A dog was often the first to find a wounded soldier in World War I.
The Red Cross Dogs or so-called Mercy Dogs saved thousands of soldiers’ lives. In Germany, they were known as Sanitäshunde or Sanitary Dogs. The Allies called them by several names: Medical Dogs, Red Cross Dogs, Ambulance Dogs, and Mercy Dogs. Dogs’ canine sense of smell and excellent night vision helped them find wounded and dying soldiers.
The Mercy Dogs functioned as a type of early first responder and worked as part of an ambulance unit. The dogs were marked with the red cross, a universally recognized medical symbol. They worked in the space between opposing forces’ trenches to find and bring back wounded soldiers, an effort vital to maintaining a fighting force for the war effort.
The canine recruits were trained to find injured soldiers and get as close as possible to them. Hospital corps workers might be able to see the most severely wounded men since these soldiers fell where they fought, but human rescuers might miss soldiers that still had the strength to crawl away or hunt for water or shelter.
A trained Mercy Dog could work low and silently to search for men in the trenches and was trained not to bark to alert the enemy. The dogs were deployed at night since the lights would expose the wounded to the enemy.the uniform of the enemy and his soldiers, find his wounded man, and bring news of his injured comrade back to his soldier partner.
The dogs were to carry a piece of clothing of the wounded soldier back to the base location, and then they could lead the way back to the injured soldier. Each dog carried a first aid pack; when he found a wounded man, the soldier could take the package. The soldier could then help himself and would be able to tend to his wounds. Then the Mercy Dog role was to bring a message to thedog’s soldier partner.
If the dog did not discover a wounded man, the dog was to trot to his soldier partner and lie down. If he had found a wounded soldier, he was trained to urge his soldier partner to follow him to the wounded man. The German dogs had a short strap buckled to their collar and were taught to grasp the belts in their mouth and return to their unit when they found a wounded man.
Their soldier’s life and the dog’s life depended on the dogs’skills.
However, even a mortally wounded World War I soldier need not die alone and without comfort. A faithful Mercy Dog often stayed by the dying hero’s side, remaining as a last comforting comrade on the battlefield until the soldier died.
World War I was a trench war. Huge guns blew away the earth to create gaping trenches. Choking mustard gas filled the air. The trenches themselves were a thick morass of mud and blood infested with rats and insects. It was a nightmare for the men.
It was a horrible place for a dog.
The smells and sounds of war were intense to the canine senses. Mercy Dogs were often shot and killed or injured in battle. With their signature red cross, the Mercy Dogs were often easy targets for the enemy. Theo Jager, in his book about the Mercy dogs, reported that the enemy did not respect the red cross insignia for men or dogs.
Dogs were fitted with their own gas masks.
The Mercy Dogs were part of a long line of heroic dogs in wartime that gave their all to serve humans in warfare. Ancient Greek and Roman wall writings feature attack dogs. Napoleon used dogs as guardians. Native Americans used them for centuries as pack animals, and most armies in modern times have used dogs in some way.
World War I was the first organized use of military dogs. Canines served as messenger dogs, guard dogs, scouts, ratters,and Red Cross Dogs. Small dogs served as cigarette dogs to bring cartons of cigarettes to soldiers in the field.
The United States was the only country to take part in World War I that did not use dogs in the war effort. The American army had no organized training of military dogs when it entered the war. The French, British, and Belgians by 1918 had at least 20,000 dogs on the battlefield, the Germans 30,000. America’s war department believed the war would soon be over and the dogs were not needed.6 The U.S. depended on the dogs of the Allied forces. American dogs served in the Red Cross, and Americans were eager to donate their companion dogs to work in the Red Cross program.
The American Red Cross began using therapy dogs following World War II with recovering soldiers and still uses therapy dogs today.
The Mercy Dogs of World War I taught us how to collaborate with dogs to care for our wounded in the most challenging of conditions. The Mercy Dogs taught us new search and rescue techniques as we developed new systems of triage on the battlefield. They showed us that communication and mutual comfort between dog and man do not need words, even in the most chaotic environment and even at the end of life.
As World War I ended, the Mercy Dogs’ role drifted into history, but the winds of war would soon blow again. As new storms of war gathered, with a Nazi threat that loomed over the world .
Since World War I, dogs in various roles have been deployed into combat, yet humans have not fully understood the impact of this setting and the work we assign to our canine partners. Modern researchers are now exploring this issue.
And we continue to honor and remember the canine heroes of the battlefields.
This post is an excerpt from the author’s book Dogs in Health Care : Pioneering Animal-Human Partnerships published by McFarland books in 2019
Available at the publisher, Amazon and other places where books are sold.
Jill Schilp Writes 