What are the most famous animals in war?
Sergeant Reckless, the Korean War mare who made 51 trips under fire in one day in March 1953, is the most famous war animal in our ranking, with 42 of 50 points. Sergeant Stubby and the pigeon Cher Ami follow on 40, then Wojtek the bear; their best known deeds rest partly on comrades' stories.
Animals have gone to war for as long as people have: horses and elephants on ancient battlefields, mules and camels hauling supplies, dogs on guard, pigeons carrying messages when every other link had failed. This list takes fifteen of them that are remembered by name, from Alexander's horse Bucephalus to Lucca, a Marine Corps dog wounded in Afghanistan in 2012, and ranks them by score: recognition, deeds, consequence, memory and how well the record backs the story (see how we chose and ranked them). Species and the millions of unnamed horses, mules and camels are not ranked; they have their own section below the list. Where a story rests on comrades' tales or later tradition, we say so.1
1 Sergeant Reckless, 1952 to 1954
- Animal
- Chestnut mare from Korea, a Halla horse
- Served
- 1952 to 1954 in Korea; retired 1960
- With
- Recoilless Rifle Platoon, 5th Marines, US Marine Corps
- Honors
- Two Purple Hearts; Dickin Medal (2016)
- Known for
- 51 trips under fire in one day
On 26 October 1952 Lieutenant Eric Pedersen, who commanded the recoilless rifle platoon of the 5th Marines, went to the Seoul racecourse and paid $250 of his own money for a chestnut mare. Her owner sold her because he needed the money for an artificial leg for his sister, who had stepped on a land mine. The Marines named her Reckless, after the "recoilless" rifle whose shells she was bought to carry, and trained her to climb to the guns alone once she had been led along a route a few times.2
Her great test came in the fight for Outpost Vegas, 26 to 28 March 1953. On a single day she made 51 trips from the ammunition supply point to the firing sites, carrying 386 rounds, more than 9,000 pounds, over some 35 miles of rice paddies and steep hillside, and she brought wounded men back down. Shrapnel hit her twice, over her left eye and in her flank, and she kept going. She was promoted after the battle, received two Purple Hearts, later became a staff sergeant, and in 2016 was the 68th animal to receive the Dickin Medal. Many accounts call her a Mongolian pony; the National Museum of the Marine Corps says she was a Halla horse, a cross between a Jeju and a Thoroughbred.3
Why it ranks here: No animal on the list did more under fire (service and deeds 5), and the Marines' own records back her (certainty 4). She is less known outside the United States (recognition 4), but the best known deeds of Stubby and Cher Ami rest partly on stories, while hers hold: alone at No. 1 on 42.
2 Sergeant Stubby, 1917 to 1918
- Animal
- Dog, a stray bull terrier mix
- Served
- 1917 to 1918
- With
- 102nd Infantry, 26th (Yankee) Division, US Army
- Honors
- None official; Humane Education Society gold medal (1921)
- Known for
- Gas warnings, wounds and a captured spy
In 1917 a stray dog wandered into Camp Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, where the 102nd Infantry of the 26th (Yankee) Division was training. Corporal J. Robert Conroy took him in and named him Stubby, and in October 1917 the dog was smuggled aboard the troopship that carried the regiment to France.4
Stubby went through four offensives with the regiment. In April 1918, in a raid at Seicheprey, a German grenade wounded him in the foreleg, and he was gassed more than once; after that, his comrades said, he learned to warn them when gas was coming. The National WWI Museum credits him with 17 battles, shrapnel and mustard gas wounds, and the capture of an enemy spy. Those deeds, the spy in the Argonne above all, are known from the regiment's stories and the newspapers of the early 1920s, and his rank of sergeant was an honorary title, never an official one. What is firmly on record is his welcome home: in 1921 General John J. Pershing pinned on him a gold medal from the Humane Education Society. He died in 1926, and his body is on show in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.5
Why it ranks here: He is the best known war dog in America (recognition 5, memory 5), with real wounds behind the fame (service 4). The spy and the stripes rest on his regiment's tales (certainty 3), and he changed little beyond the men around him (consequence 2), which keeps him behind Reckless. He ties Cher Ami on 40 with the same recognition and consequence and goes first because he began to serve a year earlier.
