Horrie The War Dog

In 1945 Ion Idriess published his book Horrie the Wog-Dog.
In 2103, Roland Perry published this book - Horrie the War Dog with the slightly more politically correct title.

There are some spoilers in my review below, but I have tried to be discrete. The basics of Idriess' book are spelled out in the blurb of Perry's book (I have no blurb on Idriess' as my copy has no dust jacket).

Both books tell the same story - of a few month old Egyptian Terrier puppy found in the Libyan Desert in 1941 by Private Jim Moody a dispatch rider in signals platoon of the 6th Div 2/1st Australian Machine-Gun Regiment. While out training on his motorcycle with his fellow dispatch rider Don Gill, they spotted the skinny white puppy with the stub tail hunting lizards in the rocks.

Befriending it, and taking it back to camp, their fellow platoon members, whose nickname was ‘The Rebels', generally because of their history with trouble - AWLs, discipline and general scruffiness.
First they had to come up with a name. Many were discarded, but wog-dog was a popular choice (Wog being the Aussie slang for Bedouin, or Arab - despite not being very PC), but they needed something more - “We cannot insult him with such a name. How about adding ‘Horrie', a good old Aussie name. ‘Horrie the Wog-dog”.

And both books go on to describe the actions of the dog, who becomes a mascot for the platoon, but also very helpful - taking messages, guarding their belongings from light fingered Bedouin, but perhaps most invaluably - proving an early warning of air raids.

The books also share some of the hijinx the men get up to, including how they manage to smuggle Horrie from country to country, and the other army and navy mascots they come into contact with.

The major undertaking, of course it bringing Horrie back to Australia. This is incredibly challenging as you can imagine if you have ever seen Australian Border Control on TV. While the men achive the smuggling of Horrie into Australia, the Customs Office eventually catch up with Jim Moody and he is compelled to turn Horrie over, for quarantine offers to ‘assess'.

This is where Idriess' book ends. Perry's book, written well after the passing of all the central characters (Jim Moody in 1979), has a significant addition to the story, which is outlined only in a spoiler tag below.

Perry has a chapter called "Horrie's" Execution and another called Hoax of the Century. These allude to the fact Moody allegedly obtained a dog of similar looks to Horrie from the pound, and it was this dog that the Quarantine officials executed (I say executed, because their methods were not such that euthanising is a good description!) in Horrie's place. Horrie was smuggled to a friend with a farm in country, and lived out many more years. .

When it comes to ratings, it is reasonable to consider the different styles and benefits each author had.

Idriess was commissioned by Angus & Robertson to take the diaries Moody had submitted to them and turn them into a narrative. It is not fiction, and ‘mostly' accurate, but he has used a lot more conversations in the writing than Perry, who perhaps maintains a little more personal distance from the story, and uses far fewer direct conversations.

Idriess is not particularly well portrayed in Perry's book. Idriess is blamed for encouraging Moody to go public with Horrie, which Perry says is purely to drive sales of the book. Perry indicates Idriess says that war memoirs are flooding the market and without a media circus the book will likely fade into the background. Idriess says public opinion and media support will prevent the government agencies from taking the hardline action on Horrie that Moody fears. This of course in not the case.

Idriess' book - 4 stars.

Perry of course has a much longer perspective with his book. He is able to use all the legwork Idriess did in writing his book and as both are based on Moody's diaries, they are very similar. Events (even chapters) occur in the same order, have very similar chapter breaks and contain identical anecdotes (with one exception - the captain of the US ship that returns them to Australia - quite differently written - although the reason is Idriess changed the facts to simplify Horrie's arrival in Australia). Perry has the follow up events, and the media circus which brings more to light, and he has some direct reporter inputs from after the fact.

Perry's book - 5 stars.

If you are a dog person, and have the oportunity to read either book, I would happily recommend you do so. If you can only obtain the Idriess book, have a go at some internet research once you have finished the book.