This year marks the 100th BY NICK WATERS Anniversary of the start of rom elephants to glow worms, cats to camels, so many species the First World War. While played a part and the numbers we remember the countless are staggering; eight million horses and over 300,000 pigeons alone. millions who lost their lives Dogs played a major role too, they in that and subsequent wars acted as messengers; scouts; guards; mine detectors; they laid cables, over the last 100 years, most pulled sledges, ambulances and machine guns; aided the Red Cross; fuelled by power, greed they were even trained as ‘suicide squads’ to run under enemy tanks and religion, it’s timely to with primed mines strapped to their remember the animals who back – the dogs that served were always loyal and unquestioning. served, suffered and died To mark the centenary I feature alongside the fighting forces. five very different pieces of art which
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honour the dogs of war.
44 Dog News
The porcelain model of an Airedale Terrier was made during World War I and is modelled in the pose of a search dog wearing a Red Cross collar. The Airedale was one of the breeds chiefly used, and not just by the British but by the Germans as well, for it outperformed all other breeds. In the British trenches on the Western Front some of the famous Airedales that Major Richardson trained were employed in sentry and scouting duties, many in the first-line trenches in Flanders. Richardson started training the breed around the turn of the century, mainly for the Red Cross and established his British War Dog School in 1917.