeons were exposed to dangers from shelling or gas.

Therefore, special gas protection transport baskets were built to protect the carrier pigeons inside from poison gas. These baskets were carried on the back and could be taken up to the forward positions. The pigeon could then fly through the cloud of gas hovering a few metres above the ground and still safely deliver messages about the situation at the front.

Probably the most famous carrier pigeon was "Cher Ami" of the US Army Signal Corps, which reached its destination covered in blood and badly injured after being fired upon by German military, but still delivered the message. Cher Ami was subsequently blinded in one eye and her right leg had to be amputated. The carrier pigeon was even honoured with the "Croix de guerre", one of the highest French war awards.