D-day Dogs: Remarkable true stories of heroic dogs. Isabel George
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D-Day Dogs
Remarkable true stories of heroic dogs
Isabel George
HarperTrueFriend
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperTrueFriend 2015
FIRST EDITION
Text © Isabel George 2015
Cover photo © Shutterstock
Cover layout © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
A catalogue record of this book isavailable from the British Library
Isabel George asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
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Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780007584376
Version 2015-04-23
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Contents
D-Day was the largest amphibious operation in history. On 6 June 1944 a mighty Allied force descended on occupied France and in a matter of hours determined the freedom of the Western world. Operation Overlord was the most decisive invasion of the Second World War, involving over 150,000 British, Canadian and US troops. Under cover of darkness they reached the Normandy coast, some by air and others by sea, among them a fearless band of canines trained to do their duty for King and country. The D-Day dogs accompanied the men into battle and helped assure freedom and peace.
‘Do you realise that by the time you wake in the morning 20,000 men may have been killed?’ British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is said to have shared the anxiety of this moment with his wife, Clementine, on the eve of D-Day. Moments after midnight on 6 June 1944 the Allied assault upon Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’ had begun.
The operation was the culmination of two years’ meticulous planning and training, and had to succeed where the landing at Dieppe in August 1942 had so disastrously failed. There could be no repeat of the errors that turned the heavily defended shore of Dieppe into a killing field strewn with the bodies of thousands of British and Canadian troops. Many fell to the barrage of German gunfire before they even made it out of the convoy of landing craft as they raced towards the beach. Determined the enemy would never be given a chance like that again, the Allied leaders approached the D-Day plans with single-minded focus and rigid attention to logistical detail.
As the preparations for D-Day got underway, the War Office’s request for civilian canine recruits to join up proved well timed. Dogs were already being used to aid the war effort, distinguishing themselves in battle alongside troops overseas and in the role of guard and protector on bases at home.
Brian, a lively Alsatian pup, was just two years old when Betty Fetch from Leicester,