Published: November 07, 2018
Sixteen million animals served between 1914-18, with a huge loss of life. Yet their indispensable role is largely ignored
from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OptODv
via
They are the truly forgotten dead. Sixteen million animals “served” in the first world war – and the RSPCA estimates that 484,143 horses, mules, camels and bullocks were killed in British service between 1914 and 1918.
Some died before they reached the western front: of 94,000 horses sent from North America in 1917, 2,700 drowned when their vessels were sunk by submarines. Trench dogs hunted for rats in the trenches. Others carried messages. The German army alone employed 30,000 dogs. In a canine echo of War Horse, dogs were recruited from animal shelters, and when that supply ran out, from the general public. “I have given my husband and my sons,” wrote one English woman, “and now that he too is required, I give my dog.”
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OptODv
via
0 Comments