Dogs demolishing tanks of the second world war. Dogs during WWII

It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, about 70 thousand dogs served in the Red Army, which saved the lives of many of our soldiers and commanders.

The dogs were scouts, sentries, signalmen, carried dispatches across the front line, pulled telephone cables, located mines, helped deliver ammunition to soldiers who were surrounded, and worked as orderlies. It was these orderly dogs that crawled up to the wounded in a plastunsky way and substituted a side with a medical bag, waiting for the fighter to bandage the wound.

At that time, only dogs could unmistakably distinguish a living person from a dead person, very often many of the wounded were in an unconscious state, then the dogs licked them to bring them to consciousness. It is known that almost 700 thousand of our wounded soldiers and commanders were taken out of the battlefield with the help of dogs during the war years.

In his reports, the head of the 53rd Sanitary Army wrote about sledding and ambulance teams: “During the time they were at the 53rd Army, a detachment of dogs of sled teams participated in offensive operations to evacuate seriously wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield to capture the Demyansk region fortified by the enemy and, despite the difficult conditions of evacuation, wooded and swampy terrain, poor, impassable roads, where it was not possible to take out the wounded by horse transport, he successfully worked to evacuate seriously wounded soldiers and commanders and transport ammunition to the advancing units. During the specified period, the detachment removed 7551 people and brought 63 tons of ammunition.

There are especially many different rumors, speculations and stories about tank destroyer dogs, the so-called kamikaze dogs, what kind of dogs they were, and how they were trained in the Red Army for their only throw under an enemy tank?

It turns out that attempts to use dogs as an anti-tank weapon in the Red Army were made long before the war in 1931-32 in the service dog breeding schools of the Volga Military District in Ulyanovsk, in the Saratov armored school and in the camps of the 57th rifle division, and in Kubinka, devices were also tested to protect their tanks from enemy dog attacks. However, in the future, our opponents - the Germans, for some reason did not decide to use their dogs against our tanks, probably because they already had enough conventional anti-tank weapons in excess.

The use of tank destroyer dogs during the Great Patriotic War was widespread, however, mainly in the initial, most difficult period for the Red Army.

It was then that special units were formed in the Red Army from the "four-legged" friends of man trained to throw themselves under tanks - SITs (companies of dogs - tank destroyers, 55-65 in a company). Each dog had its own handler.

The process of preparing kamikaze dogs took quite a lot of time, and not all "cadets" successfully mastered the course. Mostly ordinary mongrels were used. Training began with the fact that the dog was taught to crawl under the bottom of a standing tank, for which he was fed meat. After that, the procedure was repeated, only this time the tank was standing with the engine running, at the next stage the tank was already moving.

The most difficult thing was to teach the dog to carry a suspended charge on his back. Usually they began to kick, trying to free themselves from an unusual load.

Soon, a special canvas belt-bandage was created to carry the charge, in special pockets of which two anti-tank mines or an explosive charge with a pin fuse were placed. The principle of using this live mine was as follows: a dog trained to rush for food ran under the tank, while touching the bottom of the car with a special metal antenna, which actuated the fuse. A standard mine had five kilograms of explosives and reliably hit the bottom of the tanks.

The first such battalion of tank destroyer dogs got to the front at the end of July 1941. In the future, their number constantly increased, reaching its maximum by the autumn of next year. Tank destroyer dogs showed themselves especially effective in the battle near Moscow, in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk.

For example, it is known that:

On July 21, 1942, north of the village of Chaltyr, from the direction of Taganrog, about 40 tanks attacked the position of the 68th Separate Marine Rifle Brigade. Twelve of them, having suppressed a battery of 45-mm anti-tank guns, moved to the command post. The situation became critical. And then the brigade commander, Colonel Afanasy Shapovalov, used the last reserve - the 4th SIT company.

