WWII Cocker

[Qumok]

Don't know if anyone has seen this before but I came across this on a web search.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/60/a7260860.shtml

Can anybody add more?

Q.

[Helen]

Michael was a a gorgeous lad 

can't add any more but thanks for posting the link

[supaspaniel]

lovely

[CarolineL]

I dont know any more either but what a story 

[SJP]

I love the WW II period - there must have been loads of dogs out there with their owners who have stories to tell.....it would make a great book. 

[Claire83]

http://www.bloomsbury.com/BookCatalog/ProductItem.asp?S=&sku=22044321&EmailMe=

Not so much about stories but more photographs of dogs and their owners. I saw this book advertised in the back of my magazine this morning.

[SJP]

Oh thank you.  That looks so interesting....I will try to get it from the Library, otherwise I'll buy it.

[Nicola]

What a dog! Flight Wufftenant    I hope Sqn Ldr Budden made it back safely after he was taken prisoner though... I wonder if there's any way to find out.

[SJP]

They might be in the book !!

[Tasha]

if the cocker was kc registered he might be listed in the BRS lots of army personel owned and bred working breeds.  The owners were listed in the registrations so it would only take a bit of digging around the correct period.  However alot of dogs remained unregistered around then.

WWII for all its horrors helped to introduce alot of foreign bred hunting dogs to the UK and the States, it seems alot of the army staff would buy them in and send them home.  The Weimaraner certainly came in this way, army captains saw the dogs working and then tried to procure them with enough breeding stock to start their own lines back home, they were swapped for money, food, saftey and car parts alot of the time.  Before that getting any of the local breeds out of places like germany was impossible the owners just wouldn't let them go to foreigners.

You can try this one as well,  Always Faithful, A Memoir of the Marine Dogs of WW II (http://www.amazon.com/Always-Faithful-Memoir-Marine-Dogs/dp/0743201981) they have a statue at Quantico of a dobermann to commemorate the war dogs used by the american army.

There is a good write up on the book here: http://worldwar2history.info/Marines/dogs.html

There is another story on another website about a little black cocker who saved part of her squadron the article originally reported in the Daily Record newspaper in 1944 http://www.dogsinthenews.com/issues/0204/articles/020418a.htm

This site has more info about dogs of war and some lovely photos.  http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/CCAB/war.html

[Qumok]

Found a link to 2 that travelled west. Last pic on page.

http://www.458bg.com/crew73glenn.htm

Guess these would have been bought close to where they were stationed in the UK?

[Tasha]

  Be worth looking on the american cocker sites to see if they have archives for the old breeders.  I've got alot of american equivalents to the BRS here some are very early.

I'm starting to find alot of the collecting I've done over the years is coming in handy

[Tasha]

I think I might have a copy of the 1939 and 1938 breed supplements coming so I'll have a look if he's there.  Good thing the article mentions that he started flying at 3 months and his first flight was in 1939... very helpful

[Colin]

It's an interesting story but I can't help wondering why anyone would put their dog at risk by taking it in a plane on bombing raids. 

[Tasha]

I suppose who better to share your last moments with... given the choice I'd rather it was the dog too