Smokie : The Smallest War Dog

Smokie, a Yorkshire Terrier weighing only 2kg, was the smallest dog to serve in the Pacific during WW2.

Her military career began when an American GI found her, abandoned, in a foxhole on the Island of New Guinea. Her savior gave her to another soldier who sold her to a member of the U.S. Army Air Force, William Wynne, for the equivalent of about $6.50. Smokie was stuck with Wayne from then on, flying12 combat missions with the Air Force's 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. During the battle for the Philippines, she even dragged a communications cable 70 feet through an 8 inch wide pipe under an airplane runway.

After Yank magazine called Smokie the "the best mascot in the South Pacific", the tiny soldier started making moral visits to hospitals. She continued cheering up sick veterans until her death in 1957. Today a monument to this dog's achievements stands in Cleaveland