Anti-tank dog

They were intensively trained by the Soviet military forces between 1930 and 1946, and used from 1941 to 1943, against German tanks in World War II.

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.

The original idea was for a dog to carry a bomb strapped to its body, and reach a specific static target.

Whereas in the first program, the dog was trained to locate a specific target, this task was simplified to find any enemy tank.

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.

[7][8] The use of anti-tank dogs was escalated during 1941 and 1942, when every effort was made by the Red Army to stop the German advance at the Eastern Front of World War II.

Some went so far as to say that the army did not stop with sacrificing people to the war and went on to slaughter dogs too; those who openly criticized the program were persecuted by "special departments" (military counterintelligence).

[5] Out of the first group of 30 dogs, only four managed to detonate their bombs near the German tanks, inflicting an unknown amount of damage.

A captured German officer later reported that they learned of the anti-tank dog design from the dead animals, and considered the program desperate and inefficient.

A German propaganda campaign sought to discredit the Red Army, saying that Soviet soldiers refuse to fight and send dogs instead.

[3] This claim was considered propaganda by many Russian historians who believed it was meant to justify the dog training program.

At the Battle of Kursk, 16 dogs disabled 12 German tanks which had broken through the Soviet lines of defence near Tamarovka, Bykovo.

The dogs, called "demolition wolves", were taught to run to a bunker, enter it, and sit while waiting for a simulated explosion.

During the training, dogs often returned to the senders without entering the bunker or waiting there for supposed period of time which would have caused friendly casualties in a live fire situation.