3 Cher Ami, 1918
- Animal
- Homing pigeon
- Served
- 1918
- With
- US Army Signal Corps pigeon service, with the 77th Division in the Argonne
- Honors
- Croix de Guerre with Palm
- Known for
- A wounded flight from the Lost Battalion
In early October 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 554 men of the US 77th Division under Major Charles Whittlesey were cut off in the Argonne Forest and surrounded for five days. They were beyond radio range, so their only link with their own lines was carrier pigeons. On 4 October American shells began to fall on their own hillside, and the battalion sent back a message that became famous: "We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven's sake, stop it."6
The bird credited with carrying it, Cher Ami, was hit in the chest soon after take-off and reached his loft with one leg almost shot away and blind in one eye; Army medics kept him alive. When relief finally came, only 194 of the 554 men could walk out. France awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and his mounted body is on show in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Myth versus fact: the story says Cher Ami stopped the barrage, but Smithsonian curator Frank Blazich found little conclusive evidence that he carried that message, and says the shelling had ended about five minutes before he reached his loft, so the message did not stop the guns.7
Why it ranks here: Few war animals are so widely known or so well remembered (recognition 5, memory 5). Blazich's findings hold certainty to 3 and, since the guns had already stopped, consequence to 2. Level with Stubby on 40, with the same recognition and consequence, Cher Ami is third because Stubby began to serve a year earlier.
4 Wojtek, 1942 to 1947
- Animal
- Syrian brown bear
- Served
- 1942 to 1947
- With
- 22nd Artillery Supply Company, 2nd Polish Corps
- Honors
- None official; rank of corporal
- Known for
- The bear on his company's badge
On 8 April 1942 Polish soldiers of Anders' Army, just out of the Soviet Union, marching on from Pahlavi in Iran with refugees, met a Persian boy with an orphaned bear cub; Historic Environment Scotland places the meeting near Hamadan. In August the cub was handed to the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of what became the 2nd Polish Corps. To keep him when the corps sailed for Italy, the company entered him on its rolls as a private, with a serial number of his own.8
At Monte Cassino in May 1944, as his comrades told it, he copied the men unloading ammunition and carried crates of shells himself. That story comes from the soldiers who served with him, and not all of them agreed: the Hoover Institution notes that the memoir of Stanisław Kroczak, an officer of the same company, puts the shell-carrying stories to rest. What is certain is that the company adopted a bear carrying a shell as its official badge and that Wojtek was made a corporal. After the war he came to Scotland with his unit, went to Edinburgh Zoo on 15 November 1947 and died there in 1963. Bronze Wojteks now stand in Żagań (2013), Kraków (2014) and Edinburgh (2015).9
Why it ranks here: Wojtek is famous in Poland and Britain alike and honored in bronze in three cities (recognition 5, memory 5). He ranks here because the record shows a much-loved mascot on the rolls, while the shells at Monte Cassino rest on his comrades' word (service 3, certainty 3).
5 Warrior, 1914 to 1918
- Animal
- Thoroughbred stallion, foaled on the Isle of Wight in 1908
- Served
- 1914 to 1918
- With
- General Jack Seely, Canadian Cavalry Brigade
- Honors
- Honorary Dickin Medal (2014)
- Known for
- Four years on the Western Front
Warrior went to France in 1914 with his owner, General Jack Seely, a close friend of Winston Churchill, who went on to command the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Horse and rider came through Ypres, the first day of the Somme and the mud of Passchendaele, and twice Warrior was trapped in burning stables.10
On 30 March 1918, in the German spring offensive, the Germans took Moreuil Wood near Amiens and Seely's brigade was ordered to win it back. Seely led the attack on Warrior, and Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew's squadron of Lord Strathcona's Horse made what is believed to be the last cavalry charge of the war. The brigade lost 305 men killed, wounded or missing and more than 800 horses. Warrior came home at the end of 1918, won a point-to-point race on the Isle of Wight in 1922 and died in 1941; PDSA says The Times headed his obituary "The horse the Germans couldn't kill", while the Warrior Trust gives the paper as the Evening Standard. On 2 September 2014 PDSA gave him its first honorary Dickin Medal, on behalf of all the animals that served in World War I. Most of what we know of his war comes from Seely's own book, My Horse Warrior (1934), republished in 2011 as Warrior.11
Why it ranks here: Four years at the front and the charge at Moreuil Wood give him a service record few animals can match (service 5). He is known mainly in Britain and Canada (recognition 3), and his deeds rest largely on his rider's book (certainty 3), which keeps him out of the top four.
