Le Chien Fidèle à Vailly

[Gary Samson]

I've a keen interest in dogs and the First World War. At a collectors' fair yesterday I picked up a postcard captioned Le Chien Fidèle à Vailly showing what appears to be a large black dog, possibly a Newfoundland, precariously balanced on the wreckage of his shell-damaged home, barking at passing German troops. I assumed there was a well-known story behind the picture but a trawl on the net using Google revealed nothing. I assumed this was a real event rather than an image symbolic of France's defiance (although it is that too). Do Pals know anything about this dog at Vailly?

Gary