The Victory Dogs

by Megan Rix

  Henry barked with delight and Michael stretched out a hand to help them out of the hole. They’d been protected from the rubble by the tin bath they were partially hidden under, but it had also become a trap as more and more debris from the bomb had covered it, making it almost impossible for them to get out from underneath.

  At times, the hazards of entering bombed-out buildings were overwhelming and Michael was worried for Henry’s safety with ruptured gas mains, burst pipes, broken glass and, worst of all, dust everywhere that made him sneeze. But they went out anyway, in all weathers and all conditions. Their job was vital.

  Chapter 18

  As more and more people used the Underground to shelter in each night, there was less and less room for everyone. Soon queues of people wanting tickets for the night began in the early afternoon.

  Although Mr Dolan worked for the Underground, his family still needed a ticket to go down on to the platform. Usually Amy was sent to join the queue, to buy a ticket for the whole family and reserve a night-time space for them. The queue could be so long it went right round the station.

  Spaces nearest the stairs were always busy with people coming and going and you were likely to get trodden on, so she didn’t choose them. Spaces near the rails were dangerous, and too far away from the stairs meant it took ages getting out of the station in the morning – so she didn’t choose those either.

  One warm spring day, despite arriving at the station just after lunch to reserve her family a space, she found that their usual spot had already been taken.

  The new place she chose for them to sleep was near a grill hole in the wall. She placed blankets and pillows round her so there’d be enough space and as she did so she had the odd feeling that she was being watched. She looked behind her, but the other families were busy selecting their own spots and not looking her way.

  Amy glanced at the grill hole in the wall and was just in time to see a pair of brown eyes staring at her before whatever it was ran away.

  She knew it was too big to be a rat – unless it was a giant-sized one which she certainly hoped it wasn’t. But she thought it could be a cat. Every now and again there’d be one at the station, which the staff always shooed away if they saw it.

  She stayed very still and waited and waited until she thought she was going to burst from keeping still for so long, and that was when she saw the watcher clearly for the first time, out of the corner of her eye.

  It wasn’t a cat. It was a skinny dog with one ear that went up and one ear that went down.

  Amy felt a tingle of excitement. She was sure this dog must be the missing puppy who’d been with Henry when Michael caught him almost four months ago. This dog was really good at hiding!

  Only Amy was confused because this dog had a collar with a NARPAC identification disc on it and Henry hadn’t had one.

  Amy knew she had to take things slowly and be careful not to frighten it. She opened the bag of sandwiches her mother had sent with her and quickly stuffed one through the grill hole. As soon as she got near the grill to put it in, the dog disappeared of course. But she’d expected that to happen. She didn’t know for sure, but she hoped it was still there somewhere, hidden, but watching from the shadows.

  Inside the grill hole tunnel Howl found the smell of bread and home-made blackberry jam irresistible. Gradually he edged closer, watchful, ready to run back in an instant without the food if need be, but wanting it so badly he was drooling.

  On the platform Amy waited. She didn’t look inside the grill immediately – although she was desperate to do so – because she didn’t want to frighten the dog. Inside the tunnel Howl gulped down the sandwich and raced back into the shadows where he waited and watched.

  Ten minutes later Amy couldn’t resist peeping through the grill. The sandwich had gone! She took out another one and popped that through the grill too. The first had been jam and this one was dripping. Howl thought they were both delicious in the millisecond it took him to gulp the second one down.

  Over the next few days Howl began to look out for Amy and made sure he was in the tunnel behind the grill hole when she came. He was always hungry and Amy’s food tasted so good!

  As he was eating, Amy poked her fingers through the grill.

  ‘There’s a good dog,’ she said. ‘What a good dog.’

  Her voice was soft and soothing. Inside the small tunnel Howl wagged his tail and licked Amy’s fingers, which smelt and tasted of bread and jam.

