05-28-2005, 11:47 AM
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#2 (permalink)
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Banished
Join Date: 09-30-04
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From the pages of history, the Soviet Dog Mine :
Quote:
The Russian Dog Mine is described in The Book of Heroic Failures Volume I. The weapon was supposed to work as follows: The dogs were kept hungry, and they were only fed underneath running tanks, to familiarize them with the high noise level. The dogs were then trained to get used to carrying a large weight of explosives (T.N.T.) strapped to their backs and sides. In operation, the dogs would be taken to the battlefield, and released when enemy tanks were clearly visible. The dogs would run underneath the enemy vehicles, expecting to be fed, and the device would be set off with catastrophic results for the tank, and the unsuspecting animal, of course.
In actual use, the device did not work as planned. The dogs had been trained underneath Soviet tanks, and they only expected to be fed there, not underneath enemy vehicles. As a result, when they were first deployed in 1941, the dogs immediately made a beeline for the nearest Soviet vehicles. Apparently, an entire tank division had to be withdrawn from the combat zone until the infantry had shot all the uncontrollable mine dogs. The device remained in use, and Soviet sources claim that several enemy tanks were destroyed in this way at the Battle of Kursk. German sources dispute this claim, although it is known that dogs in the combat zone were shot on sight if the use of dog mines was suspected.
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