Through captures made in the battle of the Chemin des Dames the French
General Staff has obtained precise information regarding the German
Army's use of dogs as war couriers. The training of the animals is
divided into two periods--the training at school and that at the front.
At school the men receive detailed instructions as to the care and
treatment of dogs, after which they begin a rigorous drill, training
each dog to run daily over a longer and longer course, accompanied by
his masters; then the dogs must run over the same courses alone, while
the two trainers are posted one at each end. The longest course is about
three miles.
On the battle line there is similar training. On Sept. 1, 1917, for
instance, the 52d Meldehundetrupp left the school at Wiegnehies to join
the 52d Infantry Division, near the Hurtebise Farm, in Champagne. The
troup consisted of one officer, six sub-officers, thirty-six men, and
twenty-one dogs. It was divided at once among the units of the division,
the level sectors receiving a larger contingent than the hilly sectors,
where communications are less difficult. Marshy ground, where human
messengers might be mired, and positions heavily pounded by artillery
also were favored.
In their respective sectors the dogs are subjected to local training.
Little by little they are drilled to run as couriers between the company
and the battalion, on the one hand, and the battalion and the regiment
on the other. Thus the courier that has to keep up connection between
the company and the battalion is sent by one trainer, who stays with the
company commander, to the other, who is quartered with the chief of the
battalion. In twenty or thirty days, it appears, the dogs are broken to
their work as couriers, and have become familiarized with the tunnels,
trenches, shelters, and officers' posts, as well as with the roar of
cannonade and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns.
As for the practical results of all this training and ingenious
organization, the French officers say these are still in doubt. They
indicate the nature of the doubt by citing the case of two trained dogs
at Pinon. When the French attacked with a heavy bombardment, one dog
disappeared in terror and the other was made sick and useless by a
French gas bomb. The fact remains, nevertheless, that canine messengers
are doing useful work in dangerous places on both sides of No Man's
Land, and to some extent conserving human lives.
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