The Hell Hound of Mons - Halloween Special

[Music] the western front world war one the officer carefully inspected his men before they went out on patrol ensuring each man's equipment was secure and not making any noise weapons were loaded and ready and faces had been blackened with soot from the small stoves the men used to keep warm and heat up rations and tea in the muddy trenches the patrol was heading out into no man's land the space between the british and german trenches a killing ground pockmarked with waterlogged shell craters broken barbed wire entanglements and rotting bodies crawling with big brown rats captain yes spoke in a hush tone once out of the trench he would communicate with the four men of the royal fusiliers by hand signals only the rest of the platoon stood two below the trench parapet ready to engage the enemy if the patrol was fired upon then yes gave the signal and the patrol clambered up a wooden ladder and disappeared into the cold night lit only by the occasional flash of a far-off artillery shell or flare sent up by the germans captain yes and his men were never seen alive again several days later another british patrol found them all dead but not from german bullets or bayonets each man had had his throat torn out the hellhound of mons had struck again a wave of fear and revulsion traveling down the line as men learned of the terrible event [Music] the british soldiers in this sector of belgium had been plagued by a terrifying foe who struck without warning killing men on night patrols a few had glimpsed the phantom from their trenches a huge black dog-like creature or they had heard its terrible house the story first emerged in the region of mons a town in belgium where the british army had halted the german advance in 1914 it soon became a common story circulating in belgium and france among british and commonwealth troops throughout world war one the preceding story comes from a book published in 1919 by canadian world war one veteran lf newhouse and it was widely believed at the time newhouse even went so far as to suggest that the hellhound was the german creation a deliberate mutant created by a mad german professor dr gottlieb hockmuller in order to terrorize allied troops the only problem is that newhouse's story was just that a story created by an imaginative hack to fool the gullible research shows that the royal fusiliers never had an officer named captain yes and dr hoch muller never existed either but where did new house obtain his idea for the story he had heard the rumors of the hellhound while serving in the trenches it was a common story circulating among allied troops with many variations and embellishments soldiers had reported on many occasions encounters with large aggressive canines out in no man's land and other places often associated with these animals eating dead bodies or attacking living soldiers [Music] many of the english lion regiments that fought on the western front recruited almost exclusively among country boys who had grown up exposed to stories of giant black dogs what is called in my part of england black shucks demonic red-eyed canine demons that prowled lonely country lanes in the dead of night killing the unwary stories that have been around since the middle ages many of the more literate soldiers would also have been exposed to the sherlock holmes story the hound of the baskervilles further reinforcing the hellhound idea in their minds this was a part of the explanation for the hellhound of mons but there was also a real element to what these soldiers were seeing or reporting real dogs did roam the battlefields of europe homeless often starving strays from shell blasted towns villages and farms or animals born feral during the conflict they form pacts like their wolf ancestors in order to survive and grew aggressive and potentially dangerous to wounded soldiers or men alone and what did they eat the world war one battlefield was overwhelmed with corpses and the dogs would have scavenged these or in some cases finished off the wounded or helpless so could there have been any reality to these stories were there any candidates for the hellhound of months we cannot entirely rule out the eurasian wolf as a contender for some animals labelled by soldiers as hellhouts the wolf had not been completely exterminated from western europe by the time of world war one in fact the last wolves were only killed in france in the 1930s and since 1992 have been reintroduced the last wolf seen in belgium was at the beginning of world war one they reappeared in the kingdom in 2011. wolves were certainly a major problem on the eastern front in world war one where german and russian troops often pause from killing each other to hunt and kill the packs of wolves that regularly killed the wounded and attacked patrols and sentries but i think that the description of the hellhound of mons more closely resembles a dog than a wolf and one particular dog that exists today a variety of the belgian shepherd dog called the gronindale was created in 1885 a large black dog its connection to the hellhound of mon's story is the fact that large numbers of gronindales were used by the belgian army to locate wounded soldiers and carry messages it is likely that more than a few ended up feral after their handlers were killed in the fighting or they became lost or wounded in the course of their duties the gronindale fits most perfectly the classic image of the black shack like creature commonly called the hellhound of months in the final analysis the hellhound represented a very real fear among allied troops the feral dogs many of them big and mean that roamed the battlefield devouring the corpses of fallen comrades and enemies alike and occasionally killing the helpless wounded it represented another layer of psychological torment for men already in a man-made hell in the midst of an industrial slaughter a much older form of death could await the unwary and unlucky the hellhound of mons happy halloween thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 282,673

Keywords: Mark Felton, Halloween, Hell Hound of Mons, World War 1, Wolf, Groenendael

Id: Mk2V1eRH7jo

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021