Paratrooper dogs: the history of dogs who jumped into war

Part 1

What made a dog fit for parachute jumps

The dogs chosen for the Scout Platoon were trained for guard, mine-detecting and patrol duties. Rob, a collie with the Special Air Service, was believed to have completed more than twenty jumps and later received the Dickin Medal for reconnaissance work in North Africa and Europe.

Before any dog practiced a real jump, handlers worked on getting it used to the aircraft itself. Training began with getting the dogs accustomed to loud noises. Once they could handle that, they were trained to detect gunpowder and explosives and to locate enemy troops. If your own dog struggles with loud sounds, it's easy to see why this early stage mattered so much for a paratrooper dog.

Part 2

How dogs were trained to jump from aircraft

Each dog had its own harness attached to a static-line parachute that opened automatically once the dog left the aircraft, so there was no need for the dog to pull a cord. Dogs in the 13th Parachute Battalion learned to jump immediately after their handler, with the expectation of an edible reward. In the 9th Parachute Battalion, dogs were trained to jump before their handler instead, showing that different units worked out their own routines. Lance Corporal Ken Bailey trained three dogs, including Bing, for this kind of jump into occupied Europe, working first on noise and later on detecting gunpowder and explosives. Reports say some dogs came to enjoy their training jumps. If you have trained your own dog through something new, you'll recognize how repetition built that kind of confidence.

Part 3

The gear built for a dog's parachute jump

If you picture the gear, each paratrooper dog wore its own harness attached to a static-line parachute that opened automatically during descent. One account describes the dogs' parachutes as adapted from equipment originally built for bicycles, a detail that shows how improvised this gear could be. The static line meant a dog's parachute opened on its own as it left the plane, controlling its fall without the dog doing anything itself.

Part 4

Notable paratrooper dogs and their units

You may already know the name Bing, since he received the Dickin Medal for his wartime service. He served with a reconnaissance platoon of the 13th Parachute Battalion, part of the 6th Airborne Division, and jumped into Normandy with handler Ken Bailey on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Two other dogs, Monty and Ranee, jumped from the same battalion's aircraft that night; Ranee became separated from her unit and was never found, and Monty was wounded. Other British airborne units had their own dogs, including Bereda and Glen with the 9th Parachute Battalion and Johnny with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Beyond the British Army, the Special Air Service used a parachuting collie named Rob, and a small number of American troops also brought dogs into airborne operations. Once on the ground, these dogs worked as guards, went on patrol, and helped detect mines for the units that had jumped with them.

Part 5

Why armies used dogs instead of only technology

You can see why this mattered: mine detectors of the period struggled to find mines that were not made of metal, which left a gap that dogs helped fill. After the Allied invasion of Normandy, dog platoons working with Royal Engineers were found to be the quickest method of locating minefields in northwest Europe. Even so, a British military study from 1947 found no clear indication of exactly which sense a dog used to detect a mine. Beyond mines, dogs like Bing were trained to sense hidden enemies and would freeze like a pointer to signal danger. Including a dog in a jump was not without risk: Bing was wounded by mortar fire after his own landing in Normandy, and Glen was killed alongside his handler during an aerial bombardment.

Part 6

What happened to paratrooper dogs after their service

If you've wondered what happened to a dog once the fighting stopped, Bing's story gives one answer. After the war, Bing returned to Britain, passed through quarantine, and went back to live with the Fetch family, who had originally owned him before lending him to the army. He lived to the age of thirteen and died in October 1955. After his death, his skin and fur were mounted for display, while the rest of his remains were buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford, Essex. Bing's own story has been muddled over time, since some accounts mistakenly combine him with a separate dog also called Brian, though the two were in fact different Alsatians. A museum curator who researched the subject described the available information about paradogs as vague at best, since accounts from the men who served with them often contradict each other.