Impression sketch
of French War Dog - by
Jamie. Original image can be seen at: <http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f241/war-dogs-wwi-140711/>
[Accessed: 28 March 2016]
London based Pall Mall Gazette,
Went into detail how the French
Were using dogs as auxiliaries
In war zones - a fact was told how
Shooting dogs were not the best
To assist the army.
An initial belief was overruled by
Presence of mountain and sheep
Dogs, these breeds placed into five
Ranks; messengers, patrols, watch,
Pack and ambulance dogs - all with
Good noses.
Ideally the canine recruits needed
To be gentle and obedient - attempts
To beat a dog into obedience, would
Only heighten their fright - making
Them a danger.
Female animals proved themselves
As better messengers, to carry notes
Over distances; reaching four miles,
To be reliable returning with replies
Without hesitation, or apparent worries
To gunfire.
Ambulance dogs had been taught
To return a wounded soldier's cap
Or handkerchief - the technique was
Changed to avoid mistaking bandages
For handkerchiefs.
The process had altered, for the dogs
Taught not to touch vital dressings -
Instead to retrieve an item close by;
Equipment, a pipe or a stone to show
They had discovered a wounded soldier
Needing attention.
Those trained for
watch dogs would
Pick up any
nearby hostile presence
Or approach - indicated by their alert
Attitude - or by
giving a low growl; not
By barking.
A newly trained
dog brought into
The front trenches one night, kept
His attention to
a corner of trench
And would not
turn away - guards
Said the handlers
idea of Germans
Nearby as absurd.
While the men
felt this impossible,
The handler replied - nothing could be
Impossible - as one
soldier asked
If he perhaps had
detected a enemy
Listening post; they believed one lay
Nearby, undetected.
The leading captain
was informed
Of the watch dog's
alert, to ordered
Fire rockets be
launched - the light
Showed three
Germans were holed
Up, 12 yards away.
That French regiment
had tried
To find out the enemy
post for over
Two months, which the watch dog
Had detected by his
senses within
15 minutes.
An army dog of
the French named
Cadet, had been
assigned tasks -
He worked to
challenge and catch
German dogs -
with daily frequency
Cadet caught
them.
Often the dogs
were bigger than
Cadet, as he grabbed
them by their
Ears to march
them back - this led
him to be mentioned in
despatches
More than once.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Use
Of Dogs In War - How They Serve The French. The Daily Telegraph,
[online] 28 March 1916.
P.5. Col.3. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12202449/Daily-Telegraph-March-28-1916.html
[Accessed: 28 March 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication,
28 March 2016).
A documentary on YouTube giving an overview of the voyage.
Other films are available.
Source: File:
Mrs. Chippy on the shoulder of Perce Blackborow.jpg. [online] An original image
is available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Chippy> [Accessed:
27 March 2016]
Source: File:
Dogs next to the Endurance as it finally sank.jpg. [online] An original image
is available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition>
[Accessed: 27 March 2016]
i
With months of no
news, came news
From a
Trans-Antarctic Expedition,
And the leader
Ernest Shackleton -
Within the first
days of war, explorers
Had sailed to
lower regions of earth.
Following on from
tradition of previous
Crews,
Shackleton's Expedition headed
For the Weddell
Sea of the Southern
Ocean, from
Buenos Ayres in October
1914, to reach
island of South Georgia.
There, at the half
way stage of the lonely
Sandwich Islands
rested the Endurance,
Until departure
December 1914 - after
Which the
explorers became shrouded
By a silent 15
months, till March 1916.
On route a
discovery was made onboard
Of a stowaway - a
keen young Welsh sailor
Perce Blackborow
- helped aboard to hide
In a tank locker by two able seamen, who
Believed the
crew would be shorthanded.
Blackborow unable
to stand from three days
Confinement sat,
as Shackleton raged at him
Before the crew -
his promise to eat stowaways
If starvation hit
them - his reply, Shackleton had
More meat on him; so he became cook's help.
Messages and
telegram had expectations
Of the
expeditions return to the Argentine
Port, for first
news over the Weddell Sea.
Amid words were
extracts of Shackleton's
Diary, accounting
the stay in South Georgia.
Though isolated
in the sea the island
Was home to 2000,
with ample electricity
At each station -
as well as stock of hens
And pigsties - to
share lands with cattle,
A bull, goats,
sheep, ducks and a monkey.
Although a British
overseas territory, they
Found most
population was Norwegian -
Except for 20
British with another stray
National - when whalers
told of poor winter
Conditions, they
held up in Weddell Sea.
Though Whalers stated
pack ice remained
Unbroken, they
left Georgia 5 December
1915 - their hope
was to reach 77.30
South latitude - but
as ice lay north 57.26,
Endurance was forced
to negotiate the ice.
