STORY GIST 247

 In WWIl the Russians trained dogs to run under German tanks with bombs on their backs. However, the tanks the dogs were trained on were Russian and used different fuel, so the dogs ended up running under their own tanks and blowing them up. While bullets rang out and shrapnel flew on the battlefields of World War II, a new and ethically suspect tactic was deployed by the Russian Army in an attempt to hold the advancing Germans in check.  Dogs strapped with explosives were sent out to disable and destroy enemy tanks – and later themselves in the process. The German Panzers were quick and powerful vehicles of war, and dynamic weapons were needed to stop them – so how did they fare against these canine kamikazes? Also known as dog mines or dog bombs, anti-tank dogs were a new take on age-old thinking. Dogs have been employed in warfare since ancient times, and the Soviet Union had endorsed their use in the military for a range of less destructive tasks since 1924.  It was n...

 The hoods they are wearing are gas masks; the First World War was the first war in which manufactured poison gas was used as a weapon on a large scale.  This series of several hundred photographs recording the contribution of Indian soldiers to the Allied war effort was produced in 1915 by the Canadian-born photographer Charles Hilton DeWitt Girdwood (1878-1964). As a professional photographer Girdwood had an early connection with India, photographing the Delhi Durbar of 1903, the royal tour of 1905-06 and the Delhi Durbar of 1911. In 1908 he set up a photo agency called Realistic Travels, specialising in stereoscopic photographym With the outbreak of war in 1914, Girdwood returned from India and in April 1915 was given permission by the India Office to photograph the work of the Indian military hospitals in Bournemouth and Brighton. From July to September 1915 he worked in France as an official photographer to record Indian and later British troops in the field. In the later...

 Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1968, as Vietnamese celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Tet as it is known locally, Communist forces launched a wave of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam. The campaign — one of the largest of the Vietnam War — led to intense fighting and heavy casualties in cities and towns across the South. While battles raged for more than a month in some places like the city of Hue, the Tet Offensive was from a strictly military standpoint a defeat for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces. Yet the campaign had a profound impact on the U.S. war effort, stunning leaders in Washington and leaving Americans questioning their country’s involvement in the overseas campaign. Fifty years after their original publication, The Associated Press is making available four stories from Jan. 31, Feb. 2 and Feb. 21, 1968, written by AP journalists Peter Arnett, Edwin Q. White and John Lengel documenting the offensive. The package includes a Pulitzer Prize-winn...

 German soldiers launching an attack on 'Dead Man's Hill' during the Battle of Verdun, March 15-16, 1916. The following is excerpts of Danish-German Unteroffizier Friedrich Karl Dambeck's account of an attack on the Côte 304 at Verdun on June 29, 1916 - today 107 years ago. Following the long and thorough preparation, on June 29 we were again to attempt taking the corpse-covered hill with a storm. Already on June 27 did Hauptmann Borchmann step forward to organise his storm units. Four units of 12 men each were necessary. The majority of these volunteered, the rest were drafted among the most experienced. Everyone stood in their right place at the established timestamp. At 5:15 the last heavy German shells exploded on the enemy's position, and worse than ever before it rained with splinters and rocks by our ears, all due to our heavy artillery. Suddenly the shells were subdued; the artillery fire had moved further back. We almost held our breaths completely, our hea...

  A mysterious history of how Hundreds of people died from botched treatments and infections in Victorian London,  Just like today, tooth decay was an unpleasant part of life, These amateur ‘surgeons’ would use pliers or forceps to extract the rotten tooth - without any anaesthetic to ease the agonising pain. Open wide! Back-street horror of Victorian dentistry exposed in grim photos from a time when a toothache would mean a painful trip to the barber.  In 19th and early 20th Century dentistry was done by barbers and blacksmiths. Tooth decay was common but the 'surgeons' would yank teeth out with forceps. Hundreds of people died from botched treatments and infections in Victorian London. Many people still find a trip to the dentists a daunting prospect now but these horrific Victorian photos reveal a time when getting your teeth fixed was a real life-or-death procedure. Just like today, tooth decay was an unpleasant part of life, but for the most of 1800s and early 1900s,...

  German woman named Shani Louk who was said to have been killed, stripped naked, and paraded by Hamas militants is alive, according to reports. She was reportedly found alive in a hospital. Her mother Ricarda has also released a video message asking the German government to act quickly to get her daughter out of the war-torn region. We now have information that Shani is alive but has a serious head injury and is in critical condition. Every minute is critical. And we ask...no, we demand the German government to act quickly," Ricarda can be heard saying in the video. One should not argue about the question of jurisdiction. One must act quickly to get Shani out of the Gaza Strip," the woman urges the German authorities. "This is really my desperate call to the entire country of Germany to help me get my Shani back home healthy," she adds. Days ago, a video clip of the woman's body being paraded naked by Hamas militants had surfaced online. It was believed that th...