In ancient and modern Wars between China and abroad, there are many examples of "animals assisting in warfare." Until now, many countries have taken advantage of some animal characteristics to study and train animal soldiers to adapt to increasingly complex modern warfare. During World War II, the U.S. military packed bats in a box and installed small detonators on them and dropped them over Japan.
The use of military dogs in war is still very common, and they often carry out search and rescue, mine clearance, tracking enemy and other tasks on the front line. The picture shows the military dog of nazi Germany, dressed in a similar way. To say that the most legendary military dog of World War II is, of course, the "Smoki" of the fighting nation. According to statistics, "Smoki" participated in 12 battles, won the "Battlefield Star" medal 8 times, and it also survived 150 air raids and experienced Typhoon Okinawa. As an Allied "warrior", "Smoki" participated in airborne combat operations, using parachutes to airdrop to the rear of the Japanese army like paratroopers. Pictured here are allied soldiers and his military dogs.
Act as a scout's chicken
During the First World War, anti-chemical warfare experts found that chickens are very sensitive to poisons, and chickens will have obvious reactions when there are trace amounts of agent molecules. So the military scientists took advantage of this characteristic of the chicken to bring it to the battlefield.
In the Gulf War, although the multinational forces were equipped with a large number of high-tech and modern chemical detection and alarm equipment, they still drew on the characteristics of chickens that are more sensitive to harmful gases than humans and other small animals, and recruited a large number of live chickens to "charge the army." Their main task is to act as "anti-chemical warfare scouts". Experiments have shown that chickens are much more sensitive to quick-killing nerve agents than humans. When a chicken is poisoned to death, soldiers can quickly take protective measures to protect them from poison. Such measures can effectively help chemical detection and alarm equipment to issue "chemical attack alerts" in a timely and accurate manner, and to calibrate the false alarms that modern instruments may have.
The toad array is mighty
In the summer of 1943, the enemy of the jiaokou stronghold, which had been besieged by our military and civilians for a long time and starved their stomachs, pulled a car of sickles and sacks from Qinyuan County, and they wanted to grab the wheat. How can we hold the enemy back and defend the people in our base areas to harvest summer grain? At the joint meeting of the Second District Round Warfare Team and the Eighth Route Army held in Zuoping Village, according to Commander Chen Geng's instruction to "put the enemy in exhaustion," everyone studied and let the toads out of the battle.
The night before the enemy was about to set out for food, they had just fallen asleep when they were awakened by the "croaking" around the stronghold. The devils were helpless and used machine guns and rifles to beat them up. However, before he could get into the bed, the toad, frightened by the sound of the gunshots, woke up and cried out even harder. No way, the devil had to get up again and shoot... In this way, the devils rest, the toads cry, the toads rest, and the devils make trouble. (Hahahahaha) stirred up the devil's eyes all night. The next day, seeing the people harvesting wheat not far down the mountain, the devil was sleepy and sleepy. It turned out that this was the toad array of the villagers and the Eighth Route Army. They caught strings of toads, shoved peppercorns into the throats of the toads, and then threw them around the devil's stronghold, and the toad, stimulated by the pepper, screamed all night, making it impossible for the enemy to sleep. The enemy came out to catch the toad, and the militia hung mines on the toad's legs, so that the devils did not even dare to come out of the nest.
Seagulls take the lead against submarines
During World War II, Britain and Germany fought a submarine war in the Atlantic. Although german submarines had excellent performance and were very good at concealing themselves, the British were always able to detect and preemptively attack in time, resulting in heavy losses for German submarines.
It turned out that as early as the beginning of the war, a British submarine captain named Thomas began to study how to deal with German submarines. One day, Major Thomas stumbled upon a large flock of seagulls scrambling to forage for food on the surface of the sea not far away, floating from the submarine. At this time, a bold plan was formed in his mind. So, as long as the submarine was cruising, Major Thomas ordered the soldiers to continuously throw food on the surface of the sea, and every time the food was thrown, there were always a large number of seagulls competing for food on the surface of the submarine. Over time, even if food is not applied, the seagulls will follow and circle on the surface of the sea, waiting for food, even if they find the dark shadow of the submarine moving in the sea.
At first, Major Thomas's men did not understand, and they complained of wasting a lot of food. But Major Thomas laughed and still went his own way, though he also knew that in wartime, food was very precious. After more than a month, German submarines were at sea and challenged British submarines. Major Thomas gave the order to the soldiers: "As soon as there are seagulls on the sea, it can be concluded that there are German submarines there and should attack immediately!" ”
Only then did the soldiers understand Major Thomas's "bitter heart." In this way, seagulls became the "anti-submarine radar" of the British army. The British, with the help of seagulls, sank dozens of German submarines.
American Dolphin Soldiers
Dolphins, the intelligent animals of the ocean, have particularly developed orientation, localization and sensory organs. The United States has been training dolphins for military activities. In the 1960s, the U.S. Navy first used dolphins to find flags and instructor mines. The U.S. Navy-trained bottlenose dolphin distinguishes one metal strip from another, and the dolphin identifies whether it is a friendly or enemy ship based on the metal strip on the submarine. If it is an enemy ship, dolphins carrying mines will attack it.
In the early 1970s, the U.S. Navy formed a dolphin task force to conduct covert military operations in the Gulf of Vietnam. Under the command of the tamers, the dolphins conduct underwater searches in designated areas, and as soon as they find armed underwater personnel, the dolphins immediately signal to the trainers. The bottlenose dolphin has a knife tied to its snout and a bottle with a needle and anesthetic on the snout. When the dolphins spotted the underwater spy, they swam desperately, attacked with knives and needles, made the opponent faint, and then pushed him to the surface of the water.
In 1973, a dolphin code-named "spy" in the U.S. Navy sneaked into a harbor in the former Soviet Union and attached a miniature detector to the bottom of a former Soviet nuclear submarine. A few weeks later, the dolphins retracted the meter and successfully detected information about the submarine's fuel.
The "whale soldiers" did not quit
During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy successfully domesticated a group of whales to perform dangerous underwater missions, such as searching for and recovering various test-launched torpedoes, missiles, lost instrumentation, and tracking submarines. These military whales can come and go in both shallow and deep seas, are as fast as light speedboats, and have done many difficult tasks with excellence.
Just when the U.S. Navy was complacent about this, a "meritorious" whale suddenly "said goodbye" in an exercise with more than $500,000 worth of instruments and devices. After studying, experts believe that the overloaded maneuver is the main reason for the whale's "desertion". However, this incident did not affect the implementation of the US Navy's "military whale program".