The History Behind Darling

Dogs in the Military

Dogs have been used for war throughout history. During World War I, when Darling takes place, Great Britain and several other European countries used dogs on the battlefront. Soldiers discovered that dogs were loyal, smart, and quick and had keen eyesight and an excellent sense of smell.

The most common use for dogs during WWI was for carrying messages. A piece of paper was placed in a small metal container on the dog’s collar. A dog could carry a message four to five times faster than a human across enemy territory. The fastest time recorded was three miles in three minutes! Dogs were also scouts, ammunition carriers, and guards. Ambulance and medical assistance dogs like Darling were used later in the war.

Training of these special dogs took about six weeks and required praise and treats like dried liver. First they were taught to heel, to sit, and to stay silent. All breeds were used, including mutts. Trainers looked for grayish or black dogs that would blend into the background on the battlefield.

Mercy Dogs

Red Cross or Mercy Dogs like Darling searched for wounded men on the battlefield. They usually worked at night, using their sense of smell and superior vision. They ran through barbed wire, poisonous gases, smoke, fences, and explosions. “Good Red Cross dogs will quickly clear a battlefield of all the wounded soldiers,” stated Senator George G. Vest (Scout, Red Cross and Army Dogs, page 17).

Mercy Dogs carried medical supplies and water to wounded men. If the soldier was unconscious, the dog would return to him, leading his handler and stretcher bearers. These dogs were trained to ignore dead soldiers.

Mercy Dogs were only used in World War I. When armies stopped trench warfare, the need for Mercy Dogs ended. However, dogs continue to be trained today in the military, often to search for explosives and drugs.

Dog Heroes

Dogs proved their loyalty and bravery time after time in World War I. Captain, a French Red Cross Dog, found thirty wounded men in one day. Prusco, another French Red Cross Dog, found over a hundred men after one battle. Sometimes Prusco dragged soldiers into ditches, hoping that would keep them safe while he ran back to his handlers.

The United States did not use military dogs in World War I, but soldiers sometimes kept dogs as mascots. One of the most famous was Stubby, who became a hero after capturing a German spy. He was in seventeen battles and wounded many times. Stubby returned to America after the war. He was celebrated as a war hero and met three presidents.

Many brave dogs died in World War I. A 1917 issue of Animals magazine estimated that seven thousand war dogs were killed. There is a monument to dogs who served in the World War, 1914–1918 at the Hartsdale Canine Cemetery in New York. There is also a painting of Mercy Dogs by Alexander Pope in the American Red Cross Museum in Washington, D.C.

Cool Dog Facts

• The Airedale was one of the first breeds to be trained for the military.
• A dog’s sense of smell is fifty to one hundred times better than a human’s.
• Gas masks for dogs were first developed during World War I.
• In 2011, there were over 2,300 military working dogs in the United States.
• A law was passed in 2000 allowing retired US military dogs to be adopted.

A Soldier’s Life

A military dog’s life during World War I was tough, but so was a soldier’s. At the Battle of Messines Ridge, most soldiers spent their days in trenches. They guarded the front line, which was the area closest to the German forces. In between was “no man’s land,” the ground that separated enemy from enemy.

Trenches were ditches dug in the ground, six feet deep by two feet wide. They were lined with sandbags, sticks, and metal. Support trenches connected to the front trenches in a twisty maze. Signs pointed the way, but soldiers joked about getting lost.

Troops shared the trenches with mice, fleas, frogs, and lice. “There are five families of rats in the roof of my dugout,” British Captain Bill Murray wrote to his family, “which is two feet above my head in bed, and the little rats practice somersaults continuously through the night, for they have discovered that my face is a soft landing when they fall” (The First World War: A New Illustrated History, page 159).

When it rained, the ditches filled with mud. Soldiers on duty might have to stand knee-deep in water for hours. They often developed an infection called “trench foot.” Another infection called “trench mouth” was caused by stress, smoking, and poor hygiene. “I have not washed for a week,” wrote a soldier, “or had my boots off for a fortnight” (Life in the Trenches, page 69).

Food was carried from rear kitchens to the troops in the front line. Often it arrived cold and spoiled. Biscuits were so hard, reported a soldier, “that you had to put them on a firm surface and smash them with a stone” (Life in the Trenches, page 74). Soldiers were issued mess kits with fork, spoon, knife, and “iron rations” of tea and bully beef (canned corn beef) that they could heat over their Tommy cookers.

During the day, soldiers in the trenches played cards, wrote letters, and cleaned their weapons. At night, the Front became alive. Supplies were moved. Patrols crept from the trenches and scouted the area. Then raiding parties scurried across no man’s land, crawling through barbed wire and darting into shell craters. Dodging machine-gun fire and bombs, they tried to capture and kill the enemy.

After one week to ten days of duty on the front lines, a soldier would be sent “to the rear.” There they took a hot bath, washed clothes, and ate a good meal. “There is a bakery,” reported a visitor, “where a Master Baker, in charge of a thousand men, bakes 350,000 2-lb. loaves every day” (Life in the Trenches, page 64).