Muffin – who has been sponsored by the Society since 2015 in recognition of the vital role of mules in the campaign – is a gentle little chap who has the build of his donkey father so would have been too small for the mule lines in Salonika.
Alice, however is of a different build! It’s fair to say that she’s a sturdy girl and would probably take the parts of a mountain howitzer in her stride! She is at the US Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Centre and, in this short video, you get to see Alice and some of the challenges of working with a mule! It’s a shame she’s billed as ‘the meanest mule in the USMC’ – that’s perpetuating the myth of stubborn mules, when they are just intelligent creatures who won’t do what they don’t want to do!
Interesting to see that the USMC use mules, as do the Indian, Chinese and Pakistani armies and, as you can see in this great little video, the Bundewehr does too.
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 
One thought on “Meet Alice, a mighty military mule”