by Megan Rix
‘Yes, sir,’ Nathan said.
‘Well, as Calais is the closest port to your hometown of Dover, you’ll know all about the Germans’ efforts to attack it with the large cannon-like guns they’ve aimed squarely at it,’ Major Parry explained.
‘Yes, sir. I’m very much looking forward to the day those guns finally stop firing.’
‘Well, the real story is that the Calais mission is just a decoy mission and not really going to happen,’ the major said.
Nathan’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘It’s a trick to deceive the German military chiefs,’ the major continued.
Nathan thought the trick had worked very well so far. Everyone was talking about the Pas-de-Calais mission. It seemed the only logical area for the Allied forces to strike, especially as it was so close to Britain.
‘The real mission is going to take place further round the coast, along the beaches of Normandy. We’re looking for men like you, and your dog, to undertake reconnaissance missions and report back on what guns and other munitions the Germans have in Normandy, right up until the moment we attack.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Nathan said.
‘It’ll be extremely dangerous and if you’re caught …’ The major looked down at the papers on the table in front of him. ‘Well, just don’t get caught.’
Nathan gulped. ‘No, sir.’
‘You’ll need extra language and code lessons.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And your dog will need extra infantry training as well as parachute training. It’s a lot to ask.’
‘We won’t let you down, sir,’ Nathan said.
‘Keep all this under your hat,’ the major told him. ‘Everything I’ve told you today is to be kept top secret. Hitler needs to keep thinking our intended landing area is Calais until it’s too late.’
Nathan left the major’s office feeling slightly dazed but very excited too.
He headed back to Grey’s kennel only to find that the dog was no longer alone. There was a black and white cat sitting on the kennel roof.
‘Don’t mind Astor,’ a smiling man told him, as he came over with a bone for Grey. ‘She loves dogs and she’s a great mouser. My name’s Bert, by the way. I’m the camp’s chef. Pleased to meet you.’
After supper Nathan took Grey for a walk round the grounds and found that although there weren’t any other dogs, Grey wasn’t the only animal at the camp. Over on the opposite side pigeons were being trained to be messengers. There were chickens that laid eggs for the soldiers’ breakfasts and pigs that ate the food from the pig bins brought in on the back of a truck once a week. The chickens and pigs were kept in a field at the furthest edge of the camp and that’s where Billy, the camp’s goat mascot, or lucky charm, lived too.
As soon as Billy saw Grey he came running across the field to him and the two animals touched noses through the fence. Grey had never seen a goat before and was very interested in this strange creature.
After Nathan had settled him in and left him for the night, Grey was lonely in his solitary kennel until Billy came to join him.
Billy was supposed to stay in the pig field when he wasn’t being a mascot, but he wasn’t the sort of goat that ever did what he was supposed to do. Billy was the sort of goat who did just exactly what he liked.
Late at night he trotted over to Grey’s kennel where he found the dog lying outside his kennel, although still chained to it, not asleep but dozing lightly.
Grey stood up and wagged his tail, a little unsure. Billy came closer and let Grey sniff at him. Then he went over to Grey’s food bowl to see if he’d left anything in it, which of course he hadn’t. Both Grey and Billy had large appetites.
Billy turned and trotted off and Grey tried to follow him but couldn’t because of the chain. He barked to let Billy know he was stuck and the goat turned back and made a bleating sound before heading off again.
Grey had never tried to escape from his collar and chain before, but now he found that if he pulled his head backwards, like a tortoise going into its shell, he was able to squeeze his way out of it. Once free, he ran to catch up with Billy and the two of them explored the camp together before being joined by the cook’s cat, Astor, on her nightly mouse hunt.
Just before dawn Billy returned to his field, Astor went home to the kitchen and Grey crept back to his kennel.
While the animals prowled the camp, Nathan stared up at the bunk above his own and listened to the sounds of other soldiers snoring and muttering in their sleep. He worried that he’d made a terrible mistake in agreeing to come here and if he were truly honest he was completely terrified of having to jump out of a plane. Just the thought of it made him feel sick. He wished he’d said no, but he felt he hadn’t really had a choice when Lieutenant Colonel Richardson asked him, and he really didn’t want to let the colonel down. He was far more worried about jumping from the plane than going on an undercover mission once he’d landed.
As soon as the reveille sounded at 6.30 a.m., Nathan headed over to check on Grey, but as he approached he saw two uniformed men standing in front of Grey’s kennel. They seemed to be shouting at him. Nathan started running towards them.
‘Sitzen, hund!’ yelled one of the men, who wore a pilot’s uniform.
‘Stehan!’ shrieked the other, who had on Army Air Corps kit.
Grey watched the men attentively, his head tilted to one side and then the other. He didn’t look like he was even on his lead. They must have released his collar.
‘Sprechen sie Deutsch, Hund?’
Nathan came running over.
‘Hey, what are you doing?’ he yelled. ‘Leave my dog alone. Why’ve you removed his collar? He could have run off.’
‘We didn’t take his collar off.’
