A to Z Challenge 2024

 

A to Z Challenge 2024

                                Mali with his handler, Corporal Daniel Hatley 

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This year my blog posts for the April 2024 Challenge will be about the recipients of the Dickin Medal, which you can read about here. They are in alphabetical, not chronological order, within the different letters.

M

Mali  2009/10-present

Mali is a Belgian Malinois in the service of the British Army. He was trained to detect explosives and enemy insurgents and was sent to work in Afghanistan in 2012. He played a significant rôle during a mission that took 7½ hours to complete, under intense gun fire. The objective was to overcome an important Taliban base in a multi-storey building. Mali twice went through direct gunfire while looking for explosives and alerted troops to the presence of insurgents many times.  He was hoisted up the side of the block on several occasions in order to gain access and clear the enemy. He sustained serious injuries to his chest and legs through three grenade blasts, which also damaged his ear and mouth, but continued to work.

After treatment, Mali returned to UK and made a full recovery. He is retired from front line action. He works with Corporal Daniel Hatley, who first trained him as a puppy, at the Royal Army Veterinary Corps Defence Animal Centre in Leicestershire, helping with the training of apprentice dog handlers.

Mali received his DM in November 2017 and the handler who worked with him was awarded a gallantry medal.

 

Maquis

Maquis and friend

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Maquis was hatched in Bedford and served with the Special Section of the National Pigeon Service. This pigeon delivered three important messages from enemy-occupied France. The first was brought from Amiens in May 1943, the second from Combined Operations in February 1944, and the third, in June 1944, from the Maquis (French and Belgian Resistance fighters).

The DM was awarded in October 1945, ‘For bringing important messages three times from enemy occupied country’.

 

Mary of Exeter  1940-1950

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Mary of Exeter was awarded her DM in 1945, ‘For outstanding endurance on War Service in spite of wounds.’

She was bred by Cecil ‘Charlie’ Brewer, a shoemaker in Exeter, who became a loft keeper and intelligence agent during the war.

On one mission, she was attacked by a German-kept hawk in France, which injured her neck and breast. Once she had recuperated, she went back into service two months later.

Following this, she was shot, which removed the tip of one wing and left three pellets in her body. Again, she recovered and returned to service, the shortened wing tip making no noticeable difference to her flight performance.

In what proved to be her final mission, she was hit by shrapnel, which severely damaged her neck muscles. Her owner retired her from service and made her a leather collar to support her head.

For such a little creature, weighing less than one pound, the shocks to her body must have been incredible. She had 22 stitches to repair her.

During her retirement, she survived when her loft was hit by the Luftwaffe raids on Exeter in 1942 and many pigeons were killed. 

Mary of Exeter died in 1950 and is buried in the Ilford Animal Cemetery.

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A Blue Plaque was installed at the site of Charlie Brewer’s home in 2018, the first such memorial in UK. It applauds ‘the partnership of a heroic animal and its owner.’

 

Mercury

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Mercury was bred in Ipswich by J. Catchpole and served with the Special Section of the National Pigeon Service. The DM was awarded for bravery in 1946, ‘For carrying out a special task involving a flight of 480 miles from Northern Denmark while serving with the Special Section, Army Pigeon Service, in July 1942.