Dogs of WarDogs of War: Dogs had a vital part to play in World War One as the complexes of trenches spread throughout the Western Front. Dogs were used as messengers and proved to be as reliable as soldiers in the dangerous job of running messages. The complexities of trench warfare meant that communication was always a problem. Field communication systems were crude and there was always the very real possibility that vital messages from the front would never get back to headquarters or vice versa. Human runners were potentially large targets and weighed down by uniforms there was a chance that they would not get through.
In the heat of a battle, there was even less of a chance of a runner getting through as the enemy's artillery was likely to be
Dogs od war were the obvious solution to this pressing problem. A trained dog was faster than a human runner, presented less of a target to a sniper and could travel over any terrain. Above all, dogs proved to be extremely reliable if they were well trained.
A dog training school was established in Scotland and a recruit from this school traveled over 4000 metres on the Western Front with an important message to a brigade's headquarters. The dog traveled this distance (war records classed it as "very difficult" terrain) in less than sixty minutes. All other methods of communicating with the headquarters had failed - but the dog had got through.
Dogs of war also had another role to play on the Western Front. For men trapped in the horrors of trench warfare, a dog in the trenches (whether a messenger dog or not) was a psychological comfort that took away, if only for a short time, the horrors they lived through. It is said that Adolf Hitler kept a dog with him in the German trenches. For many soldiers on any of the sides that fought in the trenches, a dog must have reminded them of home comforts.
Combat
During 1942, Japanese forces conquered Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Burma on the western edge of the Pacific; the Philippines, the Marianas, and the Solomon Islands in the central west Pacific. It was not until the Battle of Midway that the Japanese lost a battle. At Midway, the Japanese lost four of their aircraft carriers and hundreds of their best pilots.
Knowing that the last country in the Pacific that could possibly stop the Japanese advance was Australia, the Japanese forces moved south towards Australia taking island groups and New Guinea.
In late 1942, the U.S. Forces fought the Japanese on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands which are northeast of Australia. After long and bloody battles, the Americans were victorious on Guadalcanal.
The larger island in the Solomon's was Bougainville. The Marines landed on Bougainville in 1943. After the landing sites were bombed and shelled, the dog platoon was sent ashore just one hour after the first Marines hit the beach, under heavy mortar and rifle fire. The Devildogs were met with mixed reactions by the fighting Marines. There was one thing that quickly changed the Marines' view of the dogs to a very positive one.
In landing and fighting on islands quite often the Marines were stopped for a time on the beaches. It was a common tactic for the Japanese to infiltrate the beach positions at night and attempt to kill the Marines. To prevent this the Marines were always on the alert at night. One night a Marine battalion fired 3,800 rounds, killing a water buffalo and wounding one of their own Marines. No enemy were known to be in the area.
The next night the Devildogs were called in. It was a quiet night and the Marines got some sleep. The Dobes keen sense of smell and hearing could detect the presence of men several hundred yards away. In one instance, the dogs detected the presence of troops one half mile away. The Dobes' handlers always had help digging foxholes, the other Marines always wanted the handler and their dogs nearby. No unit protected by one of the dogs was ever ambushed by the Japanese or was there ever a case of Japanese infiltration. During World War II, seven War Dog Platoons were trained at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. All platoons served in the Pacific in the war against the Japanese. The First War Dog Platoon served with the 2nd Raider Battalion on Bougainville. From this and other units, the First Marine Brigade was formed and invaded Guam along with the 3rd Marine Division and the 77th Army Division. More units were added to form the 6th Marine Division which invaded Okinawa. The First War Dog Platoon saw action on Bougainville, Guam, and Okinawa. The 2nd and 3rd War Dog Platoons saw action on Guadalcanal, Kwajalein, Enewetak, and Guam.
During the battles, the dogs of war led infantry points on advances, explored caves, pill boxes, dugouts, and scouted fortified positions. They did sentry duty with military police at crossroads day and night. They occupied foxholes in forward outposts at night. They and their handlers were officially credited with leading three hundred and fifty patrols during the mop up phases of the battles.
The handlers accounted for over three hundred enemy slain. Only one handler was killed on patrol. During the Guam campaign fourteen dogs were killed in action and ten more died from exhaustion, tropical maladies, heat stroke, accidents, and anemia from hookworm. These twenty-four were buried in the War Dog Cemetery on Guam.
Contributed by Graham Evans in 'Trenches on the Web'
A message dog with a canister
Lt.-Col. E.H. Richardson who ran the War Dog Training School was mainly responsible for the appearance of messenger dogs in the British Army in WW1.
Originally the idea to use dogs came from the Red Cross who wanted to use ambulance dogs on the western front, but this idea was deemed unsuccessful as early as the battle of Antwerp, the French in fact banned the use of ambulance dogs within a few
In the winter of 1916 he trained and supplied two Airedales (Wolf and Prince) at the request of the Royal Artillery for use as message carriers, they both served with great success with the 56th Brigade RFA, 11th Div. at Wytschaete Ridge and prompted further investigation into the use of dogs as runners.
Dogs under training in Flanders
The Official sanction of the use of dogs in war was given with the opening of the War Dog Training School in Shoeburyness. After a trial and error period in France a Maj. Waley MC RE, was appointed supervisor of all dog operations in the field, once the dogs arrived in France. The main Kennels were at Etaples under the command of the RE Signal Corps. Who took over the operations in early 1917, with sectional kennels belonging to Corps HQ Kennels not far behind the front line, each Sectional kennel had on Average: Sergeant-in-Charge 16 Handlers 48 Dogs
The handlers and Sgt-in-C all came from RE Signals Corps. The dogs of war then went to the active sectors at the ratio of 3 dogs to 1 handler, who then handed them over to selected individuals from the infantry Btns in the designated Brigade. The original handler was then based at the Brig HQ to oversee the dogs operations.
As to the types of dogs of war, originally they came from the Battersea Dogs Home in London, then as demand grew from the Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester Dogs home. As demand even outstripped these 'suppliers' an official order went out to all police forces in the UK to send all strays to the War Dog School, and even after this the general public were asked to send in any dogs they were unable to keep properly with the ration system in effect. This last idea was more successful than originally thought, and many of the general public sent in their dogs.
The WDTS at Shoeburyness was moved to Matley Ridge, Lyndhurst in 1918 until May 1919 when it was finally moved to Bulford on Salisbury Plains.
Breeds of Dogs Used Border Collies Airedales Lurchers English Sheepdogs (must have been fun grooming them after a day in the trenches) Retrievers Summer Dogs. A term that includes the famous Heinz Terrier, i.e. 57 Varieties.; also called Summer Dogs because they are "Summer This" and "Summer That", in other words, mongrels.
The messages went in tins slung around the neck and the dogs were identified by a scarlet tally or collar. It was a grievous offence to stop a dog in the line of duty.
Gas Masks from World War I
German soldiers and their dogs of war wear gas masks. The Germans first used poison gas at the Second Battle of Sypres in 1915 during World War I. Both sides then began using poison gas, which caused blindness, skin blistering, and lung damage. To protect the soldiers, armies issued gas masks.
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