Fifty-six dogs rushed towards the tanks. As recorded in a brief historical note on the combat operations of the brigade, “at that time, tank destroyer dogs rushed through the battle formations of the defending sailors. A charge with tol was fastened on their backs and, like an antenna, a lever stuck out, from the contact of which with the bottom of the tank a fuse was triggered and the tol exploded. The tanks exploded one by one. The field was covered with plumes of black acrid smoke. The tank attack stopped. The surviving tanks, along with the infantry accompanying them, began to retreat. The fight is over..."

On July 22, 1942, near the village of Sultan-Saly, northwest of Rostov, in the defense zone of the 256th rifle regiment of the 30th Irkutsk, Chongarskaya, Order of Lenin, twice Red Banner, named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR rifle division, an emergency situation developed. At 11.40 more than fifty German tanks and up to a regiment of motorized infantry went to the rear of our battalions. And how the day before, near Chaltyr, north of the village of Krasny Krym, dogs saved the day. By order of the commander of the 30th division, Colonel Boris Arshintsev, Captain Ivancha released 64 suicide dogs from their leashes. In a matter of minutes, 24 enemy tanks were blown up.”

Tank destroyer dogs were especially widely used in urban battles in Stalingrad. Due to the large number of blockages and shelters, the enemy could see the dog only at the very last moment, when he had practically no time to react to the danger.

So during the Battle of Stalingrad, only one special detachment of demolition dogs of the 62nd Army, which bore the brunt of the fighting for the city, destroyed 63 enemy tanks and assault guns. In just one day of fighting for Stalingrad, fighting dogs blew up 27 fascist tanks. The Germans feared such dogs more than anti-tank guns. Frightened by the use of such weapons, the German soldiers shot down all the stray cats and dogs in the city.

However, tank destroyer dogs were living creatures and were also afraid, especially German flamethrowers, after the Germans fired a jet of fire at them, it happened that the frightened dogs turned around and rushed back, with explosives on their backs, straight into their trenches.

The book “Fighting Tanks” (author G. Biryukov, G.V. Melnikov) gives an example of how, near Kursk in 1943, in the zone of the 6th Guards Army, 12 enemy tanks were knocked out by dogs in the Tamarovka area.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union General of the Army Lelyushenko D.D. commander of the 30th Army, was an eyewitness to the reflection of the attack of enemy tanks by anti-tank dogs of the 1st detachment of anti-tank dogs (detachment commander Lebedev). March 14, 1942 pointed out that "the practice of using tank destroyer dogs in the army showed that with the massive use of enemy tanks, anti-tank dogs are an integral part of the defense." "The enemy is afraid of anti-tank dogs and specifically hunts for them."

The operational report of the Soviet Information Bureau dated May 2, 1942 stated: “In another sector of the front, 50 German tanks tried to break into the location of our troops. 9 brave tank destroyers from the detachment of Art. Lieutenant Shantsev set fire to 7 tanks.

In the 6th Army in the Belgorod direction, 12 tanks were destroyed by dogs.

In the Directive Gen. Headquarters No. 15196, following the results of the use of anti-tank service dogs, said:

“The dogs of the anti-tank service were widely recognized on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and reliably acted in defensive battles near Moscow, Stalingrad, Voronezh and other fronts. The German command, fearing Soviet tank destroyer dogs, distributed instructions to its troops on fighting Russian tank dogs.

From the book "Fighting Tanks" the combat activity of military dog units formed by the Central Military Technical School and sent to the army in defensive and offensive battles during the period of hostilities 1941 - 1942 is known:

Enemy tanks knocked out and destroyed - 192
Repulsed tank attacks with the help of dogs - 18
Enemy detected by guard dogs - 193
Combat reports delivered by liaison dogs - 4242
Ammunition brought by dog teams - 360 tons
Taken out from the battlefield of the seriously wounded on riding and sanitary teams - 32362

It is not known exactly how many enemy armored vehicles were destroyed with the help of fighter dogs during the entire war, the same figure appears everywhere - over 300 units of tanks and self-propelled guns.