  The next afternoon Howl watched and waited at the grill hole as Amy spread out her family’s bedding, hoping for more dripping or jam sandwiches. In the grill tunnel he heard the bomb go off in the distance, but took no notice as it was such a familiar sound. Amy didn’t hear it because the Underground muffled the noise so that a bomb going off in the distance was too soft for human ears to hear.

  The young ticket clerk brought the people on the platform the news ten minutes later. Her face was grey with shock.

  ‘Swan Street …’

  ‘What about it?’ people asked her.

  ‘… is where the bomb struck.’

  Swan Street was where Amy lived. She raced up the steps and out of the station, her heart thudding painfully as she ran back down the streets she’d recently walked along.

  As Amy got closer to home, the smell of charred dust hung on the air. All around her firemen tried to contain the blazes caused by the incendiary bombs. At least one bomb, probably more, had landed in the rafters of a house, set that one on fire and then set several other houses either side of it alight as the fires spread.

  ‘Mum! Dad!’ she gasped with relief.

  They were standing across the road from their house as the firemen put out the flames that had just started to take hold. Her mother had her face pressed against her father’s shoulder and was crying as he held her to him. There was someone missing.

  ‘Where’s Grandpa?’

  ‘He’s missing,’ her mother told her. ‘And we don’t know … don’t know if he’s …’ She couldn’t go on and hugged Amy to her.

  Michael, Henry, Sky and Mr Ward screeched to a stop in the NARPAC ambulance.

  ‘Amy, you OK?’ Michael asked her as he jumped out.

  Amy’s voice cracked as she told him: ‘My grandpa’s missing.’

  The ARP warden hurried over to tell Mr Ward which of the houses had pets in them. But before he could stop him Henry raced towards Amy’s house and the open side gate that led to the back garden.

  ‘Henry, come back!’ Michael called as he ran after him. Michael knew he should have waited for the all-clear, but he couldn’t let Henry get hurt.

  ‘Stay back,’ the fireman told Amy as she tried to follow too.

  Henry stopped by a pile of rubble that had been the outside toilet, looked at Michael, wagged his tail and barked.

  ‘What is it, Henry? Is there something there?’

  Henry wagged his tail even faster and Michael started to lift the rubble away. Under it he found Amy’s grandpa, covered in dust. Michael stretched out a hand and helped him to his feet. He’d got cuts and bruises, but otherwise didn’t seem to be too badly injured.

  ‘You’re OK now,’ Michael said as he pulled the old man’s arm round his shoulders to support him.

  ‘Misty,’ the old man said, looking at Henry. ‘Is that you, girl?’

  Michael helped him out of the side gate and as soon as Mr and Mrs Dolan and Amy saw him they ran across the road to join him.

  ‘Oh, Grandpa, you’re alive!’ Amy said, throwing her arms round the old man.

  Mr Dolan took his coat off and put it round the old man’s shoulders.

  ‘Misty found me,’ h
e said. ‘She dug into the rubble and saved my life.’

  ‘That’s not Misty,’ Amy told her grandpa. ‘That’s Henry.’ Although sometimes Henry did remind her of Misty, and she felt a pang of sadness thinking of her and Jack’s beloved dog.

  She crouched down and stroked Henry, whose wildly wagging tail told her that he knew he’d done well.

  ‘Good dog, Henry, good dog,’ she said.

  When they’d cleared up as best they could, Amy wrote to Jack to tell him about their house being bombed.

  ‘Grandpa was there at the time, but the rest of us weren’t, thank goodness. A rescue dog called Henry found him.’

  She didn’t mention that Grandpa had thought Misty had saved him because it would only make Jack sad that Misty still hadn’t been found.

  ‘Henry’s going to be part of the demonstration team for Lieutenant Colonel Richardson in a few weeks’ time,’ she added to the letter. And hopefully, after that, Britain would very soon have its own national War Dog Training School once again.

