Were AT-dogs actually effective?

[yeknod]

Did someone mention lap-dogs? That suggests a Finnish connection, me thinks? er, any ducks trained? Caribou, mouse?

[gatpr]

A couple of points people have used dogs in warfare about as long as the dog has been domesticated. I believe the general German response at first was to simply shoot dogs that presented themselves. Second I want cavalry too. You cannot do justice to many facets of the Ostfront without cavalry, and much of the artillery on both sides was horse-drawn. I like horseys and doggies!

[The Commissar]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gatpr:

A couple of points people have used dogs in warfare about as long as the dog has been domesticated. I believe the general German response at first was to simply shoot dogs that presented themselves. Second I want cavalry too. You cannot do justice to many facets of the Ostfront without cavalry, and much of the artillery on both sides was horse-drawn. I like horseys and doggies!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Germans used to take their dogs to battle with them in the Middle Ages. They even had special armor for the dogs (basically a coat of chain mail that fit the dog). I read this (and saw the illustration) in a book of armor the name of which I can't place right now.

Oh, and we had several horse discussions now. Steve said they would have included it had it not been such a hassle to code horses.

[Darwin]

On how the mine dogs work,

I remember seeing an illustration of their harness with a stick attached to a trigger protruding about a foot straight up from it. It looked to work more like a lever than as a push in kind of thing. Dog goes under tank, lever activates trigger, tank goes kaboom.

[Snake Eyes]

It seems that this forum is going to the dogs with all the mine dog threads. So here's an image to keep you all yapping.

[Rick614]

The topic of mine dogs always gets something going. I'll agree with Subvet and JasonC on the Kamikazes. At the time they were about the best thing the Japanese had left. I think at the peak of the attacks off Okinawa the US even thought about withdrawing the fleet until better means of dealing with them could be worked out.

Besides the damage it also forced the carriers to carry more fighters thereby reducing the number of bombers available for ground support. Then many of the SBD's and TBF's had to be used for attacking and suppressing hundreds of Japanese airfields from which the Kamikazes might originate.

I read that after Japan surrendered there were still 11,000 aircraft available to the Japanese. I'm sure most of those were less than modern but scrounge up 20 gal of gas and a 250Kg bomb for each one with a very old or very young pilot with about 2 hours of flight time and the invasion of Japan would have been very costly indeed.