This was a weekend of documentaries!

[editswlonghair]

I saw a fantastic documentary on the Military Channel this weekend: War Dogs of the Pacific, about the USMC 'devil dogs' and their handlers in the South Pacific in WWII. (Don't let the fact that the first glowing review on that website is from Michael Savage dissuade you

Comments

agreed, good documentary!

[qahawthorne]

I saw that! War Dogs of the Pacific, that is -- every now and then they let us watch the military channel at work. I found it really interesting, and it was a new aspect of WWII for me as well. Those guys, talking about their dogs, choking up when they talked about some of the dogs being shot -- I was at work and tearing up!

Been a little while, but am I remembering correctly that initially the enemy would target the dogs, because that would seriously damage operations, but later had the caveat that if you do kill the dog, the soldiers would go all berserk on you? I could be misremembering.

I loved the variety of dogs, too...it wasn't all German Shepherd types, like you'd expect.

Re: agreed, good documentary!

[editswlonghair]

You are remembering that correctly. One of the marines interviewed told the story of how when his dog (Skipper IIRC) got shot, he flew into a rage, jumped out of his foxhole, and wiped out an entire Japanese platoon w/o any concern for himself.

Yeah, it was just so moving to hear these grizzled old vets talking about their dogs. And how they choked up even if the dogs survived the war, but they had to surrender them back to their civilian owners! I especially loved how many of them got to keep the dogs and gave them good homes stateside. Man, it was just such a great story, and so heartfelt.

So I take it you must work for the DoD if you were watching this at work?