Page 27 - Chiron Winter 2020
P. 27

Western Front. The Somme was a world away from Egypt, muddy, barbed wire scattered about and full of craters le by shells, it was difficult terrain, especially for a dog with short legs, like a bulldog! Caesar was personally responsible for locating many men who were wounded on the Somme battlefield, many of whom would not have survived without the brave bulldogs’ help. During one battle Caesar was killed in ac on and was found in No Man’s Land, shot presumably by a sniper alongside a soldier who had died with his hand resting on Caesar’s head. Most likely, Caesar had come across the wounded man and they had died together. His collar is now held at the Auckland War Memorial museum4.
The New Zealand Army has utilised MWDs as part of its operational outputs for a number of years. They utilised MWDs from the British Army during the Malaysian Emergency. These were handled
by soldiers from 1 Royal New Zealand Infantry Battalion and were comprised of Tracker and Infantry Patrol dogs as part of the Combat Tracking Team.
EXPLOSIVE DETECTION
DOGS (EDD)
The New Zealand Army had never seen the requirement to train its own MWDs or fully develop any related programmes. In 2012 it
was highlighted that the risk to personnel operationally deployed
in Afghanistan from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) had become too great. So, after an absence of over 15 years the
New Zealand Defence Force saw explosive detection dog teams broaden existing force protection measures, providing support to overseas operations, exercises and taking’s in New Zealand once again. This time the Army operates the EDDs. A Defence spokesman stated:
“As the Improvised Explosive
Device threat has evolved, so
has our need to provide broader search and detect capabilities to ensure op mum force protection
for personnel. Explosive detection military working dogs are proven
to save lives and are widely used
by our NATO partners. They are an invaluable asset, and search and detect capability. No man-made technology can effectively replicate a dog’s sense of smell which is said to be a thousand times more sensitive than humans.”
So, a number of options were looked at in order to reduce the capability gap. As the Royal New Zealand Air Force has relinquished the EDD capability a number of years earlier and the EDD of today is a completely different capability, it was decided to conduct a Battle Lab whilst simultaneously initiating an Urgent Operational Requirement into the development of an EDD capability for Afghanistan. This would also be complemented by the
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