Throughout the war, the very tactics of using combat dogs were constantly improved, the facts of using sapper dogs on armor as part of infantry landings are especially interesting:

So from the directive of the head of the engineering troops of the Soviet Army to all fronts dated November 17, 1944, it is known that: “In the Yassko-Kishenev operation, a platoon of mine-detecting dogs successfully completed the task of escorting tanks. This specially trained platoon escorted the tanks to the entire depth of the enemy's operational barriers. Dogs are accustomed to riding on the armor of tanks, to the noise of engines and firing from guns. In places suspected of mining, mine-detecting dogs, under the cover of tank fire, carried out reconnaissance and discovered minefields.

If by the beginning of the war there were over 40 thousand registered in the clubs of Osoaviakhim, then by the end the Soviet Union came out on top in the world in the use of dogs for military purposes. In the period from 1939 to 1945, 168 separate military units were created that used dogs. 69 separate platoons of sledge detachments, 29 separate companies of mine detectors, 13 separate special detachments, 36 separate battalions of sledge detachments, 19 separate battalions of mine detectors and 2 separate special regiments operated on various fronts. In addition, 7 training battalions of the cadets of the Central School of Service Dog Breeding periodically participated in hostilities.

For selflessness and boundless devotion to man, to dogs - tank destroyers, monuments were erected in Kyiv and Volgograd.

Have you read the article to the end? Please take part in the discussion, express your point of view, or simply rate the article.

May 9, 2014, 20:22

How many words are said.

Maybe someone's muse is tired

Talk about war

And disturb the soldiers' dreams...

It just seems to me

Little has been written to hurt

About fighting dogs

Protecting us during the war...

The battles have long died down. Many of those who created military dog breeding are no longer alive, all the more so, dogs - participants in the Great Patriotic War - are no longer alive. But the memory of the immortal feat of the tailed warriors is alive.

German, Caucasian, Central Asian, South Russian shepherd dogs, huskies of all varieties, hounds, mestizos of these breeds and outbred dogs with the above qualities were accepted for military service.

In the southern sectors of the front (at the beginning of the war on the territory of Ukraine, the North Caucasus, and then in Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, southern Poland and Germany) other breeds of dogs also fought: wire-haired and short-haired continental cops, setters, great danes, greyhounds and their mestizos , although they had a weak coat, but powerful and hardy enough to work in these conditions.

tank destroyer dogs

The real horror of the Nazis was directed by tank destroyer dogs. A dog hung with explosives, trained not to be afraid of the clang of armored vehicles, was a terrible weapon: swift and inevitable. In the spring of 1942, in the battles near Moscow, the mere appearance of dogs on the battlefield turned several dozen fascist tanks to flight.

At first it was a living weapon. The mine explosion also killed the dog. But by the middle of the war, mines were designed that were unhooked under the bottom of the car. This gave the dog a chance to escape. Sabotage dogs also undermined the echelons of the enemy. They dropped a mine on the rails in front of the locomotive and ran under the embankment to their guide.

Kamikaze dog units existed in the Red Army until October 1943. It is believed that they destroyed about three hundred German tanks. But many more four-legged fighters perished in battles. Many of them did not even have time to throw themselves under the tracks and died on the way to the goal. They were shot from machine guns and machine guns, they were blown up ... even by their own (a dog with a mine on its back that did not complete the task was a danger).

The operational report of the Sovinformburo dated July 2, 1942 stated: “On one of the fronts, 50 German tanks tried to break into the location of our troops. Nine brave four-legged "armor-piercers" from the fighter squad of Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Shantsev knocked out 7 enemy tanks.

Subversive dogs

Sabotage dogs undermined trains and bridges. A detachable combat pack was attached to the back of such dogs. Fighting reconnaissance dogs and saboteurs participate (behind the front line) in the strategic operation "Rail War" and its continuation "Concert" - actions to disable railways and rolling stock behind enemy lines.

