Messenger Dogs

Discussion in '1940' started by LesCM19, Jun 10, 2010.

  1. LesCM19

    LesCM19 "...lets rock!"

    I am reading "A French Officer's Diary" by Captain D Barlone of the 2nd North African Division
    'battalion...police-dogs leashed in pairs and so intelligent-looking. The dogs have daily training in message carrying from point to point...Artillery...also have their liason dogs, which they carry in travelling cages'
    I was not aware of this!
    Simply put each dog had 2 handlers, one at the 'sending' unit and another at the 'recipient' end. Presumably this was for passing communiques up & down the chain of command rather than between units!!:confused:

    There are a number of sites detailing this exact use in WW1 but not WW2 (dogs 'had other uses' in WW2, of course, notoriously the satchel-charge wielding types.)
    [​IMG] British World War One messenger dogs & handler

    Also see thread regarding the Dicken Medal for animals:
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/general/18202-dickin-medal.html#post181711

    (I wonder if you can get them in 6mm?:D)
     
  2. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Les, are you aware of this France 1940 Yahoo Group? Plenty of good people with lots of info. Worth a visit surely :)

    For dogs in 6mm I'm not sure but Irregular Miniatures might have something for you. Sheep they have, and at this scale any sheep will pass for a dog :D
     
  3. LesCM19

    LesCM19 "...lets rock!"

    Les, are you aware of this France 1940 Yahoo Group?
    The layout of the messageboard is horrible, never could get on with it. I will have another look & see if I can change the thread display or something.
    Well, found another odd form of communication on that forum already, so thanks for the reminder.
    VB message grenade
    The message grenade, called grenade "lance-messages" or "grenade
    porte-messages", was used to send messages from one trench section to another
    over heavily engaged areas. These grenades contained a fuze, which at the end of
    the fuses cycle would detonate a small smoke packet so that it could be found.
    Range of 350m

    .
    Maybe I will persevere with it a bit:)
     
  4. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    In the olden days I used to frequent a lot of Yahoo Groups - there are also Google's and others - but yes, the layout is terrible. I'm still registered in some 20 of them concerning a multitufe of interests but I only visit rarely.

    The Vivian-Béssières cup was a sort of a rifle grenade launcher, one per squad. I wasn't aware of this 'banging telegram' though. Are you aware of the French tiny 37mm infantry gun too? :)
     
  5. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

  6. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Dogs are mans best friend.

    From all the photographs published on this forum and elsewhere the dogs appear at ease concidering what they are being subjected to.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  7. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Was going off topic... sorry.

    AHKPD00Z.jpg

    Belgian dogs pulling mitrailleuses.

    From Roll of Honour - World War 1 Trench Dogs

    A figure of 7500 dogs killed in action is given. A lot of pigeons, horses and dogs died in the War.
     

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