The Dog That Carried Messages Through Artillery Fire

A British Army messenger dog named 'Jet' carried messages between forward positions of the 50th Northumbrian Division across open ground under heavy German fire on Gold Beach on D-Day. Jet's handler was killed in the first minutes of the landing, but Jet, carrying a message pouch, continued across the beach to the next unit's position. He delivered the message — a request for naval fire support — to a Royal Marines officer who then directed a destroyer to silence a German machine gun nest that had been pinning down the battalion. Jet survived D-Day and was later awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.