by Judi McLeod
November 30, 2004
Small wooden crosses marking the graves of family pets can be found in backyards around the globe.
The equivalent of the small cross in Park Lane, Mayfair, England is a memorial dedicated to all creatures, great and small, who served in time of war.
Carrying the inscription, "They Had No Choice", the huge memorial comprises a carved Portland stone wall alongside sculptures of two mules carrying battle equipment, a stallion and a dog.
Designed by David Blackhouse, the memorial does the animals, many of them who saved human lives, proud.
No creature was forgotten by the war memorial, Even the story of the lowly glow worm, by whose light trench soldiers were able to read their maps and letters has its place in the inspiring memorial.
Readers of war history everywhere know about the remarkable courage of dogs, horses and donkeys during times of war.
Eight million horses are believed to have died in the First World War alone. They were rarely quick death from guns and mortar. Most horses died from exposure, disease or starvation while carrying troops, ammunition and equipment, sometimes dropping dead from sheer exhaustion.
"In the Blitz, dogs used to wake up their owners and take them to the shelters when they heard the sirens," said Jilly Cooper, the novelist and vice-president of the animals in War Memorial Fund.
"and, in the First World War horses would neigh when they heard enemy fire but would do nothing when they heard their own fighters going overhead. It’s their sixth sense."
The unveiling of the memorial was observed by war veterans, as well as by Buster, one of 60 animals to have the PDSa Dicken Medal–the animal world’s equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
attending ceremonies was a 7-year-old army springer spaniel, who broke a resistance cell in Safwan, southern Iraq, when he found a hidden cache of weapons.
The spaniel’s presence honoured the sacrifice of the many dogs who ripped their paws raw sweeping minefields, helping to lay vital telegraph lines or sniffing out survivors. Some like Rob the "Para-Dog" even made parachute jumps.
Sad as the fates of the horses, donkeys and dogs were, lesser known stories about the hundreds of thousands of mile-a-minute carrier pigeons, who delivered crucial dispatches from the front, many sustaining serious injury, are heart-fetching.
among them was the famed Mary of Exeter, who returned from one mission with a damaged wing and three shotgun pellets in her breast.
Grievously wounded, Mary returned to soldiers, her mission accomplished.
To mark the unveiling of the animals in War Memorial, a flock of racing pigeons was released into the air.
Pressed into service by often desperate owners, the animals like fallen human soldiers, never made it back home.
"We never said thank you to them," said Cooper. "They died in their millions. They carried our food and our weapons and they were phenomenal."
From the dove in the sky, seen as the spirit of God to the lowly glowworm who brought light to the darkness of the trenches, the Creator’s animal kingdom, remains down through the centuries an unending source of human inspiration.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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