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National Geographic : 1919 Mar
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE valley below to the front line on the mountain above. In the Vosges Mountains more than a thousand Alaskan sled dogs helped to hold the Hun during the last year of the war. DOG TEAMS THAT WON THE CROIX DE GUERRE One woman brought back to America a Croix de Guerre awarded by France to her intrepid teams of sled dogs. The occa sion that won them that honor was their salvation of a storm b o u n d, foe-pressed outpost in the French Alps. Dispatch bear ers had been sent back repeatedly, .but no suc coring answer came, for the messengers were overwhelmed as they passed through the blinding blizzard. At last matters be came desperate. The foe was pressing his advantage with dash FRIENDS and courage, and noth ing but quick action From their pres difficult to picture could save the situa- mates were bitter a tion. So Lieutenant Rene Haas hitched his dogs to a light sled and started through a blizzard be fore which human flesh, in spite of the "urge" of a consecrated patriotism, had failed. In "sweepstakes racing time" they covered the trip down the mountain and over a perilous .pass to the main army post. There the 28 dogs were hitched to 14 light sleds, and these were loaded with ammunition.. Back over the forbidding trail they went, under an artillery fire, facing a bitter wind, and plowing through blinding clouds of snow. On the fifth Photograph by Harry F. Blanchard THROUGH SUNSHINE AND SHOWERS *nt state of mutual trust and comradeship, it is the age when the forebears of these three play ntagonists-the cave-man and the wolf. day, at sunrise, the panting malamutes reached the outpost, their burden of am munition was rushed to the gunners, and the mountain was saved from the in solent foe. The stories of courage and bravery among individual dogs on the battlefield are many and inspiring. Michael was the name of a dog which, unaided, dragged his master, who had been left for dead in No Man's Land, back to the trenches. Lutz, the dog hero of Verdun, was awarded the war cross star for his work as an advanced sentinel. Nellie, a fox 261
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