Page 4 - Animals Go to War: From Dogs to Dolphins

CHAPTER 1 COMRADES

IN WAR

JUDY AND FRANK

One of the only good things about war was the love
that grew between the soldiers and their animals. For
a man far from home, frightened, alone, facing death,
a horse, an ox, or even a ferret mascot, who could
return affection, was an immeasurable comfort.
—Jilly Cooper, Animals in War, 2006

n June 26, 1944, toward the end of World War II (1939–1945),
Othe Japanese ship Harukiku Maru was steaming through the
Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia. On its way to
Singapore, the vessel held more than eleven hundred prisoners of war
(POWs)—mostly British and Australian—jammed into its holds.
A British submarine, not realizing the Harukiku Maru was carrying
friendly Allied soldiers, fired two torpedoes into the ship, ripping
it apart and blowing passengers into the turbulent water.
Prisoner of War # 81A was one of the lucky ones, escaping
through a porthole just before the Harukiku Maru sank. The POW
was a good swimmer and could have reached shore easily. Instead,
# 81A rescued at least four drowning men by ferrying them to pieces
of floating debris or rescue boats.
As exhaustion set in and POW # 81A could no longer swim, two
other POWs lifted her from the sea. They hid her under a sail along
with dead soldiers so none of the Japanese who looked into their boat

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