The Bomber Dog

by Megan Rix

  ‘Maybe. But I’d love to be a paratrooper, wouldn’t you? I can just imagine it.’

  Nathan shook his head because he didn’t want to imagine it. He’d been terrified of heights ever since he’d fallen off the garden shed when he was eight.

  ‘I don’t think there’ll be many dogs that’d make the paratroop grade,’ Michael said, wistfully, as he stopped beside an empty kennel. ‘This one can be Grey’s. We’ll soon find out what job he’s most suitable for once he’s passed his assessment.’

  ‘Do you really think he’s got a chance, then?’ Nathan asked.

  ‘Yes, I do,’ Michael told him. ‘He’s interested in what’s going on around him, taking it all in. I’d say he’s a smart dog.’

  Nathan gave Grey one last stroke. ‘You be a good dog,’ he told him. ‘You show them just what a good dog you are, OK?’ His voice caught in his throat as Grey looked him directly in the eye. It was almost as if he knew he was being left behind all over again. But Nathan didn’t have a choice. Call-up papers couldn’t be ignored and he was going to be late if he didn’t leave soon. ‘I’ve got to go.’

  ‘He’ll be fine,’ Michael said.

  Chapter 6

  Grey watched Nathan until he turned the corner and he couldn’t see him any more. Then he looked up at Michael and whined, then looked back to the spot where he’d last seen Nathan.

  Once out of sight, Nathan wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He was going to miss Grey, but he was sure he was in good hands with Michael.

  ‘He’s in the best place,’ he told himself. But Grey didn’t agree.

  He barked in the direction Nathan had gone and when that didn’t bring him back he pulled free from Michael’s grasp and ran after Nathan, barking frantically, with Michael running behind him, yelling: ‘Grey, come back!’

  Nathan was almost at the exit of the War Dog Training School when Grey reached him.

  ‘You can’t come,’ he said to the dog as Grey wagged his tail in delight at having found him. ‘You’ve got to go back.’ He pointed back the way he’d come and to Michael running towards them.

  Grey whined. Then he sat down, cocked his head to one side and looked up at Nathan, unsure of what he’d done wrong, but knowing it must be something serious by Nathan’s tone of voice.

  Michael took hold of Grey’s lead. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You’ll like it here, I promise.’

  But Grey didn’t think he would, and he struggled so hard against his lead that Michael had to virtually drag him away, his claws scrabbling on the road in an attempt to get a grip.

  Nathan bit his bottom lip, then turned and headed out of the camp. He needed to get to Cardington by 4 p.m. and it was a twenty-minute walk to Potters Bar station.

  He couldn’t afford to be late so he lengthened his stride until he was almost running. The train station was just ahead but as he dashed down the steps to the platform, he heard a happy bark and Grey came bounding up to him, wagging his tail like crazy and looking very pleased with himself for having tracked him down again. Nathan couldn’t even begin to imagine how the dog had been able to find him, let alone be allowed into the station.

  ‘No, Grey,’ Nathan said sternly, but something in his voice told Grey that Nathan didn’t really mean it and he nudged his head under Nathan’s hand for a stroke.

  ‘You know, I think that dog would have followed you to the ends of the earth,’ called a voice from the top of the steps.

  ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Nathan said, registering with astonishment that the voice belonged to the colonel they’d met on the train. He went back up the steps with Grey following him, tail wagging.

  ‘Well don’t be. It’s just the kind of devotion I’m looking for in my war dogs.’

  Nathan was confused. ‘Sir?’

  ‘Lieutenant Colonel Richardson,’ the colonel said, holding out his hand. ‘I run the War Dog School and am looking for a dog exactly like yours – one that will do anything to please its handler.’

  ‘But I’m not his handler,’ Nathan said.

  ‘Well, he certainly seems to think you’re supposed to be his handler and he’s the one that matters to me,’ the colonel said. ‘I’ve spoken to the chaps at Cardington and they’ve agreed to my commissioning you to work for our lot. You’ll be reporting to me from now on.’

  Nathan looked down at Grey, hardly able to believe what was happening. Could it really be possible that they weren’t going to be separated after all?

  ‘Right, sir,’ he grinned. He couldn’t think of a better way to spend the war than with Grey by his side.

  ‘Get in, then,’ the colonel said as they left the station. He pointed to the back of the jeep that he’d driven Grey in so that he could be there when he told Nathan the news.

  Nathan climbed in and Grey immediately jumped in too and gave Nathan’s face a lick once he’d sat down and was at the right level for him to do so.

  ‘It’ll be hard work, mind,’ Lieutenant Colonel Richardson said as they drove back to the War Dog Training School. ‘You’ll be expected to do your basic training on top of your dog handling.’

  ‘That’s OK,’ Nathan smiled. It’d be more than worth it if it meant that he and Grey could stay together.

  ‘And make sure you massage his ears, especially the base of them,’ the colonel added. ‘They should both be standing up by now, not one up and one down.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  In a few minutes they were back at the school and Nathan and Grey climbed out of the jeep.

