Dogs Tank Destroyers movie is called. Anti-tank dog (movable mines)

Tank destroyer dogs brought real terror to the Nazis. A dog hung with explosives, trained not to be afraid of the clang of armored vehicles, was a terrible weapon: swift and inevitable. In the spring of 1942, in the battles near Moscow, the mere appearance of dogs on the battlefield sent several dozen fascist tanks to flight.

At first it was a living weapon. The mine explosion also killed the dog. But by the middle of the war, mines were designed that could be unhooked under the bottom of the vehicle. This gave the dog a chance to escape. Sabotage dogs also undermined enemy trains. They dropped a mine on the rails in front of the locomotive and ran away under the embankment to their conductor.

Kamikaze dog units existed in the Red Army until October 1943. It is believed that they destroyed about three hundred German tanks. But many more four-legged fighters were killed in battles. Many of them did not even have time to throw themselves under the tracks and died on the way to the goal. They were shot from machine guns and machine guns, they were blown up... even their own (a dog with a mine on its back that did not complete the task was dangerous).

In the late autumn of 1941, during the battle of Moscow, an event occurred that was not noted in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but earned the right to be included in military chronicles. A group of fascist tanks trying to attack the Soviet line turned back when they saw... dogs rushing at them! However, the Nazis’ fear was completely justified - the dogs blew up enemy tanks.

The report of the commander of the 30th Army, Lieutenant General Dmitry Lelyushenko, said: “... In the presence of massive enemy use of tanks, dogs are an integral part of anti-tank defense. The enemy is afraid of fighter dogs and specifically hunts for them.”

The operational report of the Sovinformburo dated July 2, 1942 stated: “On one of the fronts, 50 German tanks tried to break through to the location of our troops. Nine brave four-legged “armor-piercers” from the fighter squad of Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Shantsev knocked out 7 enemy tanks.”

Memoir of a veteran (V. Malyutin)

Recently, having read in the newspaper,

05/05/2017, 10:00

During wars, animals always fought side by side with people. First world war the main burden fell on the horses - historians suggest that about eight million horses remained on the battlefields at that time. But not only they fought - pigeons, cats, mules fought...

And during the Great Patriotic War, dogs came to the fore.

They walked the front roads together with people, shared a trench and rations, worked and fought. During the war, over sixty thousand dogs were drafted into the army. Purebred dogs fell into the ranks of signalmen, saboteurs, sled dogs and ambulance dogs, but mongrels got the most terrible fate- demolitionists.

Today, on the eve of the great Victory Day, we heartily congratulate all our veterans and, remembering their feat in the fight against terrible evil, we talk about those who helped them. About dogs.

The history of dogs in the ranks of the Red Army began in 1919, when cynologist Vsevolod Yazykov, the author of many books on dog training, approached the Red Army Headquarters with proposals on the principles of organization service dog breeding in the Red Army. Five years later, on August 23, 1924, the Order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR No. 1089 was issued, according to which a Central educational and experimental nursery school for military and sporting dogs “for the purposes of reconnaissance, communications, guard and sanitary services and guarding military warehouses."

Nikita Yevtushenko was appointed the first head of the school. The nursery was named “Red Star”. The center gave impetus to the creation of service dog breeding clubs in the OSOAVIAKHIM system, the predecessor of DOSAAF and ROSTO.

A few months later, nurseries were created in Ulyanovsk, Smolensk, Tashkent and Tbilisi.
At first, the Red Army experienced a large shortage of service dog breeding specialists. Therefore, it was necessary to involve criminal investigation officers, hunters and even circus trainers.
To popularize the “dog business,” the first All-Union exhibition of sniffer dogs and dogs was held in September 1925. guard breeds, in which cadets of the Central Nursery of the Red Army demonstrated a “battle” with a smoke screen and shooting.

In 1938, Vsevolod Yazykov fell under the rink of repression, but it was his scientific methods that formed the basis of the theory and practice of service dog breeding in the army, border and internal troops.

By the beginning of 1941, the Red Star school was training dogs for 11 types of services. The Germans stated with envy that “nowhere were military dogs used as effectively as in Russia.” By the beginning of the war, there were over 40 thousand of them registered in OSOAVIAKHIM clubs, and by the end, the Soviet Union took first place in the world in the use of dogs for military purposes.

By the way, with the beginning of the war, the Moscow regional and city dog ​​breeding clubs sent about 14 thousand of their pets to the front line. The Kazan, Gorky and Tambov clubs also took an active part in recruiting special units.

Where did the club's pets serve?

From 1939 to 1945, 168 separate military units were created that used dogs. On the fronts there were 69 separate platoons of sled detachments, 29 separate companies of mine detectors, 13 separate special detachments, 36 separate battalions sled detachments, 19 separate battalions of mine detectors and 2 separate special regiments. In addition, 7 training battalions of cadets from the Central School of Service Dog Breeding periodically participated in combat operations.

Demolition dogs

They were officially called “tank destroyer dogs” and were adopted into service in 1935.

Today this idea seems scary, but war has its own logic. The life of an animal is cheaper than the life of an infantryman. The dogs were put on special universal packs, into which one or two anti-tank mines TM-41 with pressure-action fuses equipped with an elongated metal “antenna” pin. The leader threw the dog out of the trench from a short distance, releasing it directly onto the tank or at a slight angle to the direction of its movement. A dog, trained to find food under the noise of a running tank engine, quickly reached the tank, fell into a dead zone and threw itself under it. The rod clung to the armored hull, pressed on the fuse, and the mine was instantly detonated.

There were also release mines - the dog climbed under the tank, contact with the bottom triggered the release mechanism, the mine fell to the ground and went off, and the dog managed to escape. Unfortunately, drop mines were difficult to install and therefore ineffective. Most of the fighter dogs died along with the tank.

