Carrier Pigeons & World War Two

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/carrier-pigeons-wwii.html 

Carrier Pigeons are homing pigeons, which means that they are able to find their nest from a good distance away. One of the biggest advantages of the pigeons is that there is significantly less chance of any invasion of privacy due to the fact that pigeons cannot read these letters and such. They can also travel considerably faster than anyone might suspect, fifty miles per hour and an occasional burst of speed, which could be considered the bird version of sprinting after jogging for a while, which can hit around ninety miles per hour. These pigeons had a significant impact on the world wars but the biggest effect was during world war two once American and British bird keepers donated their birds to this operation before a stable breeding program was set up. The birds were placed in little wooden boxes and air dropped into the proper country, parachutes would prevent the crate or birds inside from hitting the ground too hard. Many of the birds flew around four-hundred miles to deliver secret messages and the locations of the German soldiers around Europe. There were complications in using the carrier pigeons as well because for one they were not at the top of the food chain and would be killed by hawks or other birds of prey, weather posed an issue was well and there were even records of sympathizers within Europe capturing the birds to help further the Nazi cause.