"The
dogs were used as messengers, sentries and guard-dogs mainly. From
notes: The dogs of war were trained initially as ambulance dogs
for the Belgian Army by Lt Col E.H.Richardson ,who had been training
police dogs since 1898, and were used in September 1914 with the
Belgian Army. In 1914 he escaped Belgium via Ostende from the initial
advance of the German Army. Conditions on the Western Front then
became impossible for ambulance dogs. The French War Office forbade
their use in any form with their arrmy after the first few weeks.
He then received requests from some officers for sentry and patrol
work and he supplied some Airedales as they proved best. He also
sent some to the Belgian Army. Several official requests were also
made to the War Office for dogs for several purposes. The initial
official trial was done in late 1916 when Col Winter RA of 56th
Brigade RA attached to 11th Division used 2 of them for communication
from FOA at Wytschaete Ridge where the dogs carried messages 4000
yards to the Brigade HQ over unknown ground and these were the first
messages received all other systems having failed. Richardson then
set up the War Dog Training School at Shoeburyness and eventually
an officer, Major Waley MC R.E. was appointed in France to superintend
their use in the field and a central kennel was formed at Etaples
by Signals Section R.E. . The dogs (usually 3) and a handler were
sent from there to sectional kennels, usually in charge of a sergeant
with sixteen men and 48 dogs, behind the front line where battalion
handlers collected them and took them up the line. The central handler
remained at Battalion HQ to oversee the use of the dogs. The school
expanded as the war progressed and supplied dogs to most fronts
most notably Salonika where they were used for sentry work in forward
positions and listening posts. Eventually as the call-up increased
towards the end of the war the dogs were used at home as guard dogs
for munition factories etc to release men for the front who had
been guarding them. The French changed thier minds after seeing
the dogs in action and several were supplied to them, especially
General Gourand who was the most supportive. Paul Mangin was a Sergeant
in the French Army whose most famous dog was Satan of Verdun. Dogs
were then used for three main duties, messengers, sentry and guard
use. The supply of dogs was increased by Battersea Dog Home and
the others around the country supplying strays. Some members of
the public also gave their dogs for the army. Men in the trenches
were forbidden to impede or interfere with dogs on a run as a court
martial offence and the dogs had tin cylinders and coloured tallies
on thier collar to distinguish the unit they were with. Use of the
dogs saved many lives as they had better survival chances than runners.
The school at Shoeburyness was proving too small so it moved in
1917 to Mateley Ridge above Lyndehurst where it remained until May
1919 when it moved finally to Bulford on Salisbury Plain. A figure
of 7500 dogs killed in action is given. A lot of pigeons, horses
and dogs died in the War."
Addendum
from Malcolm: "The article is a compilation of the information
from three books I have (out of print) Some IWM photos show dogs
in various Fronts in official and unofficial guises. The MGC, East
Lancs, Sherwood Forresters and the Tank Corps all had stray dog
mascots, and there is a story of a Scottish kilted Regiment attacking
at Hill60 in April 1915 led by a large black dog, sorry, don't know
which battalion. The Royal Navy also collected stray dogs as mascots
on ships. "
Author:
Tom Morgan
"Malcolm
has already given some excellent information about the official
use of dogs. Unofficially, small terriers often became soldiers'
pets and these dogs were very useful in the trenches as they were
good rat-killers."
See
also
BRITISH WAR DOGS IN THE GREAT WAR
