{{Short description|Homing pigeons used for military messages}} '''War pigeons''', commonly referred to as homing pigeons or carrier pigeons, are domesticated rock doves (Columba livia) selectively bred and trained to carry messages in military operations. Due to their speed, endurance, altitude, and homing ability, pigeons were frequently used as military messengers because they were often more reliable and difficult to intercept than other forms of wartime communication.<ref name="Keating2">{{cite web |last=Keating |first=Lindsay |date=4 September 2013 |title=Pigeons in bras go to war |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/pigeons-bras-go-war |access-date=13 December 2024 |website=National Museum of American History}}</ref> Some pigeons received military honors for their service including 32 recipients of the Dickin Medal, and Cher Ami who was awarded the Croix de Guerre for delivering messages during World War I.<ref name="Conner2" />
During World War I and World War II, carrier pigeons were used by the Australian, French, German, American, and UK forces, 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. The soldier would go to the coop, remove the message from the canister, and send it to its destination by telegraph, field phone, or personal messenger. Success rates for message delivery by war pigeons reportedly reached 95 percent.<ref name="Conner2">{{cite web |last=O'Conner |first=Maureen |date=4 September 2013 |title=Back When Pigeons Wore Bras |url=https://www.thecut.com/2013/09/back-when-pigeons-wore-bras.html |access-date=13 December 2024 |website=The Cut}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
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 amongst the infantrymen for whom they worked. One pigeon, named "Spike", flew 52 missions without receiving a single wound.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pigeonsofwar.wordpress.com/2022/10/26/pigeon-heroes-of-the-great-war-spike/|title= Pigeon Heroes of the Great War: Spike|website=pigeonsofwar.wordpress.com|date= 26 October 2022}}</ref> Another, named Cher Ami, lost his foot and one eye, but his message got through, saving a large group of surrounded American infantrymen.
== Breeds == The breed most commonly used in modern military history was the Racing Homer, developed in Belgium and England during the 19th century through the crossbreeding of various pigeon breeds, primarily the Smerle, French Cumulet, English Carrier, Dragoon, and the now-extinct Horseman.<ref name=":0" /> The Cumulet contributed endurance and the capacity to fly for extended periods without tiring, while the Carrier passed on the ability to navigate home from great distances.<ref name=":0" /> The Racing Homer can maintain an average flying speed of approximately 97 km/hr (60 mph), with recorded flights of up to 1,800 km (1,100 miles).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blazich |first=Frank A. |date=2020 |title=Feathers of Honor: U.S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Service in World War I, 1917–1918 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26939907 |journal=Army History |issue=117 |pages=32–51 |doi=10.2307/26939907 |issn=1546-5330}}</ref>
== History == Carrier pigeons have served military forces across multiple continents and civilizations for over three thousand years. Among the earliest recorded instances, the Sultan of Baghdad used message-carrying pigeons fitted with small capsules around 1150 BCE, establishing one of the first known organized military pigeon networks.<ref name="Sci Museum">{{Cite web |date=2020-02-21 |title=Exciting tales and top secret work of pigeons in the First World War |url=https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exciting-tales-and-top-secret-work-of-pigeons-in-the-first-world-war/ |access-date=2026-05-12 |work=Science Museum Blog}}</ref> In the sixth century BC, Cyrus, king of Persia, used carrier pigeons to communicate with various parts of his empire.<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |title=Carrier pigeons still serve; Even in modern war they do messenger duty |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/12/archives/carrier-pigeons-still-serve-even-in-modern-war-they-do-messenger.html |work=The New York Times |page=SM26 |date=12 April 1936}}</ref> In Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar used pigeons to send messages to the territory of Gaul.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Levi|first=Wendell|title=The Pigeon|publisher=Levi Publishing Co, Inc.|year=1977|isbn=0-85390-013-2|location=Sumter, South Carolina}}</ref> In 1815, a carrier pigeon brought news of the Duke of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Waterloo to London before any human courier would do so.<ref name="Sci Museum" />
During the 19th-century Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the four-month Prussian siege of Paris produced one of the most significant demonstrations of carrier pigeons in military history. With Prussian forces encircling the city and all land routes sealed, the French military used balloons to transport homing pigeons out of Paris and past enemy lines, from where the birds were released and flew back into the besieged city.<ref name=":2" /> Each pigeon carried microfilmed dispatches, allowing a single bird to transport hundreds of compressed dispatches on a single strip of film. Aware of the pigeon network, the Prussian military deployed trained hawks specifically to hunt the pigeons before they could reach their destination.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1936-04-12 |title=CARRIER PIGEONS STILL SERVE; Even in Modern War They Do Messenger Duty |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/12/archives/carrier-pigeons-still-serve-even-in-modern-war-they-do-messenger.html |access-date=2026-05-12 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Across the full duration of the siege, approximately 400 birds transported nearly 115,000 official government communications and close to one million private messages into the besieged capital.<ref name="Sci Museum" /> The outcome of the siege established carrier pigeons as a proven and reliable method of military communication, and their use was well regarded in military planning in the decades leading up to World War I.
