A parachuting dog serving with a Lancashire unit is among the service animals to be remembered for frontline D-Day duties.

An Alsatian-collie cross called Brian was seconded to the Army War Dog Training School after his appetite could not be sustained on wartime rations.

Brian - codenamed 'Bing' for military service - was posted to the 13th Lancashire Parachute Battalion and completed a two-week training course with their scout and sniper unit.

In all, he completed seven parachute jumps but his last would be as part of Operation Varsity during D-Day.

The largest airborne operation ever conducted in one location on a single day, 16,000 paratroopers dropped with a mission to establish a bridgehead across the River Rhine for the Allied advance.

'Bing' or Brian was later presented with the PDSA's Dickin Medal for outstanding valour in the field.

Jan McLoughlin, the PDSA's director general, said: "Brian's D-Day jump didn't quite go to plan. He had to be cut down from a tree."

But fellow paratrooper Sgt Ken Bailey saved his life and the pair fought together over the next few months.

Brian remained on active duty in occupied Germany after the war but was eventually reunited with his family and would live until 1955.

He was presented with his Dickin Medal on March 29, 1947, with the citation: "For excellent patrol work and qualifying as a paratrooper, Airborne Division, Normandy, June 1944."

He is buried alongside fellow Dickin Medal recipients at the PDSA animal cemetery in Essex.

The medals went to 38 dogs, 32 carrier pigeons and one cat and is regarded as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

Jan added: "Recipients of these medals hailed from the most dangerous war zones and D-Day was certainly one of them. Hopefully these stories will shine a light on the role animals play in war."

Thousands of pigeon fanciers handed over their birds to serve as wartime messengers, relaying orders and delivering news.