  Chapter 19

  On the day of the demonstration Amy was at the Scout hut early to help set out the chairs and put the urn on for tea.

  Ellie was very nervous when she arrived ten minutes later with Grace. ‘I just want Lieutenant Colonel Richardson to understand how amazing these dogs are,’ she said.

  They’d all been practising for months, but she was still worried.

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ Amy told her as Michael and Henry arrived.

  ‘I hope so,’ said Ellie. ‘I don’t want to let the dogs down.’

  ‘You won’t,’ said Amy with a smile.

  ‘Buster!’ Michael said, a huge grin on his face as he and Henry went to say hello to the Jack Russell and his handler Alan. Buster stood on his hind legs and licked Michael’s ear as he stroked him.

  ‘Buster’s my friend Robert’s dog,’ Michael told Amy. ‘The one I told you about who went from London to Devon and ended up as a search-and-rescue dog.’

  ‘Never seen anyone as determined to do his job, whatever the danger, as this little guy,’ Alan told Amy proudly. ‘He’s a proper star.’

  Grace sniffed hello to an Airedale terrier called Beauty who was part of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals rescue squad and had come with her owner Bill.

  Amy was handing out mugs of tea when two Alsatians, Irma and Psyche, and their handler Margaret arrived. Amy had read about the lives the two dogs had saved with their rescue work in the national press and went to say hello.

  Henry really took to a cross-breed dog called Rip and tried to play with him.

  ‘Not now, Henry,’ Michael told him.

  ‘Rip’s already rescued nearly a hundred people,’ his handler said, ‘and he’s not done yet.’

  Rip gave a play bark and Michael decided to keep the two dogs away from each other, in case they distracted one another during the demonstration.

  Rip had been found when his own home had been bombed and from then on he’d taken to helping find others who’d been trapped in bombed-out buildings.

  All the dogs from outside their local branch that had been invited had already found people buried under rubble during rescue missions. All of them had saved not just animal’s lives, but people’s lives too.

  A hush fell over the room as word got round that Lieutenant Colonel Richardson had arrived. A few moments later the Scout hut door swung open and Mr Ward showed him in.

  People looked round and their dogs looked up at them and round too, but didn’t know what all the fuss was about.

  Amy realized she’d forgotten to put a glass of water on the speaker’s table and hurried to get one as the Lieutenant Colonel made his way to the front. Fortunately it took him a long time as he stopped to greet different dogs and their owners.

  He had a soft spot for Alsatians.

  ‘If we had more like you, we’d be victorious in no time,’ he told Irma and Psyche, and Margaret smiled.

  ‘We would indeed,’ she said.

  Amy held her breath as Ellie led the dogs in a demonstration, showing the Lieutenant Colonel what her search-and-rescue dogs could do. She could see he was impressed as the dogs used scent detection to find volunteers hidden in tunnels and under blankets and boxes. He laughed as Henry pulled off layers of cardboard box ‘rubble’ and then drew back a blanket to reveal Michael hidden underneath.

  Henry’s obvious excitement at finding his friend, and his crazily wagging tail that looked like his whole body was joining in, reminded Amy of Misty again, especially when she was younger. But then lots of dogs reminded her of Misty – and made her think of how much she missed her still.

  At the end of the demonstration everyone clapped and cheered. Lieutenant Colonel Richardson said he’d be reporting back on what he’d seen and hopefully there would be some good news about the War Dog Training School soon.

  ‘That was fantastic,’ Amy said to Ellie afterwards.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said.

  As soon as the demonstration was over, Amy hurried off to join her parents and Grandpa at the station. She couldn’t wait to tell them how well it had gone.

  Daniel arrived at Wood Green Underground Station ten minutes before Amy did. The day he’d been knocked down had been the day that the lack of proper treatment for shell-shocked soldiers was widely reported in the press. Two psychiatrists, who’d been hired to deal with the sudden increase in shell shock after Dunkirk, had resigned in protest and the Ministry for Health had organized a nationwide network of mind hospitals.

