Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery had two dogs during the war; one a fox terrier he named "Hitler" and another, a spaniel, he named Rommel.
"Hitler" was a gift from BBC war correspondent Frank Gillard who heard Monty say he missed the animals he had with him in previous campaigns. Looking to fill the hole in Monty's life, Gillard cast about for a dog.
Normandy was not a terrific location for dogs right after D-Day, but Gillard managed to hear of a coastal village where a Frenchman had three young fox terriers. They had already been promised to buyers, but in the chaos following D-Day the reserve owners (probably Germans) had moved on with the war front. Gillard bought one of the young terriers and presented it to Montgomery as a gift from the BBC reporters attached to his armies.
For some reason, all dogs born in France in 1944 had to have names beginning with “S,” and this dog's name had been “Selijc”. Monty changed the name to "Schickelgruber" the putative maternal name of Adolph Hitler's grandmother. Around camp, however, the dog was called "Hitler".
Oddly, the real Adolph Hitler also had a fox terrier story. You can read that here.
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| July 26, 1944 |
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