The Original Article in the AKC Gazette (November 2007)

InrecognitionofArmisticeDay,wesalutethedogswhoservedinWorldWarI. 1918. The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th the first total war of the 20th century. It’s a war in which month. there was total mobilization of each of the major belliger- It was the moment millions of people had been praying ents,” says Imperial War Museum historian Terry for, for more than four horrifying years. Charman. “Everybody was brought in to conduct it, and All along the front, the pounding, shelling, and shooting dogs were part of that.” stopped. First came an odd silence, then, one man recalled Through January 6, the Imperial War Museum North is “a curious rippling sound, which observers far behind the featuring an exhibition, “The Animal’s War,” recognizing All front likened to the noise of a light wind. It was the sound the contributions of military beasts—from message-carrying of men cheering from the Vosges to the sea.” pigeons to elephants who hauled heavy equipment. The Great War was over. Dogs, Charman says, were used extensively during There was also a lot of tail wagging. When the guns quit World War I. They were on the front lines, dashing across barking, at least 10,000 dogs were at the front. They were No Man’s Land, carrying messages or searching for the soldiers, too. wounded. They hauled machine guns, light artillery, and “They ranged from Alaskan malamute to Saint Bernard carts loaded with ammunition, food, medicine, and some- and from Scotch collie to fox terrier,” a newspaper times wounded soldiers. Small dogs trotted among the reported. “Many of them were placed on the regimental trenches, delivering cigarettes and comfort. rosters, like humans.” “We have lots of photographs in our collection of K-9sK-9s As long as there have been humans, there have been soldiers and sailors with their pets,” says Charman. “They wars and there have been dogs. And, as far back as anyone obviously did a lot to keep up morale in pretty ghastly onthe can remember, humans have enlisted dogs to help fight conditions.” our battles. In the Alps, dogs were the only way to get supplies to But, as with many other aspects of life, the war that was the troops. “Where the motor lorry was helpless, where the supposed to end all wars forever changed the role of horse stood powerless to aid, where man himself found canine soldiers. conditions which even the iron muscle and the WesternFront PHOTOS THIS SPREAD/COURTESY IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM WesternFront “You have to remember that the First World War was indomitable will that is born of the fine frenzy of patrio- By Mara Bovsun 44 AKCG AZETTE N OVEMBER 2007 45 breed, along with Collies, for military work), learned how to and returning to the point of departure, fearless of the make two-mile message runs. They would prove their worth shells and deaf to any appeals made to them en route,” an at the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. “All the tele- Associated Press correspondent marveled in 1916. “Not phones were broken and visual signaling was impossible,” even the frequent upheaval of the ground over which they Sled teams, such as these noted a military report. “The dogs were the first to bring have once passed and the confusion of trails can put them through the news.” off their course.” pictured in Russia shortly The success of these Airedales on the western front, By delivering his message through one of the war’s most after Armistice, were the Charman says, led to the estab- horrifying battles, one dog—Satan of Verdun—became the only way to move in frozen lishment of Britain’s war-dog “most famous of hundreds of highly trained messenger regions. Below: Cart dogs program, which ultimately dogs on the Western front,” in the eyes of no less an hauling machine guns and authority than author Albert Payson Terhune. supplies as the Belgian army Satan was a French liaison dog. These dogs were heads for the front. trained to carry messages, rolled up in canis- ters on their collars, back and forth tism could not conquer, here came the sled dog to the efforts of a dog trainer, Colonel Edwin Hautenville between points, allowing soldiers to carry rescue,” a correspondent marveled. Richardson. Since the late 1800s, Richardson had been on a conversation of sorts. After one heavy snowfall, 150 dogs carried more than 50 developing a training program for dogs to be used by the During the siege of Verdun, a French tons of food from the valley below to the snow bunkers military and police. His research included visits to the garrison was trapped in a village, with and trenches