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Sep 5, 2024 · The first official use of dogs by the U.S. military started in the early 1900s. According to Charles Dean, author of "Soldiers & Sled Dogs: A History of Military Dog Mushing," Army personnel ...
- Guard Dogs. While dogs today are often used as guard dogs, the same could be said around 100 years ago in World War 1. These sentry dogs would often sit alongside a soldier who was on guard, and could often alert him when trouble was near.
- Casualty Dogs. In the battlefield, injuries and wounded soldiers were common. Another incredible role that dogs had in the war were as casualty dogs, or medic dogs.
- Message Carriers. Carrying messages was an important part of communicating during World War 1. Standard field communication was quite slow, and it was often too dangerous for people to pass messages along the battlefield due to their size and relatively slow movement.
- Providing Comfort and Companionship. Being aware at war, many soldiers yearned for even a small slice of normalcy or a reminder of home. For many of them, having dogs around gives them the sense of home that they were craving.
- Sentry Dogs. Sentry dogs were trained to work with one specific guard, and would join them in a patrol on a short lead. These dogs were often trained to deliver a warning signal such as a grow or bark when they believed an unknown or unwelcome person was present in a specified area.
- Scout Dogs. Scout dogs were highly trained and often very calm in nature. Their role was to work with foot soldiers as they quietly scouted the terrain ahead.
- Casualty Dogs. Also known as ‘mercy’ dogs (or ‘sanitathunde’ in Germany), casualty dogs were used across Europe during World War One and were specifically trained to detect wounded and dying soldiers on the battlefield.
- Messenger Dogs. Dogs were frequently used as messengers during the war, proving to be as reliable as soldiers. Trench warfare meant communication was often difficult and it was quite possible that messages could go missing on their way to headquarters or back to the trenches.
Dogs were valued for their skills during the war, and in high demand. In response, the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) Headquarters issued the following general order on Oct. 1, 1918: “In order not to curtail the supply of dogs required for the ‘Service Francais des Chiens de guerre,’ [French war service dogs] all officers and soldiers serving in the A.E.F. are forbidden to ...
May 18, 2014 · The history of war dogs is deep: The Corinthians used them with success against the Greeks. The Romans used dogs to guard their legions and raise alarms, as did Attila the Hun, who placed them ...
- Rebecca Frankel
Nov 14, 2014 · During the last year of the war, he delivered 196 messages from the sea. Bottom: "Liberating a pigeon." William E. Moore and James C. Russell, U.S. Official Pictures of the World War Showing America's Participation Selected from the Official Files of the War Department (Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau, 1920), 119
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America with the exception of a few sled dogs in Alaska was the only country to take part in World War I that had no service dogs within its military. The French, British and Belgians by 1918 had at least 20,000 dogs on the battlefield, the Germans 30,000.
