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Bill and Horrie : Australia's greatest war horse and war dog / Roland Perry.

Bill the bastard -- Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage and in performance and character he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go he had one serious problem. He was unrideable except by a single man, Major Michael Shanahan. Bill, it seemed, was reliable in every way including his ability to unseat men from his saddle. Some even thought he took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust. Bill the Bastard is the remarkable tale of a bond between a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together. They depended on each other for their survival. And when the chips were down, Bill's heroic efforts and exceptional instincts in battle saved the lives of Shanahan and four of his men. By September 1918, Bill the Bastard was so named, not as an insult, but as a term of endearment from the entire Light Horse force. He had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzac mounted force. There was no other horse like Bill the Bastard.

Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date Reserve
200327273 B SHAN
Biographies   Batemans Bay . . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 824783 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 824783 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
Shelf Location B SHAN
Author Perry, Roland, 1946-
Title Bill and Horrie : Australia's greatest war horse and war dog / Roland Perry.
Publication Details Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2019.
©2019.
Description viii, 337 pages, 16 unnumberd pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm.
Notes Bill the bastard -- Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage and in performance and character he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go he had one serious problem. He was unrideable except by a single man, Major Michael Shanahan. Bill, it seemed, was reliable in every way including his ability to unseat men from his saddle. Some even thought he took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust. Bill the Bastard is the remarkable tale of a bond between a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together. They depended on each other for their survival. And when the chips were down, Bill's heroic efforts and exceptional instincts in battle saved the lives of Shanahan and four of his men. By September 1918, Bill the Bastard was so named, not as an insult, but as a term of endearment from the entire Light Horse force. He had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzac mounted force. There was no other horse like Bill the Bastard.
Horrie the ward dog -- In the harsh Libyan desert in the middle of the Second World War, Private Jim Moody, a signaller with the First Australian Machine Gun Battalion, found a starving puppy on a sand dune. Moody called the dog Horrie. Much more than a mascot, Horrie's exceptional hearing picked up the whine of enemy aircraft two minutes before his human counterparts and repeatedly saved the lives of the thousand-strong contingent. The little Egyptian Terrier's ritual of sitting, barking, then dashing for the trenches, had the gunners running for cover before their camp was strafed and bombed. Where Moody went, Horrie went too, through the battle zones of the Middle East and far beyond. As the Japanese forces began their assault in Asia Moody and his soldier mates joined the fight, but not before they had smuggled Horrie onto a troop ship and a harrowing journey back to Australia where they thought their little friend would be safe. The war over, Moody brought Horrie out of hiding to raise money for the Red Cross, and the brave little dog's story became widely known. When quarantine officers pounced and demanded that the dog be put down there was a huge public outcry. Horrie had saved a thousand lives. How could a cruel bureaucracy heartlessly kill him? But defying the authorities would mean gaol for Moody and certain death for Horrie. Was Horrie, the gunner's hero, condemned to die or could Moody devise a scheme to save him?
Subject Shanahan, Michael,-1964
Australia. -- Army. -- Australian Imperial Force, 2nd (1939-1946)
Australia. -- Army. -- Desert Mounted Corps
Bill (Horse)
Horrie (Dog)
Dogs -- War use
War horses -- Australia -- Biography
Cavalry horses -- Australia -- Biography
World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Australian
World War, 1914-1918 -- Cavalry operations
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Australian.
Human-animal relationships
Australia -- Armed Forces -- Mascots
Alternate Title Bill the bastard.
Horrie the war dog.
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Catalogue Information 824783 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 824783 Top of page .