6 Bucephalus, died 326 BC
- Animal
- Horse from Thessaly
- Served
- Until his death in 326 BC, about 30 years old
- With
- Alexander the Great
- Honors
- City of Bucephala named after him
- Known for
- Tamed by the boy Alexander
Plutarch tells how Philoneicus the Thessalian offered a horse called Bucephalas to King Philip II of Macedon for thirteen talents. No one could mount him, until the young Alexander saw that the horse was frightened by his own shadow, turned him toward the sun and rode him away; Philip, Plutarch says, wept for joy and told his son to find a kingdom worthy of himself.12
Arrian writes that the horse shared many hardships and dangers with Alexander and bore the mark of an ox head that gave him his name. At Gaugamela, Plutarch says, Alexander spared the aging horse until the moment of attack and then mounted him to lead the charge. When Bucephalas was stolen in the land of the Uxians, Alexander threatened to kill every inhabitant unless he was returned, and he was. He died in 326 BC after the battle with Porus on the Hydaspes, about 30 years old: of toil and old age, says Arrian, while most writers, Plutarch reports, blamed his wounds. Alexander founded a city on the spot and called it Bucephala. Legend versus record: all these stories come from Plutarch and Arrian, who wrote more than four centuries after the horse died, and even they disagree on how he died and where he was stolen; no ancient writer dates the taming, so the years of his service are unknown.13
Why it ranks here: Almost everyone has heard of Alexander's horse (recognition 5), and a city bore his name (memory 4). But his deeds come from writers centuries later (certainty 2, service 3); level on 35 with four others, he goes first on recognition.
7 Simon, 1948 to 1949
- Animal
- Ship's cat, a stray from Hong Kong
- Served
- 1948 to 1949
- With
- HMS Amethyst, Royal Navy
- Honors
- Dickin Medal (1949)
- Known for
- Killing rats on a trapped warship
On 20 April 1949, in the Chinese Civil War, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst was steaming up the Yangtze toward Nanking when Communist batteries opened fire and drove her aground. She took more than 50 direct hits. The captain, Lieutenant Commander Skinner, was killed, and the ship's cat, Simon, was wounded by the blast, with shrapnel in his legs and burns to his back and face. Amethyst lost 22 men killed and 31 wounded.14
The ship was held on the river for 101 days, until she slipped her anchor on 30 July and escaped to the fleet at Hong Kong. In the heat, rats swarmed over the dwindling food. Simon went back to work and killed them, among them a big one the crew had named Mao Tse-tung, and he kept the wounded company on the daily rounds; the crew promoted him to "Able Seaman". His Dickin Medal citation, awarded in 1949, says he disposed of many rats "though wounded by shell blast" and that his behavior throughout was "of the highest order". Amethyst reached Plymouth in early November; Simon died in quarantine on 28 November 1949, before the medal could be presented, and was buried with full military honors in the PDSA animal cemetery at Ilford. He is still the only cat to hold the medal.15
Why it ranks here: The citation, the record of the Yangtze Incident and the press agree on everything (certainty 5), and he is the medal's only cat (recognition 4). But a ship's cat guarding the rations changed nothing in the fight (consequence 2); on 35 he follows Bucephalus on recognition and goes ahead of the others on 35 for the same reason.
8 G.I. Joe, 1943
- Animal
- Homing pigeon (USA43SC6390)
- Served
- 1943
- With
- US Army Pigeon Service, Italy
- Honors
- Dickin Medal (1946)
- Known for
- 20 miles in 20 minutes
On 18 October 1943, as the Allies fought their way north through Italy, British troops took the village of Calvi Vecchia far sooner than planned. An air attack on the German positions there had already been arranged, and now the bombers were about to strike their own side. Radio and telegraph could not get the warning through to the air base.16
A message was strapped to G.I. Joe, a pigeon of the US Army Pigeon Service, and he flew the 20 miles to the base in 20 minutes, arriving as the aircraft were preparing to take off. The raid was called off. His Dickin Medal citation calls it the most outstanding flight by a US Army pigeon in World War II and credits it with saving at least 100 Allied soldiers. Later retellings often say 1,000 lives saved, but the citation does not give that figure; 1,000 is the number of British troops in the village by the Christian Science Monitor's account. On 4 November 1946, at the Tower of London, he became the first animal from outside Britain to receive the medal. He then retired to the Army's Churchill Loft at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, with other decorated pigeons, and lived to 18.17
Why it ranks here: His citation credits him with at least 100 lives saved, the highest consequence of any animal here (consequence 4), and the record is solid (certainty 4). He ranks no higher because few outside the pigeon world know his name (recognition 3); on 35 points he follows Bucephalus and Simon on recognition and leads the others on 35 on consequence.