‘He wasn’t wearing it when we got here.’
Nathan didn’t believe them for a minute. ‘I suppose he took it off himself, did he?’ he muttered as he put a tail-wagging Grey’s collar back on him.
‘Didn’t you hear?’ the pilot, whose name was Tommy, said.
‘Hear what?’ Nathan asked him.
‘Your dog might be able to speak.’
Nathan clenched his fists.
‘What on earth are you talking about?’ he said. The two men were a lot bigger than him, but he wouldn’t let them intimidate him and he wouldn’t let them hurt Grey.
‘Hitler’s got a dog school that’s teaching dogs to talk.’
‘Here, look.’ The pilot pulled a crumpled newspaper clipping from his pocket and handed it to Nathan. It was about a place called the Asra Talking School for Dogs, based near Hanover in Germany. The Nazis were sponsoring research into whether dogs could actually speak, and the article claimed that dogs were being trained to talk and count at the school.
‘So Hitler really is trying to get dogs to talk,’ Nathan said, and he shook his head in disbelief. The men weren’t joking. He gave the pilot his newspaper cutting back and looked into Grey’s blue eyes. If dogs could talk he was sure Grey would be able to. But then he decided Grey didn’t need to speak because one look or movement from his eyes or a tilt of his head was enough to tell Nathan exactly what he wanted.
‘Successfully teaching a dog to speak is about as likely as being able to teach one to jump out of a plane,’ Gordon, the other soldier, laughed.
‘It’s been done before, actually,’ Nathan told him. ‘Grey won’t be the first paradog by a long shot.’
‘Well, I won’t believe it until I’ve seen
it with my own eyes,’ Gordon said.
‘Let’s be honest – it’s hard enough for a soldier to jump out of a plane, and I should know because I fly the planes they go up in, so I can’t imagine it would be any easier for a dog,’ Tommy told him.
Nathan half agreed with Tommy but what he said was, ‘If any dog can do it, Grey can. He’s going to help our soldiers and save lots of lives – maybe even your life; maybe even mine.’ His heart swelled with pride at the very thought of it.
Muttering apologies, Tommy and Gordon sloped off to the mess hall and it was time for Grey’s breakfast.
The parachute regiment didn’t have any dog food yet but Grey certainly didn’t mind when Nathan came back with food that Bert the cook had given him. Eggs and bacon with sausages, black pudding and potatoes for breakfast was just fine by Grey.
‘You are one lucky dog,’ Nathan told him as he watched him eating.
The dog had become such a big part of his life now that it was hard to remember what life had been like before he knew him. How on earth had he managed without a dog before? He couldn’t imagine life without one now.
Grey had almost finished his breakfast when he started wagging his tail.
‘What’s going on?’ Nathan asked, as the dog gulped down the last bit of black pudding.
He looked over and saw the regimental goat being led along by the Goat Major on a lead. It bleated as it trotted past Grey.
‘Meh-eh-eh!’
Nathan grinned as Grey’s tail carried on wagging. ‘Already making friends, I see,’ he said.
Chapter 10
The men and dogs of the parachute regiment needed to be exceptionally fit, and daily three-mile runs, which Grey came on too, were the norm come rain or shine.
Nathan hadn’t had nearly as much physical training as the other men and was also a lot younger and slighter than them. Although he did his best, he usually ended up at the back.
‘Come on, you slow coaches,’ Sergeant Harris shouted at the running soldiers. ‘This dog can run twice as fast as you lot.’
Nathan thought that was probably – no definitely – true. He gritted his teeth and kept running while he watched Grey wagging his tail as he raced to the men at the front and then back to join Nathan. The dog easily ran twice as far as the rest of them and yet didn’t seem to be half as tired at the end of the run.
It was a breezy morning and Nathan had a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach as he stood with the other soldiers on the jump practice field.
‘It’s no good doing a perfect jump if you don’t land right,’ the sergeant told the men and Grey. ‘Far more of you are going to be injured on landing than at any other time during your jump. So the first thing you’ll have to learn is how to land safely.’
A crash mat had been placed next to a six-foot block and each of the trainee paratroopers had to jump from it in turn.
‘Keep your knees bent,’ the sergeant told the first soldier as he jumped off the block. ‘When you come down for real you want to keep your legs up so they don’t get broken.’
The soldier rolled off the mat and Sergeant Harris nodded to Nathan.
‘You next.’
Nathan gave Grey’s lead to the soldier standing beside him to hold and ignored the dog’s whine of protest. Nathan found even climbing up the block difficult because of his fear of heights.
‘Get a move on, soldier!’ Sergeant Harris shouted.
Nathan clenched his fists determinedly.
‘Go!’
Nathan closed his eyes, jumped and rolled on to the crash mat as Grey broke free from the soldier who was holding him and raced to Nathan’s side.
‘That’s how it should be done,’ the sergeant said as Grey gave Nathan’s face a lick. Nathan stood up and went to join the rest of the men with Grey sticking close by his side. But although Nathan might have been able to land correctly it didn’t mean he wanted to do it again. He was dreading the next stage of the training. The distance he would have to jump was going to be a lot bigger very soon.
