Unsung heroes animals played vital roles in WWI

PARIS (AP) They were messengers spies and sentinels. They led cavalry charges carried supplies to the front comforted wounded soldiers and died by the millions during World War I. Horses mules dogs pigeons and even a baboon all were a vital and for decades overlooked part of the Allied war machine. Researchers have been hard-pressed to find official accounts of the services rendered by animals during the Great War. But if their labors once were taken for granted four-legged and winged warriors have been acknowledged more recently as unsung heroes. France recently decided to recognize their wartime role. And in 2004 Britain installed a huge memorial on the edge of Londons Hyde Park to all the animals that served suffered and died alongside the British Commonwealth and Allied forces in the wars and conflicts of the 20th century." WHAT THEY DID An estimated 10 million horses and mules 100000 dogs and 200000 pigeons were enrolled in the war effort according to Eric Baratay a French historian specializing in the response of animals to the chaos fear and smells of death in the mission that man thrust upon them. World War I marked the start of industrial warfare with tanks trucks aircraft and machine guns in action. But the growing sophistication of the instruments of death couldnt match the dog tasked with finding the wounded the horses and mules hauling munitions and food or the pigeons serving as telecommunications operators or even eyes carrying pigeongrams" or tiny cameras to record German positions. They were quasi-combatants" said Serge Barcellini comptroller general of the Armed Forces and head of Le Souvenir Francais The French Memory in a recent speech devoted to the role played by beasts of war. Indeed gas masks were fitted to the muzzles of four-legged warriors braving noxious battlefield fumes. Read More