In WWIl the Russians trained dogs to run under German tanks with bombs on their backs.

 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 not until 1930, however, that the idea of using dogs as mobile mines was developed, and with it explosive devices tailored to fit our four-legged friends. In 1935, the Red Army unveiled their first anti-tank dog division.

As a result of this setback, the idea was simplified. The dogs were trained to find any enemy tank, with the bombs detonated on contact with their target. 

Each hound was taught to dive under the tank so that a wooden lever protruding from their packs would be triggered, setting off the explosives and blowing the tank crew – and dog – to smithereens. The dogs were starved and food placed under the tanks, which conditioned them to home in on the weakly armoured mechanical underbelly.

Persistent dogs that ran beside tanks waiting for them to stop were shot, while those that retreated back to the trenches often jumped in and detonated the charge, killing and injuring Soviet soldiers. These latter dogs had to be shot, making trainers unwilling to work with new ones. 

Out of the first group 30 dogs, only four managed to detonate their bombs near German tanks, while six exploded upon returning to the Soviet dugouts and three were shot and taken away by the Germans.