According to the plan, the dog gets to the railroad tracks, pulls the release lever from the saddle, and the cargo is ready for sabotage.

Outstanding ability in this was shown by the shepherd Dina, who entered the front line from the Central School of Military Dog Breeding, where she took a tank destroyer training course.

miner dogs

More than six thousand dogs served as mine detectors. In total, they discovered, and the sapper leaders neutralized four million mines and land mines! Miner dogs cleared mines from Belgrade, Kyiv, Odessa, Novgorod, Vitebsk, Polotsk, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Berlin.

orderlies dogs

A participant in the Great Patriotic War, Sergei Solovyov from Tyumen, told how during the battles he often witnessed the feat of four-legged orderlies: “Because of the dense fire, we, the orderlies, could not get to the seriously wounded fellow soldiers. The wounded needed urgent medical attention, many of them were bleeding. Only a few minutes remained between life and death ... Dogs came to the rescue. They crawled up to the wounded man in a plastuna way and offered him a side with a medical bag. Patiently waiting for him to bandage the wound. Only then did they move on to another. They could unmistakably distinguish a living person from a dead person, because many of the wounded were in an unconscious state. The four-legged orderly licked the face of such a fighter until he regained consciousness. In the Arctic, winters are harsh, more than once dogs saved the wounded from severe frosts - they warmed them with their breath. You may not believe me, but the dogs wept over the dead…”

Thanks to quick wits and training, dog teams could act amazingly well-coordinated, proactively and efficiently. Here is how Tamara Ovsyannikova, who served as a signalman in the 268th Infantry Division, described the work of such a “unit” during the lifting of the blockade in 1944: “I took the reel and ran across the field near the railway. And suddenly I see: two dogs, and next to the wounded dragger. Shaggy orderlies around the wounded revolve. I dragged them a drag. The dog lay down next to the wounded man, and she had a sanitary bag on her side - the wounded man bandaged his leg, I helped them to load him onto the drag, they harnessed and dragged. That's the first time I saw the dogs-orderlies. This struck me very much. Since then, I have a lot of respect for dogs ... "

During the Great Patriotic War, orderly dogs carried more than 700 thousand wounded soldiers from the battlefield! It is worth noting that the orderly for 80 people taken out of the battlefield was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sled dogs

On the Karelian front, in conditions of snowdrifts, impassability and mudslides, sled teams were the main mode of transport for delivering food to the front line and transporting ammunition.

In his reports, the head of the 53rd ambulance army wrote about sled dogs: “During the time of being at the 53rd army, a detachment of dogs of sled teams participated in offensive operations to evacuate seriously wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield during the capture of the Demyansk region fortified by the enemy and , despite the difficult conditions of evacuation, wooded and swampy terrain, poor, impassable roads, where it was not possible to take out the wounded by horse transport, he successfully worked to evacuate seriously wounded soldiers and commanders and transport ammunition to the advancing units. During the indicated period, the detachment removed 7551 people and brought 63 tons of ammunition.

The head of the medical service of the 855th Infantry Regiment noted: “The ambulance teams have a great opportunity to disguise themselves. Each team replaces at least three or four orderlies. Evacuation with the help of ambulances is carried out quickly and painlessly for the wounded.”

On August 29, 1944, the head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army reported in a greeting letter on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Central School of Service Dog Breeding: confession".

In total, during the hostilities, about 15 thousand dog teams were formed, which delivered the wounded soldiers to the shelter, where they could be given urgent medical care. And this is perhaps the most important feature of helping dogs rescue our soldiers.

signal dogs

Many of you remember the serial Polish film “Four Tankmen and a Dog”, which shows an episode of how a dog named Sharik was used to convey an important military message. It was attached to the collar and delivered to the command. It was in this way that specially trained war dogs were used, which could operate quickly and stealthily, often under the cover of darkness. The dog sees very well at night and can successfully cope with the task, on which the fate of the whole battle could sometimes depend. The secret message will be delivered to its destination.