How were they trained?

No normal animal in its right mind would crawl under a rattling iron box. The dog was not fed for several days and was taught that food could be found under the tank. Then they attached a mock-up of an explosive device to her back and taught her to crawl under the tanks with it, while they were given meat from the bottom hatch of the tank. After that, we were taught not to be afraid of moving and shooting tanks.

The dogs were trained to avoid shelling from tank machine guns, for example, to crawl under the tank not from the front, but from the back. At the same time, in combat conditions, the dog was kept from hand to mouth, and when the tanks approached, they attached a real explosive device to it, removed the fuse and released the dog towards the enemy tank.

The Germans called our dogs Hundeminen (“mine dog”) and did not like them very much. The fact is that the tank machine gun was located quite high and had difficulty hitting a fast running dog. The Germans began to use nets under the bottom, which were supposed to prevent the dogs from climbing under the tanks, however, as already mentioned, the dogs went around the tanks from behind. The German command ordered every soldier to shoot any dog ​​that appeared in sight. Even Luftwaffe fighter pilots were ordered to hunt dogs from the air. Over time, Wehrmacht soldiers began to use flamethrowers mounted on tanks against dogs, this turned out to be enough effective measure resistance, but some dogs still could not be stopped.

In July 1941, in the battles near Chernigov in the army of Lieutenant General Lelyushenko, demolition dogs blew up 6 German tanks, and in the Dnieper region - almost 20 vehicles. According to the recollections of German soldiers, in October 1941, on the outskirts of the city of Karachev, a dog blew up the lead tank of a German armored column.

The report of the commander of the 30th Army, Lieutenant General Lelyushenko, dated March 14, 1942, said: “During the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, the enemy tanks launched into the attack were put to flight by the dogs of the destruction battalion. The enemy is afraid of anti-tank dogs and specifically hunts for them.”
The operational report of the Sovinformburo dated July 2, 1942 stated: “On one of the fronts, 50 German tanks tried to break through to the location of our troops. Nine brave four-legged “armor-piercers” from the fighter squad of Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Shantsev knocked out 7 enemy tanks.”

On the Leningrad Front, in a special-purpose battalion commanded by Major P. A. Zavodchikov, dogs with explosives in a special pack were trained to make their way through the passages in the barbed wire that the Germans left for defectors on our side. Once in the enemy's position, the dogs ran into bunkers, rushed at the doors of bunkers, dugouts and other shelters, where they smelled people, touched a wall or door with a fuse and detonated a mine.

On July 24, 1942, troops of the 17th German Army took Rostov-on-Don after stubborn two-day battles. However, during the capture of the city, a company of anti-tank dogs managed to destroy 24 tanks.

The four-legged demolitionists especially distinguished themselves during the defense of Stalingrad. So, in the 62nd Army the 28th separate detachment service dogs under the command of Major Kunin destroyed 42 tanks and 2 armored vehicles, and the special detachment of Senior Lieutenant Shantsev destroyed 21 tanks.

And July 6, 1943 on the second day Battle of Kursk On the Voronezh Front, in the defense zones of the 52nd and 67th Guards Rifle Divisions, dogs blew up three tanks, the rest turned back. In total, during that day, tank destroyer dog units blew up 12 tanks.

In total, during the war, according to Soviet sources, more than 300 enemy tanks were knocked out by dogs.

However, by the middle of the war, dogs were no longer used in anti-tank warfare. There were several reasons - German soldiers learned to fight them, dogs that were trained using Soviet tanks, they made mistakes on the battlefield, were frightened by unfamiliar German tanks, ran back and, as a result, blew up Soviet vehicles. The number of Soviet tanks also increased, the infantry was armed with anti-tank weapons, and dogs were no longer thrown under the tanks.

But their service was not over.

Sled dogs

It is almost impossible to get a wounded man out of the battlefield. Young nurses, under enemy fire, had to find a wounded man, help him and pull him out of the battlefield, and even his weapon. At the same time, the speed of movement with the wounded is minimal, and his life depends on his quick delivery to the medical unit.

And here the orderly dogs came to the rescue. They formed sledding and sanitary teams. They carried seriously wounded people from the battlefield under enemy fire and transported them to battalion or regimental medical stations, and on return flights they delivered ammunition, medicines, and equipment to the frontline units. In winter, loads were carried on light sleds, in summer on drags or simply on stretchers placed on wheels.

Dogs were used where no other vehicle could reach - in swamps, forests, and deep snow. On all fronts, from the Black Sea to the North Sea, about 15 thousand teams of sled dogs worked. They marched with our army from the Volga to Berlin and took 700 thousand wounded soldiers and officers from the battlefield and delivered 5862 tons of ammunition to the front lines.

History has preserved the names of team leaders Kozlov, Rudkovsky, Kravchenko, Polyansky. From December 1941 to May 1945, orderly Khotulaev, on a team of 4 dogs, removed 675 wounded from enemy fire and transported more than 18 tons of combat cargo to the front lines. His dogs were well trained: they could not only run fast, but also crawl and dash without a leader. Junior Sergeant Pomenskikh carried out 726 wounded and 29 tons of combat cargo on his team.

And private Dmitry Trokhov, on a dog sled led by the husky Bobik, took 1,580 wounded from the front line over three years. He was awarded the order Red Star, three medals “For Courage”. As a rule, a human orderly who carried 80 people from the battlefield was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

“Because of the heavy fire, we, orderlies, could not get to our seriously wounded fellow soldiers,” recalled orderly Sergei Soloviev. “The wounded needed urgent medical attention, many of them were bleeding. There were only a few minutes left between life and death... Dogs came to the rescue. They crawled up to the wounded man and offered him his side with a medical bag. They waited patiently for him to bandage the wound. Only then did they go to someone else. They could unmistakably distinguish a living person from a dead one, because many of the wounded were in unconscious. The four-legged orderly licked the face of such a fighter until he regained consciousness. In the Arctic, winters are harsh, and dogs have more than once saved the wounded from severe frosts - they warmed them with their breath. You may not believe me, but dogs cried over the dead.

