Your country needs your dog!

The armed forces in the UK suffer from many shortages but one shortage they are now trying to solve is in... dogs. The MOD is looking for dogs for patrol work and sniffer duties. German Shepherds, Spaniels, Labradors and other breeds are being sought to "defend our nation in an increasingly restless world", no really. The MOD have set up a website calling for doggie volunteers. My dear old Spaniel George has passed away now but he would probably be ideal for the MOD, not so much as a sniffer dog though but just make sure the enemy combatant was near his bowl of food and the enemy would be finished!


"Get your 'air cut you 'orrible little man!"

Brave deeds of WW2 carrier pigeons remembered

In WW2 RAF bomber crews took carrier pigeons with them to send a distress message if the plane was shot down. (A very interesting book on all this kind of thing is "Shot down & in the drink" incidentally.) Sam the pigeon who rode with bomber crews from RAF Linton-on-Ouse has been honoured. Sam was injured over Berlin when a piece of shrapnel blew his beak off. The box Sam was in at the time still exists, as does the hole. Sam survived the injury thanks to care from the crew who were able to look after Sam as well as bomb the Hun. Well that is why the British won the war of course.


Harold Wood, who looked after Sam and other pigeons along with Sam's box. Pigeon is unnamed.

On a more serious note we should always remember the animals who died for the armed forces in warfare, unlike the humans (most of the time) the animals didn't have a choice in the matter!