In Afghanisatn and Iraq (the troops have moved out but the dogs are still there protectingRAF) there are attack dogs that are serving the British Military unlike sniffer dogs these dogs will not have a retirement they will be put down as soon as they are found to be too old for the job.

No effort will be made to re-habilitate them. These dogs are often procured from Dog shelters,

We should be concentrating on these serving dogs rather than worrying about rememberance.

Most, if not all of the liberating troops were conscripts as well, so perhaps Gordy will need to apologise to them as well.

Remember the animals?

Yes, that's right, they should be absolutely remembered, but most folk don't care a cuss that those poor innocent souls suffered. For poxed up wars they didn't create! Using animals for warfare is really evil!

Shitbags moan about the ferral pigeons being fed, but pigeons saved many lives during wars by carrying vital coded messages for the military. The only medal some arseholes are willing to give them is one of starvation, plus sheer persecution and non-thanks!

The British Army did not use horses after the 1920s or early 1930s, other than for ceremonial duties (of which there were none in wartime). Neither did the allied armies use horses, at least after the German invasion. The Poles did not try and attack tanks on horseback after they had been occupied in 1940. The axis armies did use horses though, despite claims of the superiority of German armies by those with little knowledge, due to a lack of petrol.

The allies probably did use dogs, though not on the front line. There is a famous photograph of a naval beachmaster with a dog on the beaches of Normandy, he has featured in films too, but it was his pet dog. Any dogs would have been pets and were more likely to have been on ships than with army units, at least the front line army units.

I imagine the allies had a few pigeons, for use in case communications broke down totally, but I don't know if any were taken ashore.

Lynn Sawyer slaughtered while fox hunting!!

Shame on you animal murderer!!!

Would the apology be in French or English? What about the animals enslaved by the Germans? Aren't they owed an apology? Maybe certain units were less enslaved than others, having latent nazi sympathies... They should have been interned at the end of the war, so Gordon Brown should apologize to us for not doing so. I know a few staffies who'd leap at the chance to defend the Fatherland...
You started it.

"Animals who were in effect slave labour (they were forced to go and had no choice about their involvement)."

The horses and pigeons yes. The dogs, well that's more problematical.

There two senses in which true. If the person didn't take the dog along into battle, the dog wouldn't be there. That's one sense. The other is embedded in the very nature of the dog as a "pack predator" who instead of being a canid in the wild (whose pack mates would be other canids) has identified it's humans as its pack.

Of that sense did you mean because "instinct" (interinsic proper responses of a dog) that the dog wasn't choosing? Because the dog didn't know and wasn't thinking about the consequences? Of course in some sense the dog IS "choosing" --- if you are walking down the street with your dog and somebody jumps you perhaps a "yapper" chooses to just bark instead of suicidally joining the fray in "common pack defense" -- and sometimes an unusually timid larger dog will do likewise. But NORMALLY the dog would "choose" to go with its person and if it comes to a fight, to fight alongside.

PLEASE -- that's not intended as in any way, shape, or form intended as a justification of the use of dogs in war. Perhaps precisely because we know the consequences and they don't. But please, the dog isn't being a "slave", a machine with no will of its own. In other words, all I am objecting to here is disrespect being shown to the dogs, in this case acting according to their natures (as a "good pack member" should).

Nor have I written to Gordon Brown. Whilst the animals abused in war continues at Porton Down and wherever humans try and kill one another there are rays of light such as soldiers rescuing stray dogs. I am far more concerned about weapons testing today and war today than what happened 65 years ago, although I agree that the animals should be remembered too as they are at the beautiful war memorial in London.
My grandfather was one of the first soldiers on the Normandy beaches, the first thing that happened was that he was splattered with his best friends guts. I am not impressed by someone trying to mislead others by pretending to be me especially concerning D day which haunted my grandad until he died.
Whoever you are maybe use your own name next time unless we share the same name of course!

Can someone supply proof of the eventual fate of the dogs the RAF use, this seems a strange thing as I know of several soldiers setting up refuges for dogs in the area and getting army vets to assist.

Er... which liberating troops were conscipts? Are you getting the wars in Afgan mixed up, easy to do.

As for Brown trying to be nice to animals, of course, he has to be....his government is full of sheep.

Bit late wiv the animal caring stuff lynn me old mate,wot about when we were digging out foxes eh?Not to be trusted.