In the afternoon everyone was issued with their parachute kits from the quartermaster’s stores. Nathan took Grey with him.
Because the soldiers weighed a lot more than the dogs, the canine parachutists needed different parachutes from the humans.
‘Bicycle parachute for the dog,’ the quartermaster said, handing Grey’s parachute to Nathan.
‘Bicycle parachute?’ Nathan asked.
‘Your dog weighs about the same as an errand-boy’s bike,’ the quartermaster explained to him. ‘So we’re giving him the same sort of parachute as we put on the bicycles we’re dropping into France – so you lot can blend in with the locals if you need to go undercover. Can’t just throw the bicycles down from the planes, can we? They need to land gently if they’re going to work properly.’
Nathan secured the buckles of Grey’s parachute harness as tightly as they would go without hurting him. The straps went over Grey’s back and under his tummy to circle him securely and then round the back of his legs. The kit needed to be tight so it wouldn’t slip, and was exactly the right size. A harness that moved while Grey was jumping out of the plane could affect how the parachute performed and be fatal.
The soldiers also wore secure parachute harnesses. They were able to put their own on but were always checked by another soldier to make sure they were correctly fitted and had been put on properly. As well as the harness and parachute, Nathan had a camouflage smock, a life jacket and a first-aid kit.
‘Are there life jackets for dogs?’ Nathan asked, but was told that the life jackets the soldiers were wearing, jokingly referred to as Mae Wests, weren’t suitable for dogs.
‘He’s not going to be landing in the sea; they’re just a precaution,’ the quartermaster reassured him.
‘Do we really have to wear all this while we’re practising,’ Gordon muttered, and Sergeant Harris heard him.
‘Yes you do, soldier, yes you do. Those parachutes have got to become as much a part of you as its shell is to a tortoise. Understand?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Gordon said.
Sergeant Harris divided the soldiers into three squads: A, B and C. Nathan and Grey were in A squad.
‘Let’s see if you lot can manage to jump from a plane that’s got its engine off and is down on the ground,’ Sergeant Harris said. ‘A squad, line up.’
Grey and Nathan stood with the other soldiers from their squad in a line outside the rear door of the plane. It had no steps up to the door and Nathan knew Grey wouldn’t be able to climb the narrow bar ladder. Grey looked up at him. The tension in Nathan’s body had transferred down his lead again and he knew something was wrong. He whined.
‘It’s OK, Grey, good dog,’ Nathan said, trying to reassure Grey and himself at the same time.
‘Ready, soldier?’ Sergeant Harris said.
‘Yes, sir,’ Nathan lied. The very thought of climbing the ladder made his head swim, and his knees were feeling very wobbly indeed.
The only one who knew how awful he truly felt was Grey, and Nathan tried hard not to let his own fear affect the dog’s performance. Grey was doing so well that Nathan owed it to him to keep going. He couldn’t let him down.
‘I’ll pass your dog up to you, soldier,’ Sergeant Harris said.
‘Thank you, sir,’ Nathan replied.
He climbed up the thin metal ladder and waited at the plane’s doorway for Grey.
Sergeant Harris bent to pick up Grey but before he could get a grip on him Grey
struggled up the awkward ladder all by himself and into the plane after Nathan.
‘Good dog. Carry on,’ the sergeant said.
There were no seats inside the plane and the men and Grey sat on the floor, against the sides. Along the centre was a thick wire for the jumpers to hook their parachute clips to. They then waited for the pilot to let them know when it was safe to jump. Nathan would clip Grey’s on for him, but because today was their first day of training the plane wasn’t actually going to leave the ground and so the central wire wasn’t being used.
‘You first, soldier,’ Sergeant Harris told Nathan.
Nathan swallowed hard and dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands. He went with Grey to stand at the exit door and tried not to look down, but couldn’t help it. The plane hadn’t even left the tarmac, the engine wasn’t running and the plane was perfectly still, but nevertheless he really didn’t want to jump out.
Nathan tried to steady his breath as he checked Grey’s parachute. He felt as if he was going to faint, but he knew he couldn’t.
‘On the green light,’ Sergeant Harris said.
Nathan looked at the red light that turned to green. He took a deep breath.
‘Go green!’
Nathan closed his eyes as he stepped out of the plane into thin air. As he fell he tucked himself into a ball and rolled on to a mat on the ground to reduce the landing impact.
‘Come, Grey!’ Nathan yelled, and Grey immediately leapt out of the stationary plane after him. Nathan grabbed his collar and they ran out of the way as the next trainee paratrooper jumped from the plane.
Grey enthusiastically licked Nathan’s face.
‘Yes, you’re a good dog, a very good dog, a very clever dog!’ Nathan told him as Grey wagged his tail and hopped around him.
Nathan was dreading having to do it again.
‘That was great, wasn’t it?’ the trainee paratroopers said as they slapped each other on the back and congratulated themselves once they’d all jumped.