The sailing
frustrations led to enforced
24-hour halt - to stop again 3 days later -
Only by 22
December 1915 a break came;
Sailing over 14
days steadily southwards
Into the Weddell
Sea, until the new year.
Rumours had it
Shackleton had advertised
In a London
Newspaper; 'men wanted
For hazardous
journey low wages, bitter
Cold, long hours
of complete darkness,
Safe return
doubtful' - the promise ended.
To gain honour
and recognition in event
Of success, brought over 5000 applicants -
Among them
were three sporting girls
Happy to wear
male attire - at years end
The journey had
lived up to leaders words.
ii
Across the
Weddell's Sea eastern shore,
They came close
to 100 feet ice walls
Of Coats Land - deciding
against a glacier
Landing, they
moved onto Caird Coast,
Named in honour
of Shackleton's Patron.
Vahsel Bay being
their destination,
They reached eastern
limit of Luitpold
Land - yet the
Endurance was forced
14 miles
southerly - again halted by
Pack ice, failing
all to free a passage.
Still in a vice
like grip 21 February 1915,
They drifted with
the ice until 24th - decision
Was clear the
Endurance would have to
Hold for the winter - the
dogs were housed
In ice kennels, with winter quarters aboard.
Shackleton
thought like the Deutchland
In 1912, they
would break free without any
Issue; to attempt
an Antarctic spring landing
At Vahsel Bay -
in depth of winter the drift
Increased, as ice
about the ship rattled.
A worry was amid
the ice, Endurance might
Crack like an egg - May, June, July sank
Into depths of
winter months - after time
Of daily
activities the ice began to break
By Augusts’ start, ice danced about them.
Ice forced
beneath the keel then prompted
A heavy list to
port - when the danger past
Came a few weeks
respite, until a major
Squeeze returned
- between the ice floe's
Pressure, came
point of no return on the hull.
Ships timbers
started to shatter, described
Like gunfire and
fireworks shooting splinters -
When icy water then poured into Endurance,
27 October 1915, came
decision to abandon
In conditions of
−15 °F moving boats to ice.
Yet the Endurance
held still on for weeks,
To allow salvage
of supplies - in necessity
To abandon
transcontinental plans, needs
Became for shoes
made from scavenged
Wood of the
Endurance in a plan to march.
Both Frank Hurley
and George Marston
Had been in charge of
recording progress
Of the expedition - salvaged from the loss
Of their boat,
Hurley only kept 150 plates;
To smash 550 plates of excess weight.
iii
To get to safety
various options were quickly Considered; Paulet Island where a likely food
Supply was stored
from Swedish Antarctic
Rescue of 1902 - then there was Snow Hill
Island, once used for winter quarters base.
Alternatively was
Roberton Island; from one
Of these Shackleton
then believed they could
Cross Graham Land
over to Wilhelmina Bay
And whaling
outposts; the Endurance Captain,
Frank Worsley, worked out walking distances.
Such distances
over 300 miles Worsley believed
Too dangerous and
should wait until ice carried
Them out to open
waters, then use the boats -
But Shackleton
quashed the Captain's decision,
So that they
began to march 30 October 1915.
Under difficult
situations Shackleton gave
Cruel orders, to
destroy the weakest among
The team - these
being sled dogs, the surgeon's
Pet puppy and the
carpenter's cat Mrs Chippy -
McNish was never
able to forgive Shackleton.
About the sea ice,
conditions fell across ridges
And hummocks - and progress over three days
Was only two
miles - then waiting for the ice
To break, they
made ocean camp with relays
To the Endurance, until she sank 21 November.
Ice began to
shift them seven miles a day, with
5 December moving
too far to make Snow Hill
Island, while
Paulet Island was 250 miles -
To reduce
lifeboat distance Shackleton gave
Order for another
march 21 December 1915.
Slight rises in
temperatures led to softer
Snow - in
struggle to pull the boats McNish
Rebelled and
refused to help; quoting loss
Of ship's
articles to hold him - but Shackleton
Finally brought
the angry carpenter to heel.
Another seven
miles made over two days
Enforced another
halt - so they settled
To put up tents
in Patience Camp, for three
Months - with
food low a return to Ocean
Camp and regained
abandoned supplies.
January 1916 and
Shackleton, stating
The dog teams
excessive needs, led them
To be destroyed -
while crew’s food needs
For regular seal
meat - with two lifeboats,
A party was sent back to recover the third.
With events
taking a dire turn since
Loss of Endurance,
destruction of extra
Mouths to feed
and painfully slow march
Across ice and
snow, news had only just
Got home of the
team about to start out.
iV
Shackleton’s
extracts praised the team
That would cross
the sub zero continent
Crean, Hurley,
Marston, Macklin and Wild.
