Bonsoir,
A trench message dog of the 5th Battalion, Manchester Regiment stands on a sandbagged wall as he waits for an officer (left) to complete the note he is writing, Cuinchy. 26 January 1918.
British WW1 Trench Dogs.
The initial official trial was carried out 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 where all other systems had failed.
A War Dog Training School was set up at Shoeburyness in Essex, 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 the Signals Section R.E. . The dogs (usually 3) and a handler were sent from there to sectional kennels, usually with 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 their 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 their 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.
An estimated figure of 7500 dogs were killed in action.
(Unofficially, small terriers often became soldiers’ pets and these dogs were very useful in the trenches as they were good rat-killers.)
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An officer of the York and Lancaster Regiment, probably 2/4th Battalion part of 187th Brigade, feeds a puppy outside a reinforced dugout in a trench near Roclincourt, on the 62nd Division front between Oppy and Gavrelle.
13 January, 1918.
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Le petit renard mascotte de №. 32 e Escadron à l'aérodrome de Humieres, St Pol, France, 5 mai 1918.
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"Gode Kammerater" (Good Comrades)
Danes in the German Army 1914-18
(1896 7.7cm Krupp Field Gun)
In the First World War, around 26,000 Danish-speaking German citizens from Northern Schleswig fought in the German army, because of Denmark’s defeat and the annexation of Schleswig-Holstein by Prussia in the Second War of Schleswig in 1864. As a result, a large group of Danes became German citizens, and were thus obliged to do military service in the German army.
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5 août 1914
Soldats du Seaforth Highlanders dans une tranchée peu profonde avec un chien, près de La Gorgue, France.
L ' armée britannique s'est installée dans des tranchées peu profondes et de fortune. La pensée était qu'ils ne seraient pas là pour longtemps. Voici à quoi ressemblait la vie là-bas.
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Des officiers de chars britanniques se détendent autour d'un joueur de gramophone avec leurs chiens de compagnie, dans leur camp à La Lovie, une ville au nord de Poperinge 26 septembre 1917.
L-r : Major Richard Cooper, (assis) Capitaine Wilfred Wyatt, lieutenant Gerald Edwards, deuxième lieutenant Gerald Butler et (assis) lieutenant Edward Sartin.
(Ils ont tous survécu à la guerre)
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Le mortier de tranchée allemand capturé à la troisième école de mortier de tranchées de l'armée, St Pol (Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise), en ce jour en 1917. La mascotte singe de l'école est montrée.
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Nurses at the St John Ambulance Hospital at Etaples, waiting to see Queen Mary of Teck, 6th July 1917. One of the nurses is holding Billy, the hospital's mascot.
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Route d'Ailly proche d'Essertaux dans la Somme. 53ème R.I partant au repos. Avril 1918.
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Les troupes allemandes et leur chien en patrouille attendent de se rendre à une école pour former des chiens messagers derrière le front. Notez le porteur de message attaché au collier du chien. Mai 1917.
Photographe officiel allemand
Image gracieuseté de l'Imperial War Museum Londres
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Voici une photo d’un soldat du Middlesex Régiment accompagné de son chien.
A noter l’insigne de spécialité « Lewis Gunner » sur sa manche.
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Un soldat britannique "Poignée de main" avec un chaton sur une rive enneigée à Neulette, Pas-de-Calais. 17 décembre 1917.
(Source photo-
IWM Q 6400)
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Une infirmière de la Première Guerre mondiale avec un chien de secours. (Le chien a été formé pour localiser les blessés sur le champ de bataille)
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L ' officier britannique et son chien au cimetière de guerre des Wavans où le major James McCudden est enterré, le 13 juillet 1918.
McCudden est resté en Angleterre jusqu'au 1918 juillet, mais a bientôt reçu le commandement de №. 60 et retour en France. Le matin du 9 juillet 1918, il s'est rendu à la maison de son fiancé, Miss Alex-Tweedie à Whitehall Court. Pendant que là, McCudden lui a dit qu'il voulait dépasser von Richthofen, le Baron Rouge, qui avait été tué en action quelques mois auparavant. McCudden a traversé la chaîne anglaise. Voler dans la brume lourde, il a décidé de se rendre à Auxi-le-Château, France. Environ 90 secondes après le décollage d'Auxi-le-Château, son avion a plongé dans le sol. Le caporal W.Howard s'est battu à travers le feu pour libérer McCudden, allongé à côté d'une des ailes, car il n'avait pas porté sa ceinture de sécurité. James McCudden est mort à 20:00 ans le 9 juillet 1918 d'un crâne fracturé, dont il n'a jamais repris conscience. Les restes de McCudden ont ensuite été enterrés au cimetière de guerre des Wavans, avec à peine trois douzaines de tombes, dans le Pas de Calais, en France.
(Source photo-
IWM (Q 9042)