hacked into the frozen peaks of northern German war-dog school. enemy guns all around. France. At least 1,000 sled dogs worked in the mountains Early in the century, Britain had no interest in The soldiers were about to lose hope, throughout the war. Richardson’s work, so he provided trained dogs for other when they spotted what they thought was Precise statistics are impossible to come by, but countries. Richardson Collies served as ambulance dogs a battlefield apparition, like the Angel of Charman says that the Allied armies may have had as for Russian troops during the Russo-Japanese War Mons. It seemed to be a dog, with wings many as 50,000 trained war dogs, and there was an equiva- (1904–1905). In 1907, another team—a Collie and a and a massive head with bug eyes, lent number on the other side. Bloodhound—were sent to guard a sultan’s palace, and galloping toward them. About 7,000 died in active service. Richardson speculated, his harem, in Istanbul. As the form moved closer, the men Most of their names have been forgotten, and they are The war had raged for two years before anyone in the realized the image was not only very real, generally overlooked in scholarly accounts of the war. But British armed forces asked for Richardson’s help. but someone they knew very well. the military dogs of World War I would have a far-ranging “In the winter of 1916 I received a letter from an officer It was Satan. impact, in both war and peace. Dogs in this first modern in the Royal Artillery, in which he expressed a great desire The four-legged messenger had almost war paved the way for more sophisticated uses of K-9 for trained dogs to keep up communication between his reached his destination when he lurched corps later on—from WWII’s Marine Devil Dogs (see outpost and the battery, during heavy bombardment, sideways and fell. “A German bullet had GAZETTE, June 2006) to the bomb-sniffing sentries in Iraq. when telephones are rendered useless and the risk to found him,” Terhune wrote. “He stag- The first formal school to train guide dogs was opened in runners enormous,” Richardson wrote in British War Dogs. A Sergeant of the Royal Engineers puts a message into the tin gered to his feet, reeling and dizzy. For an instant he Potsdam, Germany, in 1923, to help blinded veterans, “He asked if I would train some dogs to carry messages cylinder attached to the collar of a messenger dog, Etaples, 1918. seemed to have lost his way. Then he settled into that sparking a movement that would ultimately lead to the and I promised to do so.” steady run again.” multitalented service dogs of today. Wolf and Prince, two Airedales (Richardson’s preferred would involve about 12,000 dogs during the war. Another bullet tore into his leg, but Satan would not A key component of training was getting the recruits be stopped. He made it to his destination, and collapsed. accustomed to the relentless roar of battle. “The first training What had appeared to be bug eyes was a gas mask, and Bomb-Proofing each day is the firing drill,” Richardson wrote. “Dogs would the wings were two cages containing carrier pigeons. Germany was the first to recognize the need be led into a large shed, where keepers would fire for formal training, establishing the world’s round after round of blanks.” Widespread use of poison first war-dog school in 1884, wrote Bryan D. Food was also used. “A war dog’s dinner bell is a Cummins in Colonel Richardson’s Airedales bomb,” noted a Boston Globe reporter, who was gases made masks (Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 2003). visiting a French war-dog school in 1916. “When all essential battlefield The school is credited with having intro- is ready for the meal, men standing near dugout attire—for dogs as well duced the idea of “mercy” or “Red Cross” craters close to the kennels throw in fused hand as humans. dogs—what the Germans called sanitätshunde or grenades. ... there are terrific explosions with clouds sanitary dogs—as well as refining the methods of smoke and dust. The dogs are not frightened, for for training sentries, scouts, and messengers. they have been taught that explosions are merely the At the start of the war, Charman says, prelude to a meal. As the grenades go off, the ‘dog Germany had about 6,000 war dogs. men’ run down the line, pushing each dog’s plate of The Allies had dogs too, but their efforts food within reach, so that all are served at the were not as well organized. Belgium had a same time.” tradition of using dogs as draft animals, and the French and Russians also had some dogs trained, although not as many as the Germans.

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