Britain’s Heroic Dogs of War
From guard duties to laying telegraph wires and sniffing out explosives, dogs have played an invaluable role in British military history.
Animals have operated in military conflicts throughout history, from the elephants which crossed the Alps with the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 218BC to the dolphins trained by the US Navy to locate undersea mines during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But dogs have a particularly strong link with the British military. During the First and Second World Wars, hounds were used to scout enemy troops, guard prisoners, transport messages, sniff for mines and deliver supplies to wounded soldiers. Today the canine recruits of the 1st Military Working Dog Regiment detect explosives, protect troops and track insurgents.
Dogs have a long history of military service. The Romans used to send into battle Molossus dogs armed with spiked collars. And a Belgian Malinois named Cairo joined the US Navy SEAL attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad on May 1st 2011, tasked with tracking escapees.
During the First World War, 20,000 British dogs were trained to complete extraordinary tasks, from laying telegraph wires to hauling machine guns.
In 1918, Jack, an Airedale, saved the lives of the Sherwood Foresters, who had been surrounded by German troops, by delivering an urgent message for help. He died from bullet wounds shortly after reaching his receiver.
When a canine recruitment poster appeared in British newspapers in May 1941, during the Second World War, 7,000 dogs were put forward by their owners within two weeks. One dog called Bing, an Alsatian and Collie cross, was dropped into France as a ‘paradog’ during the D-Day landings of June 6th 1944. For distinguished service in locating enemy troops, he received the PDSA Dickin Medal, introduced in 1943 to honour the work of animals.
The most recent British Army dog to receive this award was Sasha, a Labrador who located 15 bombs and ammunition caches in Afghanistan before being killed with her handler Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe in July 2008. In 2010 British special forces even parachuted German shepherd dogs, equipped with cameras, into Taliban strongholds to search for insurgents.
Vital military functions aside, British soldiers have traditionally also welcomed the morale-boosting impact of dogs who provide psychological comfort and a poignant reminder of home. Wary that many dogs would become casualties, a decree of 1942 warned soldiers: “Don’t make friends with or pet any of these dogs.” It didn’t work.