In the dense jungle of New Guinea, April 1944, a patrol of American troops with vital military intel were surrounded by enemy troops when their radios stopped working. The patrol was part of the Allied mission to reclaim Manus Island and had been sent out to investigate reports enemy troops were preparing a counterattack on the village of Drabito. They discovered Japanese troops were camped nearby preparing for a major attack. Yet, at the critical moment, the group's radios — perhaps because of the thick jungle or steep mountains — stopped working. Then, the reconnaissance mission was spotted by the Japanese. They were trapped. With urgent news to report and desperately in need of reinforcements, the Americans turned to their last resort: a basket of pigeons from the 1st Australian Pigeon Section of the Australian Corps of Signals. The soldiers scrawled a note and slipped it into the canister attached to the leg of the first homing pigeon. As the pigeon spiralled up through the forest, it was shot down by the Japanese. So, too, the second pigeon. The final pigeon didn't have a name but was simply labelled Q879. The little blue chequer pigeon, bred in Elwood, Victoria, was the soldiers' final hope. They threw him skyward, watching as 'Q' climbed higher and higher. Gunshots rang out. But little 'Q' broke into the clear sky and disappeared from sight. He flew the 48 kilometres back to base in just 47 minutes. Help arrived, the American patrol was saved and news of the counterattack passed on. Q879 was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1947 — the highest award any animal can receive while serving in the military — for "gallantry carrying a message through heavy fire thereby bringing relief to a patrol surrounded and attacked by the enemy without other means of communication". He's one of just two Australian pigeons to win the honour and now is taxidermied and on display at the Australian War Memorial. 'The unsung heroes' President of the Australian War Animal Memorial Organisation Nigel Allsop said more than 20,000 Australian pigeons served during WWII. "Australian pigeons have largely gone under the radar. They are the unsung heroes," he said. He said the Australian military believed — incorrectly — that the Japanese had deciphered their radio codes during WWII, so pigeons were sometimes seen as the most secure mode of communication. Such was the importance of pigeons to communication during WWII, Mr Allsop said, that the Germans established a falconry unit to hunt down pigeons carrying messages from the western front to England. "Dogs were slightly less reliable because they'd befriend anyone who offered them something to eat, whereas a pigeon would just do its task," Mr Allsop said. Pigeons can fly up to 100 kilometres per hour for thousands of kilometres to return home and have been used to carry messages for at least 3,000 years. It was carrier pigeons the Greeks used to announce the winner of the ancient Olympics. Mr Allsop didn't rule out pigeons being used again in future battles. "If there was such a type of war that affected communications, computer breakdowns and atmospheric conditions, pigeons are the type of animal that could be reinvented for war," he said. From pigeons to satellites This year marks 100 years of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RACS), however, head of the corps Brigadier Deane Limmer said reliance on pigeons dropped off after World War II. Their role is to provide communications, information systems and electronic warfare support to the Australian Army and the Australian Defence Force. The Australian Pigeon Section of RACS no longer exists and Brigadier Limmer said the corps had undergone a technological revolution during the past century. Military signallers started out with pigeons, Morse code, semaphore flags and mirrors, when "radio was an emerging technology," he said. Now, Brigadier Limmer said RACS used satellite communication, cyberspace and drones controlled through radio waves on the electromagnetic spectrum. It's a far cry from a wicker basket of pigeons. To celebrate their centenary, and in a break from protocol, RACS personnel will be leading the Anzac marches in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and many smaller towns around Australia. Brigadier Limmer said it was a respectful tribute to the around 107,000 Australians who had served in the Signals Corps throughout the past 100 years. "Wherever there are military operations you'll find Signals men and women," he said.