For days they had managed to hold off the Germans, but no one had come to relieve them. They had been told by the French command to hold their position until reinforcements could be sent. (Read 'The Dogs of War' in the June issue of National Geographic magazine.)Įrnest Harold Baynes, a reporter who documented the use of animals during World War I, wrote, 'The fame of the war dogs may well rest on the splendid work they actually did it needs no support from the stories of what some of the sentimentalists would like to believe they did.'ĭuring World War I, at the 1916 Battle of Verdun, a small contingent of French soldiers found themselves boxed in by German forces. In the coming days, we take a look back at a handful (of the many thousands) of war dogs whose stories are powerful testaments to the important roles they played in saving lives-and lifting spirits. Started in World War II and continuing through Korea and Vietnam, today the Military Working Dog Program deploys dogs to Iraq and Afghanistan. War Department, emulating successful war dog programs in Europe, finally set into motion the military dog program that would evolve (and lapse and evolve again) over the next several decades. It wasn't until the onset of World War II that the U.S. Unauthorized use is prohibited.īeginning with the Revolutionary War and through World War I, dogs had a mostly unofficial presence alongside American soldiers, coming to combat either as a beloved pet of a general, as a mascot, or as the stray-made-companion of an obliging soldier.

German soldier with dog gas mask