Sometimes even a seriously wounded dog crawled to its destination and performed its combat mission. The German sniper shot through both ears of the liaison dog Alma with the first shot, and crushed the jaw with the second. And yet Alma delivered the package.

The famous dog Mink for 1942-1943. delivered 2398 combat reports. Another legendary dog Rex delivered 1649 messages. He was wounded several times, crossed the Dnieper three times, but always got to his post.

From the report of the headquarters of the Leningrad Front: "6 communication dogs ... replaced 10 messengers (messengers), and the delivery of reports accelerated 3-4 times."

intelligence service dogs accompanied the scouts behind enemy lines for a successful passage through his advanced positions, discovering hidden firing points, ambushes, secrets, assisting in the capture of the "language", worked quickly, clearly and silently.

Watch dogs worked in combat guards, in ambushes to detect the enemy at night and in inclement weather. These four-legged clever women only by pulling the leash and turning the torso indicated the direction of the impending danger.

And dogs also served as living talismans, helped soldiers overcome the hardships of war, and sometimes just fought along with them...

Palaces over the Danube, the castles of Prague, the cathedrals of Vienna. These and other unique architectural monuments have survived to this day thanks to a phenomenal flair Dzhulbars.

Documentary evidence of this is a certificate stating that from September 1944 to August 1945, taking part in mine clearance in Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria, a service dog named Dzhulbar discovered 468 mines and more than 150 shells. On March 21, 1945, Dzhulbars was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" for the successful completion of a combat mission. The excellent instinct of the indefatigable dog was also noted by the sappers who cleared the grave of Taras Shevchenko in Kanev and the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv. By the day of the historic parade, Dzhulbars had not yet recovered from his wound.

Member of the Second World War Scottish Collie Dick, who was able to detect more than 12 thousand mines.

And besides, Dick managed to find a 2.5-ton bomb with a clockwork an hour before the explosion in the foundation of the Pavlovsk Palace. After the war, Dick returned to his master and, despite battle wounds, lived to old age.

Photos of soldiers with war dogs

Shepherd Dzhulbars - a dog awarded the medal "For Military Merit"

Monuments to warrior dogs

The opening of the sculpture "Military Instructor with a Dog" in one of the most beautiful corners of the east of the capital - the Terletskaya oak forest - was a tribute to the memory of our smaller brothers, who during the Great Patriotic War, together with the soldiers on the battlefields against the Nazi invaders, brought the Victory Day closer. They were not given orders, they did not receive titles. They performed feats without knowing it. They just did what people taught them, and died like people. But, dying, they saved thousands of human lives. Address: Russia, Moscow, highway Enthusiasts, Svobodny avenue, Terletsky forest park

Monument to Demolition Dogs

05/28/2011 The only monument in Russia to the 10th Infantry Division of the NKVD, who defended the city during the Battle of Stalingrad, was opened in Volgograd. The sculpture by Sergey Karpov depicts a dog equipped with a bag with TNT and a fuse on its back. The monument was erected in the park on Chekist Square, not far from the monument in honor of the soldiers of the 10th NKVD division, which participated in the defense of Stalingrad. , exterminated more than a company of German machine gunners.

Monument to the dogs who died in the war in the village of Legedzino near Uman

Among the retreating orders of the Red Army was a separate battalion of the Kolomiysky border detachment, which had 250 service dogs. During the protracted battles, the higher authorities repeatedly suggested that Major Lopatin release the shepherd dogs, but he did not do this, although it was problematic to feed and keep the four-legged “border guards” in order.
And at the most critical moment of the endless German attacks near the village of Legedzino, when the commander felt that he could no longer resist, he sent ... dogs to attack the Nazis.