=== Spanish–American War === The United States military first used pigeons for communication during the Spanish–American War. The Coast Signal Service used pigeons that were trained to return to lighthouses along the Atlantic Coast, and the North Atlantic Squadron relied on the Naval Pigeon Messenger Service during exercises. Both the Boston Homing Club and the National Association of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers offered their birds to the war effort. After war was declared, the Naval Pigeon Messenger Service provided communications between ships off the East Coast. Pigeons were used on torpedo boats at naval headquarters in Key West and on ships leaving San Francisco. A regiment from Colorado sailing to the Philippines sent messages back to San Francisco to notify General Wesley Merritt of their progress. However, developments in wireless telegraphy led to the discontinuation of the Naval Pigeon Messenger Service, and the birds were auctioned off.<ref name=macal />{{rp|pp=50-64}}
=== World War I === [[File:Shooting Homing Pigeons.png|thumb|upright|British WWI poster regarding the killing of war pigeons being an offence under Regulation 21A of the Defence of the Realm Act]] thumb|upright|A pigeon being released from a port-hole in the side of a British tank during World War I 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 cock{{efn|On May 10, 2021, Doctors Carla Dove and Robert Fleischer took samples of the preserved body of Cher Ami and sent them for DNA analysis. On June 30, 2021, results confirmed that Cher Ami was a cock (male).<ref name="Blazich, Smithsonian">{{cite web |last=Blazich |first=Frank |date=2021-07-15 |title=He? She? Or just plain Cher Ami? Solving a century-old pigeon mystery |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/cher-ami |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715194650/https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/cher-ami |archive-date=2021-07-15 |access-date=2021-07-16 |website=National Museum of American History}}</ref>}} 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 his final mission in October 1918, he delivered a message over {{Convert|25|mi|km}} despite having been shot through the breast or wing. The crucial message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of his shattered leg, saved 194 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division's "Lost Battalion" in the Battle of the Argonne, in October 1918.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.pigeoncenter.org/militarypigeons.html | title = Pigeons in Military History | author = Jim Greelis | publisher = World of Wings | access-date = 13 September 2007 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070825005152/http://www.pigeoncenter.org/militarypigeons.html | archive-date = 25 August 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/3b_cherami.html |title=Cher Ami (Dear Friend) |website=Home of Heroes |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021105121624/https://homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/3b_cherami.html |archive-date=November 5, 2002 |access-date=December 28, 2022}}</ref> When Cher Ami died, he was mounted and is part of the permanent exhibit at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.flickr.com/photos/marotta47/256588828/ | title = Cher Ami "Dear Friend" WWI | publisher = Flickr| access-date = 26 April 2008| date = 25 September 2006 }}</ref> [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R01996, Brieftaube mit Fotokamera cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|German unmanned camera pigeon (probably aerial reconnaissance in World War I)]] 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Wyen |first=Adrian O. |title =Naval Aviation in World War I |url=https://archive.org/details/navalaviationinw00wash |publisher =Chief of Naval Operations |date =1969 |location =Washington, D.C. |page=[https://archive.org/details/navalaviationinw00wash/page/30 30] }}</ref> thumb|upright|Leg canister for a war pigeon, U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War I. 1.0 x 2.9 cm, 1.7 gm
Pigeons were considered an essential element of naval aviation communication when the first United States aircraft carrier {{USS|Langley|CV-1|6}} was commissioned on 20 March 1922, so the ship included a pigeon house on the stern.<ref name=p65>{{cite journal |author=Jackson R. Tate, RADM USN |date=October 1978 |title=We Rode the Covered Wagon |journal=United States Naval Institute Proceedings |page=65 }}</ref> The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while ''Langley'' was undergoing conversion. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while ''Langley'' was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pride |first=A.M. VADM USN |date=January 1979 |title=Comment and Discussion |journal=United States Naval Institute Proceedings |page=89 }}</ref> The pigeons never went to sea again.<ref name=p65/>
=== World War II and later deployments === During World War II, the United States military trained 54,000 homing pigeons. Over 36,000 of those pigeons were used overseas by 12 signal pigeon companies throughout each theater of operation.<ref name="macal" />{{rp|p=113}} Upon arriving in Germany, members of the 285th Signal Pigeon Company located over 1000 homing pigeon lofts and clipped the feathers of over 15,000 pigeons to prevent their use by the Germans.<ref name="macal" />{{rp|p=119}}
During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons for many purposes, including communicating with those behind enemy lines such as Belgian spy Jozef Raskin. The Dickin Medal, the highest possible decoration for valor given to animals, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.
