Original Locke Art | Qijun Culture Qijun Military History Weekly
In 2015, a war film called Max the Military Dog made a deep impression on the extremely human Max. The footprints of dogs in the history of human warfare are extremely long, and as early as 4600 BC, dogs have been recorded for warfare. During World War I, tens of thousands of military dogs were used in the war in various countries. To this day, military dogs are still a member of the armies of various countries, they have a number, rank, from birth, old age, illness and death have a variety of preferential treatment, is the soldier's wordless comrade-in-arms. However, the protagonist of this article is not a real military dog that is compiled and trained, it is only a stray dog adopted by a soldier of the US 1st Infantry Division, but in the bloody battlefield, this "god dog" that is not inferior to any military dog has saved the lives of American soldiers many times, thus becoming the mascot and war hero of the 1st Infantry Division.
Meet Paris
Rags is a stray, mixed-race terrier whose separation from the U.S. 1st Infantry Division began on July 14, 1918, on French National Day. At that time, the U.S. Expeditionary Force had already entered the European theater, its 1st Infantry Division had just finished its 72-day combat deployment, withdrew to rest, and one of its battalions participated in the parade on France's National Day. That night, the battalion's signal corps, James Donovan and George W. Bush, were invited to the rank of Commander in Chief. George E. Hickman drank a few more "cat pee", missed the time to return to camp, and stumbled through the dark streets of Montmartre. In a cul-de-sac, Donovan tripped over a pile of rags, but the whimpering and barking of dogs in his ears woke up, and the two found a stray dog inside the rag. While their alcoholic brains were still spinning about what to do with the puppy, the 3 gendarmes spotted them, and after cross-examination, the gendarmes found that the two were in a state of "unauthorized departure" (A.W.O.L.). Faced with a possible disciplinary punishment, Donovan took the initiative to claim that the little terrier he had just discovered was the mascot of the 1st Infantry Division, and that they were among the members of the search team sent to find it. The result of this "game" is that the two men and the terrier are sent back to his unit station together.
Back at the garrison, the two escaped military discipline, and Donovan's superiors allowed him to keep the small terrier he had named "Rag", which had also become an extraordinarily member of the 1st Infantry Division from a stray dog.
■ The picture above is the "rag" that has just been picked up, but there are also sources that believe that when the "rag" was picked up, only Donovan was present.
Battlefield achievements
Soon, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division was again sent to the front for the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15–August 6, 1918). At the time, Donovan's battalion was deployed in the area between Ville-En-Tardenois and Soissons in the department of Man. As a signal corpsman, Donovan's job was to establish a communication line between the advancing 26th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division and the 7th Field Artillery Regiment, which was supported by artillery fire, and to repair it after it was destroyed by artillery fire. When the line was destroyed by enemy artillery fire, the contact between the front line and the rear was left with liaison officers who shuttled between the war and the trenches. However, liaison officers had difficulty crossing the barbed wire defenses that stretched for miles along the trenches, often at the cost of casualties.
So, during this period, Donovan began to train the "rags" to tie the messages that needed to be conveyed on its collar, teaching it to carry letters to and from the positions of the 7th Field Artillery Regiment. It wasn't an easy task, but the "rags" were surprisingly capable of learning, and soon learned to carry intelligence and orders in the direction of the roar of American artillery.
■ The illustration above from a children's book in the United States about the story of "rags" depicts the "rags" crossing the line of fire to deliver messages.
In late July 1918, on the Paris-Soisson highway, Donovan with a "rag" found himself surrounded by the Germans with 42 advancing American infantrymen. The only surviving officer in this unit was a young lieutenant, and after learning that the "rag" had the ability to deliver messages, the lieutenant wrote a letter of request for help: "My team has 42 men, the wounded and combatants are mixed together, most of them from the 26th Infantry Regiment, and I am the only officer." We were already on the way, but couldn't move on. We were blocked by enemy machine gun fire, front and back, left and right. Please send someone to hand this message to the infantry commander. I need support! Fucking need support! ”
The "rag" carried the letter of help through the barbed wire, evaded the Germans, and ran to the position of the 7th Field Artillery Regiment. After the headquarters received a message from the "rags", the supporting artillery fire quickly fell near the encirclement, and reinforcements immediately arrived to rescue the besieged American soldiers. The story of the "rag" asking for help soon spread throughout the 1st Infantry Division.
During the Second Battle of the Marne, the "rag" saw the enemy artillery fire for the first time, and this "god dog" would actually hear the roar of the enemy mortar shells breaking through the air and lie on the ground to avoid the artillery fire. Because dogs have stronger hearing than people, "rags" can detect shells earlier than people. The first time, the soldiers did not know why, but the second time, the soldiers looked for a place to hide from the bullets. "Rags" became the "early warning system" for front-line soldiers, which invisibly saved many people. In addition, due to the "rag's" excellent sense of smell, it is often able to smell where the communication lines have been blown up, thus guiding Donovan to repair them.
