A to Z Challenge 2024

 

A to Z Challenge 2024

                        

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.

G

Gander  ?-1941

Gander en route to Hong Kong with The Royal Rifles of Canada, 1941

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Gander was a large, black, male Newfoundland dog. Originally called Pal, and a great favourite with his family, particularly with the children whose sledge he pulled, he accidentally scratched a child’s face one day, causing an injury requiring stitches. His owners were worried that they would be ordered to have him put down and so opted to give him to Quebec City’s Royal Rifles of Canada. 

The regiment was based at Gander International Airport, so the dog was immediately renamed Gander and promoted to Sergeant, becoming the regimental mascot. He enjoyed parading with the troops, bearing his sergeant’s stripes and regimental badge on his harness.

He also liked sleeping on the runway, and there were accounts of pilots reporting that they couldn’t land because he was in the way. Those who were unfamiliar with him thought he was a black bear!

In 1941, the regiment was sent to Hong Kong to defend it against a possible Japanese attack. Although it was autumn, the heat was still extreme, particularly for a dog equipped with a thick, heavy coat for cold conditions. However, he adjusted.

On 18^th December, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbour, Japanese troops attacked the north of the island. Rifleman Andrew Flanagan said, ‘Gander showed no fear of guns or bombs. At the Battle of Lye Mun Gap, he attacked Japanese troops as they landed near the Canadian section.’

The regiment then retreated along an overgrown road but as the Japanese pursued them, Gander ran at them, barking and biting their legs. At night, the Japanese troops attacked again, and once more Gander rushed at them, biting and barking.

Gander was sent to protect wounded soldiers with the hope that he would be safer away from the fighting. A grenade was thrown into the Canadian position and Gander rushed to pick it up and ran towards the Japanese with it. It exploded, killing him.

He was awarded the Dickin Medal in 2000, the first new award to be made since 1949. His citation reads, ’For saving the lives of Canadian infantrymen during the Battle of Lye Mun on Honk Kong Island in December 1941. On three documented occasions, Gander, the Newfoundland mascot of The Royal Rifles of Canada, engaged the enemy as his regiments joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers, members of Battalion Headquarters “C” Force and other Commonwealth troops in their courageous defence of the island. Twice Gander’s attacks halted the enemy’s advance and protected groups of wounded soldiers. In a final act of bravery, the war dog was killed in action gathering a grenade. Without Gander’s intervention, many more lives would have been lost in the assault.’

Gander’s name is listed on the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall in Ottawa, Canada. It was included with the names of 1975 men and two women at the insistence of survivors. 

 

G.I. Joe  1943-1961

G.I. Joe was hatched in North Africa and trained at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He served with the United States Army Pigeon Service.

In the WWII Italian Campaign, the village of Calvi Vecchia, in Italy, had been occupied by British troops, who had regained it from the Germans in 1943. They were unable to send a radio signal to pre-empt the planned American air raid, so G.I. Joe was dispatched with the message.

 He flew 20 miles in 20 minutes and delivered the information to the air base at the moment the bombers were preparing for take-off, saving the lives of the civilians and the troops. 

G.I. Joe was the first non-British recipient of the Dickin Medal, receiving it at the Tower of London in 1946, part of the citation stating, ‘The most outstanding flight made by a United States homing pigeon in World War II.’

After the end of the war, he lived with 24 other courageous pigeons at the U.S. Army’s Churchill Loft in Fort Monmouth. After he died, at the grand age of 18, he was preserved and put on display at the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Museum at Fort Monmouth.

 

Gustav

Gustav was bred by Frederick Jackson in Cosham, Hampshire, UK, in the late 1930s, and loaned to the RAF when he was just six weeks old. His first missions involved him working for the resistance, carrying messages out of occupied Belgium.

On 6^th June, 1944, he was one of six pigeons given to Reuters correspondent, Montague Taylor, and was on board an Allied Landing Ship Tank. The invasion fleet was under radio silence, to prevent detection by the enemy.

As the first troops made landfall in Normandy, Gustav was launched with the signal, ‘We are just 20 miles or so off the beaches. First assault troops landed 0750 . . . no interference from enemy gunfire on beach . . . no enemy aircraft seen.’ Gustav flew 150 miles back to his wartime loft on Thorney Island, Chichester, in five hours and sixteen minutes in headwinds reaching 30 mph. The message he delivered was the first information that the Normandy landings had commenced.

Gustav was awarded the DM in September 1944, with the citation, ‘For delivering the first message from the Normandy beaches from a ship off the beachhead while serving with the RAF on June 6 1944.’

