Messenger Dogs.

This article is from the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 by C.E.W. Bean. It relates to the experimental use of messenger dogs by the ANZACS during May 1918.

The Australians had seen and shot at German messenger dogs during May as the Australian snipers prevented all German movement by day. The German use of dogs was copied by the Australians but their experiments with messenger dogs were far less successful.


“The history of the 97th I.R (German) regiment states, “The enemy showed himself very lively and prevented almost any possibility of movement by day.” Indeed, for the carriage of messages in daylight on the most exposed portions both of the Morlancourt ridge and the Villers-Bretonneux plateau, the Germans at this time had to rely almost exclusively upon messenger dogs.

In the first fortnight of May, Rex and Greif, messenger dogs of the 3Ist I.R., made the dangerous run along the Bray Corbie road at least four times daily. After that regiment had been relieved by the 232nd R.1 R., “the communication service (says the historian of this regiment) was discharged to our greatest satisfaction by our splendid dogs Else and Wolf.” The Australian snipers often caught sight of the dogs, which had to run the gauntlet of their bullets, and at least one was shot and one captured.

The Australians on the Villers-Bretonneux plateau afterwards tested the use of messenger dogs, which were then being supplied for experiment. The trial was not very successful. Men and officers tended to pet the dogs and feed them, which should only have been done by their keepers at the terminals of the run.

For example, Dog 113, which had always been reliable, was sent to the, 18th Battalion where the headquarters mess, “fondled and patted it and finally fed it”. It then refused to leave headquarters, a good dog being thus spoilt. For success (which meant saving of men’s lives) the whole personnel of the corps would have had to be lectured on the need for leaving the dogs alone. A second impediment was the existence in Villers-Bretonneux of female dogs, left behind by the former inhabitants. In all, 21 messenger dogs were tested in the corps between May 2 and 9, of 8 of these it is recorded that 4 were unreliable. 1 was hit; 3 worked well, covering 1 1/2 miles in from 3 to 8 minutes, whereas runners would need 15-20 minutes. One dog took 1 1/2 hours on the Journey, and one 8 1/2 hours.”