■ The picture above is also a painting from the same book, "Rags" helping Donovan find damaged communication lines.
The soldiers spent their days and nights with the "rags" in the trenches, and when they were bored, they taught this non-editor a lot of skills, the first of which was how to sit up straight and salute. The divine dog "rag" not only learned to use its front paws to raise a similar salute posture near the head, but also did this action particularly skillfully, and even could salute other comrades with other comrades-
■ The picture above is a "god dog" and "rag" that understands human nature.
From September 12 to 16, 1918, the U.S. Army launched the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, which was the first large-scale offensive operation of the U.S. Army in World War I, in which the U.S. Expeditionary Force put in 14 divisions of the 1st Army a total of 550,000 troops, plus 110,000 French divisions, as well as 419 tanks, 1,481 aircraft and 2,900 artillery of various types, wiped out 22,000 German troops and captured 15,000 people in four days. During this time, the Rag twice helped Donovan, who was caught in hand-to-hand combat, to tear the enemy apart, and thus learned to greet anyone in a German gray uniform with a low roar and roar.
In the last major battle of the U.S. Army of World War I, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (September 26– November 11, 1918), the Rags were tasked with transmitting messages between rough terrain. During the fighting on 2 October, the Rags were passed from the 1st Battalion of the 26th Infantry Regiment to the 7th Field Artillery Regiment a military intelligence on the location of enemy artillery positions, which called for important artillery support for American soldiers holding on to The Very-Epinonville Road in a key area, saving the large number of American boys from lying in body bags and returning home.
On October 9 in the fog-covered Argonne Forest, because it was impossible to find which communication line was destroyed, Donovan asked the "rag" to set off to pass a military message, but unfortunately encountered a German mustard gas shell, donovan and "rag" were eroded by poison gas, "rag" was not seriously damaged by the gas, but its right front paw, right ear and right eye were injured by shrapnel, but Donovan's injuries were much heavier because of the gas.
■ The picture above is a military dog wearing a gas mask during the First World War, when both sides used poison gas unscrupulously, not only soldiers had to wear gas masks, but even military dogs and horses serving in the military had to wear gas masks.
The dizzy "rag", along with the military information it was carrying, was taken by an American soldier to the 7th Field Artillery Regiment, and then taken to the emergency station with Donovan for rescue. They traveled to several hospitals, and the "rag" kept lying on Donovan's stretcher to accompany its owner. Due to the reputation of the "rags" in the 1st Infantry Division, they received unusual treatment and preferential medical treatment, as this was "an order from the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division".
In the hospital, the shrapnel from the right front paw of the "rag" was removed, but the needle-like shrapnel that pierced under its right eye was helpless, and the "rag" was blind in its right eye and deaf in its right ear. Donovan's lungs were severely burned by mustard gas and he was on the list of priority returns to china for medical treatment.
However, the handling of "rags" is a problem, in order to let the "rags" go along, the comrades of the 1st Infantry Division smuggled the "rags" all the way like smugglers. By train and ship, Rags traveled with Donovan from Brest, France, to the Fort Sheridan base hospital in Chicago, USA.
Death
At the Sheridanburg Base Hospital, the "rags" would wait at the hospital gate every morning, and when they saw the soldiers they knew, they would follow them and ask them to take it to see Donovan; in addition to accompanying Donovan, the "rags" would walk in the base post office and eat in the officers' canteen. Sleeping at night under the water pipe truck in the fire garage of the base post office. Initially, the hospital prevented the "rag" from entering the ward, but as the "rag" and donovan's story spread in the hospital, the "rag" became so popular that the hospital lifted the ban on it. Fort Sheridan's soldiers also made a special collar for the "rags" with the label "members of the 1st Infantry Division" hanging on it. The "rags" of humanity would stand in the queue of soldiers every night at the flag-lowering ceremony and participate in the ceremony together. However, Donovan's injuries did not improve at all, and in the company of the "rag", Donovan spent the remaining time of his life, and finally died of injury in early 1919.
After Donovan's death, the soldiers at the hospital did not know how to tell the bad news of the "rags", and they brought the "rags" to Donovan's money-saving bed, and Donovan's body had been removed, but the bedding had not yet been cleaned up. According to Jack Rohan, author of the 1930 biography of "Rags," when the Rags were placed on the bed, it "sniffed down, stretched out, its front paws outstretched, its head buried between its paws, stayed quiet for more than a minute, then jumped out of bed and ran out of the ward." ”
■ The picture above is the scene in the movie Max the Military Dog, max says goodbye to his trainer, Marine Kyle, at the funeral.
