DOMESTIC PIGEONS 107 



The pigeon which flew through that hell of fire, 

 which no human being could stem, received the 

 Croix de Guerre and the everlasting blessing of 

 the French nation. 



But war pigeons did not always pass through 

 gun-fire unscathed. A member of the American 

 pigeon service once informed the writer that a 

 bird returned to his loft in the Toul sector with 

 a broken leg and a deep two-inch gash in its side. 

 Another bird, belonging to the British service, 

 "was struck by a German bullet which broke one 

 of its legs, denuding the bone ... of all flesh, and 

 drove the metal cylinder containing the message 

 into the side of its body, the bullet passing out of 

 its back. In spite of its wounds, and although 

 out in the wet all night, the bird struggled home 

 to its loft, a distance of nine miles, and delivered 

 its message."^ Surely, that pigeon had earned 

 the V. C. ! 



The Germans had the advantage over the allies 

 in reference to army pigeons. The whole of Bel- 

 gium was theirs to draw upon. At least a million 

 birds are known to have been commandeered from 

 that country during the war. Some of those very 

 carriers were captured by the American forces 

 during one of our drives and, as the pigeon lofts 

 were then behind our own lines, performed ex- 

 cellent service for us. 



Although homing pigeons, if left to themselves, 



1 Gladstone, "Birds and the War." 



