DOGS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 6 April 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

DOGS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

H.ow dogs may he used in modern warfare as servants in the cause of humanity is told in the Now York Outlook.

" A great authority on the dogs of war, like Surgeon-General Haecker or General von Herget—both of the German Staff— can tell marvellous. Ktolies .if the dogs which the Allied Troops took with them to China for the supression of the Boxer Rebellion. I lie Italian dogs especially distinguished themselves, having had great training oil the mountains of .Savoy ; they were collies chiefly, and had long been eraployed with the Mersagliere troops in their [operations on the Italian side of Mont j Blanc. These dogs had frequently rescued soldiers who had tumbled into crevasses lor had fallen frost-bitten on the march.

j "Some of them, by the way, took a 'very active part in the mimic warfare, for they carried a canvas satchel connected across their loins with a belt, of light, bentwood. intended for the conveyance of am!munition to the firing line. The French !in Algeria have also used dogs in this 'way in their warfare with the Arabs. One canine favourite with the Oran garrison was three years age decorated with the stripes of a corporal, and has just been raised to the rank of a full 'sergeant' on account of bis preternatural sagacity ! He is one of those rare dogs who can lie. i used indifferently as scout, sentry, de--bearer, or seeker for the wounded |on the battlefield.

I "His name is 'To to," and his education 'commenced at '.lie age of eight- months. He is a Russian lioizoi, and he and his ! inseparable mate, a German boarhoiind, are considered among the most valuable members of the garrison. They do not even mind being harnessed to light ambulance carts and assisting to haul die wounded jto I lie hospital tent or waggon, after they have found them prostrate on the held. "The Russian army in -Manchuria em- ! ployed hundreds of trained collies, and Captain I'eridsky reported that in finding the missing and wounded, with which the millet fields were strewn, nothing even approached one puck of seven Fnglifch dogs.