World War One began on July 28 1914 and ended on November 11,
1918. Referred to by contemporaries as the Great War its belligerents included much of
Europe the Russian Empire the United States and the Ottoman Empire the German Empire.
Fighting also expanded into the Middle East Africa and parts of Asia.
One of the deadliest conflicts in history an estimated 9 million people were killed in combat
while over 5 million civilians died from military occupation bombardment hunger and disease.
However a lesser-known story a supernatural tale of horror was also killing troops
During the battle around the area of Mons Belgium part of the 1914 Battle
of the Frontiers a strange and frightening specter haunted the region of no man's land
between the German and British trenches something that seemed as incredible as it was horrific.
Were these just stories circulated as rumors or was there some truth to them? Was there an
animal or beast that actually attacked and killed soldiers? Was it a single creature or simply packs
of wild dogs driven mad by a war and hunger or was it in fact something evil? Hello i'm Colin
Heaton former soldier Marine Corps scout sniper history professor historian and book author
and we'll answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
After Great Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on August 4th 1914 the
British Expeditionary Force commanded by Field Marshal John French landed in France.
General Alexander von Kluck was the commander of the German First Army tasked with penetrating into
northern France. The British pushed to the front to stop the German invasion into France only to
be halted and pushed back by the superior enemy force thus was the beginning of trench warfare
and the defensive British bastion of Mons which stopped the Germans from moving west.
Mons was part of the Femish Bergen municipality a Walloon region in southwestern Belgium between
Trouille and Haine Rivers strategically poised at the junction of the Nmi-blaton Canal and the Canal
du Centre. Mons became typical of the stalemate trench warfare style synonymous with the war on
the Western Front especially after the First Battle of the Marne from September 6th to 9th
which halted the Germans 13 miles from Paris. But after the lines had been drawn and a tenuous calm
descended both sides caught their breath but not for long. Dealing with all the terrors of land
mines costly trench attacks machine guns firing artillery barrages and later the introduction of
poison gas a new terror had emerged. Among the deep cratered shell holes and decaying
corpses of both men and beasts and the twisted barbed wire soldiers reported seeing shadows
an animal of some kind moving fast before screams of men being attacked were heard.
Some soldiers actually reported seeing a large wolf-like creature only glimpsed in the glow
of an overhead flare or when the light an artillery shell eliminated the dark sky.
These shadowy specters moved quickly among the corpses or attacked men returning from patrols.
Sentries on guard duty British French Belgian and German all reported seeing these large beasts
almost always at night darting back and forth as if hunting. Gunshots would be heard screams of men
and then later the torn bodies of soldiers friend and foe alike would be found.
Both the German and British soldiers heard the mournful howl of a wolf sometimes what seemed to
be more than one. Rumors then spread among the British and Commonwealth troops the beast was a
hybrid animal created by the Germans and trained to attack them. This rumor was spurious but it was
documented that the wild dogs were a danger and wounded men or those alone or in small units were
vulnerable even with loaded rifles. There was also the possibility that wolves not very common
and the last recorded wolf was seen around 1912 but possibly still inhabited the forests that
were not destroyed and roamed the countryside. One explanation may be a breed of dog called the
Groenendale or Belgian Shepherd which was a fairly common breed and a new breed of working dog which
was a derivative of the wolf shepherd and other working breeds. In fact the Belgian Army used them
as rescue and messenger dogs and the possibility that some became separated from their handlers
who may have been killed or captured and gone wild seems likely. It is also possible that the seldom
seen wolves bred with these dogs creating an even larger and more aggressive and intelligent hybrid
and being feral would have had no problem taking down a healthy grown man. Canadian war veteran
F.G. Newhouse first published his incredible story about this phenomenon in 1919. He reported such as
the German experiments conducted by a Dr. Gottlieb Hockmueller to introduce these animals as weapons
following the transplanting of the brain of an insane mental patient into the head of a large
siberian wolfhound. He also gave detailed accounts of a "Captain Yeskes" and his patrol being found
mauled to death after failing to return from a patrol but no records have verified this event
nor the existence of any Dr. Hochmueller. However many of his claims have been refuted and can be
dismissed by the scientific community. What is not refuted is the fact that soldiers were mauled to
death but they could have been killed in combat and simply fed upon as a matter of circumstance
given the thousands of dead soldiers from both sides littering no man's land and very little
means to retrieve even the wounded. The so-called hellhound or hounds would have fed well. British
and Allied veterans spoke little of these events although some Germans did. One luminary German the
famous author and one of the most decorated World War One veterans Captain Ernst Junger had his
opinion. Junger fought from the first day of the war to the end of the war and was awarded the Iron
Cross in both classes the Wounded Badge and Gold for seven wounds the Pour le Merite also called
the Blue Max and the order of Hohenzollern Medals for bravery. He said this quote;
"These stories were probably true to some degree; we have our legends of the devil dogs
known as "teufelhunde" that roamed the forests and many believed that was what these were,
rather than spirits. That is laughable. Ironically due to their tenacity in battle
that was the name we gave the American Marines in 1917 "teufelhunde" or devil dogs," end quote. So
what was the Monster of Mons? Wild dogs wolves and evil apparition or just the hallucinations
of exhausted and tortured minds of war weary soldiers? Perhaps we may never know for sure.
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