French army carrier pigeon, 22 Battalion AIF

Brown chequer carrier pigeon with aluminium message container attached to the right leg and an aluminium identity ring on the left leg that reads, '17 7165 AF'.

This French Army carrier pigeon was found dead from exhaustion at Poulanville by members of 22 Battalion, while they were fighting near Morlancourt on 11 June 1918. The figure cipher message it was carrying was removed from its message container and forwarded to the French General Staff. It transpired that the bird had been released four days earlier by a French unit engaged in heavy fighting twenty miles south of Amiens. Heavy shell fire and gas were thought to have driven the pigeon out of its way so that it became disoriented and could not find its way back to its loft.

This pigeon was handed to the Australian War Records Section (AWRS) on 26 June 1918 by Lieutenant W G Wilkins, the Australian Official Photographer. The AWRS Register notes that after its initial recovery, it was 'at once stuffed for the Australian War Museum by Lt G.H. Wilkins, M.C.'.