REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY - CRITTERS

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is the second Sunday of November, the Sunday nearest to 11th November (Remembrance Day), which is the anniversary of the end of the hostilities of the First World War at 11 a.m. in 1918. A two minutes silence will be observed at 11.AM and poppies will be be worn to show a mark of respect. Poppies are the flower that grew in abundance on the Flanders Fields, where so many fell during the battles of Ypres, Passchendaele, and the Somme.

Armistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning - the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month." While this official date to mark the end of the war reflects the ceasefire on the Western Front, hostilities continued in other regions, especially across the former Russian Empire and in parts of the old Ottoman Empire. In the United States, Armistice Day was renamed to Veterans Day in 1954.

As it's critters I thought homage to the the humble pigeon who has played his own part during the wars.

World War I

Messenger pigeons were used extensively during World War I. In 1914 during the First Battle of the Marne, the French army had 72 pigeon lofts which advanced with the troops.

The US Army Signal Corps alone used 600 pigeons in France. One of their carrier pigeons, a Black Check cock called Cher Ami, was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre with Palm" for heroic service delivering 12 important messages in Verdun. On his final mission in October 1918, he delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast or wing. The crucial message, found in the capsule hanging from a ligament of his shattered leg, saved around 200 US soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division's "Lost Battalion".

World War II

During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 messenger pigeons. The Dickin Medal, which is the highest possible animal's decoration for valor, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.

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