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[Illustration: Dogs trained at Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, for
service in the French Army.]
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War Dogs of the
World War
To The Reader:
In the city of Neuilly, just across the River Seine from Paris, lives a
remarkable woman, Countess Mary Yourkevitch, a Russian by birth, French
by adoption. She has for many years devoted her life and spent her
income in the interest of the friendless horse, dog and cat. No
provisions being made by the French Government and municipal
authorities, these homeless dumb animals are left to shift for
themselves in case of sickness or distress. She organized the Blue Cross
Society of France and for many years has been the President of this
Society. She secured grounds in a secluded spot of Neuilly and thereon
erected suitable buildings for the housing and care of her homeless and
suffering friends. Previously a social leader, she has during these
latter years relinquished all social functions and thrown heart and soul
into this commendable work of relief.
In 1914, when France was drawn into what was to become a world war, she
set about to aid her adopted country. Dogs of all breeds and
descriptions were gathered into the Refuge in Neuilly. A systematic
training school was organized to fit these dogs for war work, some for
the Red Cross, some for trench work, and still others to become
messengers to carry important documents and light burdens. It was most
essential that a dog for each division of this work should be thoroughly
trained, and after this was accomplished the work became one of routine
and practice. The trained dogs became the instructors, and it was a
stupid pupil indeed that did not become more or less proficient in the
work set for it in the course of a week or ten days. To watch this
training process is most interesting. A green dog, that is, one without
any training, is attached by a short lead to the dog instructor. The
command is given to perform a certain duty and at once the trained dog
is off on his mission, pulling the untrained dog with him. This is
repeated time and again until the pupil learns the word of command and
the execution of the same. It is but a question of a few days until the
green dog has learned his lessons, and he himself becomes an instructor
to some new arrival at the home.
Six hundred dogs were thus instructed for their various war duties and
sent to the front. The war is now at an end, and while many of these
faithful creatures paid the supreme sacrifice, hundreds are left, some
crippled for life, and all in need of proper care for the balance of
their lives. During my three months’ stay in Paris following the
armistice, dozens of these dogs were returned to the Countess to be
cared for. Knowing the burden placed upon her, both in a financial and
physical sense, I am writing this story of the heroic deeds of these
wonderful animals. Every penny derived from the sale of this booklet
will be devoted to assist this noble work of the Countess Yourkevitch of
Neuilly, France.
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THE DOG’S MANIFOLD DUTIES AT THE
BATTLE FRONT
The stories of the devotion of dogs to their masters under the most
trying conditions of the battlefront form one of the epics of the great
struggle.
It is said that there were about ten thousand dogs employed at the
battle front at the time of the signing of the armistice. They ranged
from Alaskan malamute to St. Bernard, and from Scotch collie to fox
terrier. Many of them were placed on the regimental rosters like
soldiers. In the trenches they shared all the perils and hardships of
the soldiers themselves, and drew their turns in the rest camps in the
same fashion. But they were always ready to go back and it is not
recorded that a single one of them ever failed when it came to “going
over the top.”
The Red Cross dogs rendered invaluable service in feeding and aiding the
wounded. Each one carried a first-aid kit either strapped to its collar
or in a small saddle pouch. When they found a soldier who was
unconscious, they were taught to bring back his helmet, handkerchief or
some other small article as a token of discovery. Many of them learned
wholly to ignore the dead, but to bark loudly whenever they came upon a
wounded man.
Not only did the dog figure gloriously as a messenger of mercy in the
war, but did his bit nobly as a sentinel in the trenches. Mounting guard
at a listening post for long hours at a stretch, ignoring danger with
all the stolidness of a stoic, yet alert every moment, he played an
heroic role.
Full many a time it was the keen ear of a collie that first caught the
sound of the approaching raiding party. And did he bark? How natural it
would have been for him to do so! But no, a bark or a growl might have
told the raiders they were discovered, and thus have prevented the
animal’s own forces from giving the foe a counter-surprise. So he wagged
his tail nervously—a canine adaptation of the wig-wag system which his
master interpreted and acted upon, to the discomfiture of the enemy.
Often whole companies were saved because the dog could reach further
into the distance with his senses than could the soldiers themselves.
It was found that many dogs would do patrol and scout duty with any
detachment. But there was another type of dog worker needed in the
trenches—the liason dog, trained to seek his master whenever turned
loose. Amid exploding shells, through veritable fields of hell, he would
crawl and creep, with only one thought—to reach his master. Nor would he
stop until the object of his search was attained. Many a message of
prime importance he thus bore from one part of the field to another, and
nought but death or overcoming wound could turn him aside.—The National
Geographic Magazine.
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