The US Army Signal Corps alone used 600 pigeons in France. One of their homing pigeons, a Black Check cock called Cher Ami, was awarded the French ”Croix de Guerre with Palm” for heroic service delivering 12 important messages in Verdun. On his final mission in October 1918, he delivered a message 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 around 200 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division’s ”Lost Battalion”.