Fit splendid men
described as able to look
After the dog
team on which they would rely.
Nearly twenty
months passed in parallel
To war on the
other side of the world -
The Endurance had
carried a wireless
Plant - but
likely very little news reached
The expedition,
of any fighting fronts.
By March 1916 the truth was the team were down to the last two teams of dogs, That were now in
danger - the floating
Camp took erratic
course teasingly close
To Paulet
Island; yet to reach safety.
To follow on from
previous days news,
Came further
information of matters
Closer to the truth,
as part of the trans
Antarctic
expedition had included SY
Aurora, in purpose to set supply depots.
These were to
furnish Shackleton's
Team for the last
part of their march -
Well built the
40-year-old whaler boat
Hit problems,
from the Australian
Edge, to be adrift
in Antarctic Ocean.
Reflecting same difficulties Endurance
Had experienced,
the Aurora exposed
To severe winter
weather ashore -
On the ice a
party of ten men were
Stranded, as
Aurora broke from anchor.
The event had
taken place May 1915,
With first
officer Stenhouse in charge
Of the ship,
leaving Captain Mackintosh
Ashore – Aurora was
to gain damage
In loss of
anchors and destroyed rudder.
Adrift, the
Aurora shifted through a frozen
Graveyard; ice
blocks standing on end -
Such dangers
passed to abandon ship,
But came again in
July, as caught between
Pincer ice floes,
for a final crushing blow.
Shift of ice led
Aurora to a safer place
Although the
rudder was smashed beyond
Repair – Aurora
staying firm, an August
Drift carried
them into the southern ocean -
As work began to
create a jury rudder.
The makeshift
construction was placed
Over the side,
like a giant rudder - while
Sea swells could
almost be felt - when A storm destroyed the
radio ariel, to halt
Attempts to
contact any nearby islands.
V
Days into weeks
and months passed
On, with little to
do but sustain morale,
With ice games, as Stenhouse tried To boost crew's morale - by January
1916, the sun began
to crack the ice.
Concerns all
along had been for those
Stranded at Cape
Evans, with limited
Supplies and
further effects of loss
Of assistance to
the Shackleton team -
It seemed they
might remain trapped.
With the melt
timbers opened to let
In water daily - with
pumps working
The Aurora finally
received release;
After came need
to use the engines,
Despite low coal
in stops and starts.
With start of
March the edge of ice
Was seen and on
the 14th day, after
312 days adrift,
they met the open
Sea - working to
repair the wireless,
Gave their transmission
of position.
Only by use of 80
foot rigged ariel,
Did Hookes
message reach Bluff
Station, New
Zealand and Tasmania -
To tell of Aurora's
position with freak
Weather then
allowing signals to carry.
News began to
spread of dire serious
Events around
Shackleton's expedition -
To even believe
that the continent had
Been crossed; whose party might see Another year -
facts remained unclear.
Reuters further
cablegrams told of Aurora
Adrift, but
close within reach of Australia -
To believe the expedition had returned. Reality was Shackleton's team were still
Drifting between
possible safety of islands.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Sir
Ernest Sheckleton - News Of The Expedition - Extracts from the Diary. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 24 March 1916.
P.7. Col.2. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12200321/Daily-Telegraph-March-24-1916.html
[Accessed: 24 March 2016].
Anon.,1916. Serious
News Of Shackleton's Party - Explorers Stranded. The Daily Telegraph,
[online] 25 March 1916.
P.7. Col.2. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12202441/Daily-Telegraph-March-25-1916.html
[Accessed: 25 March 2016].
Source: File: Imperial Trans-Antarctic
Expedition. Online. Available
at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition>
Accessed 24 March 2016
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 24 March 2016).
Source: File: 1915:
Allied cavalry troops' horses are lowered down in a sling onto quayside: Salonika,
Greece. jpeg, [online] see original at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25401273>
Accessed: 9 December 2015].
Still caught
within traditions,
When cavalry
charges took
Place on
horseback; military
Boffins held onto
their beliefs.
Hoping for day
when a breakthrough
Of lines, would
enable a grand cavalry
On horses - sabres
raised to charge -
In non-stop gallop
to Berlin and Kaiser.
While evidence's reality was
A war of
attrition, being held,
In lines of
trenches and bullets -
Under artillery devastation.
Still held onto were the army's needs
Of horse
supplies, for future wants
Of military -
made by issued report
8 December from the 1914 committee.
The powers set
and led by
Chairman Lord
Middleton,
Instructed the
Agricultural
Board of steps to
be taken.
Supplies of horse
had to be ready -
Both England and
Wales would
Need horses,
sufficient in military
Requirements for
mobilisations.
