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Smoky the dog, also known as “Yorkie Doodle Dandy,” was an unofficial war dog. Weighing only 1.8 kg (4 Ibs) and only 18 cm tall (7 in), this dog was found in an abandoned foxhole in the jungle of New Guinea.
After taking her to a Japanese POW camp, to see if anyone owned her, US troops realised that she didn’t understand commands in either Japanese or English, so the GI sold her to Corporal William A. Wynne for 2 Australian Pounds.
Smoky, despite not being an official war dog, then backpacked with Wynne and even went on combat flights for the rest of the war. She shared Wynne’s C-rations and occasionally a tin of spam.
Despite not having access to any medicines or dog food, she never fell ill once. She even ran on coral for 4 months straight without developing any paw ailments that the other dogs got.
Smoky went on twelve combat flights, each one hanging from a bag near machine guns to ward off enemy fighters, and was awarded 8 battle stars. She survived a staggering 150 air-raids and even a typhoon. She parachuted out of a tree and even saved Wynne from incoming artillery by warning him. Wynne called her “an angel from a foxhole.” She would guide Wynne to duck just as a shell killed the 8 men next to him.
Throughout her time in the Pacific, she also learnt tricks that she performed for Special Services troops and wounded soldiers in hospitals.
This tiny dog even went on to help build an airfield. Signal Corps needed to run a wire through a tiny pipe, much of which was damaged. Smoky ran it through the 21-metre long pipe. The dog was whimpering with fear by the end, but ran over to Wynne and the others on the other side of the pipe and was patted and praised for a full 5 minutes.
She went on to become a star after the war, even learning to walk a tightrope while blindfolded. She performed 42 times on television, each time never repeating a single trick.
Then, on February 21st 1957, Smoky died unexpectedly at around the age of 14. She was buried in a .30 calibre ammo box in Cleveland. There is now a bronze life-size sculpture of her in the helmet above the place she lies. There are a further 6 memorials to Smoky, “the dog of all wars,” around the world.
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Amazing.
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