Wojtek the Bear [paperback] Read Free

enormous web of trenches to army headquarters. Demand for
messenger dogs became so great that every police force in the UK was ordered to send strays to the War Dog Training School and the public was encouraged to donate its own pets for training –
which they did in very large numbers. They were known by the troops as ‘summer dogs’: ‘summer this’ and ‘summer that’. In the Second World War dogs were trained
by Britain in a completely new and more sophisticated direction: they were parachuted behind enemy lines, with their handlers, on rescue missions. Their job was to sniff out explosives and find
personnel trapped in the rubble of bombed buildings.
    Today dogs are again being used in missions in Iraq and Afghanistan against rebel forces. Wearing specially designed oxygen masks, German shepherds are trained to parachute from 25,000 feet,
strapped to SAS assault teams, in what are known as High Altitude High Opening jumps. With their handlers, they make their jumps up to 20 miles distant from their target and drift towards it. Their
descents can take up to 30 minutes and at night they are practically undetectable by ground forces. On the ground, wearing mini cameras strapped to their heads, the dogs seek out insurgents’
hiding places and possible booby traps.
    In this age of hyper-communication, it seems barelycredible that in both First and Second World Wars military strategists placed their trust in homing pigeons. But they
did, either as the principal method of getting military intelligence from the front, or as a back-up to often-difficult radio communication. In fact, in the United Kingdom, there were strict
Defence of the Realm regulations against shooting homing pigeons. Public posters stated sternly:
    Killing, wounding or molesting homing pigeons is punishable under the Defence of the Realm Regulations by Six Months’ Imprisonment or a £100 Fine.
    The public are reminded that homing pigeons are doing valuable work for the government, and are requested to assist in the suppression of the shooting of these birds.
    £5 Reward will be paid by the National Homing Union for information leading to the conviction of any person SHOOTING HOMING PIGEONS the property of its members.
    Pigeons in World War II saved many servicemen’s lives by getting through to their lofts with vital SOS messages from downed aircraft in often appalling weather conditions.
    On land, in the air and below the sea, it has to be said that military scientists have been dark geniuses in deploying the world’s most intelligent creatures in warfare. If the
‘flying dog’ missions in Iraq and Afghanistan seem the stuff of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller, the US navy’s intensive research into aquatic war roles for cetaceans borders on
science fiction.
    Since the 1950s, when military research began in earnest, dolphins, sea lions and even whales have been deployed in naval warfare. Although much of its research remains classified, it is known
that between 1960 and 1990, some The Bear at the Bottom of My Garden 11240 dolphins were employed by the US navy. During the Cold War the Russians had a similar cetaceans
programme. Both dolphins and sea lions have been used for a wide variety of tasks including protecting ports and navy assets from underwater attack and ‘patrolling’ shallow-water
shipping, harbours and coastal military assets. Sea lions routinely assist in the recovery of American naval hardware such as highly expensive training targets by locating them and attaching them
to recovery equipment, often diving down to depths of 500 feet.
    What the foregoing shows is that, in going to war, Wojtek seemed merely to be following in the footsteps of a long line of highly courageous animals stretching back more than 3,000 years.
However, there was one vital difference. Unlike these animals, Wojtek had never been trained in any aspect of warfare. He was exposed to the sound of prolonged heavy artillery barrages – both