Evening star., 1919-05-04
LOYAL DOGS AIDED
/. IN ALLIES VICTORY
10000 Helped Win the War
as SentinaIs, Red Cross
and Army Messengers.

| add dogs to any list Of the
potent factors in winning the war;
lcounsels bulletin from the Wash
ington headquarters of the National
Geographic Society.
| Heroic deeds of the Red Cross dogs
have been widely celebra ted, and
justly So" the bulletin continues,
but not only did the dog figure
gloriously as a messenger of mercy
in the war, but did his bit nobly in
many other ways.
! ut is said that there were about
! ten thousand dogs employed at the
battle front at the time of the sign
! iEg of the armistice. They ranged
| from Alaskan malemute to ST. Bernard
and from Scotch collie to fox terrier.
Many of them were placed on the
reg;;mental rosters like soldiers. In
| the trenches they shared all the perils
and hardships of the soldiers them
selves. and drew their turns in the
| rest camps in the same fashion. But
! they were always ready to go back.
and it is not recorded that a single
one of them ever failed when it came
| to going over the top
Animals Heard Raiders.
Mounting guard at listning post
| for long hours at a stretch. ignoring
danger with all the stolidness" of a
played an heroic role. Full many a
/ time it was the keen ear of a collie
! that first caught the sound of the
approaching raiding party. And did
| he bark? How natural it would have
beer for him to do SO, But no. a
bark or a growl might have told the
raiders they were discovered. and
h1,S h
forces from giving the foe a counter
surprise. So he wagged his tail ner-
vously-a canine adaptation of the
Ws-wag system which his master in
terpreted and acted upon, to the dis
comfiture of the enemy.
"Often whole companies were saved
because the dog could reach farther
into the distance with his senses than
could the soldiers themselves.
1T was found that many dogs would
do patrol and scout duty with any
detachment. But there was another
trenches-the Iiaison dog, trained to
seek his master whenever turned
loose. Amid exploding shells, through
veritable fields of hell. he would crawl
and creep, with only one thought-to
reach his master. Nor would he stop
until the object of his search was at
tanned. Many a message of prime i'm
portance ha thus bore from one part
of the field to another. and nought but
death or overcoming wound could
turn him aside.
Better Than Horses or Motors.
But the work of the dogs Of war
was not limited to the front Where the
motor lorsy was helpless, where the
horse stood powerless to aid, where
man himself found conditions which
even the iron muscle and the in6omit-
able will that is born of the fine
frenzy of patriotism could not con-
quer, here came the sled dog to the
rescue.
Alaska and Labrador contributed
the motive power for the sleds that
kept the men in their mountain pin
nacle trenches in the high Alps pro-
visioned and munitioned in the dead
Of winter. In four days. after a very
heavy snowfall, one kennel Of $50 dogs
moved moro than fifty tons Of food
an6 other supplies from the valley
below to the front line on the noun
tain above.
I'm the Vosges mountains more than
a thousand Alaskan sled dogs helped
to hold the Hun during the last year
Of the war"