PIGEONS are not chicken. Pigeons are very brave. Valiant, a cuddly cartoon film released yesterday, shows just how brave.

It has been inspired by the role racing pigeons played in the Second World War, and its authenticity has been ensured by Gerry Francis, the former badly-haired England football captain who is now a enthusiastic pigeon fancier.

Pigeons have been used in warfare since at least the 17th century when George I decreed that all pigeon droppings were the property of the crown. The droppings were used to make gunpowder.

Newspapers, though, were the first to make use of pigeons in battle. A journalist at the front, armed only with a pencil and a pigeon, broke the news that Napoleon had been defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by sending his story attached to the pigeon back to his editor.

About 20,000 message-carrying pigeons were killed in the First World War, but the birds' loftiest achievements were in the Second. There were 54,000 of them alone in the US Pigeon Service, looked after by more than 3,000 officers.

And, boy, were they brave. Their casualty figures were horrendous - 16,500 were parachuted into Europe during the last three years of the war, and only 2,000 made it home. But the bravest, like the film says, received the Dickin Medal for conspicuous bravery.

The first recipient was Winkie. She was on board a bomber that crash-landed in the sea. Covered in oil, she escaped the wreckage and flew 129 miles back to her Scottish base carrying details of the plane's location. A search was started, and her crew were found. After the war, they held a dinner in her honour. Winkie - so-called because the seawater made her wink - sat at one end of the table (in a cage and not on a dish) while they toasted her heroism.

Gustav, a very British bird despite his name who relayed the first news of the D-Day landings, also won a Dickin. He was despatched by a Reuters correspondent from a warship off the Normandy coast, and five hours 16 minutes later was back in his loft in Portsmouth bearing the news: "First assault troops landed 0750. No interference from enemy gunfire on beach."

In all, 54 Dickin Medals were awarded between 1943 and 1949: 32 went to pigeons, 18 to dogs, three to horses and one to a cat.

The cat among the pigeons was Simon, ship's mouser aboard HMS Amethyst, the British warship which for 102 sweltering days in 1949 was trapped up the Yangtse River. During the incident, 46 British sailors died, but Simon never flinched. True, he couldn't stop rats from gnawing at the supplies, but his constant presence kept up morale.

The Amethyst was rescued by Commander John Kerans, who was MP for Hartlepool from 1959-1964. He was a national hero, but even though he was a Tory in the Pools, he wasn't as brave as a pigeon in the war.

RESEARCH throws up some extraordinary stories. During the War, the Americans wanted to drop thousands of kamikaze bats over Japan. They'd have incendiary bombs strapped to their legs and they'd swoop under the eaves of wooden houses and set fire to them.

After two-and-a-half years of research, several dummy runs and nearly $2m, the Americans realised that a bomb-laden bat, dropped from 20,000ft, would freeze to death the second it stepped from the plane and would hit the ground like a stone. The kamikaze bats were scrapped.