The Dogs of War

Hi All

While taking my stroll around Montrose, I came across a statue of a great big St. Bernard called Bamse.  According to his write up, when the war broke he went to sea with his master and was registered as a crew member of  Norwegian navy minesweeper called the Thorodd.  By all accounts this dog was hero, during action he would stand guard up in the foremost gun tower and would not leave until all the fighting was over.  There are also stories of Bamse breaking up bar brawls by standing with his hind legs and placing his feet on the brawlers shoulders.  Quickly ending the dispute.

There is another account of Bamse saving the life of Lt.Commander Olaf Nielsen.  Apparently the officer was walking along the docks in Dundee when a would be robber attacked him with a knife.  Bamse, who had been following some distance behind the officer, raced forward and standing on his hind legs used his momentum and great weight to push the would be robber away from the officer.  He continued to push and eventually steered the attacker off the edge of the jetty into the water below.  There are a great deal more stories to read and I am sure that I wouldn’t do them justice so I have placed a link at the bottom of this article which opens up the Bamse website for you all to read.

After reading up on the article above I got thinking of another famous pooch that helped out during the second world war.  Tucked away in False Bay, South Africa is the port of Simonstown.  During world war two, a Great Dane called Just Nuisance was also called up to serve.  He was eventually given the rank of Able Seamen.

Just Nuisance never actually went to sea but would regularly follow the sailors into Cape Town.  For those of you who know the Cape Town/ Simonstown area this is a long way so the train had to be used.  Just Nuisance would jump on the train and ride it through to Cape Town.  This, however, was not popular with the ticket collectors and once discovered he would be turfed off at the next station.  Naturally, being a dog of some cunning Just Nuisance would simply wait for the next train to come along and then hop on that.  Eventually such a fuss was made by the rail operators that letters were written to the owner and said that the dog would be put down if the freeloading continued.  Enter the Navy.  They enlisted the dog in the Royal Navy and in those days all volunteer servicemen got free train travel.  Thus the dog was saved and the Navy got themselves a new poster boy.

Naturally there is a lot more to the story than I have just written here, Just Nuisance would also round up all the sailors from the different bars prior to curfew time and make sure that they all got back to their bunks safe and sound.  There are even tales of Just Nuisance “Helping” some drunken sailors back to the base in Simonstown that weren’t even stationed there.

For a full write up on Just Nuisance and Bamse see the following links:

Able Seaman Just Nuisance, R.N.

Bamse