Soldier Dogs #3
Page 8
The character of Stryker was inspired by the Dobermans of World War II who served alongside the US Marines!
Timeline of Guam and the Pacific Front
Q&A About the Second Battle of Guam
Q. Who are the Chamorros?
A. Chamorros are the native or indigenous people who live throughout the Mariana Islands, the chain of islands in the North Pacific Ocean that includes Guam and Saipan. They first settled the area over seven thousand years ago and have a complex and rich culture. Their traditions have been challenged by a history of colonization—when outside countries came and claimed their land as their own.
Q. Why do many of the Chamorro people in the book have Spanish-sounding names?
A. Guam was first colonized by Spain in the sixteenth century. Because of this, many people on Guam are Roman Catholic and have names that sound Spanish.
Q. But Guam is an American territory now, right?
A. Yes. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the Americans defeated the Spanish and took control of the island. The United States ruled until 1941, when the Japanese attacked during the First Battle of Guam. When the US retook the island after the Second Battle of Guam in 1944, it was declared a US territory.
Like Puerto Rico, the island of Guam is still a US territory instead of a state. This means that they can’t vote for the president, and their congressperson can’t vote on laws in the House of Representatives. The US military still controls almost a third of the land on the island and many people, including the United Nations, believe the island should be returned to its native people as its own country.
Q. When did the Japanese navy invade Guam? Why Guam?
A. The Japanese didn’t waste any time after bombing Pearl Harbor. They invaded Guam the very next day, December 8, 1941, in an attack now called the First Battle of Guam. They quickly took control of the island from the Americans and renamed it Omiya Jima, which means “Great Shrine Island” in Japanese. Guam was a lot closer geographically to Japan than any other American territory. Since bomber planes couldn’t make the journey across the entire Pacific Ocean, this kept American planes from flying from Guam to Japan to attack.
Q. What was the Japanese military rule like for natives of Guam?
A. In a word, bad. Many people died in the invasion of the island. Chamorro people who were suspected of helping the American cause were arrested, tortured, and killed. Some families tried to hide their children from the Japanese. But many Chamorros ended up in concentration camps or hard labor camps like the one Bo was sent to.
Q. Were code talkers really used during the Battle of Guam?
A. The famous code talkers of World War II were Navajo servicemen, mostly marines, who used their native language to help American forces send secret messages. The Navajo language was so difficult to learn that their code was unbreakable and led to several major American victories in the Pacific theater! There isn’t any official record of Chamorro people working as code talkers, but some of the Navajos were on Guam during the battle there in 1944.
Who Were the Dobermans of World War II?
The Dobermans of World War II were a highly trained group of dogs who served with the US Marines in combat between the years 1942 and 1945. They carried supplies, delivered messages, scouted for enemies, and protected military camps.
Each dog trained closely with a specific handler who was also a marine. The close bond between handler and dog made sure that the dogs would do anything to protect their person. And the dogs’ strong sense of smell made it possible to find their handlers when delivering messages, even from a long way away. They were also able to smell enemy forces and warn their people about ambushes!
Dobermans were also used to “mop up” the island after the war. They searched all the jungle caves on the island to find any enemy soldiers who had gone into hiding. Even then they missed a few: the last Japanese straggler wasn’t discovered until 1972. He’d been hiding in the jungle for twenty-eight years and believed the war was still going on!
The brave soldier dogs who gave their lives during the Second Battle of Guam were so helpful to the war effort that a memorial was built to celebrate them in 1994 at the US Naval Base in Guam. A statue of Kurt, one of the real-life hero dogs of Guam, sits on top of the memorial. Kurt and another Doberman named Rex inspired the character of Stryker!
Top Ten Facts About the Dobermans of World War II
1.Dobermans can bite down with between 200–400 pounds of force—enough to break a person’s arm!
2.Dobermans are very easy to train. They’re the fifth-smartest breed of dog!
3.Dobermans are usually about two and a half feet tall and weigh around 100 pounds.
4.Dobermans were one of seven breeds chosen as the best candidates for the Dogs for Defense program.
5.Dobermans and other dogs were trained at the marines’ Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
6.A total of 549 Doberman war dogs served on Guam.
7.Most of the Dobermans who served on Guam were successfully retrained and returned to their families after the war.
8.Some dogs were later adopted by their handlers instead.
9.The marine Dobermans were nicknamed Devil Dogs.
10.Even though dogs couldn’t receive the same military awards as people, some Dobermans were so brave their people still recommended they get military honors.
Pacific Front Q&A
Q. What are D-rations?
A. Short answer: chocolate! During World War II, the Hershey Company designed special chocolate bars that didn’t melt. They were called Tropical Chocolate Bars because most of them went to the troops on the Pacific front.
Q. How can something be a car AND a boat?
A. The car-boats that Stryker sees at the American camps are called DUKWs. They’re amphibious (just like frogs!). These flat-bottomed boats with wheels carried troops and gear from a big ship straight onto dry land and kept going!
Q. What are Japanese Yonkis?
A. Yonki means four-wheel drive in Japanese. It was also a nickname for the Kurogane-brand jeeps popular with the Japanese military. Around 4,700 of them were used during World War II!
Q. What were pillboxes?
A. Pillboxes were concrete shelters used by Japanese forces to protect themselves from machine gun fire. Japanese fighters made the Chamorros set up defenses like pillboxes before the second battle on Guam. The Americans had to use trenches and foxholes—narrow, deep holes that a whole person could hide in—to stay out of enemy fire while fighting back.
Excerpt from Soldier Dogs #4: Victory at Normandy
The light flickered both on the ground and in the air. And in those flashes, shapes could be seen—planes flying low, fortresses on the beach, men hanging from parachutes that billowed over them like mushroom caps.
The storm of battle.
The first rumblings of what would be one of the longest days the world would ever know.
As Henri and Elle ran for their lives, every second felt like a hundred years. Ace, the energetic Boston terrier separated from his American soldier handlers, bounded at their side. Behind them, merging with the rumbling of artillery, they could hear the throaty barking of larger dogs—Nazi Dobermans, running after them with teeth bared.
We have to outrun them, thought Henri. If we don’t, the war might be lost.
The war had seen empires rise and cities fall. Germany had taken countless countries. The Allied nations standing against Hitler had been bombed and battered. Now, they were ready to take back the world.
About the Author
MARCUS SUTTER is a former military brat who collects model planes and ships from the WWII era. He lives on a ranch in the Midwest with his family and their three-legged mutt, Mike.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Marcus Sutter
#1 AIR RAID SEARCH AND RESCUE
#2 ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
#3 SECRET MISSION: GUAM
#4 VICTOR
Y AT NORMANDY
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Copyright
HarperFestival is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
SOLDIER DOGS #3: SECRET MISSION: GUAM. Copyright © 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers. Flag artwork here, used under license from Shutterstock.com. Photos here and here, used under license from Shutterstock.com. Insert map artwork, used under license from Shutterstock.com. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art by Mike Mayhew
Cover design by Rick Farley
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964881
Digital Edition MARCH 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-284408-8
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-284407-1
1920212223PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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