EPIC OF THE WAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 563, 21 June 1933, Page 7

EPIC OF THE WAR

KEY POSITION SAVED BY DOG'S LAST SERVICE. * '.v C BATTLE OF VERDUN. ■ ----- '.■*!— -Tn sgce-n Verdun, the Freneh key position on the Western Front, was falling. German battery was smashing it to pieces. Supplies were running short. There was no ammunition, no food. Only one thing could -save the towp — th'e delivery of a.message to headquarters, giving the position of the German battery. ^ But at Verdun the last pigeo'n had been killed, the last messenger dog riddled with hullets, and no man could cross the three miles of shell-swept country from the town to h'eadquarters. At headquarters was Satan, a grey-hound-collie mongrel. *His master, Duvalle, was in the trenches at Verdun. These men at the front had hoped for some days that a messenger would come through to them. Satan was the only one who knew the way. So they kept constant watch', and then, .'through the haze of the smoke, they saw a little spr.ck in the distance leaping from orater to erater, making for Verdun. Th'ey .cheered. It was Satan. The men gathered and watched Satan as he ran tov/ard them. At last a bullet found its mark. Satan fell. He rose again, shook himself, and gazed around dizzy with pain. His master, Duvalle, leapt to the trench' parapet and shouted "Satan, Satan!" Even as he spoke he was killed. But Satan had heard. Hopping on three legs he struggled along and at last stumbled in the trench. He wore a gas mask and goggles. He bore carrier pigeons, and a message urging th'e men to hold on a little longer. A pigeon was sent back, giving the position of the German gun battery. It was silenced. Help came. That is how Satan, an unknown little mongrel, saved Verdun. This story is told in "Animal War Heroes," by Peter Shaw Baker.