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Found a tribute vid to Russian antitank mine dogs


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I don't speak Portuguese, by it's not close enough to Spanish I can muddle through to some degree. Though there are a few images which simply aren't right, this vid has more info than I've ever seen on the mine dogs. It's got the "how it works" placard, the mine dogs in a long column with their handlers, mine dogs in gas masks, even color movie footage apparently shot at Kursk, with the dog fully loaded and barely controllable by the soldier in his slit trench. No extra charge for the wrong front Yorkie in a GI helmet which appears several times in this tribute. The text talks about how many dogs served, how many died and their purported kill count.

 

 

Regards,

 

John Kettler

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Its a good thing that Ivan Pavlov died before he could see this perversion of his groundbreaking studies on animal behavior.

 

Using animals that have far better uses than blowing themselves up under a tank shows the desperation of the Soviets as the Germans advanced through their country.

 

Clearly however, suicide dogs did not have a strategic impact on the war in the East, and as always it was determined men and women who fought and died to defeat the Nazis.

 

This vid would have been better left unfound John.

Edited by Nidan1
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Sequoia,

 

If "usou" is "used," then I believe the information is that 40,000 mine dogs were employed/scarified in battle, for a combat yield of 300 German tanks. Additionally, I believe that figure is for 1941-1942.

 

Nidan1,

 

The dogs weren't just used as mobile antitank mines, as seen in the ones with Red Cross markings, but that was their primary job. They also made excellent guards and aided in patrols and such. I get this vid distresses you, doesn't make me happy, either, but this is part of the history of both military technology and WW II. f you read Bellamy's Absolute War and see what extremes the Russians went to with their own people and troops, it makes a lot of sense. According to the History Channel video excerpted from "Weird Weapons," the original scheme didn't involve the destruction of the dog. That came after the original approach was found not to work. The effectiveness number is grotesquely low: 0.48%.

 

Also, I don't know whether you're aware that the US had no less than three programs in development during the war, two of which used creatures as guidance systems, and the third as a delivery platform.

Project Pigeon

 

Cats as bomb guidance

 

http://www.oddee.com/item_91684.aspx

 

Project X-Ray (Bat Bomb)  Worked great, but some bats went to wrong place and burned up the general's staff car and a brand new hangar.

 

 

Work now extends into such areas as mine finding rats in Mozambique ( find mine, scratch ground, UXO person deals with mine), camera equipped rats for rescue work and radio controlled cockroaches.

 

Regards,

 

John Kettler

 




 

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Its a good thing that Ivan Pavlov died before he could see this perversion of his groundbreaking studies on animal behavior.

 

Using animals that have far better uses than blowing themselves up under a tank shows the desperation of the Soviets as the Germans advanced through their country.

 

This vid would have been better left unfound John.

 

Better uses for dogs? In a war where millions of human lives were thrown away like trash?

 

Amazing how people will praise a soldier for sacrificing himself in battle, but if a dog dies to destroy an enemy tank, oh, it's a tragedy...

Edited by Bulletpoint
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Better uses for dogs? In a war where millions of human lives were thrown away like trash?

 

Amazing how people will praise a soldier for sacrificing himself in battle, but if a dog dies to destroy an enemy tank, oh, it's a tragedy...

You're obviously not a dog lover :mellow: . You miss read my intentions, I was highlighting the desperation of the Soviets using dogs against tanks in WW2. I was not praising, nor favoring animals over humans. Maybe if they had spent their time and effort developing a weapon like the Panzerfaust or the Bazooka.....hmmmmm we will never know.

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