9 Judy, 1936 to 1945
- Animal
- English pointer, liver and white
- Served
- 1936 to 1945
- With
- Royal Navy gunboats Gnat and Grasshopper; then Japanese prison camps
- Honors
- Dickin Medal, 1946
- Known for
- The only dog registered as a prisoner of war
Judy was a liver and white pointer born in Shanghai in February 1936 and bought late that year as the mascot of HMS Gnat, a Royal Navy gunboat on the Yangtze; in 1939 she moved with part of the crew to HMS Grasshopper. In 1942 Grasshopper escaped from Singapore and was bombed by Japanese aircraft. The crew abandoned ship and ended up on an uninhabited island with no water, until Judy dug in the sand and uncovered a freshwater spring.18
On 18 March 1942 Japanese forces captured the survivors on Sumatra. In the camp at Gloegoer, near Medan, an RAF leading aircraftman, Frank Williams, shared his rice with her and talked the commandant into registering her as a prisoner of war, number 81A Gloegoer Medan. In June 1944 the ship moving the prisoners was sunk and hundreds of them died; according to PDSA, Judy swam among the survivors pushing pieces of driftwood to men who could not swim. She came through the camps alive. In May 1946 she received the Dickin Medal "for magnificent courage and endurance in Japanese prison camps", and Williams was given PDSA's White Cross of St Giles for keeping her alive. She died in Tanzania in February 1950, still with him.19
Why it ranks here: Judy's war is unusually well recorded for an animal, down to the prisoner number in the National Archives, so certainty 4, and her spring kept a stranded crew alive. She is one of five animals on 35 points: few outside Britain know her, so recognition 3, and she goes ahead of Chips, level with her on recognition and consequence, only because she began to serve earlier.
10 Chips, 1942 to 1945
- Animal
- German shepherd, collie and husky cross
- Served
- 1942 to 1945
- With
- 3rd Military Police Platoon, 3rd Infantry Division, US Army
- Honors
- Silver Star and Purple Heart (revoked); Dickin Medal, 2018
- Known for
- Charging a machine-gun nest in Sicily
Chips was a family dog from Pleasantville, New York. When the United States entered the war the Wren family gave him to Dogs for Defense, and the Army trained him at its war dog center in Front Royal, Virginia. With his handler, Private John Rowell, he landed in French Morocco and guarded the Casablanca Conference, where Roosevelt and Churchill met in January 1943.20
On 10 July 1943, the first day of the invasion of Sicily, Rowell's platoon was pinned down near Licata by a machine gun firing from a hut. Chips broke loose, ran through the fire and went in. One soldier came out with the dog at his throat and three more followed with their hands up; Chips had a scalp wound and powder burns. Some accounts put the fight on 9 July. That night he warned Rowell of ten Italian soldiers creeping in, and all ten were captured. He was given the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, but after the Military Order of the Purple Heart protested, the War Department ruled that medals were for people and took them back. Chips served on with the division and went home to the Wrens in December 1945. PDSA gave him the Dickin Medal on 15 January 2018.21
Why it ranks here: No animal here did a braver thing in a single moment, so service 5, and the citation, the revoked medals and his unit's witnesses make the record solid (certainty 4). He is one of five on 35 points; he has the same recognition (3) and consequence (3) as Judy but began to serve later, so he follows her, and a fainter memory (3) holds him down.
