Dogs in warfare

Dogs in warfare have a long history starting in ancient times. From 'war dogs' trained in combat to their use as scouts, sentries and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military usage.

History

War dogs were used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Sarmatians, Baganda, Alans, Slavs, Britons, and the Romans. The Molossus dog of the Molossia region of Epirus was the strongest known to the Romans, and was specifically trained for battle. Among the Greeks and Romans, dogs served most often as sentries or patrols, though they were sometimes taken into battle. The earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Lydian dogs killed some invaders and routed others.

Often war dogs would be sent into battle with large protective spiked metal collars and coats of mail armour.

During the Late Antiquity, Attila the Hun used giant Molosser dogs in his campaigns. Gifts of war dog breeding stock between European royalty were seen as suitable tokens for exchange throughout the Middle Ages. Other civilizations used armored dogs to defend caravans or attack enemies. The Spanish conquistadors used armored dogs that had been trained to kill natives.

War Dogs

War Dogs may refer to:

See also

War Dogs (1943 film)

War Dogs is 1943 World War II cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and released with the movie Best Foot Forward by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Its main theme is war dogs training that is shown with one yellow dim-witted dog.

Plot

The cartoon is a mockumentary about the secret canine war unit "The WOOFs"'s day regime. Camera shows us many war dogs (including Spike from Tom & Jerry (voiced by Billy Bletcher) and the St. Bernard from Puttin' on the Dog) sleeping and doing laughable things. Camera concentrates on one yellow dog, Private Smiley, sleeping in its tent and dreaming about chasing caricatured Japanese soldier. Then, it wakes up and marks the fourth Japanese beaten in his slumber. Then, the trumpet rings a signal to gather up, and all dogs expect the yellow one run on signal. The yellow dog sleeps so tightly that a man douses it with water. Then, a roll call goes. All dogs except the yellow one bark to roll call. Then, commander orders a yellow dog to march and then to do various commands with funny effort.