A Pigeon Delivered a Military Message Faster Than Any Radio in World War I. It Lost a Leg and an Eye Getting There.
In October 1918, the Lost Battalion was surrounded in the Argonne Forest and being shelled by their own artillery. Every radio was down. Every runner had been killed. A carrier pigeon named Cher Ami was the last option. It flew twenty-five miles after being shot, with one eye gone and a leg hanging by a tendon. One hundred and ninety-four men survived.
