Rescue Dogs in World War II
After the havoc of World War I ended, Red Cross dogs became superfluous. In World War II, the work of the Red Cross dog was taken over by soldiers and Red Cross volunteers, who could, during an agreed ceasefire, pick up the wounded and take care of them.
Fortunately for the Red Cross dogs, they didn’t have to be idle after World War I. The training of guide dogs for the blind was beginning in Europe, and initially war dogs were used. Later on, special training for the guide dogs was designed and dogs were specially selected or bred for the work.
Clever Hans
Oskar Pfungst was famous for discovering what became known as the Clever Hans (Kluger Hans in German) effect. The horse Hans, which toured throughout Germany at the start of the twentieth century, was thought to be able to perform arithmetic and many other intellectual tasks. Through a series of experiments, Pfungst demonstrated that the horse was actually using involuntary cues from his human handlers to “solve” the problems he was given. Clever Hans answered questions with hoof taps. As his taps approached the right answer, the posture and facial expression of his questioner would change in ways that indicated an increase in tension. The questioner’s tension released when the horse made the final, correct tap, which was a cue for the horse to stop tapping.
Search and rescue dogs were first used to search for victims beneath rubble toward the end of World War II in England. During the war, German bombers set many British cities on fire. Often victims were alive trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed houses. One woman discovered by chance that her little dog searched for victims in the often still-smoking and burning rubble piles and then waited, whining, by the scent. This dog of unknown breed became the first modern search and rescue dog.
On the initiative of the woman’s friend, Mrs. Margaret Griffin, as many friends and relations as possible were enlisted for this difficult work with their dogs. After a bombardment, these brave handlers and their dogs searched the smoldering ruins for survivors, and the dogs provided excellent support.
It was especially the German Shepherds of Mrs. Griffin’s Crumstone Kennel that were the most capable in this work. Many of these dogs, such as Crumstone Irma and Crumstone Psyche, became famous because of their courage and perseverance in searching for victims beneath the rubble.
Figure 1.5 Rip helps an air raid precautions warden search the rubble and debris following a 1941 air raid in Poplar, London. Rip and his handler, E. King, came into action after every air raid alarm.
(From the collection of Onze Hond)
Mrs. Griffin’s Notes
November 20, 1944. Bombardment at 10 a.m. Arrival of the dogs at 11:15 a.m. The area to be searched consisted of house rubble mixed with big lumps of ground because of bomb craters. But the dogs were on alert! A victim alive and a dead one were salvaged from deep beneath the rubble. Further searching by the dogs delivered an alert on places where three dead bodies were salvaged.
November 21, 1944. Bombardment at 12:26 p.m. Arrival of the dogs at 1:30 p.m. The dogs gave clear alerts. A woman and two children were freed out of the rubble alive!
December 14, 1944. Bombardment at 3:00 a.m. Three-quarters of an hour later I was there with Irma and Psyche. The dogs had often gone into action together. Suddenly the dogs became really excited. After I calmed them down, I heard the voice of a woman buried in an air raid shelter under the rubble. Her sister was with her. After four hours of hard work moving heavy pieces of concrete and bricks, we saved them both.
On an adjacent large rubble area the dogs searched further and gave a clear alert. Rescue workers discovered a man buried there, deep under the rubble. During further searching, the dogs found the bodies of two dead women. After that, the dogs gave another clear alert and we found a man who was severely clenched under heavy rubble; for him, however, rescue came too late, because shortly before being freed by the rescue team, he died. But on searching further, we were luckier, because the dogs located another two people, who fortunately could be salvaged alive.
After a rest, the dogs worked more. Although we believed that all people buried under the rubble had been saved, the dogs went ahead on their own and discovered two more victims. But for them, help came too late; they had died in the bombardment.