Honoured: the WW1 pigeons who earned their wings However, ahead of the centenary of the war's outbreak later this year, the service of 2709 and others is now being honoured by the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. The organisation is staging an exhibition at its annual conference in Blackpool next weekend to commemorate the role played by the creatures. It will feature highlights from its archives of 10,000 documents and photographs, revealing the extent to which the birds were used during the First and Second World Wars. More than 100,000 served with British forces in the earlier war, performing a variety of roles, and with a success ratio of 95 per cent in getting their messages through. On the Western Front, the birds were kept in mobile lofts - either horse drawn or mounted on lorries or London buses - behind the front line, before being taken to the trenches in wicker baskets when required. They were particularly useful during battles, when field telephones could be disrupted, or once the men had advanced - or retreated - past their prepared lines of communication. They could be launched even during heavy bombardments and use their homing ability to return to their distinctively patterned lofts, even if these had been moved. However, as they were trained to fly back to a known base, they could only be used to fly to the rear, rather than to take messages back to the front. When released, they usually brought down a hail of enemy fire, as the Germans tried to bring down the birds and stop their messages getting through. Trained hawks were also brought up to the front line and sent after the homing pigeons. The creatures were also used extensively by Germany - indeed, next week's exhibition will also include a collection of memorabilia from a German fancier. The Germans were said to have commandeered up to a million birds from occupied Belgium and the British also went to great lengths to try to kill and capture the enemy pigeons. Imprisoned birds were sometime taken back to the home front, where they were paraded in public. American forces display captured German pigeons During the conflict, the king, George V, even sent his own pigeons from the royal loft at Sandringham, so he could be updated on the progress of the war. Messenger pigeons became so central to life in the trenches that one is even used as a plot device in the comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth - recently the focus of debate among politicians and academics - when the title character eats one and is court martialled. The birds were also used on the home front too, and MI5 had what an internal document from the time called a "special hush-hush air station" at Milborne St Andrew, near Dorchester, where 1,000 birds were kept. Pigeons fancying publications were censored and, under the Defence of the Realm Act - introduced in the early weeks of the war - anyone interfering with a homing pigeon faced £100 fines or six months in jail. Pigeons also served on warships and even submarines, as back up to other forms of communication, as well as in aircraft - from which they were launched in mid air to report back on the progress of missions. Another important role was raising the alarm when an aircraft crashed or was forced to land. A memo from the Air Ministry found in the RPRA files shows that of 212 birds singled out for "meritorious service" at the end of the war, a quarter had performed this task, usually from aircraft which had ditched in the sea. One was said to have been launched from a "total wreck," 190 miles out to sea, on a "dark, stormy December night." Despite a 30 knot headwind, the bird arrived back at his loft with the message the following morning. The new exhibition will also feature tales from the Second World War, when the birds" role came to be more widely recognised. At the end, a special event was held to celebrate birds which had served while, in 1943, the Dickin Medal had been instituted to honour the contributions of animals in conflict. It was issued to 32 pigeons from the war, and at least 12 of these medals are expected to be on display at Blackpool, including those won by William of Orange, which flew more than 250 miles to report on the progress of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, the 1944 British offensive which saw troops cut off by the Germans at Arnhem, in Holland. Two soldiers tried to launch the bird off the city's bridge but it was only when one of them fired his Sten gun into the air, that it flew off. The pigeon took just four hours and 25 minutes to fly the 260 miles back to its loft in Knutsford, Cheshire. Another pigeon, GI Joe, saved the inhabitants of the village of Calvi Vecchia, in Italy, as well as British troops who had occupied it in October 1943. Air support had been requested to attack the area, which was thought to be strongly held by the Germans. The message that the British had already captured the village arrived just in time to avert the bombing raid. Even more birds served in the Second World War than in the first, and pigeon food had to be rationed. The birds were carried on all RAF bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, to be released should the crew be shot down. They were also sent into occupied Europe, to send back messages from resistance movements and Allied agents, prompting the Germans to post marksmen and falconers along the coast of the Channel, too intercept the birds. It was not until 1948 that the military decided it had no use for the birds, while the Swiss army did not disband its pigeon section until 1996. Stewart Wardrop, general manager of the RPRA, said: "These animals saved thousands of lives in the First World War and thousands more in the second, and got through messages which helped to change the course of battles. Whether these flights were acts of bravery or their natural behaviour is something you can argue about, but what is not in doubt is the help they gave to the Allied forces. Each one is a great story. When a seaplane with six crew ditched in the water far from land, those on board had to rely on the pigeons they carried with them, for their survival. The aircraft's two birds - 3534NURP17F and 16351NURP17F - were released for the journey back to the loft to raise the alarm. The first arrived with the message. The second was found, a few miles from home, having died of exhaustion. After three days on the water, all the crew were saved. At the end of the war, both birds were among 212 singled out by the Air Ministry for "meritorious service." The war's most celebrated pigeon was Cher Ami, donated by British fanciers but serving with the Americans. The bird is credited with saving the lives of 200 men from the American 77th Infantry Division, known as the "Lost Battalion" who had become trapped behind enemy lines with little food or ammunition, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in October 1918. The men had also started to be bombarded by their own side, who did not know their location. After two other pigeons had been shot down, Cher Ami, the last pigeon, was sent up into the heavy enemy fire. The bird was shot down but managed to take flight again and succeeded in getting word back at her loft at division headquarters 25 miles to the rear in just 65 minutes. She had been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, covered in blood and with a leg hanging only by a tendon. The bird, which was fitted with a wooden leg, caught the imagination of the public. She survived another year, before dying of her wounds in the US. Her stuffed remains are now in the Smithsonian Institution. Originally registered as a cock, after her death she was discovered to be a hen. During the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in October 1918, this pigeon, which had been hatched in a dugout ten months earlier, was released at a front line post at Grandpré with a message for headquarters at Rampont, 25 miles away. The enemy had laid down a bombardment prior to an attack and the bird had to fly through this fire, gaining altitude before he could get his bearings. The men below watched as a shell exploded close to him, the concussion sending him down. However, he regained his height and was able to continue, arriving at Rampont 25 minutes later. A bullet had ripped his breast, while bits of shrapnel had torn his body and his right leg was missing. The message tube, intact, was hanging by the ligaments of the torn leg. He was nursed back to health, but became nicknamed John Silver, after the one-legged pirate. He died in 1935, in the USA, at the age of 17.