WAR DOGS DECORATED

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9820, 17 November 1917, Page 3

WAR DOGS DECORATED

DICK AND CAPORAL HONOURED FOR HEROISM IN THE FIELD. Tho officers of two French regiments have decorated two regimental dogs, which were brought iu wounded by shell-fire, after having given evidence of courage and devotion. Tho war cross which was bestowed upon them was, of coux'se, not really official, but it was really merited. These two dogs were named Dick and Caporal. Caporal belonged to a stretcher-bearer, and followed his master, helping him to find the wounded. One day the stretcher-bearer was killed. Caporal sat down beside hxs master’s body and refused to move. For two days the shelling was so intense that no Red Cross man could cone out of the trenches. They called to Caporal, but he refused to obey;, shells fell all around him; he lay down and waited; finally, when tho bombardment was over, dead and wounded were picked up, and Caporal consented to let himself be gathered in. . , . Dick accomplished an almost similar task at Verdun, but refused to bo retired. He escaped from the rear three or four times, and came back to the first linos. He was wounded, but is almost “well now, and is going to be attached to an American Ambulance. There are other dogs which are wortliv of the same decoration —Pax, .of the 243rd Infantry, brought back from the battle of the Somme, with a serious abdominal wound; Duo, who wont through the Marne campaign; and Caesar, who lost both his eyes in doing his duty. Thdy are legion, these bravo dogs who did their duty unconsciously, perhaps, hut with all their Heart.