  The colonel watched Grey as he headed off with Nathan. The dog had a lot of potential and with the boy handling him he was sure they could go far. They looked like they were already a team, definitely so as far as the dog was concerned, and he was the one that counted most. Nathan would get far more from him than even their most experienced handlers could, because Grey would want to do all that Nathan asked of him.

  There was a lot of secret reconnaissance work needed prior to the D-Day mission to free France and the colonel was on the lookout for a dog that could parachute into France with his handler. Most dogs wouldn’t be suitable and it would demand absolute trust in Nathan from the dog. But Grey just might be one of those rare dogs they were seeking and for covert work it helped that Nathan looked much younger than his age and might not be immediately identified as a soldier if they were unlucky enough to be caught.

  ‘Welcome to the team,’ Michael said, coming to join them. He slapped Nathan on the back as Grey wagged his tail, and they headed back to the kennel area together.

  All the dog kennels had chains attached to them because the army couldn’t have the dogs wandering about as they pleased, unsupervised. This also prevented any dog fights. Nathan clipped the chain to Grey’s collar and followed Michael over to the soldier’s barracks.

  Grey whined as Nathan left him. He tried to follow him but the chain stopped him. He sat down, then lay down and then finally stood up again, fretfully.

  There were hundreds of new smells and new sounds to take in all around him. But he was only interested in getting Nathan back.

  A short while later Nathan did come back and brought with him a tin bowl full of corned beef, vegetables and dog biscuits. He placed the food in front of Grey who gobbled it all up eagerly and then had a long drink of water.

  Once he’d finished eating, Nathan took Grey for a walk around the camp to give him some extra lead-walking practice before his assessment the next day. Michael and a Border collie called Topper, who had also arrived that day and was g
oing to be assessed too, came to join them.

  ‘Try varying your pace,’ Michael suggested to Nathan. And Nathan did, sometimes running and sometimes walking slowly. Grey thought this was a great new game as he matched his pace to his friend’s.

  Michael showed Nathan how to give a hand signal when he wanted Grey to go to the left or to the right. Grey soon got the idea of what he was supposed to do.

  ‘You’re a quick learner, dog,’ Nathan told him, and Grey wagged his tail.

  ‘He is indeed one smart dog,’ Michael agreed. ‘Can he stay if you tell him to?’

  Nathan didn’t know. ‘Sit,’ he said, and Grey obediently sat. ‘Stay,’ Nathan told him.

  Nathan moved a few paces away and Grey immediately stood up to go after him. But that wasn’t what Nathan wanted him to do. ‘No!’ Grey cocked his head to one side, unsure of what he’d done wrong. Nathan went back to him.

  ‘Sit.’

  Grey sat.

  ‘Stay!’ Nathan said, and he held his hand up with the palm facing the dog to show him what he meant.

  Then Nathan stepped back a few paces, his eyes staring intently into Grey’s blue ones, his palm still facing him. Grey made the tiniest of movements to go to him and immediately Nathan repeated, ‘Stay.’

  Grey stayed where he was and a few moments later Nathan came back to him and patted him and told him what a good dog he was.

  They practised a few more times until Nathan could walk ten paces away and stay there for thirty seconds before returning to him. Grey knew he’d done well when Nathan knelt down and praised him. He nuzzled his face into Nathan’s and then lifted his chin so Nathan could scratch under it.

  Michael was very impressed. ‘He really is a quick learner. He’s bound to pass the test tomorrow – so long as he doesn’t panic at all the loud noises and thunder flashes and what-not.’

  ‘Does it matter that he’s got one floppy ear?’ Nathan asked. Most of the other German Shepherds he’d seen so far today had ears that went straight up. Even the colonel had commented on it.

  ‘I think his ears are the least of his worries,’ Michael grinned. ‘Bit of good feeding will probably sort that out.’

  When Nathan left him at his kennel for the night, Grey expected him to come back again at first. He watched for him and stood up every time someone went past. But finally he lay down on the blanket inside his kennel and went to sleep.

  Back at the barracks, Nathan wrote to his mother to tell her he wasn’t now going to be doing his basic training at Cardington. He was going to be Grey’s dog handler at the War Dog Training School. Then he lay down on his bunk bed, but couldn’t get to sleep. He was worrying about what would happen if Grey didn’t pass his assessment in the morning. What if the dog was frightened of loud noises, understandably enough, or wouldn’t perform on the day? It was expecting a lot from a dog who’d only just been taught to sit and stay.

  Nathan rolled over and thumped his lumpy pillow to try and make it a bit more comfortable. Whatever happened tomorrow he was now a dog handler at the War Dog Training School. But what if Grey didn’t pass? As an unregistered stray dog, the death sentence was still hanging over him if he failed and Nathan just couldn’t bear the thought. Grey had to pass, he had to. He didn’t want to be a dog handler if Grey couldn’t be his dog. He didn’t want to be in the army if Grey couldn’t be in it too.

  Grey was awake early the next morning, like all the other dogs, and overjoyed when he saw Nathan heading towards him. He barked to tell him to hurry up and then put his paws on Nathan’s shoulders and licked his face as soon as Nathan had got inside his kennel.