In total, during the war years, about 2 million wounded were transported by dog ​​sleds from the battlefields.

Mine detection dogs

Dogs are indispensable when searching for explosives. No sensor can compete with them. During the war, dogs, together with sappers, were engaged in clearing mines after the enemy had left and looked for charges during front-line operations when our troops were advancing.

The dogs were able to find mines not only in a metal case, but also in a wooden one, which was not detected by a mine detector. The efficiency of the sapper's work with the dog increased several times. In December 1941 alone, sappers with mine detection dogs discovered about 20 thousand mines and landmines.

And Sergeant Malanichev’s group managed to neutralize 250 mines at night, near the enemy, with the help of dogs in just two and a half hours of hard work.

From reports of the Northwestern Front:

“The use of mine-detecting dogs has great importance in the work of engineering units. The presence of dogs reduces explosions of personnel during mine clearance. Dogs are completely cleaned minefields without missing mines, which is impossible to do when working with a mine detector and probe. The dogs search for mines of all systems: domestic mines and enemy mines, metal, wood, cardboard, filled with various types of explosives.”

From the directive of the Chief of Engineering Troops Soviet army on all fronts:

“When examining routes, the speed increased to 40-50 km per day compared to the previous 15 km. “On none of the routes checked by mine-detecting dogs was there a case of undermining of manpower or equipment.”

In total, during the war years, over 6 thousand dogs were trained for mine detection work, which neutralized over 4 million mines. Dogs cleared mines in Belgorod, Kyiv, Odessa, Novgorod, Vitebsk, Polotsk, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin. The total length of military roads checked by dogs was 15,153 km.

The most famous dog of the war years is, of course, Dzhulbars, who became a legend. He served in the 14th assault engineer brigade and alone discovered more than 7 thousand mines and 150 shells. From September 1944 to August 1945, he went on a voyage through Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria, where he discovered 7468 mines and more than 150 shells. We can say that Julbars has seen the world - he cleared mines from palaces over the Danube, the castles of Prague and the cathedrals of Vienna . He also helped in demining the grave of Taras Shevchenko in Kanev and St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv.

And on March 21, 1945, for the successful completion of a combat mission, Dzhulbars was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.” This the only case during the war, when the dog received a military award.

There is a beautiful legend about Julbars. At the end of the war, he was wounded and could not take part in the Victory Parade in Moscow. Major General Grigory Medvedev reported this to Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who commanded the parade, and he informed Joseph Stalin. They say that Stalin ordered the dog to be carried across Red Square on his jacket.

The worn jacket without shoulder straps was delivered to the Central School, where a tray was built. And at the Victory Parade, the commander of the 37th separate mine clearance battalion, Major Alexander Mazover (remember this name), marched fighting dog along Red Square.

Another famous mine-detecting dog is the Leningrad collie Dick. His personal file states:

“Called into service from Leningrad and trained in mine detection. During the war years, he discovered more than 12 thousand mines, took part in demining Stalingrad, Lisichansk, Prague and other cities.”

Dick accomplished his main feat in Pavlovsk - he discovered a two and a half ton landmine with a clock mechanism in the foundation of the palace. There was only an hour left before the explosion.

After the Great Victory, the legendary dog, despite multiple wounds, was a repeated winner of exhibitions, lived to a ripe old age and was buried with military honors.

Signal dogs

The dogs did explosions, searched for mines, and rescued the wounded. And they also established communication. And communications, as you know, are the most important component of success in any military operation. The enemy always tried to bring out communication lines, and it was the signalmen who had to drag the wire under enemy fire. And here the dogs came to the rescue.

From a report from the headquarters of the Kalinin Front:

“Six communication dogs replaced 10 messengers, and the delivery of reports was accelerated by 3-4 times. Losses of dogs, even with high density enemy artillery and mortar fire are very insignificant (one dog per month).”

Signal dogs easily passed where a person had difficulty moving. When dogs were used when it was completely impossible to use other means of communication, they delivered all reports and orders in a timely manner, even to the wounded. For example, Sergeant Akimov’s squad, consisting of four counselors with dogs, delivered more than 200 combat documents to a sector of the Northwestern Front.

Under gunfire and artillery fire, through impenetrable forests and swamps, messenger dogs delivered more than 200 thousand documents to companies, battalions and regiments and laid 8 thousand kilometers of telephone wire.

From a report from the headquarters of the Leningrad Front:

“6 communication dogs used by the 59 joint venture (42nd Army) replaced 10 messengers, and the delivery of reports and orders from the SB CP to the companies and combat outposts accelerated 3-4 times.”

There is plenty of evidence of the heroism of signal dogs. So, near the city of Vereya, 14 dogs maintained contact with the guards regiment, which found itself behind enemy lines. East European Shepherd Asta, carrying a report on which the fate of the regiment depended, was mortally wounded. But, bleeding, she managed to crawl to the target and deliver the report. The German sniper shot through both ears of the messenger dog Alma with the first shot, and shattered the jaw with the second. And yet Alma delivered the package.

And the Airedale terrier Jack saved an entire battalion from certain death. For three and a half kilometers under intense fire, he carried an important report in his collar. He ran to headquarters wounded, with a broken jaw and a broken paw, delivered a package and fell dead.

