Messenger Dogs in the Field 97 



brought back a very important message through heavy 

 shell fire. I am highly satisfied with my dogs. 



" On May 2nd, 1918, I was sent to the 18th Div. There 

 were no dogs that had been up before. On May 2nd at 

 10 p.m. the Hun came over on the O.V.R. — my dog was 

 up at their Batt. Hdqtrs. They were cut off from the 

 London Regt. ; they released ' Tweed ' with the message 

 ' Send up reinforcements and small round ammunition.' 

 He came through a Boche barrage — three kilos, in 10 

 mins. The French were sent up and filled the gaps, and 

 straightened out the line, otherwise Amiens would be in the 

 hands of the Germans. On May 8th I was with the Aus- 

 tralians 48th Batt. They had moved forward, no runner 

 could cross the open in the daytime — pigeons could not 

 fly at night, they were in a bad place, so they sent for 

 ' Tweed.' He made three runs at night, and one of the 

 runs he was out on patrol ; they sent him back with a 

 message ' The Germans are preparing for a raid ' and 

 spoiled the Huns' plans." 



The dog " Tweed " mentioned in the above statement 

 performed some wonderful services. He was a Highland 

 sheep dog, and took rather longer to train than usual, 

 owing to his highly sensitive nature, in fact he was nearly 

 rejected altogether, and it was only through the urgent 

 representations of Mrs. Richardson, who discerned 

 " Tweed's " fine character through his shyness, that he was 

 retained and his training persevered with. Patience and 

 great gentleness in handling eventually overcame his 

 reluctance and timidity, and the clever management of 

 " Tweed " in the field by his keeper brought this dog up 

 to a very high standard. 



A further account by Keeper Reid shows that the mes- 



7 