The UK maintained the Air Ministry Pigeon Section during World War II and for a while thereafter. A Pigeon Policy Committee made decisions about the uses of pigeons in military contexts. The head of the section, Lea Rayner, reported in 1945 that pigeons could be trained to deliver small explosives or bioweapons to precise targets. The ideas were not taken up by the committee, and in 1948 the UK military stated that pigeons were of no further use. During the war, messenger pigeons could draw a special allowance of corn and seed, but as soon as the war ended this had been cancelled and anyone keeping pigeons would have to draw on their own personal rationed corn and seed to also feed the pigeons.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Cleaver |first=Hylton |date=June 1951 |title=They've earned their corn |journal=Men Only |page=100 }}</ref> However, the UK security service MI5 was still concerned about the use of pigeons by enemy forces. Until 1950, they arranged for 100 birds to be maintained by a civilian pigeon fancier in order to prepare for any eventuality. The Swiss army disbanded its Pigeon section in 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.admin.ch/cp/d/1996Jul17.170649.6345@idz.bfi.admin.ch.html |title=Auflösung des Brieftaubendienstes abgeschlossen |date=2 July 1996 |publisher=Admin.ch |access-date=25 April 2013}}</ref>
==== Pigeon vest ==== thumb|An example of a WWII-era pigeon vest on a pigeon-shaped mannequin thumb|Paratrooper with pigeon vest The Army, in coordination with the Maidenform Brassiere Company, developed the pigeon vest, also known as pigeon bra,<ref name="Conner2" /> to enable paratroopers to carry pigeons safely during jumps.<ref name="macal" />{{rp|p=127}}<ref name="Keating2" /> The pigeon vest is a bra-like garment specifically developed for use in World War II.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sienra |first=Regina |date=4 July 2024 |title=During World War II, Parachuting Pigeons Carried Messages to French Resistance |url=https://mymodernmet.com/pigeon-parachutes-world-war-ii/ |access-date=13 December 2024 |website=My Modern Met}}</ref> While pigeons had previously been used in World War I, and parachutes were designed specifically for them, the pigeon vest hadn't been invented before WWII.
In 1944, the women's underwear company Maidenform was contracted to manufacture 28,500 pigeon vests for the United States Armed Forces. The fabric used in pigeon vests was porous and tightly woven to prevent damage from their claws,<ref name="Keating2" /> and only contained a pigeon's body, leaving their head, feet, and wings free.<ref name="Conner2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Connie |title=Pigeons at war: how avian heroes changed history |date=2024 |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |isbn=978-1-7284-8708-3 |location=Minneapolis |chapter=}}</ref> The devices contained adjustable straps so the pigeons could be more easily carried by paratroopers.<ref name="Keating2" /> Once they landed, the pigeon vest would be undone, and then the pigeon would fly to their homing base.<ref name="Conner2" /> For the safety of the pigeons, it was recommended against confining a pigeon in a pigeon vest for over six hours.<ref name="Keating2" /><ref name="NYHistory2">{{Cite web |date=1 November 2012 |title=Protect Our Brassieres! WWII's War On Lingerie |url=https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/protect-our-brassieres-wwiis-war-on-lingerie |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=New York Historical}}</ref>
Being produced by the undergarment company Maidenform, the pigeon vests had similar construction to a single bra cup with the lacing of a corset.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riordan |first=Teresa |title=Inventing beauty: a history of the innovations that have made us beautiful |date=2004 |publisher=Broadway Books |isbn=978-0-7679-1451-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=102}}</ref> They may have also been made from the same materials as bras.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sienra |first=Regina |date=2024-07-04 |title=Pigeons in Parachutes Carried Messages During World War II |url=https://mymodernmet.com/pigeon-parachutes-world-war-ii/ |access-date=2025-04-21 |work=My Modern Met}}</ref> Contemporary advertisements for Maidenform bras included pictures of the pigeon vest, claiming "There is a maiden form for every type of figure."<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwarcz |first=Joe |date=March 9, 2019 |title=The heroism of homing pigeons |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette-the-heroism-of-homing-pigeon/170871759/ |newspaper=The Gazette |location=Montreal, Quebec}}</ref>
After World War II ended, the War Assets Administration salvaged 27,064 pigeon vests as surplus property. The entire batch was purchased by a single dealer. An administration officer with the administration said, "He didn't say what he planned to do with them. What could anyone do with 27,064 pigeon vests?"<ref>{{cite news |date=June 18, 1946 |title=WAA Idea Men Save Odd Surplus Items from Scrap Heap |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-surplus/180728101/ |newspaper=The Buffalo News}}</ref>