11 Marengo, 1800 to 1815
- Animal
- Small gray Arab stallion
- Served
- 1800 to 1815, by tradition; died 1831
- With
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Honors
- None official
- Known for
- Napoleon's horse; his skeleton is in London
Marengo was a small gray Arab, named after Napoleon's victory at Marengo in Italy in 1800, and Napoleon is said to have ridden him through many campaigns between 1800 and 1815. The words "said to" matter. The detailed career usually told for him, across the whole of the Napoleonic Wars from Italy to Austria and on the march to Moscow and back, is the story attached to a stallion advertised in London in 1823 as "Bonaparte's personal charger", with a bullet in his tail and an imperial N branded on his flank. The historian Jill Hamilton asks why this horse alone entered the Napoleonic legend while Napoleon's other mounts, Jaffa, Ali and Désirée among them, did not.22
The end of the story is firmer. After Wellington beat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, the horse was captured on the field and taken to England. When he died in 1831 his skeleton was preserved and shown at the Royal United Services Institute, and in the 1960s it passed to the National Army Museum in Chelsea, where it still stands. Myth vs fact: the skeleton and the capture at Waterloo are on record; the battles he is said to have carried Napoleon through come from tradition and an 1823 advertisement, not from campaign records.23
Why it ranks here: Paintings of his master made Marengo famous (recognition 4) and his skeleton keeps him in view (memory 4), but his battles rest on later tradition, so service 3 and certainty 2. He ties Smoky on 32 points and goes first on recognition.
12 Smoky, 1944 to 1945
- Animal
- Yorkshire terrier, about 4 pounds
- Served
- 1944 to 1945
- With
- Cpl William Wynne, 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, US Fifth Air Force
- Honors
- None official; PDSA certificate, 2011
- Known for
- Pulling a wire under a Luzon airstrip
In March 1944 an American airman in New Guinea, William Wynne, paid two Australian pounds for a tiny dog that a tent mate had found in an abandoned foxhole. Smoky weighed about four pounds and stood about seven inches tall. The Australian War Memorial records that she had first belonged to an American army nurse. With Wynne, of the 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, she went through New Guinea, Biak, Luzon and Okinawa, flew 12 air-sea rescue and photo reconnaissance missions and lived through about 150 air raids.24
Her famous job came at the airfield on Lingayen Gulf, on Luzon. Engineers needed to run a communications line under the runway through a pipe about 70 feet long and only about 8 inches across. Wynne tied a string to her collar and called her from the far end; once she was through, the string pulled the wire after her. National Geographic says the alternative was days of digging on a field under air attack, and credits her with keeping some 250 men and 40 aircraft out of danger. After the war she visited wounded soldiers in hospitals; she died in 1957 and is buried in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Australian War Memorial lists a memorial to her at Herston in Brisbane. Damien Lewis's biography records a PDSA Certificate for Animal Bravery or Devotion in 2011.25
Why it ranks here: One clever job under the threat of air attack spared men and aircraft (consequence 3), and memorials in Cleveland and Brisbane keep her remembered (memory 4), but her deeds rest mostly on her owner's account, so certainty 3. She ties Marengo on 32 points and comes second because he is better known.
13 Copenhagen, 1815
- Animal
- Stallion, Wellington's charger
- Served
- Waterloo, 1815; died 1836
- With
- The Duke of Wellington
- Honors
- None official; buried with military honors
- Known for
- Carrying Wellington all day at Waterloo
Copenhagen was the Duke of Wellington's charger, the stallion he rode at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Wellington did not claim he was beautiful or fast. What he prized was staying power, which the English of his day called bottom: "there may have been faster horses, no doubt many handsomer," the duke said, "but for bottom and endurance I never saw his fellow."26
Waterloo tested that endurance to the full. According to the writer Stella Halkyard in PN Review, Copenhagen carried Wellington for about seventeen hours that day, as the duke rode up and down his line through the French attacks and on into the evening. A commander who could not move could not see, and the horse's part was to keep him moving: there is no deed of Copenhagen's own that changed the battle, and no one claims one.27
After the wars the old horse was put out to grass on Wellington's estate at Stratfield Saye. When he died in 1836 he was buried there with full military honors under a turkey oak. The grave can still be visited, together with the duke's funeral carriage. Yet few people know his name, while Marengo, the horse of Wellington's opponent, stands on show in a London museum.28
Why it ranks here: His long day at Waterloo is well attested (service 4, certainty 4), but carrying a general changed nothing on its own (consequence 2), and he is far less known than Marengo, his rival's horse, so recognition 3 holds him to 31 points.
