Initially, he didn’t serve in an official capacity, but the dog was allowed stay with Conroy, even when he went on assignment as a dispatch rider delivering messages to command posts on horseback. Stubby remained with the 102 nd throughout the training period in Neufchâteau. The dog, it was said, “was the only member of his regiment that could talk back to and get away with it.”Ī French sergeant and a dog, both wearing gas masks, on their way to the front line. It was Parker who gave special orders that Stubby remain with the 26 th. John Henry Parker, was a gruff, intimidating man, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and an expert machine gun tactician who eventually received a Silver Star for extraordinary heroism. They saw more fighting than any other American infantry division: 210 days in total. They took part in four major offensives-Aisne-Marne, Champagne-Marne, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne-and 17 engagements. The 26 th would end the war as one of America’s most battle-scarred.
The raw troops of the 26 th Division were brought to Neufchâteau, in the Lorraine region of northeastern France, to train with more experienced French forces. In October 1917, one month after landing in France, the American Expeditionary Forces entered the Western Front. “Even when the shells were singing, to see a line half a mile long of dog teams tearing down the mountain to the base depot, every blue devil whooping and yelling and trying to pass the one ahead.”įrench soldiers in trench in Northeastern France, circa 1916-1918. “It was enough to make one forget all about the war,” Allan recalled later. Once there, the dogs hauled ammunition, aided soldiers in the work of laying communication lines, and helped transport wounded soldiers to field hospitals. Allan managed to transport, in secret, more than 400 sled dogs from Alaska to Quebec, where he and the dogs boarded a cargo ship bound for France. Heavy winter snows in the Vosges Mountains were holding back French supply lines mules and horses couldn’t breach the impasse to move artillery and ammunition. In 1915, the French government asked Allan Alexander Allan, a Scotsman living in Alaska, to provide its army with sled dogs. In one battle, Prusco, a French dog, located and dragged more than 100 wounded men to safety. Many dogs, including Red Cross dogs, performed heroically. Often, the dogs simply provided comfort and a warm body to dying men on battlefields. Because they wore the Red Cross symbol, these dogs were, in theory, protected from being shot by the enemy. Saddlebags stocked with water and medical supplies were strapped to their backs. Red Cross dogs, also called sanitary dogs or Sanitätshunde by the Germans, negotiated battlefields and no-man’s lands to aide wounded men. Siberian huskies, naturally, were relied on for transport.ĭogs were also a key part of the Red Cross’ aid efforts, and every country had its own unit. Airedale terriers were considered good messenger dogs. The conventional wisdom favored pedigreed dogs: Jack Russell terriers for chasing rats out of trenches German shepherds, Chiens de Brie, and Alsatian sheep dogs for sentry duty. France, Britain, Belgium, Germany, and Russia all recognized the value of trained dogs on the battlefield. Many of the countries involved in World War I had war dog training schools in place prior to the conflict. A machinist onboard fashioned Stubby his own set of metal “dog tags.” By the time the troops disembarked in the port of Saint-Nazaire on France’s western coast, Stubby was the 102 nd Infantry’s unofficial mascot.
ONE DOG STORY OST FREE
Out of hiding and free to roam the freighter, Stubby proved popular with the crew. Here the lore of Stubby, as reported by various newspapers, takes on a suspiciously cutesy cast: The story goes that the dog charmed his way into the good graces of the officers who discovered him by lifting his right paw in a salute. He then spirited the dog down to the hold and hid him in the ship’s coal bin.Īt some point during the turbulent Atlantic crossing, Stubby was found out. The New York Times describes how Conroy eluded the ship guards by concealing Stubby in his Army-issue greatcoat. Here the 26 th Division was slated to board one of the largest freighters navigating the Atlantic, the SS Minnesota. The troops traveled by rail to Newport News, Virginia, a newly designated port of embarkation for soldiers heading to France.
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