Cher Ami

The famous war pigeon

There were many famous war pigeons during WWI, but there was one that was particularly famous.

Cher Ami, which means ‘dear friend’ in French, carried 12 important messages.

Maybe the most important was the one he carried on the 4th of October 1918.

On the 3rd of October, about 500 men were trapped in a small circle surrounded by enemy soldiers. By night-time around 200 men were killed or badly hurt. The next morning only 200 were left standing.

They sent out 2 pigeons telling the headquarters they needed help. Neither of them made it. There was only one pigeon left, Cher Ami. He was their last hope.

The enemy saw Cher Ami flying up, so they tried to shoot him down. His left leg was shot, the same leg that carried the note. The poor bird came down and for a moment the trapped soldiers thought that their last hope was up.

Amazingly Cher Ami was soon up in the sky again. Even though he’d been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye and had his leg shot this little hero got back, flying 25 miles (40 km) in 25 minutes to do so.

After that the commanders stopped the bombing and saved the 200 men that were still alive.

On this last mission he was so badly hurt that he could no longer fly.

The soldiers did their best to patch Cher Ami up because he had saved 200 of their friends.

They could save everything apart from one thing, his leg. They made him his very own wooden leg, carved by hand.

The French heard about Cher Ami’s great feat and awarded him the Croix de guerre (Cross of war, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_guerre).

Cher Ami died the following year on June the 13th.

He is now stuffed and on display with his medal in the National Museum of American History.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_425415