  Daniel had been treated for his physical injuries at North Middlesex and then transferred to a mind hospital. There he’d been given daily counselling and medication to help with the symptoms. Good food and a proper bed to sleep in had also helped. Day by day he began to return to himself, not quite able to look his psychiatrist in the eye yet. But his psychiatrist had been pleased with his progress.

  ‘A few more months here and you should be much better. I can see you’ve been through a tough time,’ he’d said.

  But Daniel didn’t want to stay at the hospital for a few more months. He was worried about Howl and how frightened and confused the puppy must have been when he was taken away in the ambulance.

  What had happened to Howl afterwards? Had he gone back to the Underground or had he been picked up by one of the dog wardens? At least he’d got his mum’s collar on. Daniel was glad about that. They couldn’t put the pup down when he was wearing one of those. But still he worried about Howl and early one morning, as the sun was coming up, he left the hospital to find him.

  As he entered the station, Daniel looked a lot different to the man that had been lying injured in the road. He was fatter, for one thing. Plus, the nurses had found him some new clothes in the charity box, and he’d had his hair cut and was bathed and shaved. But, kind as they’d been there, he needed to see if the puppy who’d meant so much to him was OK and still living in the Underground.

  He longed to see Soldier again, but part of him also hoped that the puppy wasn’t there any more. That someone had taken pity on the dog and taken it home to live with them.

  In Daniel’s old room at the station Howl gnawed on the ham bone he’d found in one of the pig bins, as the first of the Underground’s night visitors arrived.

  Howl smelt the familiar smell almost as soon as Daniel stepped into the station. It made his heart race with excitement.

  ‘Soldier,’ Daniel said softly, and Howl looked up and then he was up and racing to him as fast as his legs would go. He jumped into Daniel’s arms, almost toppling a laughing Daniel over, and then Howl couldn’t stop licking him because he was so pleased to see his frie
nd.

  And Daniel couldn’t stop laughing either; he’d missed the puppy so badly. He laughed so hard that tears ran down his face and Howl licked them up.

  ‘Good dog,’ said Daniel. ‘Good dog, Soldier.’

  Sky raced to the front door as soon as she heard the car rattle to a stop. Her paw was bandaged where she’d cut it on some glass during her last search-and-rescue mission with Mr Ward, but it didn’t stop her. Heggerty, although slower, was not far behind.

  ‘Let me get to the door then,’ Mrs Ward said, pushing her way past them.

  She was a little surprised to find her husband and son had brought Lieutenant Colonel Richardson home with them. But very little fazed her these days – the war had seen to that.

  ‘Come in, come in,’ she said as Henry breezed past her, his tail wagging.

  Mrs Ward made sandwiches and laid them out on the top of the two-tier Morrison shelter that they now used as a table.

  ‘Bee in a bonnet, bee in a bonnet,’ the parrot said in greeting as soon as the Lieutenant Colonel walked into the room.

  ‘You’re honoured,’ Mr Ward told him. ‘Haven’t heard that one before.’

  ‘I made these for Henry while you were all out,’ Mrs Ward said, holding up four dog-sized boots. ‘They’ll protect his paws from the glass and rubble when he’s on his rescue missions. We don’t want any more accidents like Sky’s if we can help it.’

  ‘What did you make them from?’ Mr Ward asked suspiciously. The tartan material looked very familiar. ‘Are those my slippers?’

  ‘They’ll be nice and flexible but strong at the same time,’ Mrs Ward said. ‘And I didn’t just chop up your slippers. I chopped up mine to make some for Sky too.’

  Michael tried one on Henry.

  ‘What do you think?’

  Henry wagged his tail.

  ‘I think they’re an excellent idea,’ Lieutenant Colonel Richardson said.

  ‘Won’t you have a sandwich?’ Mrs Ward said. ‘The eggs are from our chickens.’