Mink dog in the most difficult conditions and for short term delivered 2,398 combat reports, and a dog named Rex - 1,649. In 1944, during the liquidation of the Nikopol bridgehead, the dog Jack delivered 2,982 combat reports, and maintained contact between units, crossing the Dnieper, was wounded several times, swam across the Dnieper three times, but always got to his post. And on the Leningrad Front, the dog Dick delivered 12,000 reports.

Dogs are saboteurs

The first saboteur dog was the shepherd Dina. At the Central School of Military Dog Breeding, Dina completed a tank destroyer training course. Then, in the battalion of mine-detecting dogs, Dina acquired a second specialty - miner, and then mastered a third profession - saboteur.

She took part in the “rail war” in Belarus. In the fall of 1943, she successfully completed combat mission: jumped onto the rails in front of the approaching German military train, threw off the pack with the charge, pulled out the igniter pin with her teeth, rolled down the embankment and rushed off into the forest. Dina was already close to the miners when an explosion occurred, blowing up the train.

The brief summary stated: “On August 19, 1943, on the Polotsk-Drissa stretch, a train with enemy personnel was blown up. 10 cars were destroyed, a large section was disabled railway, a fire spread throughout the entire area from the explosion of fuel tanks. There are no losses on our side."

For her training, Lieutenant Dina Volkats was awarded the Order of the Red Star. At the end of the war, Dina distinguished herself twice more during mine clearance in the city of Polotsk, where in one of the cases she found a surprise mine in a bed mattress in a German hospital. After the war, Dina was assigned to the Museum of Military Glory.

Guard dogs and intelligence dogs

Guard dogs worked in combat guards, in ambushes to detect the enemy at night and in inclement weather. Without raising a voice, they alone, by pulling the leash and turning their torso, indicated the direction of the impending danger.

For example, the guard shepherd dog Agai, while on combat guard duty, detected German soldiers 12 times who were trying to covertly approach positions Soviet troops.

And the dogs of the reconnaissance service accompanied the scouts behind enemy lines, helped to pass through his advanced positions, discover hidden firing points, ambushes, secrets, and helped to capture the “tongue”. Smart dogs worked quickly, clearly and silently.

Such scouts were the dog Jack and his guide, Corporal Kisagulov. Together they accounted for more than two dozen captured languages, including an officer captured inside the heavily guarded fortress of Glogau. The corporal was able to penetrate the fortress and leave it with the prisoner past numerous ambushes and security posts only thanks to the dog’s scent.

Dogs still help our military today in the fight against crime, help search for drugs, neutralize terrorists, protect civilians, and help prevent crimes. It is gratifying that dogs today have many more tasks that do not involve risk to life. And all this is only thanks to the feat of our soldiers, whose Victory we celebrate in these bright and sad days.

Story

The decision to use dogs for military purposes was made by the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR in 1924.

In 1930, a student of a military dog ​​breeding course, Shoshin, proposed using dogs against tanks, and the platoon commander of the 7th Signal Regiment, Nitz, gave the proposal a technical justification. In 1931-1932 The first tests were carried out at the Ulyanovsk district school of service dog breeding. Later, tests were continued at the Saratov Armored School and the camps of the 57th Army in Transbaikalia, and in 1935 at the Scientific Research Armored Test Site in Kubinka.

Tank destroyer dogs(official Soviet name) were put into service in 1935.

In the second half of 1941, under the leadership of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences N.M. Reinov, fuses of a new design were developed to equip anti-tank dogs

One of the Soviet military units for training such dogs in the 40s was located in the area of ​​the Moscow region village of Novo-Gireevo (now Novogireevo district of Moscow), where the Central School of Junior Specialists in Service Dog Breeding was created. After the war, this unit was finally relocated to the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region.

The dogs that survived by the end of the Great Patriotic War were given the honor of taking part in the Victory Parade on Red Square.

Training

The dog was not fed for several days and was taught that food could be found under the tank. Next, the dog was attached to a mock-up of an explosive device and trained to crawl under tanks with it; " they were given meat from the bottom hatch of the tank" Finally, they taught us not to be afraid of moving and shooting tanks.

They were also taught, when approaching a tank, to avoid shelling from tank machine guns; in particular, they were taught to climb under the tank not from the front, but from the back.

Application

In combat conditions, the dog was kept from hand to mouth, and at the right moment a real explosive device was attached to it - about 12 kg of TNT, according to other sources - “ from 4 to 4.6 kg with needle detonator"; immediately before use, the safety catch was removed and the dog was released towards the enemy tank. The mine exploded under the relatively thin bottom of the tank. The dog died in this case.

Efficiency

According to Soviet sources, up to 300 enemy tanks were knocked out by dogs.

Dogs posed a problem for the Germans, since the tank machine gun was located quite high and had difficulty hitting a dog moving quickly near the surface of the ground. The German command ordered every soldier to shoot any dog ​​that appeared in sight. Even Luftwaffe fighter pilots were ordered to hunt dogs from airplanes.

In addition, dogs were used by terrorists to blow up American convoys during the Iraq War.

