[Carruthers]

Army dog Chips gets PDSA Dickin medal for bravery during invasion of Sicily

A US army dog who ambushed a machinegun post in the Second World War and met Winston Churchill has been posthumously awarded the equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

More than seven decades after his life-saving charge up a beach during the invasion of Sicily, Chips, a Husky-German Shepherd cross, was recognised with a PDSA Dickin Medal in London yesterday.

The dog and his handler, Private John Rowell, were in a platoon that landed ashore under the cover of darkness on July 10, 1943, as part of Operation Husky.

Chips landed on a beach in Sicily with his handler, Private John Rowell, before charging the machine gun post.

The US soldiers were immediately attacked by an enemy machinegun team hidden in a nearby hut. As they dived for cover, Chips broke free from his lead. He rushed at the hut “with ferocious intent” and entered despite the barrage of gunfire, according to Private Rowell’s account.

The dog grabbed at the machinegun by the barrel and pulled it off its mount. “There was an awful lot of noise and the firing stopped,” his handler said. “Then I saw one soldier come out of the door with Chips at his throat. I called him off before he could kill the man.” Three other enemy soldiers emerged with their hands up. Chips was treated for a scalp wound and powder burns.

Details of his heroics were uncovered by Robin Hutton, a history writer. She nominated him for the medal. “The various efforts made by his regiment to decorate Chips for his actions sadly failed, so I am utterly thrilled that he has been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal,” she said.

Chips was also a sentry at the Casablanca conference in Morocco in January 1943, at which Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt mapped out the war’s next phase, and he met both leaders.

Chips’s medal was accepted by John Wren from New York, whose family donated him to the war effort, and Ayron, a military working dog.

Jan McLoughlin, the director general of PDSA, the animal charity, said Chips was a “very deserving, heroic dog” who was recruited from a family in 1942, then deployed during the Second World War and who “undoubtedly” saved military lives.

“It has taken over seven decades but Chips can now finally take his place in the history books as one of the most heroic dogs to serve with the US army,” she said.

The medal was awarded at the Churchill War Rooms. John Wren, 76, whose father donated Chips to the war effort, was four when the dog returned home, a day he remembers vividly. He travelled from his home in Long Island, New York, for the presentation. “If you look at what he did, it was pretty unbelievable,” he said.

Chips is the 70th recipient of the medal. Since its creation in 1943 it has been won by 32 other dogs, 32 Second World War messenger pigeons, four horses and a cat.

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PDSA Dickin Medal. Please take a few minutes to read the Roll of Honour.