![]() ![]() About 40,000 dogs were deployed for various tasks in the Red Army. In that period, dog training schools were mostly focused on producing anti-tank dogs. The use of anti-tank dogs was escalated during 19, when every effort was made by the Red Army to stop the German advance at the Eastern Front of World War II. ![]() Because the underparts of the chassis were the most vulnerable area of these vehicles, it was hoped the explosion would disable the vehicle. When the dog dived under the tank, the lever struck the bottom of the tank and detonated the charge. A wooden lever extended out of a pouch to about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in height. The mine had a safety pin which was removed right before the deployment each mine carried no markings and was not supposed to be disarmed. Įach dog was fitted with a 10–12-kilogram (22–26 lb) mine carried in two canvas pouches adjusted individually to each dog. This routine aimed to teach the dogs to run under the tanks in battlefield situations. The tanks were at first left standing still, then they had their engines running, which was further combined with sporadic blank-shot gunfire and other battle-related distractions. Dogs were trained by being kept hungry and their food was placed under tanks. Whereas in the first program, the dog was trained to locate a specific target, this task was simplified to find any enemy tank. The bomb was fastened on the dog and detonated upon contact with the target, killing the dog. Ĭontinual failures brought about a simplification. They performed generally well on a single target but became confused after the target or location was changed and often returned to the operator with the bomb unreleased, which in a live situation would have killed both the dog and the operator. A group of dogs practiced this for six months, but the reports show that no dogs could master the task. The bomb could then be detonated either by a timer or remote control, though the latter was too rare and expensive at the time to be used. The dog would then release the bomb by pulling with its teeth a self-releasing belt and return to the operator. The original idea was for a dog to carry a bomb strapped to its body, and reach a specific static target. In 1935, anti-tank dog units were officially included in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. German Shepherd Dogs were favored for the program for their physical abilities and ease of training, but other breeds were used as well. Several leading animal scientists were also involved, in order to help organize a wide-scale training program. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army had no dedicated dog trainers in the 1930s, so they resorted to using hunters, police, and even circus trainers. Twelve regional schools were opened soon after, three of which trained anti-tank dogs. A specialized dog training school was founded in the Moscow Oblast. The idea of using dogs as mobile mines was developed in the 1930s, together with the dog-fitting mine design. In 1924, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics approved the use of dogs for military purposes, which included a wide range of tasks such as rescue, delivery of first aid, communication, tracking mines and people, assisting in combat, transporting food, medicine and injured soldiers on sleds, and destruction of enemy targets. military started training anti-tank dogs in 1943 in the same way the Russians used them, but this training exposed several problems and the program was discontinued. Initially dogs were trained to leave a timer-detonated bomb and retreat, but this routine was replaced by an impact-detonation procedure which killed the dog in the process. They were intensively trained by the Soviet and Russian military forces between 19, and used from 1941 to 1943, against German tanks in World War II. Soviet military dog training school, 1931Īnti-tank dogs ( Russian: собаки-истребители танков sobaki-istrebiteli tankov or противотанковые собаки protivotankovye sobaki German: Panzerabwehrhunde or Hundeminen, "dog-mines") were dogs taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. ![]()
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