WORLD WAR TWO DOG HERO

 

So loyal, so brave, the dog who flew against the Luftwaffe and was even awarded the animal version of the Victoria Cross

Antis the German shepherd was discovered as a puppy in No Man's Land

RAF gunner Robert Bozdech adopted him as a member of 311 Squadron

Dog saved lives and could hear Luftwaffe planes before they arrived

Eventually he stowed away aboard Robert's aircraft, risking death and injury

He was awarded the Dickin medal for 'outstanding devotion to duty'

And here is the love story of how a soldier met an abandoned puppy in the middle of the war and how they became comrades in heroism.

 

 

As enemy fire tore into its engines, the stricken warplane began a crazy descent into No Man’s Land in northern France.

 

Gunner Robert Bozdech braced himself for a crash landing. Or worse.

 

With a hideous tearing of steel, the doomed craft ploughed into a patch of dark woodland. By the time it came to a juddering halt, embedded in thick snow and foliage, he had lost consciousness.

 

He came round with no idea of where he was or how much time he had lost. Just a few yards away the fighter-bomber’s French pilot lay seriously wounded.

 

Rising to a kneeling position, and miraculously unhurt, he spotted what looked like an old farmhouse 100 yards or so to the north.

 

At a crouch he moved towards it.

 

Although there were no footprints in the snow, he could hear faint sounds of movement inside.

 

Cocking his pistol, he gingerly pushed open the front door.‘Get your hands up!’ he shouted in halting French.   ‘Show yourself! Now!’

 

The only response was the faintest hint of a yawn.  Whoever was inside was defying him in the most insolent way possible.  Surely they’d understood?   He didn’t know enough German to call out in the language of the enemy.

 

‘Wake up, you b*****d!’ he snarled. ‘Show yourself!’

 

Down the barrel of his gun he spotted a movement.  A small ball of grey-brown fluff was stumbling to its feet unsteadily and was peering up at him, growling out a throaty little challenge.

 

At the sight of it, the airman’s aggression evaporated. He’d been threatening a tiny puppy - and a courageous one at that.

 

‘Who left you here, alone and hungry?’ he said, picking up the little creature.   He unzipped his leather flying jacket and slipped the puppy inside. ‘You’re coming with me, boy,’ he said. ‘We’re in this together.’

 

He couldn’t have known it, but that moment marked the start of a lifelong friendship - one that would see man and dog posted to England, then take to the skies over battle-torn Europe in one of World War II’s most inspirational stories of courage.

 

Read more of this story here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2482520/So-loyal-brave-dog-flew-Luftwaffe-awarded-animal-version-Victoria-Cross.html

****************************************************************************