Receipt of war
office letters
Depicted a
current situation,
Of a state menace
to come,
From hunting and
racing.
Yet restrictions
were then placed
To halt racing of
horses, with Ireland
And Newmarket
exempt - hunting
While not banned,
had its difficulties.
A state of war would
likely
Affect the horse
breeding -
To deplete
thoroughbreds
And loss of sires
in supplies.
9 July 1915, a
war office letter spoke
How, in recent
military mobilisations,
A fact came to
light for many numbers
Of horses
unsuited to frontline work.
Words of
Kitchener, sent
To Earl of
Selborne, told of
Military needs
for supplies
Of 'light draft'
for cavalry.
Also was need good 'stamp' in artillery -
Should the
country be every ready
For continued
state of war - British
Numbers of horses
were still inadequate.
Since 1914,£12,000,000 had
Been spent, to buy more mounts
From USA - good home breeding
Would have saved
monies.
Kitchener
therefore requested Selborne
To do his best for
getting state aid funds,
To ensure the
quality of more well bred
Sires - for mares
to produce good foals.
In order to breed
light horses,
Various
recommendations
Would instruct
the Agriculture
Board, in controlled
legislations.
This was to be
alongside five issues
From the war
officer; to purchase
Horses from
breeders, remounts
And select
fillies, across the Isles.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Inadequate
Supply of Army Horses - An Urgent Problem - Earl Kitchener's Plea. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 9 December. P.10.
Col.6. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12031744/Daily-Telegraph-December-9-1915.html
[Accessed: 9 December 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 9 December 2015).
Impression
sketch of Zouave's mongrel dog-
by Jamie
Situated in the
Ile e France and the eastern
Suburbs of Paris,
lay Nogent Sur Marne,
Close to the
commune Maison Blanche -
A quiet name for
an asylum house.
With peace gone
by 1914, all these
Inmates were
relocated to Brittainy -
For Maison
Blanche to take a new role
In the recovery
of disabled French soldiers.
The number of 750
men became residents,
Whose recovery
involved expeditions,
In friends motor
cars to Paris centre -
Only 10
kilometres away - lost limbs,
Did not stop
their cheerfulness.
As they could be
seen in the Paris
Streets as
something ‘pathetic’ - yet
They prove their
resilient to conditions.
Within Maison
Blanche, those soldiers
That were, worked
in a workshop
And learned to
adapt in trades.
A man who had
lost both legs,
Along with his
right and left
Hands, except the
thumb, learned
To hold a brush
between the stump
And thumb in
order to paint pottery.
By this method he
began to earn a
A small income -
while another
Man, having been
a sculptor
Stonemason, used
plaster,
In making models
with his left
Hand he worked with
comrades
To number four -
all with both arms
To produce work
in making 10f a day.
Another resident
of the Maison Blanche
Was a mongrel dog,
who lived there
With his disabled
master, a Zouave
Who had been in
light infantry.
Coming from
Algeria, at wars
Start, he
insisted on taking his
Dog with him to
the French front -
Both lived
together in the trenches.
The Zouave, in
rank of sergeant, one
Night went on a
reconnaissance
Mission, with six
other men -
Close to a heavy
explosion,
The seven men
became buried
Beneath a mass of
earth - by some
Sense in missing
his master, the dog
Left the trenches
to seek this Zouave.
In realisation
his master was in danger,
The mongrel found
the place where
Where they were
buried and began
To dig - until he
found his master.
Seeing the
shrapnel wound on
His leg, the dog
instinctively began
To lick this –
which the surgeons later
Said had
prevented onset of gangrene.
Popular with all the
soldiers, this dog
Proved a good
poacher, in catching
Hares – close by,
some stretcher
Bearers heard his
dog barking,
With howling
yelps – to believe
That he had
caught another hare.
So that these men
went out to find
The dog guarding
the Zouave and men.
The party brought
back all wounded
Soldiers to
safety - The injured
Zouave taken to a
hospital
To have a leg
amputated.
Distraught for
the company
Of his companion,
the Zouave
Insisted his dog
was brought to
Him, or that he
would let himself die.
With the
operation done the dog
Slept on his bed,
then together
They lived at
Maison Blanche
The Zouave with
one leg.
Described as a
curious looking
Animal, the
Zouave told that there
Was in him a breed
of a pointer, along
A fox terrier and
another mystery strain.
The mongrel dog
of Maison Blanche, wore
A silver collar
and medal, presented by
The Blue Cross - with
intelligent eyes
He was a heroic
mongrel amid men.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. The
Zouave's Dog. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 29 October. P.11. Col.4. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11955418/Daily-Telegraph-October-29-1915.html
[Accessed: 31 October 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 31 October 2015).
