Some dogs pulled heavy machine guns on trolleys, and others served as sentries and scouts using their keen sense of smell and hearing. Their small size allowed them to slip over and between trenches to deliver messages, move medical supplies, or lay down communication lines. French sergeant and a dog, both wearing gas masks, on their way to the front line during the First World War. German transport driver and horses wearing gas masks on the Western Front. On the Western Front, some 30,000 German dogs were used, while around 20,000 Entente dogs were kept. French Red Cross dogs line up for inspection on the Western Front, 1914. They also developed canine gas masks due to the important role dogs played in combat at the time. These gases’ devastating effects accelerated the development of masks to counteract them.īritish and American governments developed masks quickly in response to German forces’ first use of poison gas in April 1915. It is estimated that one million dogs died during World War I, a conflict in which chemical weapons were used on a large scale for the first time. Throughout history, dogs have served as sentries, messengers, attackers, and even mascots in warfare. This article appears in: Late Winter 2012 By Peter Suciu With World War I in a seeming stalemate, German forces in late April 1915 introduced a horrific new weapon to the fighting. In addition to human combatants, many military working animals also died from chemical weapons. Following the first poison gas attack by German forces at Ypres in 1915, gas masks became vital equipment for Allied forces during World War I. Throughout the war, hundreds of thousands of soldiers died from chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas exposure as stalemated armies sought new ways to defeat each other. Richardson to wear special gas masks at a Surrey kennel. Member of a Prussian Reichwehr regiment during a training exercise. There are also accounts of how Digger would take food to wounded men stranded in no man’s land, sometimes bringing back written messages.The call of a gas attack was one of the terrifying sounds in the trenches. A French sergeant and dog wearing gas masks, near the front line during World War I. At the sound of a gas alarm, it was reported that Digger would rush to his nearest human companion to have his gas mask fitted. He had been wounded and gassed at Pozières in 1916, shot through the jaw, losing three teeth, was blinded in the right eye and deaf in the left ear. Digger’s remarkable service is described how Digger ‘went over the top’ 16 times and had been through some of the worst battles on Gallipoli and the Western Front. The same film clip shows a Y man selling cigarettes out of the back of a truck, quickly donning a gas mask due to an attack, then continuing with God’s work of getting the boys smokes. He remained with the company, attached to the Engineers, during his service on the Western Front in France and Belgium. In this section, we will attempt to show the 'most common' style for different time periods. Martin served initially with 1 Division Signal Company on Gallipoli, but transferred to 2 Division Signal Company in July 1915. There are numerous styles and subtle changes made to dog tags from WWII through Vietnam. Martin adopted him as a mascot and they sailed from Melbourne on 20 October 1914. Digger seems to have been a stray dog that attached himself to soldiers training at Broadmeadows and followed them down to the troopships. Martin, an electrician from Hindmarsh in South Australia enlisted on 18 September 1914, at the age of 22. Digger, a dark brown and white bulldog, accompanied his owner, Sergeant James Harold Martin, during his service overseas and is said to have served three and a half years with the AIF.
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