=== 21st century === In 2010, Indian police expressed suspicion that a recently captured pigeon from Pakistan might have been carrying a message from Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|author=Express / AFP |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/16913/alleged-spy-pigeon-held-in-india/ |title=Fowl play: alleged spy pigeon held in India |date=28 May 2010 |publisher=Tribune.com.pk |access-date=1 May 2013}}</ref> In 2015, a pigeon from Pakistan was logged into Indian records as a "suspected spy".<ref>{{Cite news|date=2 June 2015|title=Pakistanis respond after 'spy pigeon' detained in India |work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32971094|access-date=1 June 2020}}</ref> In May 2020, another suspected Pakistani spy pigeon was captured by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Suspected 'spy' pigeon from Pakistan carrying 'coded message' captured in Jammu and Kashmir|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/suspected-spy-pigeon-from-pakistan-carrying-coded-message-captured-in-jammu-and-kashmir/story-MOUUlWNV8yspRbWCgBSpcN.html|date=26 May 2020 |work=Hindustan Times |access-date=1 June 2020}}</ref> After finding nothing suspicious, India authorities released the pigeon back into Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web|title=India returns alleged spy bird to Pakistan|url=https://www.dw.com/en/india-returns-alleged-spy-bird-to-pakistan/a-53624862|date=29 May 2020|website=DW.COM|access-date=1 June 2020}}</ref>
In 2016, a Jordanian border official said at a news conference that Islamic State militants were using homing pigeons to deliver messages to operatives outside its "so called caliphate".<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Jordanian military official says ISIS using homing pigeons to carry messages |url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/isis-uses-homing-pigeons-to-carry-messages-jordanian-official-says |newspaper=Fox News Channel |location=Foxnews.com |date=6 May 2016 |access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref>
In 2019, the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery was instituted in the United States, with two war pigeons recognized at the inaugural ceremony.<ref name="macal" />{{rp|134}}
== Decorated war pigeons == In total, 32 pigeons were decorated with the Dickin Medal, including:<ref>[http://www.pdsa.org.uk/about-us/media-pr-centre/news/574_flying-heroes:-the-true-story ''Flying heroes: The true story''], PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC'</ref><!-- I'm very sorry, but the original link is dead. User:Bishonen -- Not identical, but this new link supports the preceding text. The original link is available through Internet Archive. T-Rexx --><ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=http://www.pdsa.org.uk/page309_3.html |title=PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC' |access-date=31 March 2011 |publisher=PDSA |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619182925/http://www.pdsa.org.uk/page309_3.html |archive-date=19 June 2009 }}</ref><ref name=medal>{{Cite news|url=http://www.historychannel.com.au/articles/pigeons-awarded-first-dickin-medals-for-bravery/|title=Pigeons Awarded First Dickin Medals for Bravery ⋆ History Channel|date=20 June 2016|work=History Channel|access-date=30 April 2017|archive-date=13 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213161202/https://www.historychannel.com.au/articles/pigeons-awarded-first-dickin-medals-for-bravery/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4s039PKpc4kC&pg=PA7|title=The Eastman Guide to Birds: Natural History Accounts for 150 North American Species|last=Eastman|first=John|date=2000|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-4552-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-35967137|title=See some of the 67 animals who've been handed the Dickin Medal for bravery|work=BBC|date=5 April 2016}}</ref> * All Alone (1943) * Winkie (1943) * Tyke (1943) * White Vision (1943) * Commando (1944) * Paddy (1944) * William of Orange (1944) * Gustav (1944) * Beach Comber (1944) * Royal Blue (1945) * Mary of Exeter (1945) * G.I. Joe (1946)
A grand ceremony was held in Buckingham Palace to commemorate a platoon of pigeons that braved the battlefields of Normandy to deliver vital plans to Allied forces on the fringes of Germany.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=http://xtra.newagebd.net/2932/aerial-athletes/|title=Aerial athletes|publisher=New Age Xtra|access-date=30 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007021228/http://xtra.newagebd.net/2932/aerial-athletes/|archive-date=7 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Three of the actual birds that received the medals are on show in the London Military Museum{{clarify|reason=That's what the source says, but there's no such place. Imperial War Museum? National Army Museum? Or one of about 20 smaller military museums?|date=February 2021}} so that well-wishers can pay their respects.<ref name=":9" />
In Brussels, there is a monument commemorating pigeons that served in World War I, the ''{{ill|Monument au Pigeon-Soldat|fr}}''.