14 Gander, 1940 to 1941
- Animal
- Newfoundland dog, about 65 kg
- Served
- 1940 to 1941
- With
- 1st Battalion, Royal Rifles of Canada
- Honors
- Dickin Medal, 2000 (posthumous)
- Known for
- Carrying a grenade away from wounded men
Gander began life as Pal, a family pet in Newfoundland. By Valour Canada's account, after he scratched a child's face his family gave him to the Royal Rifles of Canada, then stationed at Gander airport, rather than have him put down. The soldiers renamed him after the base and made him a sergeant. He became the battalion's mascot in 1940. In late 1941 the Royal Rifles and the Winnipeg Grenadiers sailed to reinforce Hong Kong, and Gander went with them.29
Japan attacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. In the fighting at Lye Mun on Hong Kong Island, Gander's Dickin Medal citation credits him with going at the enemy at least three times. One night a Japanese grenade landed near a group of wounded Canadians; Gander picked it up, ran with it toward the enemy and was killed when it exploded. The story lived on among the battalion's veterans, and the medal came almost sixty years later: it was presented on 27 October 2000, at a gathering of veterans in Ottawa, the first Dickin Medal for a Canadian animal, and it is now in the Canadian War Museum. His name is on the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall in Ottawa, and since 2015 a statue of him and his handler has stood in Gander.30
Why it ranks here: One deed under fire that saved wounded men earns service 4 and consequence 3, but he is known to few outside Canada (recognition 2) and the story rests on veterans' memories recorded decades later (certainty 3). Level with Lucca on 29 in recognition and consequence, he goes first as the older.
15 Lucca, 2006 to 2012
- Animal
- German shepherd
- Served
- 2006 to 2012
- With
- US Marine Corps; handlers Chris Willingham and Juan Rodriguez
- Honors
- Dickin Medal, 2016
- Known for
- About 400 missions without a casualty
Lucca was a US Marine Corps explosives detection dog. In six years in Iraq and Afghanistan she completed some 400 missions, working ahead of patrols to find hidden bombs before the men behind her stepped on them. NBC News reports that there were no human casualties on any of her patrols. Gunnery Sergeant Chris Willingham, who served with her in Afghanistan and later took her home, called her very intelligent and loyal, with an amazing drive for work.31
On 23 March 2012, on her last patrol, an improvised bomb went off beneath her in Helmand province. Her handler that day, Corporal Juan Rodriguez, carried her to cover, put a tourniquet on her and stayed with her through treatment and recovery; she lost a leg. She retired to California with Willingham's family. On 5 April 2016 she received the Dickin Medal at Wellington Barracks in London, the 67th award and the first to a US Marine Corps dog.32
Her story is the opposite of a legend. The count of missions, the date and place of her wounding and the names of the men who handled her all come from the Marines who were there and from the medal's citation, and nothing in it has had to be taken back. What she lacks is fame: there are no statues, no films, no famous photograph.
Why it ranks here: The best documented service on the list (certainty 5) and years of front-line patrols (service 4), but few people have heard of her (recognition 2, memory 2). She ties Gander on 29 points with the same recognition and consequence, and comes second because her service began later.
How we chose and ranked these war animals
We counted one named animal that served with an armed force in war, and judged each on what the record shows it did: Dickin Medal citations, unit records, museum files and the accounts of the soldiers beside it. Species and the millions of unnamed horses, mules, camels and elephants are not ranked here; they have their own section below the list and appear in our guides to war elephants and the greatest cavalry charges. An animal whose story rests on legend alone, such as Unsinkable Sam, the cat said to have survived three sinkings, is left out.
We considered 24 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which war animals are the most famous; service and deeds, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the animal is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of famous war animals, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Service and deeds (×2). What the animal did, under what danger, and for how long: 5 for repeated deeds under fire or years of front-line service, 3 for one deed or service the record supports only in part, 1 for a mascot that is famous for being there.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if what the animal did saved a unit or changed the course of a fight, 1 if it changed nothing beyond the men around it.
