"A little-known aspect of the 'Miracle of Dunkirk’ in 1940 was the number of animals 'adopted’ by retreating British troops...." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10370534/Operation-Dynamo-the-dogs-of-Dunkirk.html
Extract from BLITZKREIG, by Robert Wernick. "Many of the men on the beaches had pets. But most of the skippers, like Captain R Hughes of the personnel ship Killarney (the ship on which my father was evacuated), felt obliged to lay down the law against animals. Some of the soldiers, concluding that their pets would starve to death, used their last ammunition to shoot them before leaving the beach". Gus
