Whittlesey is a Harvard-educated Wall Street lawyer who has volunteered for military service. Author Kathleen Rooney hones here a keen animal observer in the tradition of Archy’s pal, Mehitabel the cat, and Wilbur, Charlotte’s pig. She is an incredibly wise fowl who describes and interprets the meaningless forays she watches from her perch. Yet while the use of a talking pigeon seems fanciful, Cher Ami is up to the task. The titular protagonists present their stories in alternating chapters, a style that proves a bit tedious. The American unit was commanded by the newly commissioned Major Charles Whittlesey.
This champion bird, named Cher Ami by its trainer, was a hen misidentified as a male (Cher, not Chérie). With ammunition depleted and more than half its men dead, wounded, or missing, the unit’s remainder was saved by a British homing pigeon. While advancing at Argonne, France, an American unit was surrounded by the Germans. managed to suffer 53,402 deaths, more than Korea (33,686) or Vietnam (47,424).Ĭher Ami and Major Whittlesey concerns a small battle of that long war that gained international notoriety. Though we entered the war late, in 1917, the U.S. Do you remember “the War to End All Wars”? Apparently, most of us have forgotten the horrors and stupidity that resulted in 40 million military and civilian deaths and casualties from 1914-1918 during WWI.
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