After the war, Gustav returned to live with Frederick Jackson. He died of old age. His story, and that of other brave war pigeons, inspired the 2005 animated film ‘Valiant’. In that same year, his Dickin Medal was donated to the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth.

My World Tuesday Graduation!

Last week we travelled to Portsmouth to see our eldest daughter graduate. Excited graduands milled about in the distinctive purple of Portsmouth University, surrounded by proud parents, spouses, partners, families and friends.

The skies threatened rain and there was a brisk wind but the atmosphere outside the Guildhall was one of happy anticipation and some nervousness.

We filed inside and found our places. It was fortunate that the ceremony would take no longer than an hour and a half for the congregation was crammed into seats with very limited leg room. As we waited for the ceremony to begin the Organist and Master of the Choristers of Portsmouth Cathedral played a programme of organ music. Finally, the congregation stood as the University procession entered the auditorium and took their places on the stage.

The Chancellor declared the ceremony open and the Vice-Chancellor made a brief and amusing address before the graduands were admitted to their degrees. We clapped as hundreds of young and not so young graduands crossed the stage. The men walked steadily in sensible footwear but some of the women, notably the younger ones, wore shoes with such high heels that it was difficult for them to toddle along. The most striking shoes were a pair that sparkled as they caught the light – they were so glittering that it was possible 

to believe they had integral lights.

At last Gillian’s name was called and she could have won a prize as the speediest person across the stage! She is never happy when the spotlight is on her.

This was the sixth graduation ceremony I had attended (neither Barry nor I went to either of his ceremonies) and I was astonished afresh at the bad manners of some of the congregation. As the people they had come to see graduated so they got up and left the hall. One person left because he was unwell but the rest that I saw simply had no further interest in the ceremony. Had everyone adopted the same strategy there would have been very few left when the last graduands were admitted.

What they missed was a fine speech by the Chancellor, Sheila Hancock, who was warmly applauded for her heartfelt sentiments. She was particularly impressed by and complimentary about the mature students who had studied and gained their degrees at the same time as working and bringing up families. Gillian and her cohort were most appreciative of that. Her children understand at first hand the difficulties she has experienced of studying for long hours after work and family duties have been honoured and we all hope, Gillian particularly, that they will continue to further education while they are still young and relatively unencumbered.

The congregation stood as the University procession retired. Yet again I was amazed at the lack of respect and courtesy as people left their seats before the procession had completed. Barry and I were probably the last to leave, having enjoyed the organ music once more, and yet when we reached the ground floor there were still crowds queuing to leave the Guildhall.

We met our happy daughter and her family and then made our farewells. We knew that we would see them at the weekend when we could have a relaxed celebration. Gillian has laid the ghost of being the only one of her siblings not to have graduated and intends to carry on studying for further degrees.

See what has been happening in other worlds here.

ABC Wednesday Round 5 - V for Victory

photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons

HMS Victory was Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar which was fought off Cape Trafalgar, Spain, in October 1805. The British fleet was fighting the combined Spanish and French fleets. The day ended in Victory for the British.
When Nelson chose her as his flagship (a flagship is the lead ship of a fleet) she was about thirty years old and though she wasn't particularly fast she was very stable and had a steadfast crew. She was badly damaged during the battle and had to be towed back to Gibraltar for repairs.

Victory has never been decommissioned from the Royal Navy and still has a captain and crew.She is now a museum ship in dry dock in Portsmouth, England attracting thousands of visitors every year. It is possible to gain a clear impression of shipboard life two hundred years ago on this vessel. A brass plate marks the spot on deck where Nelson was fatally shot.

Victory is also used for ceremonial events and was at the centre of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005.

Thank you to Denise Nesbitt for organising and hosting this meme.

Click here to see what others have been thinking about.

The art of photography . . .

In 1901 it was possible for members of the public to purchase a Kodak Brownie with which to take photographs. However, before cameras were widely and cheaply available those wishing to have a pictorial record of family life and events went to their local photographer's studio to have a likeness made. The photograph below was taken in 1904 in Southsea, Hampshire and shows my grandmother holding my father, the youngest of her three sons. When my father was ten his father drowned off Sheerness in Kent when his ship went down. His name is on the Royal Naval Memorial in Portsmouth.
I believe this is a school photograph of my father's class. It was taken around 1910. Class sizes haven't changed much since then. Look carefully and you may see a terrier-type dog between the girls in the front row and another small black dog at the right of that row. I think my father is fourth from the left in the second row.