How dogs helped soldiers during the war: defused shells, saved lives and other feats

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

More than 60 thousand dogs served during the Great Patriotic War, fought with the enemy on a par with soldiers and saved thousands of human lives. Communication dogs transmitted several hundred thousand messages, stretched almost 8000 kilometers of wires. Sapper dogs have cleared 30 Soviet and European cities. Tailed orderlies transported almost half a million injured soldiers from the battlefields. Demolition dogs destroyed 300 units of enemy armored vehicles, sacrificing their lives and dying under tanks.

Legendary mine detectors

During the war years, sapper dogs were entrusted with a great responsibility - to clear the territory, prevent the death of personnel and the destruction of military equipment. Their subtle instinct allowed them to find any mines with different types of explosives. There was not a single case when people or equipment were blown up in the area surveyed by the dog-sapper.

The legendary dog Dzhulbars found more than 7400 mines and 150 shells during his service. In March 1945, the Shepherd Dog was nominated for the award "For Military Merit" for its front-line exploits. During the entire war, this was an isolated case when a dog was awarded a medal.

The Leningrad collie Dick did an excellent job with the duties of a signalman and orderly in the 2nd separate Keletsk regiment of special services, but he found his "vocation" in mine search. During his entire service, the dog discovered more than 10 thousand mines, but his most famous feat is the demining of the Pavlovsk Palace. An hour before the alleged explosion, thanks to Dick, it was possible to defuse a land mine with a clockwork and weighing two and a half tons. The brave collie lived to old age and was buried with military honors, like a real hero.

How Dina the Shepherd neutralized a German train

The saboteur dogs passed a tough selection according to a number of criteria, and the most important of them was their immediate readiness to carry out any commands. Trained animals could escort the group through a minefield, lay a safe "corridor" in them, help in capturing the "tongue", indicate in advance an enemy ambush or a sniper's "nest". If such a fighter was present in the group, the success of the operation was ensured by almost 90%. The main mission of the battle dogs-scouts and saboteurs was to destroy bridges and enemy trains. A detachable pack was fixed on the back of the four-legged soldier. After penetrating the railway track, the dog had to grab the lever with its teeth to pull out the igniter - after that the subversive projectile was ready for sabotage.

Shepherd Dina became one of the first sabotage dogs in the Soviet troops. She entered the front straight from the military dog breeding school, where she successfully trained in the destruction of tanks. Later she mastered two more profiles - a miner and a saboteur.

Dina participated in the "Rail War" as one of the saboteurs. For a long time, there was no news from the participants in the strategic operation, abandoned behind enemy lines. And after a while the message came: "Dina worked." The dog ran onto the railway in front of the German train on the Polotsk-Drissa stretch, threw off the pack from its back, pulled the pin with its teeth and ran into the forest. Thanks to the successfully completed assignment, an enemy train was blown up, ten cars were destroyed, and most of the rails were destroyed.

Later, the shepherd dog took part in the mine clearing of Polotsk several times. In one of these operations, she found a mine planted in a mattress. After the war, Dina was assigned to the Museum of Military Glory, where she lived to a ripe old age.

How canine orderlies rescued wounded soldiers

About 700 thousand seriously wounded soldiers were taken out of the battlefield on sled dogs, orderlies. The animals regularly served under fire and explosions of shells, in winter they worked on sledges, and in summer - on special carts. Their duties included not only the rescue of injured soldiers, but also the delivery of ammunition. The participant of the Great Patriotic War, Sergei Soloviev, recalled how, due to the intense fire, the orderlies could not get to the bleeding fellow soldiers. And then the dogs came to the rescue. They crawled on their bellies to the wounded man with a medical bag, waited for him to bandage the wound, and then went to the others. If the fighters were unconscious, the four-legged orderly licked his face until he woke up.

Private Dmitry Trokhov, along with his comrade-in-arms Laika Bobik, who was in charge of the dog team, removed more than 1,500 wounded from the front line during the three years of the war.

The shepherd dog Mukhtar, who was under the care of corporal Zorin, carried almost 400 soldiers from the battlefields and was able to save its owner, shell-shocked by the explosion.

Help of signal dogs during the liberation of Dnepropetrovsk region

In the battles for the liberation of the Dnepropetrovsk region in 1943, a special unit of communication dogs took part. They had to work under fire, showing amazing courage and resourcefulness. When crossing the Dnieper near Nikopol, telephone communication between the regiment and the battalion, located on different banks, was unexpectedly cut off. From that moment on, all messages between the units were delivered by the dog Rex, who swam across the river three times during the day with reports, was wounded several times, but always reached the destination.

In the battles near Dneprodzerzhinsk, Dream shepherd dog did not manage to run even a hundred meters when a collar with a dispatch was torn off by a shell fragment. The dog was instantly oriented. The soldiers saw the Dream come back, found the travel bag, took it in the teeth and ran to the destination.

During the Nikopol-Kryvyi Rih offensive, the headquarters of one of the battalions of the 197th rifle division was isolated by the enemy, having lost any opportunity to ask for help. The last hope remained with the dog Olva. She had to get to her own under heavy fire, but despite the danger, she delivered a message and even returned with a return report that help was close. As a result, the attack on the headquarters was repulsed.

Loyal guards

The watchdogs' task was to prevent any attempts by German intelligence officers to infiltrate the territory of the Soviet location. The animals were so well trained for this task that by a silent turn of their heads they could send a command to their guide. Dogs could spend several hours in one position and did not lose their vigilance. For example, the watchdog Agay was able to prevent 12 attempts by the Germans to penetrate the positions of the Soviet troops.

Border guards of the Kolomiya Border Commandant's Office guarded the rear in the Cherkasy region along with 150 service dogs. After protracted battles, Major Lopatin was ordered to release the shepherd dogs, since there was nothing to feed them, but he left all the animals in the detachment. In the battle with the Lebstandart unit, the forces and ammunition of the border guards were running out. When it was clear that there was no way to escape, the commander decided to send starving dogs into the attack.

German soldiers jumped onto tanks, shooting from there at the exhausted dogs and their guides. In an unequal battle, all 500 border guards were killed, not one of them surrendered. The surviving dogs, according to the old residents of the village of Legedzino, remained lying next to the corpses of their guides and did not allow anyone to approach them.

In 2003, a monument was erected in the village in honor of the fallen soldiers and their loyal four-legged allies.

By the way, from pets in Russia only cats were allowed to enter the temple.