the use of animals in battle

bonkers

I have hard of all the stories of pigeons and dogs being used in ww1 and ww2 but what about way before then... any examples like the below?

Scorpions were put into jars and dropped on the Roman besiegers of Hatra in late 2nd century

In 1610 a Chinese general is said to have trained monkeys in the use of firearms. These primate soldiers struck terror into the hearts of a band of Japanese raiders, but the Japanese were ambushed and slain by Chinese Homo sapiens.

FiSe

Horses? Elephants and burning pigs as the ultimate counter measure?

Hellm0

Acoustic Kitty pwns all before and after

brianthebard

FiSe wrote: »

Horses? Elephants and burning pigs as the ultimate counter measure?

Burning pigs?? :eek:

Manach

Soviet trained dogs, stapped with explosives to blow up German tanks during WWII. Unfortunately for the handlers, the dogs associated Russian tanks with food ...

Morlar

Manach wrote: »

Soviet trained dogs, stapped with explosives to blow up German tanks during WWII. Unfortunately for the handlers, the dogs associated Russian tanks with food ...

That sounds like a Darwin-ski award if ever there was one.

I believe they used to trebuchet diseased carcasses into siege castles to spread disease among the defenders but never heard about the roasted pigs one, unless it was during the crusades ? I think the primary war animal was always the horse though dogs, pidgeons etc were also used. I have a WWI photography book somewhere which has a great photo of a massive WWI tank with a pair of soldiers hands reaching out of a hatch to release a dove, it is hard to imagine relying on birds to deliver crucial messages like that. In later years I think dolphins were also used for mine clearance by the US navy.

FiSe

brianthebard wrote: »

Burning pigs?? :eek:

Yes, they've found out that elephant, which was a fearsome veapon, is scared of squealing pigs, and how to get a pig to run and squeal? A bit of oil and a match...
That's what I've heard.

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

Yes, they've found out that elephant, which was a fearsome veapon, is scared of squealing pigs, and how to get a pig to run and squeal? A bit of oil and a match...
That's what I've heard.

On a fairly unrelated note there was a mythbusters episode on TV recently where they tried to see if mice really did scare elephants and the result was that they actually do.

Ponster

Bat Bombs !

Morlar

Ponster wrote: »

Bat Bombs !

Holy bat-bombs robin !

Snickers Man

brianthebard wrote: »

Burning pigs?? :eek:

Pig fat burns at a very high temperature. There was a Rory McGrath hosted documentary on one of hte History Channels about how King John commandeered "the fattest pigs in Kent" during the siege of Rochester in the 12th/13th Century.

His men dug a trench to the foundations of the castle, built a wooden scaffolding underground, coated it in pig fat, set fire to it and scarpered.

Brought the house down.

McArmalite

Appearently in 1798 at the Battle of Enniscorthy, the Rebels ran a stampede of cattle through one of the town's main gates absorbing a barrage of fire from the british. This caused confusion and panic among the british allowing the Rebels to take better positions within the town, forcing the british from the town a few hours later.

meathstevie

Attack dogs have been used widely. The Romans used geese to guard their camps and settlements.

pablomakaveli

I think either the US or the Russians tried to train dolphins for use in warfare in the 60's.

There were plans to use a pidgeon guided bomb during World War 2. They would show a sequence of pictures of the areas on the route to the target and help the pidgeon memorize the route. The idea did'nt get far though.

bonkers

The Irish war goddesses were said to call the ravens down to battle fields to feast on the flesh of the slain..

wonder is there any other such mythological use of animals etc.

pwd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_animals

FiSe

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I think either the US or the Russians tried to train dolphins for use in warfare in the 60's.

There were plans to use a pidgeon guided bomb during World War 2. They would show a sequence of pictures of the areas on the route to the target and help the pidgeon memorize the route. The idea did'nt get far though.

Dolphins? Or Sealions? We have both of those :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2891629.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2839155.stm

pablomakaveli

Camels were used as cavalry mounts in desert countries where a horse would be unsuited to the terrain.