The Dog Who Could Fly by Damien Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

German shepherd’s typically muscular physique. All the Czech airmen won his affection but there was only ever one master. When Robert was eating, Ant remained at his side patiently awaiting his turn. When Robert went to sleep, Ant curled up on the bottom of his bed and woe betide any intruders.
    It was so cold that January and February of 1940 that the airmen’s main preoccupation was keeping warm. The seven Czechs occupied one room in a blockhouse near the airfield and they slept in their greatcoats. Robert had the luxury of bedding down with Ant, a canine hot-water bottle with a fur lining. He was the only man never to wake with frozen toes.
    Ant was quick to learn new tricks, and one in particular always drew a laugh. He became a one-dog welcoming party, greeting the Czechs as they returned from training flights or routine patrols by holding out his right front paw and “shaking hands” with each man in turn.
    But this false peace couldn’t last. On May 10, Robert and his friends heard battle commence at first light on a cloudless morning.German tanks thrust forward toward the French positions, heavy fire heralding the arrival of enemy bombers. French and Czech aircrew scrambled for their Morane fighters and the sky filled with raging dogfights. Six of the German bombers were brought down, but the euphoria was short-lived, as wave after wave of Panzer battle tanks punched through the French lines.
    A plan was afoot for Robert’s squadron to bomb a group of nearby bridges, in an effort to hold up the German forces massing there. Their Potez 63 bombers were the finest the French Air Force possessed, and all fourteen of them were ready for action, their crews raring to go. But the tension of waiting to be ordered into the air was unbearable, and when Robert spotted a soccer ball lying by one of the hangars, he proposed a quick kick-about to lighten the mood.
    He booted the ball hard at Karel, who flashed a bright smile, trapped it deftly under his right foot, and kicked it back even harder. But it was now Ant’s turn to shoot out from under the shade of a tree to intercept. The two men passed the ball to and fro, while Ant chased it down with relentless determination and unbeatable speed. In time soccer would prove Ant’s favorite game, but all of a sudden the adolescent dog wasn’t in a playful mood anymore.
    Robert glanced up from the ball to see his young dog standing stiff-legged and staring at the horizon, hackles up and growling, just as he had done as a tiny puppy when two unidentified intruders had crept into his farmhouse. Robert scanned the skies to the southeast and could see nothing, but moments later the air-raid siren sounded.
    Ant’s early warning had just been confirmed: they were about to face a savage onslaught from the skies.

Four

    Ant proved to have a miraculous ability to sense enemy warplanes long before they were detectable by the human eye and ear, and sometimes even by radar.
    R obert yelled for Ant to follow him. He turned to run, only to realize that for the first time ever since their chance meeting the dog had refused to obey. He seemed rooted to the spot, barking defiantly as a large formation of Dornier Do 17s powered into view. The Dorniers were known as “flying pencils,” because they were so sleek, thin, and difficult to spot, and by the time you saw one it would be almost upon you.
    Before they knew it, the first of the Luftwaffe’s warplanes swooped in low and released its bombs. It scored a direct hit on one of the hangars,which exploded with a terrifying roar, shattered planking and galvanized iron spinning into the air. Two sharp blasts followed as the fuel tanks on one of the Potez fighter-bombers went up. A fireball punched above the roof, red-hot shards of metal raining down on the airmen.
    Robert dived forward, bundled up his gangly dog into his arms, and sprinted hell-for-leather toward the far edge of the runway. The reverberations of the explosions were accompanied