10 Badass War Heroes You've Never Heard Of‏

8. Rags The Terrier

So the Churchill Club get overlooked by the history books because they're a couple of punk kids, and Benjamin Lewis Salomon was some lame dentist, but there's plenty of other war heroes that we totally forget about because we're all racist. Or, er, speciest. Is that a word?

We're saying that there are dozens of animal soldiers that have fought in various wars across the combat-strewn annals of human history, and they deserve just as much praise as their bipedal comrades. Well, not as much, but they definitely deserve some recognition. Even the dog from the Dambusters with the racial slur for a name. Much more palatable was Rags the mixed terrier, who was happened upon by AWOL American soldier James Donovan in World War I-era Paris. When the military police turned up Donovan managed to avoid a court martial by claiming Donovan was the lost mascot of the US 1st Infantry Division that he was off looking for.

That bluff worked so well that Rags actually got adopted by the troops and was trained to run messages between across enemy lines, providing early warning of incoming attacks. That was after Donovan tried to leave him behind in Paris, worried for the dog's safety, and it somehow managed to track him down in the trenches. This pooch was so badass it wanted to fight in the war! Or Donovan just gave him particularly good tummy rubs.

Besides risking his life dodging bullet fire and mortars to run messages, he also began to predict when bombs were coming thanks to his sensitive ears. There's no telling how many lives Rags saved, especially when his final message run was done whilst being bombed, gassed and partially blinded. Dang.