122 British War Dogs 



the dogs. This was constituted a disciplinary offence -in 

 the German army, and was severely punished. 



" I landed in France with my two dogs, ' Major ' and 

 ' Maggie,' and was sent to my old Brigade. Their head- 

 quarters were in an old slag heap, just to the rear of Hermies 

 village. I did not get much help, nor did I find anyone very 

 interested in the dogs at first, but on coming out of the 

 line for a rest, I was taken over by the Brigade Signal 

 Officer, Lieut. Parkes. He was very interested in the 

 dogs, and did a lot for me. The consequence was, that 

 next time we were in the line, the dogs were used night 

 and day, with good results. We were in the line from 

 Jan. 25th till Feb. 21st, and the dogs were running from 

 the front line to advanced Brigade Headquarters. 



" At different times, our officer had silent days, when no 

 wires were used, only runners and dogs. Of course the 

 dogs beat the runners every time, and never made one 

 mistake. It was a very unhealthy spot — a lot of shelling. 

 Poor ' Maggie ' was shell- shocked. I buried her in a little 

 hut I used to keep her in. It would have been a great 

 thing, if all officers had taken the same interest in their 

 dogs as did Lieut. Parkes. 



" I returned to Etaples when the dog service was reor- 

 ganized, and my next venture was at Kemmel Hill, April 

 16th, 1918, and went up with Keepers Young, Headly, 

 Ferriby, Radford, and Ferris with eighteen dogs. The 

 men had nearly all the same dogs they brought from 

 England. We went to the 9th Division, and ran the dogs 

 for the 26th and 27th Brigade. Their Headquarters were 

 just to the right of La Clythe. Here I found I was wanted 

 to run dogs from Spoil Bank, close to the Canal, through 

 Voormazeele, a distance of 14 kilos., so made a relay post, 

 at Ridge Wood, leaving Keepers Young and Ferris at 



