Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1919-06-05
Carriers of Vital Messages Ever
Since Battle Of Marine
in 1914.
u-BOAT IS TRAPPED BY BIRD
News From Trenches Taken at Full
Speed to Headquarters and Supply
lines-information Gained
From Captured Pigeons.

Paris-At the Ternes gate Of Paris
may be seen memorial, the work of
Bartholdi, on which is inscribed:
Monument to the Balloonists and Car
rier Pigeons Of 1870" What memorial
will acknowledge the services Of car
rier pigeons in the worlds war Of 1914
1918 remains to be seen, but their work
amid barrage fire, bursting shrapnel.
the zip-zip Of machine-gun bullets and
the death destroying gases was of
enormous value.
Carrier pigeons were used on all the
Rattlefronts but their best work was
on the western front, from the chan
mel to the Swiss border and from the
Alps to the Adriatic gulf. They car
ried messages at the Marine, when the
Huns were driven back by Marshal
Joffre. Hundreds were used in the
battle Of the Yser,. in Flanders, when
the Belgians and the French halted
the German advance; and they made
many and frequent trips in the first
battle Of Ypres, in the drive on the
channel ports when the British, French
and Belgians stopped the Germans de-
cisively in the final battle at the close
of 1914. They aided in the capture of
Neuve Chapelle by the British and
they died in numbers with the British
Tommies at the second battle Of Ypres,
When the Germans advanced toward
the User canal using for the first time
poisonous gas. Again the birds did
valiant service when the French tried
to break through In the Champagne in
the fall of 1915, and in the whole
series of the Verdun attacks lasting
through July, oftentimes the only COM
municatons with men in advanced sta
lions were the dogs that crept through
the barrages and the carrier pigeons
that returned with messages. Where
telephone and wireless broke down,
and men could not survive the storm
Of shell fire, 1t is recorded that 81 per
cent of the messages carried by carrier
pigeons came safely through.
Told Of German Retreat.
When the Germans retired to the
'Hindenburg line" it was carrier pig
cons carried forward into the front
advance lines that brought back the
news Of the retirement long before
telephone communication could be es-
tablished Through the whole area,
1900 square miles, on front Of 100
miles from Arras to Scissors, carrier
pigeons did their work effectively. And
wherever the Americans fought, at
Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Torcy,
Bouresches, Belleau wood, Conde-en-
Brie, Buzancy, Jaulgonne, Fere-en-Tar-
denois, Bligne, Cierges, Villers-Argron,
Fismes, Frapelle, Bazoches, Juvigny,
st. Mihiel, Argonne forest carrier
pigeons were likewise on the Job.
A carrier pigeon aided in capturing
q U-boat and her crew. A coast watch
er on one of the loneliest parts of the
west coast at shutdown saw the tip Of
q periscope arise and then the coming
tower of U-boat. The underwater
boat stopped, and the officers and crew
were seen on deck. The lookout man
tied note bearing the information to
. the leg Of a carrier pigeon and released
1t from his basket. The next morning
q German submarine, which had run
out of gasoline, and It's officers and
crew We're taken to naval sub-base.
A British patrol boat was discov-
cred by German submarine and tor
pedoed and shelled. The skipper, hav-
ing on board a carrier pigeon, wrote a
brief message, telling his position and
what had happened. As the boat
sank, the skipper began swimming for
some wreckage to cling to. The pigeon
went up gradually in spiral, and the
Germans, seeing it, began shooting at
the bird. The skipper, drifting on the
wreckage, gave up hope when he saw
the bird had been hit. Twenty miles
away, however, it lighted on patrol
ling destroyer, It's silver-gray plumage
RACHEL M'MILLAN Bl