Animals in war

The recruitment of animals for military operations dates to the earliest period of human history. Birds, camels, dogs, dolphins, elephants, horses, monkeys, oxen, rats, and other animals have served as attackers, beasts of burden, defenders, food, messengers, scouts to flush out enemies and detect mines and other booby traps, sentries, surveillance tools, and weapons. Animals often must undergo rigorous training to fulfill their roles in battle. Animals killed in action may even have their own monuments and museums.

The use of animals by the military accelerated as humans learned to harness their power and special characteristics. For example, oxen and donkeys were strong but slower than horses. Although the ox-drawn cart was slow, cumbersome, and vulnerable to attack, it enabled armies to carry heavy military burdens that until then had to be carried long distances by humans.

Animal Management Technology

The horse significantly altered the speed, strategy, and tactics of war. Horse soldiers could go farther faster than foot soldiers. Fighting on horseback, however, was tricky and required considerable training and experience to master. Until the invention of the stirrup, or foot rest, riders stayed on their horses by tightly hugging the horse’s midsection with their knees. At first, warriors used their horses to move rapidly from battle to battle and for reconnaissance, delaying actions, raiding parties, and the pursuit and harassment of enemy troops. Most battles were fought on foot. Then, in the thirteenth century b.c.e., the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, the pharaoh of Exodus, created the first regular cavalry trained to fight on horseback. Armies used horses until well into World War II (1939–1945).

The horse and rider became a unified fighting machine with the inventions of the stirrup and a modern saddle. The refinements in saddle design included the attachment to the saddle of a rounded device in the front (called a pommel) and an upward-curving rear. These technologies enabled the rider to stay on the horse more easily and more snugly. During the Middle Ages, the stirrup and saddle made it easier for the rider to use weapons such as the lance and to maneuver more freely in combat.

The Chariot

A breakthrough in horse management technology was the invention of the horse-drawn, two-wheeled chariot. The Hittites invented the war chariot and then conquered Mesopotamia and Egypt around 1800 b.c.e. The invention of the chariot would not have been possible without the domestication of wild horses. The chariot was relatively durable, light, maneuverable, and speedier than soldiers on foot. However, it was also expensive to manufacture, maintain, and operate. The chariot, in combination with the invention of a composite reflex bow made of wood, sinew, and horn glued together, led to a revolution in combat conduct. Archers firing from chariots gained a competitive advantage over slow-moving foot soldiers. The chariot carried two soldiers, one to steer and one to fight.

Air and Marine Creatures

To communicate over long distances, the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans often used homing pigeons to carry their messages. During the Siege of Paris (1870–1871) during the Franco-Prussian War, pigeons won acclaim for delivering communiqués when the telegraph system failed. In 1918, the British Air Force employed 380 pigeoneers to deliver coded messages and intelligence film. One homing pigeon, Cher Ami, helped locate a U.S. battalion stranded behind enemy lines. Beginning in the 1940’s, the U.S. military launched Pigeons in a Pelican, a project to investigate the feasibility of using the pigeon in a missile guidance system. Despite early successes, neither the program nor the pigeons ever flew in battle. Later investigators focused on using the pigeon as a part of an ambush-detection system.

In 1963, the U.S. Army Limited War Laboratory and U.S. Department of Agriculture undertook a program to develop a system for ambush detection and intrusion detection. The idea sounded simple enough—exploit mosquitoes and other arthropods that actively seek humans—so that using a biosensor system, these creatures could alert their handlers when a human host was available. Scientists in the twenty-first century continue to search for a workable biosensor system.

Dolphins and other sea mammals have been used to locate and retrieve undersea objects and for defensive and offensive purposes. In 1976, published accounts reported that dolphins recovered a nuclear bomb that had somehow fallen into the ocean. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy reportedly used dolphins to detect Viet Cong frogmen in harbors such as Haiphong.

War Dogs

During the Peloponnesian Wars (460-404 b.c.e.), a dog named Savior saved the city of Corinth by alerting the Corinthians that Greeks were attacking the citadel. In their conquest of the Americas, Spaniards used dogs—especially mastiffs and greyhounds—to attack Native Americans. At an academy in Cuba, the hounds underwent training to attack the Indians on command. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps began dog training during World War II. By 1945, more than 10,000 dogs were trained and serving duty in Europe and the Pacific. In an effort to stop Nazi tanks, the Soviet army strapped antitank mines to the backs of dogs. Unfortunately for the Russians, the dogs could not differentiate between Russian and Nazi tanks. In 1951, the responsibility for training war dogs shifted to the U.S. Military Police Corps. War dogs, especially German shepherds and Labrador retrievers, served in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. They located bodies, booby traps, explosives, mines, and enemy tunnels.

Elephants in Battle

In 202 b.c.e., elephants helped defeat Hannibal Barca, the Carthaginian general ranked as one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. During the Second Punic War (219-202 b.c.e.), the Roman leader Scipio Africanus outmaneuvered Hannibal’s army at the Battle of Zama. When Hannibal ordered his elephants to charge the Roman line, Scipio immediately directed troops to sound their trumpets and trumpet-like instruments called cornets, terrifying the elephants and causing some to trample Hannibal’s best troops. Elephants often carried archers and other fighters on their backs when they fought.

Arab conquerors used camels to spook the horses of the Byzantine cavalry. In the 1850’s and 1860’s, prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, the U.S. Army experimented using camels in the Southwest. Horses and mules failed to fare well in the region, which featured a punishing climate and terrain. The experiment was abandoned as impractical.

Development of the tank between World War I and the late 1920’s foreshadowed the end of the cavalry age. Although tanks and other motor vehicles reduced the military’s demand for horses, animals did not become obsolete. Much of the fighting during World War II took place in mountainous terrain where steep inclines and lack of roads made motor vehicles useless. Because of its sure-footedness and sturdiness, the mule became the pack animal of choice. Mules transported food, ammunition, and weapons as well as the wounded.

Biological Weapons

Armies have used filth, cadavers, animal carcasses, and contagion as weapons to contaminate wells and reservoirs and spread the plague during sieges. The Roman army was the first organization to use biological weapons against its enemies. It used dead animals to foul the water supply of its enemies. During the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the outnumbered British army used biological weapons against the Native Americans for supposedly siding with the French. The deadly blankets the British gave to the Indians came from a hospital treating smallpox victims. During the twentieth century, biological warfare was used on a very limited basis. In 1918, the Japanese army formed a special unit to develop biological weapons. Researchers have explored ways to use rats, rodents, and other animals to spread smallpox and plague. Various nations have experimented with spreading bacterial diseases such as anthrax to humans via infected animals.

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