In art

The poem of the same name by the Volgograd poet Pavel Velikzhanin is dedicated to tank destroyer dogs.

see also

Notes

1. Anti-tank mobile mine
2. “Donetsk Ridge”, No. 2352 dated 11/24/2006
3. Igor Plugatarev. Anti-terror dogs. // magazine "Soldier of Fortune", No. 8, 2006, pp. 10-15
4. G. Medvedev: From the history of military dog ​​breeding
5. « Fuses for dogs of a special design were made at the Physico-Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences under the guidance of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences N. M. Reinov»
   City-front engineering troops. Collection of memoirs of veterans of engineering troops. Ed. Lieutenant General Engineer F. M. Grachev and others. L., Lenizdat, 1979; pp.293-301
6. Nursery “Red Star” today. Photos from the museum
7. Victor Suvorov, book “Special Forces”.
8. USSR. Landmine, Antitank, Dog Archived October 21, 2007. (English)
9. Yu. G. Veremeev. Anti-tank dog (movable mines) // website “Anatomy of the Army”
10. « two days later, General Nehring's 18th Panzer Division was less fortunate. The 9th company of the 18th tank regiment made its way to the northern outskirts of the city of Karachev and stopped on the field. At that moment, the tankers saw two shepherd dogs running across the field with “saddles” on their backs. “What’s that on their back?” the radio operator said in surprise. “I think they are bags with reports. Or are they ambulance dogs,” the shooter suggested. The first dog dived directly under the lead tank - an explosion occurred. Non-commissioned officer Vogel was the first to understand what was happening: “Dog!” - he shouted. - Dog!". The shooter fired from his P-08, and tank No. 914 fired a burst of machine gun fire. The animal, as if tripping, flew over its head... In Soviet historiography nothing is written about this diabolical weapon, but it existed and was used.»
    Paul Karel. Hitler goes to the East. Eastern front. Book I. From Barbarossa to Stalingrad. 1941-1943. (translated by A. Kolin). M., EKSMO, 2009. pp.147-149

In 1942, the USSR began training dogs to blow up German tanks.

End of 1942, Stalingrad. The frosty silence is broken by the roar of German tanks moving towards enemy positions. Suddenly, a dog with some object on its back appears in front of the lead car. The observer in the lead machine does not attach much importance to it. You never know what stray dogs are walking around here. Meanwhile, the dog rushes headlong under the bottom of the combat vehicle. A few moments later, German soldiers watch in amazement as the tank explodes and a stream of fire bursts out from under its tracks. A specially trained dog with a mine tied to its body blew up another German tank.

Although the above incident is a figment of the imagination, during the war between the USSR and Germany, German armored forces often had to deal with unusual four-legged enemies. These were specially trained dogs that carried canvas bags with TNT and threw themselves under enemy tanks, which were blown up as a result. Soviet soldiers they were called bomb dogs, and the Germans called them anti-tank dogs. These kamikaze dogs acted solely in obedience to the conditioned instinct inherent in them, without even suspecting what cruel fate was in store for them.

You can read about all this in the book “100 Most interesting stories Second World War" (Las 100 mejores anécdotas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial), which is another re-edition of the work of historian and journalist Jesús Hernández, first published in 2003.

Dogs for every purpose

The idea of ​​using dogs on the battlefield was born in the USSR in 1924, although initially their functions were completely different and consisted of searching for wounded people in the snow and detecting mines laid in the ground by the characteristic smell of the explosives they contained. The possibility of delivering messages to various military units using “four-legged friends of man” was also considered, although this was later abandoned due to the many inconveniences that such use of dogs entailed, in particular, the dog being caught by the enemy or returning to its owners.

Knowing the capabilities of the dogs, Soviet trainers decided to have these animals deliver TNT charges under the lower part of the tank, which is the most vulnerable due to the thin armor. This was not an easy task, but if it was solved, it was possible to begin practicing techniques for detonating charges under the bottom of the tank.

How conditioned reflexes were instilled in “anti-tank” dogs

To get dogs to perform this task, Soviet trainers drew on the research of Ivan Pavlov and Edward Thorndike, creators of the conditioning and instrumental conditioning theories. The first says that during training, a new conditioned stimulus can trigger a strictly defined reflex reaction. This reaction is associated with physiological reflexes of the body (the smell of food causes salivation), which can be changed. The second theory speaks of the need to strengthen behavior through reinforcement if the animal correctly performs the assigned task.

On this basis, training began. “The dogs were not fed for several days, and then allowed to eat under the bottom of the tank with the engine running,” writes historian and journalist Jesus Hernandez. Thus, the very sight of tanks caused the dogs to salivate, since they associated them with eating. But Soviet trainers wanted the animals to run towards the tanks, and this required additional effort.

“Although the training was originally based on Pavlov's theory of conditioning (engine noise and tanks being associated with food), in reality it was more about instrumental conditioning. If we analyze the course of training, we will see that the animal is expected to act after a possible automatic reaction of salivation after hearing the noise of a tank engine. This is a different type of learning, in which not only emotional reflexes are involved, but also musculoskeletal system, responding to a signal sent nervous system to perform some action (find a tank to find food under it),” Jaime Vidal and Elisa Hinojosa, employees of the dog training and education center, explain in an interview with ABC.

The dog training method proved to be effective and continues to be used to this day. “Nowadays, when training dogs, we often use both training methods. We use the conditioned reflex to create the necessary emotional foundations that would allow us to associate training with calmness, confidence, joy, etc. It is an excellent tool for establishing a bond between handler and dog and enhances the dog's predisposition to learn, train and work. On this basis, we develop behavior change with pleasant consequences (instrumental conditioning). We teach how to perform actions in exchange for a treat,” experts emphasize.

The dog is like a living bomb

Having achieved that the dogs rushed towards enemy tanks, Soviet trainers decided to hang bags of TNT on the animals, which were supposed to be detonated under the tank using a clever mechanism. The idea was for the animal to pull a rope or metal ring tied around its neck with its teeth to release the explosives to the ground and return to its owners. And they will detonate the charge using a remote fuse. The task was extremely difficult, but the trainers knew that if successful, they could avoid many hours of work and considerable expense in creating minefields, which often left only small scratches on enemy armored vehicles.

