World War II Heroine

The Tiniest World War II Heroine

Was a Yorkshire Terrier Named Smoky

I located this touching story on the internet and thought I would make it my first blog of the new year.  I hope you enjoy it as I did….Dolly

Found in an abandoned foxhole in New Guinea in 1944 during World War II, a tiny Yorkshire Terrier would become a decorated war heroine.  Topping the scales at four pounds, Smoky the Yorkie was tiny in body but large in spirit.  Bill Wynne, the American soldier who bought Smoky for two pounds Australian ($6.44 American), opened his heart to the little dog.  A bond of love and trust quickly developed between the two as Smoky also stole the hearts of many other military men serving with Bill Wynne.  Soon after becoming the mascot for SWPA's 26th Recon Squadron, Smoky won "Yank Down Under" magazine's first prize in their 1944 mascot contest. 

For the next two years, Smoky back-packed through the rest of the war and accompanied Wynne on combat flights in the Pacific She faced adverse circumstances, living in the New Guinea jungle and Rock Islands, suffering the primitive conditions of tents in equatorial heat and humidity. 

Corporal Smoky

Throughout her service, Smoky slept in Wynne's tent on a blanket made from a green felt card table cover; she shared Wynne's C-rations and an occasional can of Spam. Unlike the “official” war dogs of World War II, Smoky had neither medical care nor a balanced diet formulated especially for dogs. In spite of this, Smoky was never ill. She even ran on coral for four months without developing any of the paw ailments that plagued some war dogs.

Taking a daily bath to prevent infestations

"Smoky Served in the South Pacific with the 5^th Air Force, 26th Photo Recon Squadron and flew 12 air/sea rescue and photo reconnaissance missions." On those flights, Smoky spent long hours dangling in a soldier's pack near machine guns used to ward off enemy fighters. Smoky was credited with twelve combat and awarded eight battle stars. She survived 150 air raids on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa. Smoky even parachuted from 30 feet in the air, out of a tree, using a parachute made just for her. Wynne credited Smoky with saving his life by warning him of incoming shells on an LST (transport ship), calling her an "angel from a foxhole." As the ship deck was booming and vibrating from anti-aircraft gunnery, Smoky guided Wynne to duck the fire that hit 8 men standing next to them.

Her status as mascot was soon elevated to that of War Dog and Heroine.  Smoky was called upon to serve her country in a most unusual way and in a feat of sheer bravery, she rose to the challenge.  During the Luzon invasion, after surviving an air-sea kamikaze attack, Corporal Bill Wynne's ship struck ground.  With his barracks bag over one shoulder, his weapon in one hand and tiny Smoky tucked under his arm, he set out in waist-deep water toward shore, 40 feet away.  What a sight this must have been - soldiers under enemy attack wading to shore, and a tiny Yorkshire Terrier going with them!  After U.S. troops captured the first airfield on Luzon, they had to establish vital communication.  Telephone lines needed to be run under a 70' airstrip.  To dig up the taxi runway, bury the lines, and repair the runway, fighter planes would have to be relocated.  P-51 Mustangs, P-38 Lightnings, and P-761 Black Widow Night Fighters would not be able to use the landing strip during this operation, and would be exposed to enemy attack.  When an 8" diameter drainage culvert under the airstrip was located, Corporal Wynne was summoned.  Did he think Smoky would crawl through the culvert, with the communications line attached to her collar? 

Wynne asked for, and received, a promise - if Smoky got stuck, the crew would dig down and rescue her.  Where some sections of the culvert were joined, sand had sifted down to fill the pipe with only 3"-4" clearance.  Could she do it?  Corporal Wynne lay on his stomach peering into one end of the culvert while his buddies held Smoky at the other end.  He called for Smoky but she hesitated.  He called again, "Come, Smoky; come on, baby, come on."  Sure enough, his little "baby" started making her way through that dark culvert.  She trusted Corporal Wynne with her life.  When she was close to the other end, she started running and burst through the pipe into Wynne's arms amid cheers and "atta girls"!  The communications officer proclaimed that Smoky would have steak from the mess hall that night, and sure enough she did.  Smoky's special mission in the combat area of the Lingayen Gulf on Luzon resulted in teletype and phone lines being activated for the U.S. and Allied forces.  She could not have accomplished this without her love and devotion to Corporal Wynne, and her complete trust in him. 

After surviving kamikaze attacks, the Luzon invasion, typhoons, a sting from a 6" jungle centipede, and many other challenges, Smoky now faced being left behind as U.S. troops headed home after the war.  Army regulations stated that "no dog or mascot will go back to the U.S. on a War Department ship".  Implementing his "concealment plan", Corporal Wynne and Smoky boarded the USS General Wm. H. Gordon together.  The little dog he could not leave behind was smuggled aboard ship in an oxygen-mask carrying case, heading to her new home in the United States.

Bill Wynne With Smoky Statue And his dog Habbie

Smoky is also the first documented therapy dog, having served the troops in countless military hospitals.  As Bill Wynne writes in his book "Yorkie Doodle Dandy", Smoky's "very presence unfailingly turned serious faces into smiles."   "Sometimes under stress it only takes a delightful moment of diversion" to lead someone away "from the path heading for mental disaster." "My Yorkie Doodle Dandy could make Americans at war forget their troubles simply by watching her chase giant butterflies..."

Smoky's Memorial in Ohio

The little dog he could not leave behind served him faithfully for 13 years, until her death in 1957.   On February 21, 1957, "Corporal" Smoky died unexpectedly at the approximate age of 14.  Wynne and his family buried Smoky in a World War II .30 Caliber Ammo Box in the Cleveland Metroparks, Rocky River Reservation in Lakewood, Ohio.

Nearly 50 years later, on Veterans Day, November 11, 2005, a bronze life-size sculpture of Smoky sitting in a GI helmet, atop a two-ton blue granite base, was unveiled there. It is placed above the very spot that Smoky was laid at her final resting place. This very special monument is dedicated to “Smoky, the Yorkie Doodle Dandy, and the Dogs of All Wars.