Messenger Dogs in the Field 89 



" I went into the line at the back of Monchy, and kept 

 my dogs beside me for a day, — they were taken up on the 

 second night. They were sent back in the morning with 

 a trial message, and all three of them did well. They were 

 kept there for a fortnight, always running home in the 

 morning. They never made any mistakes at all. We were 

 sent into the line on 27th Dec. until the end of January, — 

 5 weeks, during which time the dogs ran once every 24 

 hours, covering the distance — a little over 5 kilos. — in 

 something like 20 mins., over very rough country, which 

 it always took the runner over one hour to get over. The 

 dogs always brought messages, and usually saved a mid- 

 day runner. 



" We left on April 14th, 1918, and went up to Haze- 

 brouck with the dogs ' Whitefoot,' ' Prince,' ' Paddy,' 

 'Mop,' 'Shag,' 'Swift,' ' Lloyd," Jack,' 'Jock,' 'Wolf,' 

 ' Tim ' and ' Champion.' 



" When the 29th Division came in and relieved the 31st, 

 there was a small advance made then— the dogs did great 

 work then — that was in Nieppe Forest Sector. The G.O.C. 

 88th Brigade wrote out, and had a note typed of which 

 I got a copy, giving great praise to dogs 83, 84 and 65. 

 The first two were ' Jock ' and ' Bruno,' the other ' Cham- 

 pion.' That was the first official praise we had from 

 anyone. Then came another small advance, which proved 

 the mettle of 3 more dogs, ' Whitefoot,' ' Paddy ' and ' Mop.' 

 The first two were badly gassed, but carried on, they were 

 3 weeks in hospital after they came out of the line, but 

 during the gas bombardment they never failed to give the 

 greatest satisfaction. Once again there was a slight 

 advance made, in which two other dogs, ' Bruce ' and 

 ' Blue Boy,' were to the fore. Bruce came four different 

 times from the front line to Brigade Hdqtrs. with messages 



