In October of 1918, a group of seven rifle companies, about 550 men of the First US Army, were trapped and under German attack in the Argonne Forest of France.
Cut off by German snipers, machine gun, mortar, and flamethrower units, the “Lost Battalion” quickly used up its food and water. On October 3rd, the trapped soldiers sent out messenger pigeons asking for artillery support, but to their horror allied shells began falling on their own positions even as German sharpshooters began to pluck off the birds that were released. Soon only one bird was left. American commander, Major Charles White Whittlesey, scrawled a message and attached it to the bird: “We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heavens sake stop it.”
The homing pigeon later named "Cher Ami" took off, but another allied shell quickly brought her to the ground, stunned. She took off again, only to be shot by a German rifleman, but she got back in the air anyway, and eventually arriving to inform the artillery battery to cease firing. In her perilous travels, she had lost an eye, been shot in the breast, and one of her legs hung from a tendon. US medics patched her up, gave her a name, and proclaimed her a hero. She was later awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
In the end, only 194 of the Lost Battalion's 550 men got out alive.
Cher Ami died at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 13, 1919 from the wounds she received in battle, and she was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931.
No comments:
Post a Comment