After that, the "rag" did not eat much for a week, but lay quietly in the newly built nest that the soldiers had built for it in the fire garage. A week later, the Rags revived. But it is said that the "rag" has never been to the base hospital again.
In the year after Donovan's death, the "rag" stayed at the Sheridenberg base as a "post dog", carefully cared for by some soldiers in the base post office, sleeping in the fire garage and eating in the canteens every day. In the early 1920s, Raymond M. Major Raymond W. Hardenberg moved here with his wife and two daughters, and the "rags" quickly mingled with the family. Initially, Hardenberg's daughters were terrified when they found out that a puppy was always waiting for them to finish school and followed their bicycles, but after dealing with them, they begged their father to let the "rags" live under the same roof as them. With the help of the commander of the base post office, the 1st Infantry Division allowed The daughter of Major Hardenberg to adopt "rags".
In the days that followed "Rags," he was a member of the Hardenberg family, loved by the rest of the family and well taken care of. Due to the transfer of Major Hardenberg's work, "Rags" followed the Hardenberg family to live in Fort Benning, and later moved to the Army War College in Washington.
■ Pictured above are "Rags" and Major Hadenberg.
■ The picture above is a sign on the collar of the "rag", which reads the service unit and guardian of the "rag".
Successful
In 1924, the "rags" followed the Hardenberg family to Governors Island in New York, where the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army was stationed, and many veterans who came down from the battlefield were familiar with the "rags" and their deeds. They warmly welcomed the arrival of the "rags". The U.S. Army's information department saw the value of the story and began to vigorously promote "rags." A large number of newspapers and periodicals reported its deeds, and the story of "rags" began to spread widely, becoming a star and world war hero in New York. Rags toured Fort Hamilton, Fort Wadsworth and the Army Building on Whitehall Street. It was attended as a special guest at the Kennel Club's draft on Long Island in October 1925. The Rag was also awarded a special ribbon in recognition of its contributions during the war.
■ Pictured above is george wrought in 1925 at Fort Jay on Governor's Island, New York, and george w. Bush of the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. Sergeant Major E. Hickman, in 1918, Hickman and Donovan picked up the "rags" together.
■ Above, in Jay'sBurg in 1925, Sergeant Major Hickmann leads his platoon to be inspected by "rags."
■ Above is a photo of Sergeant Major Hickman before "Rag" participated in the Long Island Kennel Association's draft in 1925, and the poster behind it tells the story of "Rag" and Donovan's injuries in the Argonne Forest. Because the "rag" is not a purebred dog, it was also expelled from the draft, and this incident even caused public anger in society.
■ The picture above is a "rag" that obtains a ribbon, and it can be seen that its right eye was blinded in war.
On the tenth anniversary of the end of World War I in 1928, Rag participated in the 1st Infantry Division's gatherings in New York, including a parade on Broadway and a reenactment of the war at Fort Hamill. Many government officials and senior officers were particularly fond of posing with "rags," including former 1st Infantry Division Commander Charles W. Bush. Charles P. Summerall, who was already a four-star general at the time, was the chief of staff of the U.S. Army.
In 1930, writer Jack Rohan wrote a biography of "Rags." At the signing ceremony of this biography, the "rag" left a paw print "signature" on the book with its claws. A copy of this paw print was sent to the Imperial War Museum in London, England, to be treasured, replacing the official record of the "rag" originally here.
■ Pictured above in November 1930, "Rags" and a biography of it by Jack Rohan (left), guardian Major Hardenberg (center), commander of the 1st Infantry Division Lucius Major General Lucius R. Holbrook poses with a "rag" book signed by the paw, which was copied and sent to the Imperial War Museum in London.
From 1928 to 1934, "Rags" and the Family of Major Hardenberg lived in Fort Hamill. In early 1934, Major Hardenberg was transferred back to Washington to serve in the Infantry Unit of the War Department. The "rags", which were already rare and old, followed the Hardenberg family through the last quiet years of their lives in Washington.
■ Above is a sleigh ride with Sue, the daughter of Major Hardenberg, on Governor's Island in New York in the late 1920s.
On March 22, 1936, "Rags" died in Washington at the age of 20, which is equivalent to the age of 100 years. The news of the "rag" was reported by many media, and its obituary was published in The New York Times.
Finally, the "rags" were buried in the Aspen Hill Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland. Its tombstone simply reads: "Rags, Heroes of War, Mascot of the 1st Infantry Division of World War I, 1916-1936".
■ The picture above shows the "rag" sleeping place in the Aspen Mountain Cemetery.
■ WeChat public account "Qijun Military History Weekly"