M. Mégnin, an authority on the use of dogs in warfare, says that German
attacks by night on small outposts have almost completely failed since
dogs have been employed to watch. The animals have a remarkably acute
sense of hearing, and are able to detect the enemy at a great distance
and prepare the men to receive him. Thousands of sentinels, especially
in the Argonne and the Vosges, where it is difficult to see far ahead
owing to the nature of the ground, have owed it to their dogs that they
have not been surprised and killed or taken prisoners. In many cases
they have even turned the tables on the enemy.
Captain Tolet, who is in command of the kennels of the Tenth French
Army, has narrated some of the brave deeds--the word is not too
strong--of dogs under his care, especially during the fighting on
the Somme. On August 28th a dog called Médor, although wounded by a
shrapnel shell, ran a mile and a half to carry a message from a brigade
to a colonel, was again wounded in the last two hundred yards, but
dragged himself to the commander's post, where he died a quarter of an
hour later. Another dog, Follette, in the same month, ran nearly two
miles and was wounded, but nevertheless persisted in his mission, dying
five days later. In a part of the Vosges a battalion of Chasseurs which
utilized a particularly intelligent animal as a sentinel did not lose a
single man, while a battalion which had preceded it, and which had no
dog, lost seven sentries in three days.
Another case of a dog's usefulness is recorded in the taking of a farm
in the Bois Brûlé (Burnt Wood). Everyone thought Germans were hiding
in the farm, and no patrol had ventured to approach it. At last a man
went towards it at night with a dog on a leash twenty yards ahead of
him. The animal showed no signs of uneasiness, and the farm was found
to be empty. Telegraphists and others were thereupon able to instal
themselves, and before morning the Germans' position was satisfactorily
examined and an enemy redoubt smashed up.
Some of these gallant four-footed soldiers have received decorations
just like men--and an extra bone or two as well, one hopes. Why not?
The intelligence shown by these animals sometimes approaches very near
to that of human beings, and one feels sure they are gratified at the
attention drawn to their doings. Recently there was a special public
parade at the Trocadéro in Paris, when the Société Protectrice des
Animaux presented prizes to soldiers who had distinguished themselves
in the training of animals. Collars of honour were also awarded to a
large number of dogs exhibited by the soldiers who had trained them.
Three of these animals were specially fêted on account of what they had
done--Fend l'Air, belonging to Sergeant Jacqemin, whose life he had
saved at Roclincourt; Loustic, specially noticed for his intelligence
at the Front; and Pyrame, who saved an entire French battalion by
detecting the presence of an enemy column. In other cases the War
Cross has been awarded to dogs that have performed conspicuous deeds,
especially in the saving of life.
It was mainly owing to a number of British dogs that the French army
was able to drive the Germans out of Boesinghe Woods in one of the
engagements round Ypres. Prusco, a bull-terrier, serving with French
motor scouts, who carried him in a side-car, was of great value in
carrying messages back to headquarters; while Lutz, a dog that
distinguished himself in one of the Verdun engagements, was employed
as an advance sentinel last February, and first gave warning of a
German attack by repeated growls. The Red Cross Dog League, which began
activities early in the war with eight dogs, now has two thousand five
hundred animals in the field, and it claims that the lives of at least
eight thousand wounded men have been saved by them.