Photographs

Attaching the message

A Royal Navy pigeon is used to demonstrate the method of fixing messages to a bird's leg.

Photographs

Short messages required

A message carried by a pigeon. Message reads, 'On water attacked by 3 Huns'.

Photographs

Pigeon No. 498

Pigeon No. 498, which Skipper Thomas Crisp sent for help when he was attacked by a German U-boat in August 1917. Crisp was killed but, despite being wounded in one wing by shrapnel,  the bird delivered the message in time for help to be sent to the crew.

Photographs

Saving Airmen

A pigeon which saved four lives. It struggled against a gale with a message from four airmen who had come down in the sea. The bird died from exhaustion upon arrival.

Photographs

Pigeons in the RAF

This RAF pigeon was claimed to have flown 22 miles in 22 minutes to deliver a message that helped with the rescue of two wrecked seaplane pilots.

Photographs

Pigeons in the Tank Corps

A carrier pigeon being released from a port-hole in the side of a tank near Albert, 9 August 1918. The Tank Corps often used carrier pigeons to relay information during an advance.

Photographs

'Dreadnought' the Pigeon

'Dreadnought' - a carrier pigeon used by the Royal Engineers Signal Service.

Photographs

Risking injury

Carrier pigeons often flew through heavy artillery fire and risked injury, This pigeon was shot in left eye whilst carrying message from a British seaplane attacked in the North Sea. Despite the injury, the bird was still able to deliver the message to its destination.

Photographs

Lofts

A former London double-decker bus (B.2125), camouflage painted, used as a travelling loft for carrier-pigeons. Pernes, 26 June 1918. Pigeons returning to the loft at the top of the bus.
A former London double-decker bus being used as a mobile loft for carrier-pigeons.

Carrier pigeons were allotted to both stationary and mobile lofts. This photograph shows a former London double-decker bus being used as a mobile loft. Between 60-75 birds could be housed in a mobile loft at any one time.

Related Content

A driver taking mules to water, Salonika, September 1916.
First World War

Voices of the First World War: Animals In War

Animals have played a role in armed conflict throughout history, and the First World War was no different. Hear how millions of horses were used by all the combatant nations to transport men, supplies and equipment, as well as how pigeons and dogs were trained to carry messages.

Richard Dimbleby interviewing members of the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) in North Africa in June 1942.
D-Day

5 People and a Pigeon who Reported on the D-Day Landings

Reporting on D-Day and the campaign in north-west Europe offered an unprecedented opportunity for correspondents. The BBC set up a specialist War Reporting Unit in 1943 to train and organise its reporters for what was expected to be the most significant campaign of the war to date. 

A Lewis gunner of the 6th Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment with the Regiment's cat mascot, in a trench near Cambrin, 6 February 1918.
© IWM (Q 8463)
First World War

15 Animals That Went To War

Over 16 million animals served in the First World War. They were used for transport, communication and companionship. Horses, donkeys, mules and camels carried food, water, ammunition and medical supplies to men at the front, and dogs and pigeons carried messages.