The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-18

mucnt II1aI mas 91fea0y been sTecOIu- ed Of them, the ambulance dogs have not yet been given full recognition for part they are playing in the war, say the dog 1overs
 Through the courtesy of pr. Kres- ser of the National Society of Ambu lance Dogs. the Associated Press has been shown a. dozen letters from many army surgeons and soldiers telling in interesting detail some of their intel igent and courageous feats. First, discussing the general usefulness of the dog in field ambulance work, Dr. Kresser said this, usefulness had be- come greater in proportion to the de- veIopment of modern methods of war fare.
 .sThe infantrynen today does his fighting from the ground. under any cover he can find,'' he said, "creeping through t1icketsS hiding in ditches, behind hedges and everp spot that is likely to conceal him from the enemy. Naturally the same cover hides him from the view of the stretcher bear CTS picking up the wounded after the battle.
 s'Thfs duty is further complicated by the fact that it must be done at night. las the intensity of fire makes it in1possibIe to pick up wounded on the field during an engagement In this work of seeking the wounded at night the ambulance dog becomes in- QfSQ QSES6eo49s E1nce SnSALS are 1OTD1oOSu1 to the stretcher bearers for fear of exposing positions to the enemy; com sequent1y the salvation of hundreds Of wounded soldiers depends upon the sharp scent. intelligence and devo- ton of the ambulance dog.
 ' seThe French ambulance dog is the French shepherd, an animal which is proven to be far better adapted to the work than the German Shepherd dog formerly employed in ths French army because the German dog is more ferocious and is taught to fight the enemy as well as to discover the wounded of his own troops The French dog is taught to seek the wounded of the enemy's troops as well as his own. He is as gentle as he is faithful and. as in the case of Tom, is the pet Of his company
 The lease Of Torn's is this:
 Gaston Durand of the 5Oth infantry fell in one of the violent engagements in the Argonne forest, wounded in the arm by fragment of a shell, with a bullet in his jaw and nearly scalped by a blow from a sabre. He tried to him ana then he lost consciousness. The first thing he became aware of was a feeling that resemb1ed a caress upon his forehead. He opened his eyes and there was Tom. one of the ambulance dogs, affectionately lap 4p1113 HIS IOT1l 41e><7O- E10 LIlc0 U A1kSS, but the heavy weight that had borne him down was still there. It was the body of one of his comrades who had fallen with a bullet through his heart. 1
 Impossible to eztrfcate himself, he finally succeeded in getting to a sit ting posture. His cap was gone and that explained why Tom had not gone back to the ambulance for help. Dur and looked, and Tom searched but no cap was to be found. '.Go. Tom, and l fetch the comrades,% Durand cried. 4 1 half hour later Tom went into camp l his teeth began tugging at him. The 1 soldier did not understand. Then Tom parked appea1ing1y but with no more 1 effect. Finally he parked menacing- ly, with no result Then the doctor came along He understood and Tom that he had succeeded Directed by l him. the doctor and the stretcher | bearers soon found TuraIld, hidden I in a. thiclzet, where probably he would | have passed unnoticed until he had | either starved or died from his wounds. had it not been for Tom
 They lifted the dead man off. carl ried Durand back to the ambulance and notwithstanding the gravity of his three wounds. he is now mending, all thanks to Tom.
 Toms is not an isolated incident of 
 A case is reported from the vicinity | of Verdun in which a dog discovered ss soldier who had been wounded in head and who had received first-aid | from one of his comrades, who after-t wards had been obliged to abandon Iai1sa His cap had also been lost and the dog could find nothing that he | could carry back to the ambulance to report his find, but he had the intel | llgence not to touch the bandage on the soldiers head Finally, despair ing of finding anything he could car f ry back. he lay down on. the ground opposite the wounded man and howl ed disTna11y until help came
 pr. yertier, surgeon in the 18th I Army Corps, reports that the ambu-l h.tndreds of lives and that not in a E single instance have they mistaken a | dead body for a~Wounded man. In [ eomes cases where the soldiers eapi could not be found, the dog has torn open his knapsack and hunted out to show that he had made a dis covery.
 The National Society for the train ing of ambulance dogs has alreadyI E .Renr 100 of these animals into the field and IT more are soon to go. Dr.I Service at the ministry of war has authorized the training of stretcher bearers with the dogs, so that they may be able to work better in har mony, the dog knowing the man and the man knowing the dog.
 As a rule. each dog works over a E ground of 300 to 400 yards, and as soon as he scents a wounded man, he begins to bark and seek some arti cIe that he can carry back as an indi-st cation to the ambulance.
 For the same reason that the ser vices of the dog have become neces- sary in finding the wounded, they have become useful, as demonstrate in the Belgian campaign, in the bring ing up of machine guns. The dogs are so trained that the soldiers are