Dogs being Drafted !

[Craig]

I recently watched an episode of The 20th Century Roadshow ( How sad ) and one of the items brought in was a Dog collar. It was banded in red white and blue leather and had a brass plate with "War Dog 1939 to 1945" with the Royal Cypher. The owner stated it had belonged to her mother in law who was the owner of a very fine looking German Shepard from the photo ( Or as they were called during the War an Alsation) At the begining of the hostilities the War Office asked to "Borrow" the dog for war service. He was eventually trained as a guard dog for a POW camp and the collar was his insignia.

The lady stated it was detrained and returned to the family. I can't see how you could detrain it and had a lovely thought of him biting the family on their backsides until his passing!

Do you think he was awarded the Defence and War medal

[Guest Rick Research]

The Germans issued an official harness brass to the lucky few old war horses that made it back home after 1918, haven't seen one of those tags for sale in years but they used to turn up now and then.

[The Capstone]

Hi all,

I have heard that the Soviets used dogs with explosives strapped to them against the Germans in WWII. I've looked through some encyclopaedias and other sources, but have not been able to find an official historic reference.

Can someone corroborate this?

Capstone

[Guest paracollector]

Here are some links.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

http://www.soviet-empire.com/arsenal/army/...nk/dog_mine.php

John

[DonC]

There was a great quote in a book I read on the Russian front - it discussed an article in a German soldier's magazine that gave tongue in cheek advice for Eastern Front vets on how to adjust when returning home on leave - one of the items was "Remember - exploding dogs are a purely Russian phenomenon - if one approaches you on the street in Germany, please do not draw your sidearm and shoot it - you will frighten your neighbors and passers-by." I don't remember much of the rest of the book, but I'll always remember that quote!

Don

Edited November 23, 2005 by DonC

[Craig]

I heard that the Soviet Exploding dogs didn't work as they had been trained to walk under Soviet tanks so when they were deployed against German armour they ignored it and ran back to the Soviet armour scoring a spectacular own goal.

[Simon Orchard]

The Germans had a dog unit up here in North Norway, Feldhundstaffel 55 with 50 odd pooches at the war's end. They were mainly used as guard dogs for installations, stores etc. but i know some at least were trained as trackers.

Now you're thinking 'What happened to these dogs once the war was over?' well, i don't know what happened to all of them but one at least retired to live with a Norwegian family, my wife's actually. And yes as you might expect it was a an German Shepherd.

I'm hoping that one day some docs might turn up to a member of that unit...one day

[Biber]

During the War, my wife's grandfather was drafted into the Wehrmacht along with his horse.

Biber

[Helmut Von Moltke]

There is more information on the Soviet dogs with mines in the first chapter or so of "Stalingrad" by Antony Beevor, about Barbarossa and the Winterschalct Im Osten.

K

[Tugwilson45]

Does anybody remember saving the tokens off action man uniforms? I once had enough to get the Action man guard dog......fearsome looking brute

[leigh kitchen]

The Action Man guard dog was too late for me - Action man did'nt have bristle hair or gripping hands in my day - & the bayonets were real pointy hard plastic instead of the girly soft jobs that followed, even on the later copies of the "old" style Action Man.

My first Action Man had "GI Joe" stamped on his backside 'tho he was in an Action Man carton.

Got a few bits & pieces with the Tommy Gunn cards, you still see those cigarette type cards turning up for sale as very old sets of cigarette cards.

Off topic................