- Memory (×2). 5 if the animal lives on in museums, statues, films and books today, 1 if forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the deeds are confirmed by citations, unit records and independent witnesses, 1 if they rest on legend; a story that comes from one handler, one regiment's tales or writers centuries later scores 3 or lower.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known animal, then to the one whose deeds changed more, then to the one that began to serve first. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why Wojtek, the best known war animal in Poland, is only fourth: he was really entered on the rolls of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, but the story that he carried shells at Monte Cassino comes from his comrades' memories, so his service and certainty score 3. Sergeant Reckless tops the list for the opposite reason: she is less famous than Stubby or Cher Ami, but her 51 trips under fire are in the Marines' own records, while their best known deeds, the spy and the message that stopped a barrage, rest on stories the record supports only in part.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Service and deeds ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergeant Reckless | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 2 | Sergeant Stubby | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 40 |
| 3 | Cher Ami | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 40 |
| 4 | Wojtek | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 38 |
| 5 | Warrior | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 36 |
| 6 | Bucephalus | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 35 |
| 7 | Simon | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 35 |
| 8 | G.I. Joe | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
| 9 | Judy | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 35 |
| 10 | Chips | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
| 11 | Marengo | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 32 |
| 12 | Smoky | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 32 |
| 13 | Copenhagen | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 31 |
| 14 | Gander | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 29 |
| 15 | Lucca | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 29 |
Close calls
Five animals came close and did not make the fifteen:
Winkie, 1942. In February 1942 a damaged Beaufort ditched in the North Sea on the way back from Norway, more than 100 miles from base, and the crew could not radio their position. Their pigeon flew about 120 miles home, soaked in oil, and RAF Leuchars worked out where to search; the four men were rescued. She received the very first Dickin Medal, but few know her today.33
Comanche, 1868 to 1891. Captain Myles Keogh's horse was found badly wounded after Little Bighorn and lived until 1891; his mounted body is in the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. He was not the lone survivor of the legend, only the one living thing left on the field, and he is famous for surviving, not for anything he did.34
Traveller, 1861 to 1870. Robert E. Lee's gray, a Saddlebred gelding from the Greenbrier Valley, carried him through the Civil War, walked behind his hearse in 1870 and died the next year; he lies just outside Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia. He was a general's mount with no deed of his own, so he misses on service and consequence.35
Rags, 1918. A Paris stray taken in by Jimmy Donovan of the US 1st Division, he ran messages for the division and was wounded and gassed with Donovan in the Meuse-Argonne; so said the New York Times obituary of 1936, quoted by Rebecca Frankel in Foreign Policy, which also admitted that "apocryphal stories sprang up about him". He is buried at Aspin Hill in Silver Spring, Maryland, but is known mainly to readers of animal books.36
Rob, 1942 to 1945. This collie was on the earlier version of this page, and his Dickin Medal of 22 January 1945 is real: the citation credits him with more than 20 parachute descents in North Africa and Italy. But Quentin Hughes, a former SAS training officer, wrote in his memoir that the jumps were invented to keep the dog in the regiment. Rob misses on doubt, not on courage.37
What about the millions of horses, mules and dogs without names?
They are not ranked here, because a list of individuals cannot weigh a whole species, but they did most of the work and most of the dying. The Warrior Trust gives the usual figure of eight million horses and mules that never came back from World War I, counting every army; the War Memorials Trust's record of the London memorial counts over a million Allied horses killed. By the same record more than 300,000 pigeons carried messages in the two world wars, dogs laid telegraph lines and dug out bomb victims, canaries detected gas and glow worms lit a tunnel.38
The horse as a weapon is the subject of our guide to the greatest cavalry charges in history, and the elephant has its own in war elephants in history.
What is the Dickin Medal, and where is the Animals in War memorial?
The Dickin Medal is the bronze medal of the veterinary charity PDSA for animals serving in military conflict, often called the animals' Victoria Cross; Maria Dickin, the charity's founder, instituted it in 1943. It bears the words "For Gallantry" and "We Also Serve." By PDSA's count it has been awarded 75 times, to 38 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and 1 cat, plus the honorary medal given to Warrior in 2014. Eight of the fifteen animals on this list hold it, Warrior's honorary medal included.39
On 24 November 2004 the Princess Royal unveiled the Animals in War memorial on Park Lane in London, opposite Brook Gate on the edge of Hyde Park. Designed by the sculptor David Backhouse, it shows bronze mules suffering under their loads and a horse and a dog that have come through war into peace. Its inscription dedicates it to all the animals that served and died alongside British and Allied forces, and ends: "They had no choice."40
Why these stories still matter
War animals did not volunteer, did not understand the causes they served and could not be told why. That is precisely why soldiers remembered them: a dog that stayed, a horse that kept walking, a bird that flew on with a broken body were loyalty without politics. Their stories are told best when told straight, with the legends labeled and the numbers honest, because the truth already asks enough of anyone who reads it.
.jpg){kind=link}