Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-09-07
THE F. IQST SHOT
81 CORPORAL OSBORNE DE MRllA
G.SixTH ~ S.FiELD. ART9lEERr
who Fired the, First Shot of the A4aeriea4a Army

the attention Of ambulance drivers 70
the wounded by the means OF a series
of short, quick barks.
All Of the dogs in the service wear
little wallets around their necks.
These wallets contain TASKS and rougn
dressings for first aid.
Kennels for Dogs of War.
Kennels nave been established at
the front line for the dogs. They are
given as good a as the soldiers IN
the trenches. They have sulphur pains
daily to protect them from diseas
and their chow consists of the pest
cuts Of meats. ,
One of the dogs at the station l
visited had rescued twenty wounded
men. He was a. big Newfoundland, n
his name was Napoleon" Part OF ms
tail had been shot away by a. sne!i
fragment, and once he had been lett
for dead in No Mans Land, but ne
was still on the job working Tor clvi-
l~ization. When I spoke to This Dig, in-
telligent animal he raised on MS
haunches and put out a hairy paw for
me to shake. And I a tell you l was
mighty proud to shake with that hero:
I believe that these dogs realize that
the world won't be a At place for man
or dog if the boches win the q Inat
is why they are working against the
Hun with such intelligence and en-
thusiasm.
One of the trainers told me that
the dogs hate the boche like poison.
"You see that big mastif over
there?" he said, pointing to a big
brute of a dog munching at a SLAP OF
beef. well, that animal has
ed for five Huns so far. One night out
in No Mans Land he found a boche
ckin a, bayonet into a wounded
French soldier. : Prince, the mastiff
here, reached the throat of the Hun
in one bound. and when the stretcher
bears got there the treacherous Ger
man had been literally torn to pieces
by the dog.
Another night, Prince aceompan-
led a force of French raiders in the
German front line trenches. You see
that seal over his right leg? Well
But it was a sorry day for the Hun
when he tried to kill the dog. Prince
snuffed out the boche and killed three
more of them before he returned with
the raiding party.
'Prince has been on several raids
since then, and he likes them, for he
is a born soldier and a loyal French
He understands every wrinkle of
the raid idea and has intelligence
enough not to try and run ahead of
the barrage.
"And Huns-why that dog can smell
them hve miles off. He always barks
deep down in his chest when he scents
a boche. It's a blood-curdling sound
makes you SILVER to hear it,"
Dog Has Great Record.
I looked at Prince with increased
respect. Any soldier would have been
proud of his record.
why shouldn't it be a good idea,'
I suggested. "to train. say, a thousand
big dogs like Prince and turn them
loose. on the Germans?"
II have thought of that same idea
myself more than a dozen times" re-
piled the trainer excitedly. 1.-The Ger
mans have proved themselves beasts,
and why not set beasts to fighting
them? But even a dog is lowering
himself to fight with those boches.
But a thousand dogs like Prince
would be capable of wiping out a Ger
man division. These dogs nave no fear
Of shellire, machine guns or bombs.
They move right along toward their
objective and hunt for Threats to tear.
If we turned loose a thousand of these
dogs into a German trench. the car
mage would be awful. To tell the
truth. 1 wouldn't care to witness the
".Nor me either" I agreed heartily
The thought of it was enough to make
anybody shudder.
CONTINUED Tomorrow.)