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V Ul UV/air force.FIDO HAS GONE TO WARBy EDWARD CULLOM(In Pathfinder)Like many other innovations in modern warfare, the use of trained dogs seems to havestarted with the Germans. In the first World War both the Germans and the French usedthem extensively. A start was made to trainthem in the United States, but the only one towork with American troops on the field were borrowed.When the Germans started preparing for the present war, they also began trainingdogs for it, and the number they had ready has been estimated from 100,000 to 200,000.They were also reported to have contributed50,000 to the Japanese, after Pearl Harbor, and those dogs are believed to be largely responsible for the astonishing success of the sponsible for some successes of the Japanese in jungle fighting against the British andDutch. Neither Americans nor British had any dogs in training, but the Russians hadthem ready when needed—100,000 of them.Along the Atlantic coast (where German saboteurs have slipped ashore) there gd patrols every night consisting of two Coast Guardsmen and one German shepherd dog. The dog, in the dark, can detect the presence of a stranger 200 yards away, and with a low growl and rising hackles he warns his handlers and shows them where to find the intruder. One man and one dog are said to be equivalent to seven men without a dog in this shore duty. The German shepherd appears to be favored for this work, and there are said to be 5,000 of them now helping to guard the vital shore line of Hawaii.In London, after the German bombs had left smoking ruins of homes, little terriers would plunge into the debris and never give up the search until the last victim had been found. In the Libyan desert after a day’s bloody battle had left the terrain strewn with dead and wounded, these little four-legged workers would come into the field wearing glowing Red Cross blankets and bringing packs of medical supplies—first aid—for sufferers. At other times they act as messengers, carrying dispatches, or take rolls of wire on their backs for stringing communication lines.Out in Montana, at Camp Rimini, sledge dogs are being trained. Experienced dog teamsters are giving lessons in transportation over snow to both drivers and their teams—mala-mutes, huskies and St, Bernards. Such teams are now in Alaska hauling food and equipment to soldiers who can be reached by no other form of transportation.Dogs guard ports, forts, motor bases, quartermaster depots, war plants and parked cars. They scout off leash; they trail spies or saboteurs; they attack fiercely when so ordered, and they guard prisoners while the'captors seeks aid or a conveyance. They swim streams; they detect the camouflaged enemy; they are not afraid of gunshots and explosions; and they never cower or run for cover. They run low to the ground and make a difficult target, especially the smaller ones, and they never accept food from anybody but their masters.There are only a few thousands of thesecanine troopers working with the Americanforces today, but the goal has been set at 125,000 if needed; they are coming in satisfactorily. They are being trained at Army posts in Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, California and Hawaii. When they “graduate” they are enrolled in the K-9 Command.What sort of dogs are used? Well, about every kind except mongrels. To be trained, they need to be pure-bred or cross-breds so as to have definite characteristics. Only big ones like Great Danes, German shepherds or J English bulls are good for patrol. They are big enough to handle their man if they catch him. 'The Marine Corps in training at New River, N. C\, favor for exclusive use the lanky oberman Pinschers, of which they have 130.The Doberman fanciers claim he has the record as the outstanding dog for war use.But admirers of the Airdale point out thatthe Germans call this dog Kriegshund—war dog—because of his war record. The truth is that the many services the K-9 Corps is called upon to render, demand many kinds of special talents. It takes little fellows to get around on battlefields without being too conspicuous; terriers especially have been found useful forguard duty inside warehouses and factories.SoaLabradorsswimming ability, and there is also a demandfor keen-scented hunting dogs.Besides the dogs mentioned, there are also at the five official training stations: Boxers,retrievers, elkhounds, Kerry blues, collies,schnauzers, French poodles (they are especially clever, even clownish) and black-and-white Dalmatians, commonly palled coach dogs, which must serve behind the lines because of being too easily seen. In fact, there seems to be a place for about every breed except thedachshund, and the Mexican hairless. But thephysical qualifications are more rigid. An acceptable dog must be between one and five years old and stand 18 inches high or more atthe shoulder.Where do the dogs in the K-9 Command come from? From the homes of citizens, for the most part. The Army does not go out and buy up the dogs it needs, as in the case of horses and mules. These service dogs are treated much more like the soldiers with whom they work so closely. They are formally enlisted, and when they come back from the wars they will be sent back to the homes from which they came.The Army’s procurement agency for dogs is a civilian organization named Dogs for Defense, created largely through the efforts of Mrs. Milton Erlanger, a native New Yorker. She tried vainly to set up a dog service in the Signal Corp^ in the last war, to rival and complement the use of