Mark (War Dog)

Mark was an Alsatian dog who was acquired in 1939 by Captain John Collings, during his service with No.3 Military and Air Mission (Phantom). Reportedly he was purchased for £5 from a French Sergeant-Major after being spotted on a liaison visit to a dog training unit. He was taught to lie quietly at mortar or rifle and to growl at the enemy.

He is said to have led a stretcher party to a group of six wounded men. He kept guard while the men slept. In 1940 he was wounded while swimming with supplies to a British unit on a mid-river Island. His master went to rescue him and was also injured. They were evacuated along with other members of Phantom to England. At Dover, Mark was sedated with morphine and smuggled ashore under a groundsheet on a stretcher, other members of the unit carrying him as if he was dead comrade. John Collings insisted that military medical staff at Milbank Hospital operated on Mark as well himself. A suitable blood transfusion was apparently obtained form Battersea Dogs Home.

Mark was photographed by Official War Photographer Lieutenant Putnam on 20 Aug 1941 in Norfolk. He is shown carrying Lewis Gun ammunition drums in a carrier strapped across his back. 

Captain Ken Ward, Commander of Auxiliary Units Special Duties and based at Hundon in Suffolk also recalled Mark. He recalled that he had been photographed and thought he had taken part in experiments at Inverailort, the Scottish training school used by SOE and the Commandos. There it was found that if a bunch of keys attached to a target was rattled in the dark, then Mark would look directly towards it, even though he could not see. Aiming a Bren gun in the direction he was looking allowed a direct hit on the invisible target. He was also able to track the instructors, even when they dipped their boots in various chemicals to try and put him off the scent.

One of his Norfolk Special Duties couriers, Jill Holman, was asked to care for Mark while Captain Collings went away for training. What started as a planned couple of weeks turned into several months. Collings' batman came to collect him and Mark refused to obey his commands, having previously done so. Eventually he was persuaded into the car. John Collings had apparently injured himself on a mission with the Maquis in France. She recalled that Mark took part in play, rescuing a small girl from enemy soldier. Afterwards he would go around the audience to collect donations for comforts in his ammunition pouches.

Once recovered, they landed together in Normandy in the British 50th Division sector. One day, Mark suddenly froze and went "on point". He had detected an anti-personnel mine just ahead, saving his master. His luck did not last however, as three weeks later he was blown up by another mine, losing a leg and blinded in one eye. However he survived and joined his master with the Control Commission in Germany.

He died in 1952. He is buried in Westphalia with a tombstone engraved "MARK - EIN TREUER FREUND" (Mark - a true friend).