  ‘OK, OK,’ Nathan laughed. ‘I’m glad you’re pleased to see me.’

  He filled up Grey’s water tin with fresh water and Grey lapped at it with his long pink tongue. After a short walk it was time for Grey to be brushed. As the brush ran down his back Grey stretched up his head for more, reminding Nathan not to forget the place under his chin. Nathan smiled. By the time he’d finished brushing Grey’s coat, it shone. Grey put his paw out to Nathan to ask him to continue brushing.

  Nathan remembered what the colonel had said about massaging Grey’s ears and soon found that Grey loved having the base of his ears massaged and almost purred with happiness as Nathan did it.

  Chapter 7

  Nathan clipped the army-issue chain lead to Grey’s new collar, with its ID tag that had Grey’s name on it, and led Grey, tail wagging, over to the training field.

  It was important that the dogs being assessed were surprised by the different sounds of battle rather than expecting them. That way their reactions to them would show how they would react on a real battlefield. Colonel Richardson himself came to oversee Grey’s assessment. He nodded to Nathan that he should start playing with Grey, and Nathan threw Grey’s ball.

  ‘Fetch!’

  Grey never needed to be asked twice when it came to his ball. Once he was running after it the colonel signalled to another soldier who shot a pistol into the air.

  Grey looked over at where the loud ‘crack’ sound had come from, but then went back to the more important task of chasing his ball.

  It was just the reaction the colonel was looking for. A dog who kept on with what he was supposed to be doing even when there was gunfire going on around him.

  ‘Good dog,’ he muttered, as he put a tick in the first box on his sheet. If Grey had been frightened by the loud noise he’d have had to put a cross. It would have been fine, however, if Grey had been startled by the noise, just so long as he had recovered quickly and gone back to the task he’d been asked to do.

  He nodded to Nathan and Nathan threw the ball for Grey again, and again Grey raced after it.

  The colonel signalled to the soldier who’d fired the pistol. This time the soldier made a lot more noise with a pistol, firecrackers and finally a grenade.

  Grey looked over at all the commotion, but it didn’t stop him picking up the ball and bringing it back to Nathan.

  The sounds of guns, bombs, air-raid sirens and the clattering of bells as ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scenes of bombings had been everyday occurrences in Dover. Grey accepted the sounds of violence that the soldier made as just the way things were.

  He dropped the ball at Nathan’s feet and wagged his tail. Nathan threw the ball again.

  The colonel put a second tick on Grey’s chart and signed and dated it at the bottom.

  Grey had passed the initial assessment and was now officially part of the War Dog Training School. He’d been able to concentrate while under fire and everything else he needed to learn they could work on. Nathan was over the moon and kept stroking Grey.

  Grey wagged his tail because he liked Nathan stroking him. But then he looked pointedly at the ball. He wanted to play!

  Over the next week Grey’s love of his ball also helped with his scent and tracking training.

  Nathan hid the ball all round the camp and then got Grey to seek it out. At first Nathan made finding the ball really easy and gave Grey lots of praise whenever he did find it. But Grey so obviously liked playing hide-and-seek and was so excited when he found the ball that soon Nathan was making it harder and harder to find, until Grey had to look round the whole camp for it. The game was Grey’s first step in learning to track.

  As well as playing hide and seek with the ball, Grey also learnt how to find people.

  ‘Stay,’ Nathan told him, and Grey waited with Michael or one of the other handlers while Nathan went and hid.

  A few minutes later Grey was g
iven the command: ‘Find him!’ and released.

  It always took him less time to find Nathan than it had taken Nathan to hide. However well he thought he’d hidden, Grey’s nose would sniff him out. Whenever he was successful Nathan was full of praise and hugs and treats, as Grey stood there wagging his tail, as pleased as punch with himself. Then they’d usually have a game of ball.

  ‘One well-trained dog is as effective as twenty human trackers,’ the colonel said. ‘A dog’s nose can pick up a human scent from five hundred yards away, if the conditions are right. On a good day, with the wind in the right direction, maybe even further.’

  The colonel was very pleased with Grey’s progress, and had discussed him with the commander of the paratroop regiment.

  It was only a small step from being a tracker dog to taking messages between people. Grey obediently took messages from Nathan to Michael. But he was always much quicker when Michael wanted him to take a message to Nathan. Then he would race to find his friend.

  Nathan often used ball play as a reward for Grey at the end of a good day’s work. As Grey always worked hard and did his best, this meant that almost every day, rain or shine, would end with a game of ball. So much so that Grey came to expect it and was very disappointed and whined, giving Nathan pitiful looks, if it didn’t happen.

  ‘But it’s raining!’ Nathan said in response to Grey’s reaction at the end of their second week at War Dog School. Grey clearly didn’t think a little rain should stop him from playing.

  ‘And not just raining a little,’ Nathan laughed. The April shower had quickly turned torrential.

  Grey barked.

  ‘No, you don’t tell me what to do,’ Nathan said, his face breaking into a grin. ‘It’s the other way round.’

  Grey picked up his ball and then dropped it on the ground and looked up at Nathan. His meaning couldn’t have been clearer.