carrier pigeons. In this war she started earlier, got the support of Quartermaster General Edmund B. Gregory, and with another dog fancier, H. I. Caesar, organized Dogs for Defense, through which patriotic citizens donate the services of their dogs to the Army. The popular response has been generous, and nine out of 10 dogs offered have been found acceptable, in spite of the rather rigid requirements that they must bestrong, healthy, fearless and not gun-shy.Dogs once accepted in the K-9 Command get the best care. They have passed a physical‘examination, and now they are innocu-lated. Each is issued a collar and leash and an “identification card.” which consists of tattoo marks on the left ear. Every day the dog is thoroughly groomed—dog-handlers, like cavalrymen, must take ’care of their charges before themselves—and his kennel is kept clean. His feeding is carefully * supervised (yes, a bone is part of his ration), and more than 200 veterinarians watch over the health of this particular command. Few dogs in civilian life get such expert attention.The recruits are given four weeks of basic training. They are taught to heel, sit, lie down, stay in position, drop, scale a wall. They are car-broken, conditioned to firing, and taught not to fight each other—to practically ignore the presence of other dogs, which is a real triumph over dog nature. After the basic, there comes a four-weeks’ course of special training in which each dog is taught his own particular job. Some take up sentry duty, or watching; some go in for trial and attack, others to carry messages or pigeons or packs, lay wire, and scout over difficult terrian. A first-aid dog can fipd a wounded soldier in the dark. An airplane-spotter can bark a warning of an approaching plane before his trainer hears a sound. In jungle fighting the dog sees, hears and smells keenly in detecting snipers, machinegun nests, camouflaged enemies.Dogs, the few that could be furnished in(Continued top next column)something new, they are likely to act confused, to scatter, and perhaps even to rattle off for home. On several occasions, after the leader of a bombing squadron was shot down, the others apparently had no notion of what to do. Thishad led observers to believe thatonly the Jap squadron leader knows the details of a mission and that possibly only the lead plane is equipped with a bombsight. A Marine dive-bomber pilot recentlysaid that none of his squadron has ever yet found a bombsight on anyplane they had knocked down.When the war began, the Jap pilot had somehow come to be regarded as a superman, flying a kind of magic carpet that was impossible. to hit.. There were several reasons for this. One, not particularly good, was his success in China, where he actually had overwhelming numerical superiority; another was no doubt the romantic ring of the term “Zero plane.” Prosaically enough, the“Zero” simply marks the date of some of the Jap fighter types. As to the Chinese activity, Flying Tiger pilots in Army P-40’s made things exceedingly warm for the Japs everytime they got near them. And Navy flyers, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, went immediately into action with the disadvantageous lack of combat experience, and did wonderfully well.The Navy’s Fighting Squadron Three, aboard the aircraft carrier Lexington, was the first outfit to have a major brush with Jap flyers. The Lexington, having got under way shortly after the Honolulu bombing, was steaming toward Rabaul when it got word, near Bougainville, that Jap planes were near by and coming to attack.The carrier launched h pair of fighter patrols, one of which promptly spotted two Jap four-en-giried patrol planes and shot them down. Not long afterward a wave of nine Jap bombers came roaring in, but without any outstanding luck. Fighting Three shot down five bombers immediately; another, trying to escape, was downed by janti-aircraft fire, and two of the remaining trio were caught by fighters. One Jap actually escaped.In the closing minutes of this me-ee, another wave of nine Jap bombers came in from a different direction. This time only two of the Lexington’s fighters were in a position to intercept. These two, ltd by Lieutenant E. H. (Butch) O’Hare, turned to the attack. His partner’s guns jammed, so O’Hare jumped on the nine bombers by himself. He shot two down immediately and damaged others so that only four tould drop their bombs. Then ho shot down two more planes and hit a third, which later crashed. Altogether, O’Hare disposed of five experienced Jap pilots within a very few minutes, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his pains. At the final tally, the Lexington was undamaged; she had lost two fighter planes, one of whose plots was saved; altogether she accounted for sixteen bombers and two patrol planes.This brilliant Japanese attackeffectively cleared up the superman myth for Navy pilots. In the I Coral Sea and Midway battles the Zeros appeared in force, and hit the water with comforting regu-! JapThigarplaifiglJapdunmy:Thebes:! aga varwhitaelTindilessthethe:caned lt;to 1of INa’ed.betlthamgIingcanplaity, figlhav brd ent:mgothis 1 ulaiAmwhiThefiglV’swhiers bee as 1 thaWhtiorponthelikethepervan1iimparehurbitewoidepciribededThea tthepochisideilovhepmingIha'vi def I bei begirm i hat; Guii cleiout| arebv
Newspaper Details
Belton Journal and Bell County Democrat
Belton, Texas, US
Thu, Sep 16, 1943
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Nancy L.
NM, USA 20 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Belton, Texas
Belton Journal and Bell County Democrat
Belton Journal
