Animals have consistently played a role in wars from prehistoric to modern times. Animals have been used to assist with communication, transport, combat, moral, and military intelligence.
1. Elephants
Function:
Elephants were used in direct combat to trample enemies or mutilate them with their tusks.
Elephants were also used to charge towards the enemy at 20 mph and intimidate them into breaking formation and fleeing.
Elephants also helped provide archers and javelin throwers (who were mounted on them) with a better position to attack from.
Beyond direct combat, elephants were also useful for carrying and transporting weapons and possessions.
However, elephants had limits: they were killed by canon fire and were too likely to panic, thus could damage their own forces by trampling on them.
Example:
Using elephants in combat can be dated back to 4th century BC India. Persians then adopted this practice; during the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, Alexander the Great and his armies were faced with war elephants of the Persian Empire for the first time (although Alexander won the battle and added all of Persia's military elephants to his forces).
2. Pigs
Function:
Since the ancient times, pigs were used in war to counter the enemy's use of elephants. Elephants were terrified of pig squeals and of pigs charging at them, thus would panic and trample on their own forces whilst fleeing the pigs.
Example:
In c.266/275 BC, Romans poured flammable tar or resin over pigs, set them alight and drove them towards elephants to frighten them.
3. Pigeons
Function:
Pigeons were commonly used in wars to deliver messages because their innate homing ability allowed them to find their way home again even if they had travelled over 1,800 miles away.
Pigeons have also been used to capture aerial photographs of the enemy's position with the timed cameras that were attached to them.
Examples:
The practice of using pigeons to communicate in war can be traced back to Persian King Cyrus in the 6th Century BC in order to communicate across his vast empire.
In Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar sent messages to Gaul through pigeons.
The largest known use of pigeons in war occurred during WW1 whereby Allied forces used 200,000-250,000 messenger pigeons.
4. Dolphins
Function:
Dolphins have been used for espionage to reveal the location of mines and enemy positions. Dolphins are better capable of identifying objects underwater than humans due to their precise echolocation sense (they release high-pitched squeaks and listen for echoes that bounce back in order to locate objects).
Examples:
In 1967, the US Navy Marine Mammal Program trained around 75 dolphins in San Diego, California (and 150 dolphins at its peak in 1995) to militarily assist the US Navy. These dolphins could locate enemy mines and report this back to the US Navy by releasing buoys over the mine's location.
During the Iraq War (2003), dolphins helped clear over 100 mines in the port of Umm Qasr.
5. Dogs
Function:
Dogs have commonly been used in combat as weapons to disable their opponent through devices attached to them, such as bombs or spiked metal armour.
Examples:
During the Roman Empire, dogs were coated in spiked metal armour and sent in to attack the enemy.
During the Middle Ages, dogs were used to scare horses and make them throw off their riders, thus giving the dog's master a chance to kill their fallen opponent.
During WW2, the Soviets developed 'antitank dogs' to use against Nazis after the Nazis had betrayed them. Initially, dogs were trained to situate bombs in front of German tanks and run back to safety; however, this training was very difficult. Therefore, the Soviets instead strapped bombs to dogs and activated them when the dog dived under tanks. This method had limited success since dogs often ran towards the familiar smelling Russian tanks (because they had been trained on Soviet diesel tanks rather than German gasoline tanks), or else ran away in fear. Nonetheless, the antitank dog program continued until 1996.
6. Rats
Function:
Forces attached explosive devices onto rats and sent them into the enemy camp to deploy.
Rats have also been used to detect objects buried in rubble.
Example:
During WW2, Allied forces stuffed dead rats with plastic explosive hoping that German workers would dispose of the rat in a boiler fire and subsequently trigger a devastating fire to destroy the entire factory. However, Nazis clued onto this plan and carefully checked any dead rat they encountered.
R.A.T.S. (Rugged Automated Training System) was founded by the US army (and is still on-going) to train rats to detect explosives and humans buried in rubble. Rats were chosen over training dogs because it is less expensive to train rats, rats can search smaller places than dogs, and it is easier to transport rats.
7. Bats
Function:
Bombs were similarly attached to bats and activated near the enemy.
Example:
The US developed bat bombs for use against Japan during WW2. Explosive devices were attached to bats and were set to detonate after a specific time. When activated, the bombs would parachute off the bat so that the bat could fly away safely. These bombs had the potential to destroy thousands of humans and large portions of cities entirely; however, this plan was replaced by the use of atomic bombs instead.
8. Bees
Function:
Since the time of Ancient Greeks and Romans, bees have been used in warfare. Often, beehives would be catapulted over besieged cities.
Examples:
The Ancient Greek town of Themiscyra defeated Romans in 72 BC by sending bees through mines dug beneath their walls.
Bees were also used during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). Guerrilla soldiers relocated beehives along enemy trails and then set off a firework near the hive to aggravate the bees so that they would attack the enemy soldiers.
9. Horses
Function:
The animal that has played the most central role in warfare is the horse.It was only when tanks and machine guns developed in the age of modern warfare that horses began to be replaced in war.
Horses were used for chariots, such as the horse-drawn chariots that Homer mentioned were featured in the Trojan War in his Illiad (800 BC).
Horses were also used to transport heavy armour.
Horses could also carry soldiers, thus allowing the mounted soldier to move swiftly during escapes or attacks. They were most useful for javelin throwers and archers who could attack from a distance because horses were susceptible to arrows. Additionally, the speed that the horses travelled at increased the impact of the arrow, javelin and lance that was thrust.
Examples:
Evidence has suggested that horses had been used as early as 5000 years ago by nomads in central Asia.
During the Crusades, the Mamluks (slave soldiers on the Islamic side) were notorious for their horsemanship. Mamluks used the mobility that horses gave them to 'feign retreat', one of their most successful methods. This allowed their troops to pretend to retreat and make the enemy either relaxed or charge after them, only to then ambush the enemy.
References:
Alex Lockie and Jeremy Bender, '9 Unbelievable Instances of Animals in the Military', Business Insider, 2015.
Alexis Madrigal, 'Old, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II', The Atlantic, 2011.
Jess Bolluyt, 'Did You Know These Surprising Animals Served in the U.S. Military?', Cheat Sheet, 2019.
Legion Magazine, '7 Animals you Probably Didn't Know were used in Warfare', 2017.
Military History, 'War Culture - Animals of War', 2012.
Tom Metcalfe and Jeremy Hsu, 'Beasts in Battle: 15 Amazing Animals Recruits in War', Live Science, 2017.
R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare 1097-1193, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
U.S. Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs, 'R.A.T.S. Research May Teach Rodents to Detect Explosives', Army Military, 2012.
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