This is an Anti-Tank Dog. It is basically a dog, strapped with explosives and trained to go under enemy tanks. A trigger was strapped to a dog's body so that when the dog goes under a tank, the trigger will be pushed and the bombs strapped to the dog will explode. This means sacrificing the dogs. This idea of weaponry was used by the Soviets. When the idea came up, the Soviets started training dogs to go under enemy tanks. The training includes starving the dogs and putting meat under tanks so that they are familiar with what they have to do. Although it is effective against tanks, it uses animal cruelty and is not acceptable. The usage of animal is what makes the weapon unique
The weapon isn't cruel as the animal died instantly when the weapon detonated. In any case, the number of animals killed in war up until the end of WWII is staggering. In the gunpowder era onward, cavalery horses were slaughtered at a ratio 5-7 horses killed (usually not killed out right but wounded, suffered for hours until the end of the battle when they were euthanized) for each rider.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Civil War, Lawrence Chamberlain, refused name his horse because he knew their lifespan in battle was measured a couple of hours at most.
All that is without counting the animals who were simply riden to death because of the need for units to move faster than horses could sustain. Others died of starvation from lack of fodder and animals suffered from disease outbreaks when crammed together in armies just like the humans did.
On the Eastern front, horses mounted units were still used in combat and the ratio of deaths of riders and mounts was usually on the order of 1 to 5 or five horses killed for every rider made a casuality. Contrary to German and Soviet propoganda, most of the movement on the eastern foot was on foot and most logistics went by horse cart. Those animals were bombed, straffed and had their lower legs, usually just one, blown off by anti-personel mines.
Dogs were used extensively by all combatents. There were guards, trackers, and mine detectors. Their ration of handlers to animals deaths was 1 to 3 in US Army and many K-9 handlers suffered psychological damage from having their beloved animals and companions killed. It's still a problem in the military and police.
The tank dog-bomb failed owing to an oversight in its training. German tanks used diesel while Soviet tanks and other allied tanks used gasoline. They trainers made the mistake of training with Soviet tanks disquised as German but forgetting that dogs were more scent driven than sight. The dogs thought they were trained to attack tanks that smelled of gasoline. The result was that they either ignored German tanks or worse, attacked Soviet tanks.
Of course, there are other stories. No information that came out the Soviet Union, especially in the era of Stalin, can be trusted.