We investigate which animals did the most to win a war. We don't just mean animals that helped a bit – we mean animals who win a war. We don't give up until we find some amazing animal winners!

And James brings us his best animal Dad Jokes! (Are they still "Dad Jokes" if they're all James's jokes?!)

Here are 6 questions to see how well you were listening:

1. What was the main task pigeons did during wars?
2. Name different tasks that dogs did during wars
3. Why were cats useful on naval ships?
4. Which type of animal has been in the most wars?
5. Name two animals that defeated the Romans:
6. Can you explain what "Phyrric victory" means?

Three very useful websites for this episode were Legion Magazine, Live Science and the UK's Imperial War Museum

Read industry reviews of Dad's World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available on Kindle, as well as in paperback. Dad's first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

Please rate and review us wherever you get podcasts. And share our podcast on social media and recommend it to friends – that's how we'll keep going.

We'll be back on the first Monday of next month!

Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

All music is from https://filmmusic.io and composed by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sound effects used under RemArc Licence. Copyright 2021 © BBC