Ousseltia, Tunisia - Allied troops held the western edge of a little valley, and the Germans and Italian forces the eastern side. The battle went back and forth, with each side trying for a knockout blow. An American lieutenant and two sergeants were sent out to scout the enemy positions. After edging their way slowly to the eastern side, they suddenly spotted a pure white dog, about fifty feet ahead of them. The dog stood as silent as death. He didn't bark or growl a warning as a sentry dog would. Instead he stood there like a statue, head erect and tail straight out behind him. As if he was pointing! The silence was broken by machine gun fire, hitting one of the men, both his legs shattered. The others had to leave him. Later, a well armed patrol was sent out to find him, again near the eastern edge of the valley, the white dog appeared again. When the group finally reached the spot where the wounded man had fallen, the man was gone. To all appearances the dog had hunted him out and returned to the Germans, who found him first. Other white dogs, were later observed, in the Ousseltia Valley, where groups of three or four would prowl through the British and American positions, pointed, then returned to their line. Apparently the German snipers were using them to point the enemy! Towards the end of the African Campaign, both the German Afrika Korps and Italian armies were forced to abandon most of their dogs during their rapid withdrawal in the North African desert. It is interesting to note that while most breeds of dogs used by the Italians and Germans were found - not a trace of the mysterious white dogs was ever discovered. They had been airlifted out.

Through the 1920’s German breeders advocating for a strict wolf-like coloration breed standard constantly increased pressure within the German club to eliminate white dogs from the breeding program. In 1933 the German Shepherd Dog Club of Germany updated their breed standard to officially forbid the breeding and registration of white coat dogs or even dark coat dogs proven to have produced litters with white puppies. The Nazis so extensively employed German Shepherd Dogs in war duties during WWII that the breed was nearly extinguished in Europe at war's end. Of the few German Shepherd dogs available for breeding in post WWII East and West Germany, only the dogs thought to have no white coats in their family tree were used for breeding. The German Club has strictly enforced the “no white coats” breed standard restriction to this day. However, this left the White Shepherds of 1939 in ample supply (those not killed outright at birth) and small numbers of them were trained at Röntgental outside of Berlin between 1941-42 for use in a covert operation by the German Army. By late 1942 the dogs were ready and were secretly shipped to North Africa via Ju-52 transport to the Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK). http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/picturesm/kh3.jpg