Dogs

WW1 - German war dogs hospital.
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Horrie, a male egyptian terrier puppy, was found starving in a Libyan desert in 1941 by Private Jim Moody. He soon became the mascot of the 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion of the Second Australian Imperial Force, providing companionship and relief to thousands of Aussie Diggers.

When the soldiers rescued Horrie, they were unaware of his extraordinary capabilities. During the war, Horrie saved hundreds of Australian soldiers with his sharp sense of sound – he could detect the sound of german aircrafts flying overhead well before they were seen by the troops. The dog would sit and face the sky, and let out his distinct, guttural growl to warn the troops to hurry to the trenches. Horrie survived a bomb splinter injury in his leg, and he even endured through Syria’s cold winter, wrapped up in a cloth cut from a soldier’s tunic.

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Horrie was successfully smuggled back into Australia despite the strict quarantine regulations stating all animals on board returning to Australia must be destroyed. Horrie and Private Moody lived a peaceful life together after the war finished, but not for long. Horrie gained publicity around Australia as a famous war hero, which caught the attention of the Commonwealth Director of Veterinary Hygiene. This man eventually euthanised Horrie with a dose of cyanide on 12 March 1945. However, some rumours claim Moody substituted him with another dog from the pound, who was destroyed in Horrie's place, and that Horrie lived out his natural life near Corryong, in rural Victoria.
 
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It seems that in peacetime dogs adapt to the pandemic ...
COVID-19 detector dogs?

The German Army and the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover have developed a pilot program based on the training of dogs that, through their smell, detect COVID-19 in human fluids. Specifically, in saliva and mucus of infected people.

"Dogs do not smell the virus, viruses do not smell, dogs smell the secretions of the infected, which smell different from those of the uninfected person", they specify from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. The German dogs, after being trained in a week, were able to identify 83% the presence of the infection in human secretions.

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"Rob" (1939/1952) the para-dog, receives the Dickin Medal for Gallantry from Gen Philip Sidney in Jan 1945.
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"Rob" was buried on the family farm, marked with a stone memorial which reads: To the dear memory of Rob, war dog no 471/322, twice VC, Britain's first parachute dog, who served three and a half years in North Africa and Italy with the Second Special Air Service Regiment. Died 18th Jan 1952 aged 12 1/2 years.
 
Chips (1940–1946) was a trained sentry dog for US Army, and reputedly the most decorated war dog from WW2.

During the war, private citizens like John Wren family of Pleasantville, NY, donated their dogs for duty. Chips shipped out to the War Dog Training Center, Front Royal, Virginia, in 1942 for training as a sentry dog. He was one of four dogs assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany. His handler was Pvt. John P. Rowell.

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Chips was gone for more than 3 years. He even met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. That’s because he was serving as a guard dog during the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.

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Chips meets General Eisenhower

Yet Chips is most remembered for his actions on July 10, 1943, as Allied forces began their invasion of Sicily. Chips was with his handler, Pvt. John Rowell, when their squad became pinned down by fire from an Italian machine-gun nest. The determined dog broke free from Rowell and charged.

"Our soldiers watched Chips disappear, then they heard a shot ring out. There was an awful lot of noise,” Rowell later said, “and the firing stopped. Then, I saw one Italian soldier come out the door with Chips at his throat. I called him off before he could kill the man.” Soon three other Italian soldiers emerged with their hands in the air. Chips had single-handedly forced their surrender.

The encounter left the brave dog with a wound to the scalp and burns around his mouth and eye. Chips didn’t seem to notice. Later that day, he sniffed out 10 enemy soldiers, forcing their capture.

Finally, Chips came home. Sadly, Chips didn’t get to enjoy too much of his retirement. Seven months after he came home, he passed away of kidney failure.

In 1990, Disney made a TV movie based on his life, entitled Chips, the War Dog.
In 2018, Chips was posthumously awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal for his efforts during the war. John Wren flew to London, England, to receive the award on Chips’s behalf.
In 2019, Chips was posthumously awarded the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery.
 
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