Limited edition giclee fine art print of the graphite and watercolour original. Using 290gsm Hahnemuhle paper. Fully archival. Signed edition of eight and one A/P.

If framing is required, please contact Sarah: 0447 979 262

PDSA Dickin Medal recipient

Date of award: 28 January 1949

French Air Force and RAF 311 Squadron from 1939  to 1945

I was very lucky to be granted permission to reference an image of Antis & Jacqueline by Author Damien Lewis. It wasn't until I had read his biography of Antis that I learnt why he was pictured with a little girl. Damien’s book, War Dog, was based on the diary of airman Robert Bozdech, a Czechoslovakian who joined the French Foreign Legion when Germany invaded, thus gaining entry to the French Air Force. 

Robert Bozdech fled to France in 1939 when the Nazis invaded his homeland and in the winter of that year he was serving as a turret gunner in a French Air Force bomber when it was forced to crash land in the snow of French and German no-man’s-land. Bozdech stumbled across a tiny, starving German Shepherd. He hid the dog inside his flying jacket and made his escape. In the months that followed the pair would save each other's lives countless times as they fled France and flew together with Bomber Command; the puppy - which Robert named Ant - becoming the Squadron mascot along the way.

Wounded repeatedly in action, shot, facing crash-landings and parachute bailouts, it was during one such period of recovery that he was asked to care for Jacqueline, the daughter of a local shopkeeper, whose husband had been killed. She would spend countless hours exploring, with her hand tucked in his collar. He made sure she was always safe near the road and creek. 

Ant was eventually permanently grounded due to injury. Even then he refused to abandon his duty, waiting patiently beside the runway for his master's return from every sortie.  Both airman and dog survived the war, briefly returning to Czechoslovakia, only to have to flee to the UK as Russians meted out brutal reprisals on any 'English sympathisers'.

Antis died in 1953. A Czech inscription on his gravestone reads “Loyal unto death”.

Robert never owned another dog.

Award-winning author and lifelong dog lover Damien Lewis has spent 20 years reporting from war and conflict zones around the world and is intrigued by man-dog partnerships forged on the frontline.

He discovered that the amazing account of Antis and Robert’s exploits had been effectively silenced in the post-war years by threats of violence and imprisonment from the Communist government in Robert’s native Czechoslovakia on the grounds of his wartime military links with the West.

With the help of Robert’s three children and the airman’s own manuscript, Lewis was able to put together a moving, thrilling and inspirational book about a man and dog partnership.