Animals at War

Thought i´d join this club since I have a springer and of course they make good sniffer dogs (as above) and my grandfather was a Driver in the Kings Troop in WW1 having 2 horses to ride/drive pulling a gun carriage. We know he was at Ypres coz we have his militay medal for bravery in the field at that battle and his discharge card. I always look out for Kings Troop at shows and love the "tribute to the horse" poem that is always read out at the end of the Horse of Year Show.

The role of dogs in wars goes back thousands of years. Romans, for example, used mastiffs and (what are now) Rottweilers, not only for fighting, but also for guarding and herding !

I recently discovered that the Nazis trained birds of prey to bring down carrier pigeons used by the Allies. I also came across a memorial to these messenger pigeons in a park in, I think, Eastbourne, although I stand to be corrected on that one.

Re my post of last year (15/01/08).
Dolphins were used by the US in the invasion of Iraq.
They were flown to the Middle East - the planes were fitted with special cradles.
They were used for mine clearance dutie.
However,unlike the 1970s,the welfare of the animals was paramount.

The Dickin Medal
This is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross and was created by the PDSA in the 1940s to recognise animal service.
There have been about 60 recipients so far (it's issue has only recently been revived),the most recent being a labrador serving with the RAVC in Afghanistan.

on the whole the british are very animal friendly and show great compassion and understanding.sometimes however a person either say or does something so incredibly crass it beggars belief..such an instance occurred shortly after the falklands war in 1982.the islanders were concerned about the amount of unexploded munitions (especially landmines)and asked the government for help....a rather junior minister posited the idea that if the falklanders could identify an area known to contain explosives they could herd their sheep across it......the reaction of the local populace can well be imagined.......

Animals at war:-did you know that up to the late seventies the usa (who else,eh) were training dolphins to swim upto warships and attach mines to them.....this was achieved by radio transmitters which sent and received bleeps,whistles etc. which guided the animal to the target....the mine was magnetic and the dolphin would swim into the craft to place the device....(i'm not making this up - it was on tv some years ago...)