Experts argued that this idea was quite possible, although it would require many hours of intense training. “It was completely achievable. The dog remembers the action and repeats it because it has a pleasant consequence (in this case, a treat). When the dog understands what he needs to do to get the treat, then gradually you can give him this treat further and further from the scene of action. The metal ring is the lever that provides access to food. If receiving the treat and the action itself are shared more and more in time and space, the dog eventually begins to understand: “I need to go there, pull the ring, and then run back and get the food,” Vidal and Hinojosa say.

Dog trainer Esteban Navas shares the same opinion, although with some reservations: “It is possible that during training the dog will pull the ring and run away. But it is very important to distinguish between training, when all factors work to ensure that the exercise is completed, and the situation of a real battle, when screams and noise can frighten the animal.”

Desperate measures of the USSR at the beginning of the war with Germany

Yet the training did not lead to the desired results, since the animals did not always pull the ring or rope, which should have led to the release of explosives. More time was needed, and that was precisely what was in short supply after June 22, 1941, when Germany began to implement its Barbarossa plan and invaded the Soviet Union.

In those years german army accumulated great experience combat operations, was distinguished by determination and excellent organization. And yet its main factor was the armored units, which terrified, since it was thanks to them that the Germans were able to implement the plan of the so-called lightning war, or blitzkrieg, the tactics of which consisted in the rapid advance of armored units, as a result of which a short time managed to capture vast areas of enemy territory in a short time.

Despite the apparent simplicity of this form of warfare now, it must be admitted that the Red Army at that time did not have enough weapons to hold back the onslaught of tanks. And the Red Army soldiers had to use hand grenades that were not very suitable for these purposes, PTRS-41 anti-tank rifles that were not very effective, and artillery guns, which were in short supply.

It should also be taken into account that the Nazis managed to capture most territory of the USSR with the resources located on it. Then the Soviet command decided to change tactics and use specially trained dogs to blow up tanks. The fuse went off exactly at the moment when the dog, finding itself under the bottom of the tank, pulled the ring, dying itself.

“This experiment began in the fall of 1941 near Moscow, when dogs began to be trained there to blow up tanks. It was assumed that the dog would die while completing the task,” says American historian Steven J. Zaloga in his book “The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.” .

“It was decided to attach explosives to the dogs’ backs. In the combat zone they were released near German tanks. Animals rushed to the tanks, hoping to find food under their bottoms. Upon contact with the lower part of the armored vehicle, the detonator was activated, followed by an explosion,” explains Hernandez.

Personnel?

As Hernandez rightly notes in his work, these dogs instilled fear in the Germans by their mere appearance. One of the first to encounter these unusual kamikazes was Colonel Hans von Luck, a famous tank ace with many victories to his name. Even he was taken aback.

“One day, when we were about to leave one of the villages, a dog rushed towards us, wagging its tail and howling. When we tried to catch her, she rushed under the tank, and a few seconds later there was a strong explosion. The car was damaged, but fortunately did not catch fire. We rushed to the dead dog and discovered that it had been attached to an explosive with a detonator, which was activated by a small plate. When the animal crawled under the tank, the plate touched the bottom, acted on the detonator, after which there was an explosion. The dog was trained to receive food under the bottom of armored vehicles,” writes the German tankman in his memoirs entitled “Panzer Commander.”

But with the loss of the surprise factor, the use of dogs to undermine armored vehicles lost its effectiveness. “This tactic was effective only at the beginning, when the Germans thought that these were the dogs of the medical battalions and did not suspect a trap. Subsequently, when it turned out that they were carrying explosives, the Germans began to shoot most of the approaching dogs so that they could not reach their target,” adds the Spanish historian and journalist. Hans von Luck is of the same opinion, according to at least as he states in his book: “As soon as we discovered the trick, we began to shoot all the dogs we met.”

Dog training also generally did not prove effective, as in many cases they confused Soviet and German tanks. Can you imagine what the trainers felt as they watched the dogs they trained blow up their own tanks before their eyes! There were also cases when, frightened by the noise of engines and gunfire, dogs ran back to the location of the Soviet troops, causing their owners, at a minimum, confusion.

Be that as it may, these bomb dogs were used in many battles (sometimes primarily instilling fear in the enemy, rather than destroying their armored vehicles). According to Soviet sources cited by Zaloga, kamikaze dogs inflicted the greatest damage on the Germans during the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in the history of World War II. “Soviet historians claim that during the Battle of Kursk, 16 dogs destroyed 12 enemy tanks. German sources, for their part, claim that the use of dogs was not very effective,” notes the American researcher.

Regardless of their effectiveness in destroying German armored vehicles, bomb dogs pretty much frayed the nerves of the Germans, forcing them to be distracted by these fast animals, which nature had endowed with great abilities. In many cases this psychological factor was enough to shake the nerves of the Germans. “Although the effectiveness of the suicide dogs was low, they inexorably did their job, weakening morale German troops, since forcing them to stay in constant voltage. Soviet soldiers understood the full significance of such an impact,” adds Hernandez.

Why didn't it work out?

So why hasn't the use of demolition dogs become widespread? Professional trainer Navas explains this by the fear that the noise of battle causes in the animal. “Although we are talking about developing purely technical skills - the dog must crawl under a large and very noisy object - it is quite difficult for her due to the emotional factor. After all, science has proven that dogs experience the same sensations as people,” explains the expert.

Thus, even if the training had been successful, it is unlikely that the dogs would have successfully solved the task while bullets whistled. “The skills acquired by the dog begin to fail when it finds itself in a situation of real combat with screams, noise, killed people, and its emotions are inflated to the limit. By emotions we mean primarily fear and stress. In the USSR, they used food motivation to get the dog to perform this task, but in a situation of combat and fear, which we wrote about above, food motivation no longer works on the dog,” explains the expert.