Old-timers still remember the heart-rending screams, panicked screams, barking and roaring that sounded around. And eyewitnesses said that the wounded tailed fighters, even in their death throes, clung to the throat of the enemy.

Not expecting such a turn, the Germans took a back seat and retreated. And quite rightly (albeit a little late - on the eve of May 9, 2003) on the outskirts of the village, in the place where this battle ended, a monument was erected in honor of the border guards and their four-legged assistants.

Monument to Heroes Medics and Sanitary Dogs

(The monument was erected in the city of Essentuki, on the territory of the Victoria sanatorium)

From the memoirs of the nurse Elizaveta Alexandrovna Eranina (Samoilovich):
Dogs removed minefields, delivered reports, unwound communications and took out the wounded on teams. Sheepdogs were harnessed in fours. Mugs, huskies - five to seven each. The wounded, the seriously wounded, kissed the dogs and wept.
My Migulya drove a team to the front line under fire. A team of dogs crawlingly gave the wounded a sled. Just imagine - one hundred to one hundred and fifty meters crawling. There and back - on potholes, on snow, on the ground. Once, a seriously wounded, overweight man shouts to me: "Stop, stop, sister, stop!" I thought I needed to tie it up. And with the last of his strength, he says to me: "Sister, I have a sausage in a duffel bag and sugar, give it to the dogs. Now, give it to me!" My team took out seventy-two people on the breakthrough. And our other teams are no less ...

The first saboteur dog in the Red Army, Dina.

Veteran's memory (V. Malyutin)

Recently, after reading in the newspaper,

He froze in amazement:

Some uncle, so the children wrote

Dog beaten to death.

And immediately remembered the past,

One of those war days

Heroes rushed under the tanks

For the earth and for life on it!

Believe me, it was very scary

When the iron "Tarantas"

Turns the tower towards you...

So listen to the story:

Rushing tank, fourth attack,

The earth is on fire, all on fire,

I see a dog crawling towards him

With some kind of pack on the back.

There's less than a meter between them,

Jerk... and terrible black smoke

Already blowing in the wind...

The soldiers sighed, there is one ...

That fight ended well

Five attacks were repulsed that day,

And he'd still be hot

If only there were no dogs!

And after the battle, near the hole

Saying goodbye,

Dogs of the little remains

Buried for her deeds.

Skillfully poured mound sloping

Between aspen and birch,

And battered gray-haired soldiers,

Not ashamed, they wipe away tears with their sleeves.

Like this, always risking yourself

They went to battle without fear,

And with affectionate words I repeat:

A dog is a friend and a dog is a hero!

Quadrupedal warriors...

Updated on 09/05/14 20:37:

The participants of the Victory Parade also included honored dogs that passed the School of Military Dogs. But the dog Dzhulbars was recently wounded and could not walk. The head of the school, Major General Grigory Medvedev, reported this to Rokossovsky, who commanded the parade, and he reported to Stalin. Stalin ordered to carry the dog in his arms and allowed him to take his old tunic without shoulder straps for this. Carried Dzhulbars in the arms of the commander of the demining battalion, Major Alexander Mazover.

Updated on 09/05/14 21:57:

In the late autumn of 1941, during the Battle of Moscow, an event occurred that was not noted in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but deserved the right to be included in military chronicles. A group of fascist tanks, trying to attack the Soviet line, turned back, seeing ... dogs rushing at them! However, the fear of the Nazis was quite justified - the dogs blew up enemy tanks.

In the report of the commander of the 30th Army, Lieutenant General Dmitry Lelyushenko, it was reported: “... In the presence of a massive use of tanks by the enemy, dogs are an integral part of anti-tank defense. The enemy is afraid of fighter dogs and specifically hunts for them.

Veteran's memory (V. Malyutin)

Recently, after reading in the newspaper,

He froze in amazement:

Some uncle, so the children wrote

Dog beaten to death.

