World War 2 Talk - View Single Post - Anti-tank dogs

Bodston · 28-01-2008, 09:03 PM

Dogs against tanks
The following article by German war correspondant Fritz Lucke reporting from German headquarters east of Bryansk, appeared in the November 1st 1941 issue of the Berlin newspaper the Berliner Lokalanzeiger:
Even our chief divisional officer could not believe the report. At the crack of dawn he rang up the orderly on duty, getting him out of bed to ask whether we thought this was April Fools Day; after all he said, he should understand a soldiers joke as well as the next man, but really, this was supposed to be a military report.
The incredible news was true word for word: Suddenly a number of dogs had come running along the narrow field path toward the foremost of our vehicles. A few yards away they veered off, ran back the way they had come, wagging their tails, then returned towards us. On their backs they were carrying jutting cases fastened on with a harness. This was a strange and suspicious business and our soldiers did not know what to make of it. The Company leader made the only decision he could. The men took tommy guns, rifles and pistols and shot the animals. When the corpses were examined - the dogs were grey Shepherds and brown Dobermans - it turned out that the boxes on their backs contained two explosive charges each but the mines had not been primed, the pins had not been pulled. . .
No doubt about it, the Soviets believed that these trained mine-dogs were actually a weapon they could use to fight German tanks. They called the commando dogs by the highfalutin name "destroyers." Back at the end of July, Soviet soldiers who had been taken prisoner, said they had been called to Vishnyaki 9 miles outside Moscow, where they were assigned to the 2nd Army Destroyer Detachment. There were about 235 men to a detachment, each equipped with one dog and one rifle. The detachments were combined to form a "destroyer battalion" totalling 500 men.
Training of the dogs began with towing vehicles. Meat was used to entice the dogs underneath the vehicles. In the next "class", pieces of meat were held out to make the animals along under a standing tractor form one end to the other. These exercises lasted about five days. Then they were repeated using a slow-moving tractor. During the 40-day training period the tractor was replaced by a tank. Exploding firecrackers were tossed out of the tank, and blanks fired from rifles, to accustom the dogs to the noise of battle. . .
But they failed to reckon on the honest soul of a dog, who, like any other animal, will run away from a tank in a serious battle. The behaviour of the mine-dogs proved it, and our Soviet prisoners confirmed it too. Two of the three companies in their detachment were to be deployed for the first time along our sector of the river. But most of the dogs had not been properly tarined and only a very few crawled under the moving tanks. On top of that, many dogs were gun-shy and ran away from the exploding firecrackers. The breeds were all mixed: any breed that could be confiscated was used.
Three beautiful canine specimens are now lying peaceably at our feet, accepting every morsel of bread with a wag of the tail. They have no notion what fate their "dear masters" had in mind for them. We asked which of the three had been the aptest pupil. One of our prisoners pointed to the german Shepherd in the middle, a light-grey male. We are taking him along - he'll make a fine divisional mascot!

28-01-2008, 09:03 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bodston Very Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: just around the corner Posts: 1,424	Woof, woof. Bang Dogs against tanks The following article by German war correspondant Fritz Lucke reporting from German headquarters east of Bryansk, appeared in the November 1st 1941 issue of the Berlin newspaper the Berliner Lokalanzeiger: Even our chief divisional officer could not believe the report. At the crack of dawn he rang up the orderly on duty, getting him out of bed to ask whether we thought this was April Fools Day; after all he said, he should understand a soldiers joke as well as the next man, but really, this was supposed to be a military report. The incredible news was true word for word: Suddenly a number of dogs had come running along the narrow field path toward the foremost of our vehicles. A few yards away they veered off, ran back the way they had come, wagging their tails, then returned towards us. On their backs they were carrying jutting cases fastened on with a harness. This was a strange and suspicious business and our soldiers did not know what to make of it. The Company leader made the only decision he could. The men took tommy guns, rifles and pistols and shot the animals. When the corpses were examined - the dogs were grey Shepherds and brown Dobermans - it turned out that the boxes on their backs contained two explosive charges each but the mines had not been primed, the pins had not been pulled. . . No doubt about it, the Soviets believed that these trained mine-dogs were actually a weapon they could use to fight German tanks. They called the commando dogs by the highfalutin name "destroyers." Back at the end of July, Soviet soldiers who had been taken prisoner, said they had been called to Vishnyaki 9 miles outside Moscow, where they were assigned to the 2nd Army Destroyer Detachment. There were about 235 men to a detachment, each equipped with one dog and one rifle. The detachments were combined to form a "destroyer battalion" totalling 500 men. Training of the dogs began with towing vehicles. Meat was used to entice the dogs underneath the vehicles. In the next "class", pieces of meat were held out to make the animals along under a standing tractor form one end to the other. These exercises lasted about five days. Then they were repeated using a slow-moving tractor. During the 40-day training period the tractor was replaced by a tank. Exploding firecrackers were tossed out of the tank, and blanks fired from rifles, to accustom the dogs to the noise of battle. . . But they failed to reckon on the honest soul of a dog, who, like any other animal, will run away from a tank in a serious battle. The behaviour of the mine-dogs proved it, and our Soviet prisoners confirmed it too. Two of the three companies in their detachment were to be deployed for the first time along our sector of the river. But most of the dogs had not been properly tarined and only a very few crawled under the moving tanks. On top of that, many dogs were gun-shy and ran away from the exploding firecrackers. The breeds were all mixed: any breed that could be confiscated was used. Three beautiful canine specimens are now lying peaceably at our feet, accepting every morsel of bread with a wag of the tail. They have no notion what fate their "dear masters" had in mind for them. We asked which of the three had been the aptest pupil. One of our prisoners pointed to the german Shepherd in the middle, a light-grey male. We are taking him along - he'll make a fine divisional mascot! __________________ My mother told me, I never should, play with the gypsies in the wood.