Therefore, Navas continues, in a combat situation the dog perceives food motivation as something secondary or does not perceive it at all. “This motivation cannot be ruled out as such, because we have seen amazing results over a number of years. But these were normal conditions, not a combat situation,” he adds.

At the same time, the trainer does not forget to emphasize that dogs should not be underestimated, and in many cases everything depends on who is next to them. “The dog’s capabilities are the same as those of the trainers. The better the trainer, the better his students,” he says.

Vidal and Hinojosa, for their part, believe that shortcomings in the training itself are to blame. “Perhaps the second phase of training was not sufficiently developed. The first phase was great. The noise of tank engines, of course, could frighten the dogs, but with the help conditioned reflexes this emotion can be replaced by an emotional reflex of joy, a physiological reflex of salivation (“It’s so good that they brought food!” the trainers explain to our newspaper). But the second phase of training (to establish in the animal’s mind the need to crawl under the tank in order to get this food) failed.

Question for dog trainer Esteban Navas

Manuel P. Villatoro: How would you train a dog in our time so that it would fulfill the tasks that Soviet trainers set for it?

Esteban Navasu: First of all, I want to emphasize that such training is not carried out. And everything that I will talk about is purely theoretical considerations. So, from the series possible options We would choose a problem formulation consisting of the following phases:

Phase 1 (situation): Lay out the mat and force the dog to stand on it with four paws. After the dog does this, we give him a treat outside the mat. Repeat this action until the dog understands that it must stand with four paws on the mat.

Phase 2 (position): When the dog learns to stand on the mat on its own, invite it to lie down on the mat and give it a treat for this, but always outside the mat.

Phase 3 (signal): Teach the dog a command that it will associate with Phases 1 and 2. For example, “Lie down.” This will mean that she should head towards the mat and lie down on it.

Phase 4 (showing the tank): After teaching the “Lie Down” command, show the dog the tank. It is very important to begin practicing this phase by placing the mat at some distance from the tank, gradually shortening it as training progresses.

Phase 5 (goal): Then we need to place the mat exactly in the place under the tank where we want the dog to be, give him the command to lie down in the right place, repeating this required amount once. After the dog understands where it needs to lie down, remove the mat, repeat the command, and the dog will lie down under the tank.

Phase 6 (staying under the tank): After the dog lies under the tank, it is necessary to ensure that it remains under it for 5 to 10 seconds. For this she will receive a treat or other reward, be it a ball or some kind of toy that she likes. Thus, the dogs will not look for food under the tank, but the food itself will come to them for lying under the tank.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

It is known that during the Great Patriotic War About 70 thousand dogs served in the Red Army, which saved the lives of many of our soldiers and commanders.

The dogs served as scouts, sentries, signalmen, carried dispatches across the front line, laid telephone cables, determined the location of mines, helped deliver ammunition to soldiers who were surrounded, and worked as orderlies. It was precisely these dog-medics who crawled up to the wounded on their bells and offered their sides with a medical bag, waiting for the fighter to bandage the wound.

At that time, only dogs could accurately distinguish a living person from a dead person; very often, many of the wounded were unconscious, then the dogs licked them to bring them to consciousness. It is known that during the war years, almost 700 thousand of our wounded soldiers and commanders were taken from the battlefield with the help of dogs.

In his reports, the head of the 53rd Sanitary Army wrote about the sanitary sleds: “During the time they were with the 53rd Army, a detachment of sled dogs participated in offensive operations, for the evacuation of seriously wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield after the capture of the Demyansk region fortified by the enemy and, despite difficult evacuation conditions, wooded and swampy terrain, bad, impassable roads, where it was not possible to evacuate the wounded by horse transport, successfully worked to evacuate the seriously wounded fighters and commanders and the supply of ammunition to the advancing units. During the specified period, the detachment transported 7,551 people and transported 63 tons of ammunition.”

There are especially many different rumors, speculations and stories about tank destroyer dogs, the so-called kamikaze dogs, what kind of dogs were they, and how were they trained in the Red Army for their only throw under an enemy tank?

It turns out that attempts to use dogs as an anti-tank weapon in the Red Army were made long before the war in 1931-32 in the service dog breeding schools of the Volga Military District in Ulyanovsk, in the Saratov armored school and the camps of the 57th Infantry Division, and in Kubinka they also tested devices for protecting their tanks from enemy dog ​​attacks. However, in the future, our opponents, the Germans, for some reason did not think of using their dogs against our tanks, probably because they already had an abundance of conventional anti-tank weapons.

The use of tank destroyer dogs during the Great Patriotic War was widespread, however, mainly in the initial, most difficult period for the Red Army.

It was then that special units were formed in the Red Army from the “four-legged” friends of man trained to throw themselves under tanks - SITs (companies of tank destroyer dogs, 55-65 per company). Each dog had its own guide.

The process of training kamikaze dogs took quite a long time, and not all “cadets” successfully mastered the course. Mostly ordinary mongrels were used. The training began with the dog being taught to crawl under the bottom of a standing tank, for which it was fed meat. After this, the procedure was repeated, only this time the tank was standing with the engine running, at the next stage the tank was already moving.

The most difficult thing was to teach the dog to carry a sling charge on its back. Usually they began to kick, trying to free themselves from the unfamiliar load.

Soon, a special canvas belt-bandage was created to carry the charge, in special pockets of which two anti-tank mines or an explosive charge with a pin fuse were placed. The principle of using this live mine was as follows: a dog, trained to rush for food, ran under the tank, while touching the bottom of the vehicle with a special metal antenna, which activated the fuse. A standard mine had five kilograms of explosives and reliably hit the bottom of tanks.

The first such battalion of tank destroyer dogs reached the front at the end of July 1941. Subsequently, their number constantly increased, reaching its maximum in the fall. next year. Tank destroyer dogs showed themselves to be particularly effective in the battle of Moscow and the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk.

