Unconditional love...
Desperate for comfort and the familiar, many soldiers rescued dogs, cats, birds, monkeys, and donkeys they found in bombed-out areas. These ‘mascots’ boosted morale, provided solace, and sometimes alerted their sleeping handlers to danger. Displaced by war, stray dogs and cats frequently approached military hospitals and camps seeking food. Adopted by compassionate service personnel, these animals gave recovering patients and staff unconditional love and reminders of home. It meant survival for the strays. Many dogs flew on bombing runs. Some returning soldiers, unable to part with their much-loved pets, smuggled them onto ships for the long voyage back to the U.S.
Spoiler alert: Dogs have a big impact on the story in several sections of Dear Nora. Here’s a snippet, “Our hospital dog, Sally, had six puppies three weeks ago. Last week, a Red Cross girl brought one of the pups into the ward.” If you haven’t read the book, you’ll enjoy reading to find out how this story plays out.
From my Dad’s journal in the book Waiting for Peace: The Journals & Correspondence of a WWII Medic: May 2, 1945 — “We moved 3rd Platoon to Söllerstadt on May 7 where we were on patrol and where the war ended officially. Listened to Churchill’s speech that afternoon and the king, etc. We did a little celebrating and Petit got tight and he and the old man, the Romanian we picked up to cook for us and who sleeps with Vedee (the puppy) and who we have as yet still cooking for us, had a great time until Petit got sleepy and sick and went off to bed. We got Vedee and Snowball, the puppies, a couple of days ago.”
And in a letter home on July 1, 1945, he writes to his parents, “I think I sent the negative of a picture of me holding two little puppies. We got them on VE day. The one with the black eyes is mine and another kid’s, the other belongs to Company Headquarters. I call ours “Vedee” for VE Day and the other one is called “Snowball.” Most think mine is named after VD [veneral disease]—ha! They are both much larger and very cute and fight all the time.” How I wish I had a photo of VD and Snowball! I never found the negative my Dad refers to among the 'ancestral documents.'
Lt. Belton Cooper and his driver, Vernon, were driving through the ruins of Gorron, France. Cooper reported, “A small gray object emerged from beneath the charred timbers of a smoking house, ran toward our jeep, jumped into Vernon’s lap and started licking his face.” It was a wire-haired terrier puppy. Cooper ordered Vernon to put the puppy down. A quarter mile out of town Cooper spotted the puppy behind them in the rear view mirror. They stopped. Cooper said, “The puppy, which had gathered considerable momentum, got a few feet from the jeep then cleared the back end in a single leap. Vernon reached into the air and snagged it like a football pass.” That determined terrier picked his people and saved himself!