The interview with Britain's most famous prisoner of war was in short supply. Judy had told the BBC listeners all sorts of things: She was stationed in the Far East, had survived shipwrecks during the Second World War, defied hunger and guards' fury in Japanese captivity, survived the construction of a "death railway" and also killed many of her fellow prisoners saved.
But when Judy stepped in front of the microphones of the popular radio show "In Town Tonight" in June 1946, she lacked in expressiveness. Instead of heroic war stories only a short barking sounded - for she was an English pointer. A dog with a unique selling point: Judy was the only animal that has been officially recognized as a prisoner of war until then, but also since then.
As a mascot on the British gunboat "HMS Grasshopper" Judy got into the Second World War in Southeast Asia. The Pacific War had been raging since 1937 and also caught up with the United Kingdom, at the latest with the Japanese attack on Singapore, the impregnable "Gibraltar of Southeast Asia" in January 1942. The city's defense lawyers led by British officers had little to counterbalance the impact of the attack and suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Singapore on 15 February.
Escape seemed the only way out. Laden with evacuees from Singapore, however, hit the "Grasshopper" on Japanese bombers. Under massive fire, Commander Jack Hoffman gave up the ship: all the crew aboard, the women first. No one thought of the dog in the chaos. It was not until the ship had run aground and individual soldiers returned in search of supplies that they discovered the whining Judy, trapped under an overturned locker.
"She jumped like a wild beast"
Judy was saved - and soon herself to the savior. The survivors made it to Posic off the eastern coast of Sumatra. Her relief quickly gave way to panic: drinking water was scarce, no source to find. Until a soldier heard loud barking from the beach. "Judy, weeping excitedly, started digging in the wet sand, the soldier curiously pursued her until all at once clear water sprang up," author Edgar Varley wrote in 1973 in his book "The Judy Story" Dog with the six lives ".
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War Animal: Dogs, do you want to live forever?For weeks, the stranded in search of salvation through Sumatra's dense jungle. In vain. Most came as Japanese prisoners of war to the camp Gloegoer Medan. A meeting there was to mark Judy's life: everyone was starving, but Air Force technician Frank Williams gave her his entire rice ration - and Judy did not leave him.
The bitch brought rats or snakes to the camp, for the prisoners a welcome extra meal. In addition, she proved to be a guardian angel, as the prisoner of war Les Searle later Varley reported: When a sack of rice were stolen, set the Japanese to inspect the accommodations - on discovery of thieves threatened severe punishments.
"Certainly Judy has registered the tension," Searle said, "and she knew exactly what to do, and she knew, like all of us, that the Japanese were deeply scared of everything connected with death So it can not be a coincidence that Judy jumped into the room like a wild beast, putting on her ears, her eyes red-hot, a human skull between her teeth. " The raid was forgotten, the anger of the guards on Judy immense.
Murderous drag in the jungle
This dog was for the men to protect from the shots of the guards. Frank Williams put it all on one card: one night, with one of Judy's puppies, he sought out the accommodation of camp head Hirateru Banno. Williams knew that the Colonel had a relationship with a village beauty in the area, love testimonies were therefore welcome. With the puppy and lots of negotiating skills, he persuaded Banno: Judy was officially a prisoner of war, her number was 81A Medan. This status, Williams hoped, should provide Judy with a minimum of protection.
In 1944, the Japanese dissolved the camp and transported the remaining prisoners north with an old cargo ship. "Hellships" were called the bartered barges: Thousands of prisoners were crammed here for weeks, with little food, water and oxygen, heat and enormous stench.
Because of a lack of special labeling, it was not uncommon for Allied submarines to hunt down their own people. Also, the ship of Frank Williams and Judy, the "Harukiku Maru", did not reach the port of destination - two torpedoes of the British "HMS Truculent" hit it on the morning of June 26.
In the fight against drowning, Judy's great hour proved to be a "fantastic lifesaver," as marine veteran Leonard Walter Williams later recalled in an interview with the Imperial War Museum. "She brought wreckage to men who could not swim, and a lot of people owe her life." Only then was Judy pulled out of the water, "more dead than alive," said an eyewitness to journalist Robert Weintraub. "She had sacrificed herself for the salvation of the men themselves."
Williams and Judy stayed another year in Japanese captivity. As with the railway through Thailand, known by the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai", the prisoners also had to lay tracks in Sumatra through the jungle and later called it the "Pekanbaru Death Railway". Because on the route was built in front, buried in the back: In the murderous drag died nearly 700 prisoners of war and more than 100,000 Indonesian forced laborers, so-called Romushas.
"Frank and Judy were never separated"
Among the survivors were Williams and Judy, who had at least been able to alleviate the hunger of humans with animals shot down and brought by her. The dog and the master came free on August 15, 1945, nine days after the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and six days after the bombing of Nagasaki.
50,000 Britons had been captured by Japanese prisoners of war, Judy was known among them like no other and now got a lot of fans in the British military. And in the UK anyway. As the only animal she was officially a member of the Association of returned prisoners of war. Also the Dickin medal of the British animal welfare organization PDSA was sure, an award for animals, which served in the war. And three military orders on top of that.
When the Second World War, unleashed by Nazi Germany, was finally over, there was a great public interest in heroes' stories, which could also provide comfort in these devastations. Stories of brave animals were popular, whether by military dog Judy, the soldier's bear Wojtek or the ship's cat "Unsinkable Sam", who defied every fall.
It was not always possible to verify the truth in detail - it is already possible that the veterans inflate some animal acts into fantastic things. For Judy, however, the abundance and consistency of eyewitness testimony suggests that she was exactly what she is still celebrating today: a savior with deserving heroic status.
Much more, it meant the man who had adopted her in the camp. The prisoner of war Tom Scott recalled in conversation with author Varley, "Frank and Judy were never separated, they lived for each other." Without Frank, Judy would have definitely died-a broken heart. "
When both were in East Africa, where Williams began to work after the war, a tumor ended Judy's life in 1950. After that, Frank Williams should never have a dog again until he died 53 years later.