So, for example, it is known that:

On July 21, 1942, north of the village of Chaltyr, from the direction of Taganrog, about 40 tanks advanced on the position of the 68th Separate Marine Rifle Brigade. Twelve of them, having suppressed a battery of 45-mm anti-tank guns, moved to the command post. The situation became critical. And then the brigade commander, Colonel Afanasy Shapovalov, used the last reserve - the 4th company of the SIT.

Fifty-six dogs rushed towards the tanks. As written in the short historical information about the brigade’s combat operations, “at that time, tank destroyer dogs rushed through the battle formations of the defending sailors. A charge with a tol was fastened to their backs and, like an antenna, a lever protruded, from the contact of which with the bottom of the tank the fuse was activated and the tol exploded. The tanks exploded one after another. The field was covered with plumes of black acrid smoke. The tank attack stopped. The surviving tanks, along with the infantry accompanying them, began to retreat back. The battle has died down..."

On July 22, 1942, near the village of Sultan-Saly, northwest of Rostov, in the defense zone of the 256th Infantry Regiment of the 30th Irkutsk, Chongar, Order of Lenin, twice Red Banner, named after the Supreme Council of the RSFSR rifle division, an emergency situation developed. At 11.40 more than fifty German tanks and up to a regiment of motorized infantry went to the rear of our battalions. And just like the day before, near Chaltyr, north of the village of Krasny Krym, the dogs saved the situation. By order of the commander of the 30th division, Colonel Boris Arshintsev, Captain Ivancha released 64 suicide dogs from their leashes. In a matter of minutes, 24 enemy tanks were blown up.”

Tank destroyer dogs were especially widely used in urban battles in Stalingrad. Thanks to a large number blockages and shelters, the enemy could see the dog only at the very last moment, when he had practically no time left to react to the danger.

Thus, during the Battle of Stalingrad, only one special detachment of demolition dogs of the 62nd Army, which bore the brunt of the fighting outside the city, destroyed 63 enemy tanks and assault guns. In just one day of fighting for Stalingrad, fighting dogs blew up 27 fascist tanks. The Germans feared such dogs more than anti-tank guns. Frightened by the use of such weapons, German soldiers shot all the stray cats and dogs in the city.

However, tank destroyer dogs were living creatures and were also afraid, especially of German flamethrowers, after the Germans fired a stream of fire at them, it also happened that the frightened dogs turned around and rushed back, with explosives on their backs, straight to their trenches.

The book “Fighting Tank” (author G. Biryukov, G. V. Melnikov) gives an example of how near Kursk in 1943, in the zone of the 6th Guards Army, 12 enemy tanks were knocked out by dogs in the Tamarovka area.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Army General D.D. Lelyushenko commander of the 30th Army, was an eyewitness to repelling an attack of enemy tanks by anti-tank dogs of the 1st detachment of anti-tank dogs (detachment commander Lebedev). On March 14, 1942, he indicated that “the practice of using tank destroyer dogs in the army has shown that with the massive use of enemy tanks, anti-tank dogs are an integral part of the defense.” “The enemy is afraid of anti-tank dogs and specifically hunts for them.”

The operational report of the Soviet Information Bureau dated May 2, 1942 stated: “On another section of the front, 50 German tanks tried to break through to the location of our troops. 9 brave tank destroyers from the detachment of Art. Lieutenant Shantsev set fire to 7 tanks.”

In the 6th Army in the Belgorod direction, 12 tanks were destroyed by dogs.

In the Directive of Gen. Headquarters No. 15196, based on the results of the use of anti-tank service dogs, said:

“The anti-tank dogs received wide recognition on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and acted reliably in defensive battles near Moscow, Stalingrad, Voronezh and other fronts. The German command, fearing Soviet tank-destroying dogs, distributed instructions to its troops on how to fight Russian tank dogs.”

From the book “Fighting Tank” we know the combat activities of military dog ​​units formed by the Central Military-Technical School and sent to the active army in defensive and offensive battles during the period of hostilities in 1941–1942:

• Enemy tanks knocked out and destroyed - 192
• Tank attacks repulsed with the help of dogs – 18
• Enemy detected guard dogs – 193
• Combat reports delivered by messenger dogs – 4242
• Ammunition transported by sled dogs - 360 tons
• Seriously wounded were transported from the battlefield on ambulance sleds - 32362

Throughout the war, the very tactics of using combat dogs were constantly improved; the facts of the use of sapper dogs on armor as part of infantry landings are especially interesting:

Thus, from the directive of the chief of engineering troops of the Soviet Army on November 17, 1944, it is known to all fronts that: “In the Iasi-Kishenevsky operation, a platoon of mine-detecting dogs successfully completed the task of escorting tanks. This specially trained platoon accompanied the tanks throughout the entire depth of the enemy’s operational obstacle zone. The dogs got used to riding on the armor of tanks, to the noise of engines and firing from guns. In areas suspected of mining, mine-detecting dogs, under the cover of tank fire, carried out reconnaissance and discovered minefields.”

If by the beginning of the war there were over 40 thousand registered in Osoaviakhim clubs, then by the end the Soviet Union came out on top in the world in the use of dogs for military purposes. Between 1939 and 1945, 168 separate military units were created that used dogs. On various fronts there were 69 separate platoons of sledge detachments, 29 separate companies of mine detectors, 13 separate special detachments, 36 separate battalions of sledge detachments, 19 separate battalions of mine detectors and 2 separate special regiments. In addition, 7 training battalions of cadets from the Central School of Service Dog Breeding periodically participated in combat operations.

For their dedication and boundless devotion to man, tank destroyer dogs have monuments erected in Kyiv and Volgograd.

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