Three pigeons have been recognized with the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery: * G.I. Joe, service in World War II (2019)<ref name="macal" />{{rp|p=134}} * Cher Ami, service in World War I (2019)<ref>The Washington Post, "New animal bravery medal honors heroic dogs, pigeons and horse," Nov. 18 2019 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/new-animal-bravery-medal-honors-dogs-pigeons-and-a-horse-who-served/2019/11/18/edb69aa0-0962-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html]</ref> * The Mocker, service in World War I (2023)<ref>{{Cite web |title=2023 AWP Medalists |url=https://animalsinwarandpeace.org/2023-awp-ceremony |access-date=2026-05-13 |work=Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery}}</ref>
== Gallery == <gallery mode="packed" heights="250" style="text-align:left"> File:A member of the crew of an RAF Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson holding a carrier pigeon, 1942. TR42.jpg|A member of the crew of an RAF Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson holding a carrier pigeon, 1942 File:1972 Musik Kpl uniform.jpg|Left: Swiss homing pigeon service sergeant major, Women's Military Service, uniform of 1986 File:War Pigeon Carrier.jpg|War pigeon carrier at the History on Wheels Museum, Eton Wick, Windsor, UK: The pigeon would be released from this carrying important messages back home. File:Bruxelles - Monument au Pigeon-Soldat - 02.JPG|The ''{{ill|Monument au Pigeon-Soldat|fr}}'' in Brussels , commemorating pigeons that served in {{nowrap|World War I}} </gallery>
== See also == * {{annotated link|Pigeon post}} * Olga of Kiev – used pigeons and sparrows to set fire to villages in the 10th century * {{annotated link|Jean Desbouvrie}} * {{annotated link|Military animals}} * {{annotated link|Pigeon intelligence}} * List of equipment of the United States Army during World War II * {{annotated link|Pigeon photography}} * {{annotated link|Project Pigeon}} * Beach House Park, Worthing – Site of a memorial to war pigeons * "Corporal Punishment" – an episode of ''Blackadder'' featuring a fictional World War I carrier pigeon named Speckled Jim
== Notes == {{noteslist}}
== References == <references> <ref name=macal>{{cite book | last=Macalaster | first=Elizabeth G. | title=War Pigeons: Winged Couriers in the U.S. Military, 1878-1957 | publisher=McFarland & Company | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-4766-8080-4}}</ref> </references>
== External links == {{Commons category|Military use of pigeons}} * [http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_425415 Smithsonian page on Cher Ami, a decorated World War I pigeon] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050825132244/http://www.usarc.army.mil/77thRSC/ History of the 77th] * [http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/pigeons_and_world_war_one.htm Pigeons and WWI] * [https://worldwar2historyandtheww2pigeons.blogspot.com World War 2 History and the WW2 Pigeons] * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040812022332/http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=25210&newsdate=24-May-2004 "UK Mulled Using Birds for Bio-War After WW2 – Files"]}} Reuters (21 May 2004)
{{War pigeons}} {{Pigeons}} {{Military animals}} {{Dickin Medal}}
Category:Animal intelligence Category:Domestic pigeons Pigeon Category:Combat occupations