102 British War Dogs 



" Exceptionally good work was done by these dogs 

 through the Forest of Nieppe, and interest in the messenger 

 dogs, as a means of communication in heavily shelled areas, 

 was aroused." 



I may say here, that during a tour of inspection which 

 I made during the war, I myself saw the dogs working 

 through the Nieppe Forest, and was greatly pleased with 

 the manner in which they negotiated this difficult sector. 



Since the Armistice, I have again made an entire and 

 close inspection of the entire battlefields, with the object 

 of studying the various sorts of surfaces the messenger dogs 

 had to traverse. The Ypres sector is, of course, one of the 

 worst, and in this shell-torn ground the dogs must have 

 had all their energies called out. In wet weather, when 

 every step brought a risk of drowning in the terrific shell- 

 holes to the human runner — and this apart from the cease- 

 less firing — a message would have a far greater chance of 

 being brought through safely by a dog. If the dog fell 

 into a hole, it could easily swim and scramble out, and it 

 would certainly be able to negotiate these obstacles much 

 more quickly, creeping lightly along the lip of the craters. 



At Passchendaele also, the terrible slope presented un- 

 ending dangers to anyone forced to move rapidly, and here, 

 too, excellent work was done by the dogs, which would 

 have been appallingly difficult, if not impossible to runners. 



Other parts of the line presented different features, but 

 in every sector I came to the conclusion that message 

 carrying could be carried out with far greater dispatch and 

 certainty, as long as the rules for working were enforced, 

 and the troops given a good understanding of the work 

 the dogs were doing. 



As showing the tremendous amount of ground covered by 



