One time, he was gassed and wounded at the same time his master was knocked unconcious."
The battery was in the Battle at the Somme front, near Gouzeaucourt Wood, in the fall of 1917.
Balcombe was sent to a nearby town to get some poultry or whatever he could find to add to the men's diet, because it was close to Christmas. As he was walking through the marketplace, he heard puppies crying and went to check it out. He found a basket with puppies and an old French peasant trying to sell them. The peasant tried to convince Balcombe that the puppies were English Collies resulting from the mating of French army dogs. As it turned out, the puppies were three parts retriever.
One time, he was gassed and wounded at the same time his master was knocked unconscious. Mac stayed with his master and barked for someone to come. Another day, as the war progressed, a German airplane dropped a bomb that threw Mac quite a distance. After that, whenever he heard the sound of a German plane approaching, he would lie down very flat on the ground, look skyward, and snarl. On more than one occasion, Mac was able to alert the soldiers when they could not hear a plane approaching because they were operating heavy equipment. The soldiers learned to watch Mac as an early warning sign of an air attack.
During a hasty retreat of about seventy-five miles, Mac panicked and started to run toward the enemy lines. Like any dog that runs in a panic, no amount of calling or whistling got his attention. It was as if he could not hear the calls.
His master and the soldiers who loved him mourned because they believed that Mac was dead. They could not imagine how he could have survived such a massive retreat of men, machines, and horses. Yet four days later, Mac showed up, very thin and totally exhausted. Needless to say, there were a lot of happy soldiers.
After the war was over, Balcombe was ordered to Germany with the Army of Occupation; however, dogs were not allowed. After much soul searching, Balcombe decided that he would have Mac put to sleep rather than leave him with strangers. They were sitting in the animal hospital, Mac in Balcombe's arms, as the veterinarian was just about to give Mac the lethal injection, when a runner rushed up with a pass for Mac.
Balcombe and Mac stayed together for the rest of Balcombe's tour. When Balcombe was discharged from the army, Mac was shipped to England with the help of Our Dumb Friends League and lived the rest of his life with Balcombe. However, to his dying day, every time he heard an airplane approaching, he would lie down and snarl. Mac died at the age of nine and was mourned deeply.
Balcombe is recorded as saying that he valued Mac's friendship the most when he was in the army. He explained that Mac comforted him in his darkest hours.
Being a dog lover, Balcombe could not resist paying twenty francs for a puppy. When he returned, he had the six-week-old puppy tucked inside the pocket of his coat to protect it from the snow and cold. No mention is made whether or not he got the Christmas poultry!
One of his comrades, a Scotsman, claimed that he could see strength and a bold attitude in the pup and named him Fighting Mac after Sir Hector Archibald MacDonald, one of the few British soldiers to earn the rank of general on his own merit by working up through the ranks. He was highly respected by the soldiers.
Mac had his first taste of war at about seven weeks of age when he was following his master across a field and a German shell burst near him. Poor Mac was thrown and buried by debris. Not surprisingly, he was frightened for a few weeks but quickly got over it. He would even stay in the battery lines close to the guns, but he did learn to dig a trench and take cover in it when the bombing started.
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