Following on from the success of historical narratives like Soldier Boy and Young Digger that explore untold stories from Australia’s fighting past, Anthony Hill’s Animal Heroes collates and presents the important role animals have played in conflicts from the World War I to the present day. Hill’s text clearly conveys the love and admiration these animals were afforded by their handlers, comrades or adopted owners. Whether they were an intuitive kitten smuggled aboard HMAS Perth, a Doberman who defected for a tin of bully beef, or one of the 11 tracking dogs who served so valiantly in Vietnam, each animal’s story is lovingly retold through surviving memory of family members, or official documents.
Animal Heroes (Anthony Hill, Penguin, $17.95 pb, ISBN 0143003801, March) HHH
Following on from the success of historical narratives like Soldier Boy and Young Digger that explore untold stories from Australia’s fighting past, Anthony Hill’s Animal Heroes collates and presents the important role animals have played in conflicts from the World War I to the present day. Hill’s text clearly conveys the love and admiration these animals were afforded by their handlers, comrades or adopted owners. Whether they were an intuitive kitten smuggled aboard HMAS Perth, a Doberman who defected for a tin of bully beef, or one of the 11 tracking dogs who served so valiantly in Vietnam, each animal’s story is lovingly retold through surviving memory of family members, or official documents. Of the 135,000 horses who were the lifeblood of the light horsemen in World War I, only one returned home. Australia’s strict customs policy meant that until only very recently, every animal that left our shores to serve overseas would never return. Told with humour and pathos, Hill’s book provides the reader some understanding as to how war not only connected man to man, but how an animal hero saved lives, provided hope, and created lasting bonds.
Ben Beaton is a writer and teacher in Perth
This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2005, Thorpe-Bowker