And immediately remembered the past,

One of those war days

Heroes rushed under the tanks

For the earth and for life on it!

Believe me, it was very scary

When the iron "Tarantas"

Turns the tower towards you...

So listen to the story:

Rushing tank, fourth attack,

The earth is on fire, all on fire,

I see a dog crawling towards him

With some kind of pack on the back.

There's less than a meter between them,

Jerk... and terrible black smoke

Already blowing in the wind...

The soldiers sighed, there is one ...

That fight ended well

Five attacks were repulsed that day,

And he'd still be hot

If only there were no dogs!

And after the battle, near the hole

Saying goodbye,

The first training showed good results. The mongrels were unpretentious, strong and, to the surprise of dog breeders, they were easy to train. They were used to perform a variety of combat missions: delivery of ammunition and food, protection, removal of the wounded, mining of the territory, reconnaissance, destruction of armored vehicles, sabotage, establishing communications, etc. The exploits of dogs during the Great Patriotic War were widely known to the entire Soviet people, they are still remembered.

Frontline dog units

On all military fronts, it was trained and formed into special combat units:

17 battalions of miner dogs;
14 squads of dogs - fighters of armored vehicles;
37 sled dog battalions;
2 specialized units;
4 battalions of liaison detachments.

Sled dogs

Long before the start of the war, in 1924, a kennel was set up at the Shot military school for training military and sled dogs. The institution formed detachments not only of driving teams, but also of signalmen, orderlies and sappers.

The first time was used in the Winter War of the USSR against Finland. In 1940, sled dogs performed so well that the army headquarters established a new sled service.

Sled dogs during the Great Patriotic War were a very important part of the transport connection between army units both in winter and in summer.

With the help of riding teams, the wounded were taken out from the battlefield, reinforcements and ammunition were delivered to firing positions. Teams were especially effective in winter in off-road conditions and snowdrifts.

Riding units of dogs, and this is about 15 thousand teams, during the war took out more than 6,500 thousand wounded from the battlefield, brought more than 3.5 tons of ammunition and ammunition to the positions, and also delivered an uncountable amount of food.

orderlies dogs

Sanitary dogs had an excellent sense of smell and detective abilities, so they found the wounded not only on the battlefield, but also in the forest more often, in the swamp. Then they were brought in while carrying emergency medicines. A dog nurse named Mukhtar carried about 400 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield during the fighting. Such records are unique in world military history.

Dogs-orderlies during the Great Patriotic War acted very well-coordinated and quick-witted. They were admired even by Western war correspondents who visited the Soviet Union.

Demolition Dogs

"Subversive" dogs during the Great Patriotic War were perhaps the most selfless examples of defenders of the motherland. Already in the summer of 1941, dogs attacked German tanks - fighters of such vehicles. The German troops did not expect such a tactical move and lost a significant amount of equipment. Their command even issued a special instruction to the tankers to fight the dogs - tank destroyers. But Soviet dog breeders expected this and began to train bombers more diligently.

Dogs were taught to quickly rush under vehicles from a short distance in order to immediately find themselves in the area of the tank inaccessible to machine guns. A mine was laid in the pack of a demoman, which contained 3-4 kilograms of explosive and a special detonator.

Over the years of bloody battles, demolition dogs destroyed a total of more than 300 enemy tanks, as well as armored personnel carriers, assault guns and other equipment. In the future, the need for such dogs disappeared, since the tank and artillery power of the Soviet Union increased so much that it could freely resist the German army without such expenses. In the autumn of 1943, the demolition dogs were eliminated. To understand during the Great Patriotic War, we can cite the following fact. In the Battle of Stalingrad alone, sabotage dogs destroyed 42 tanks and 3 armored vehicles.

mine detecting dogs

At the end of 1940, the first small detachment of miner dogs was created, and instructions for their training were also developed.

There were about 6 thousand dogs that were engaged in mine clearance in the Soviet Union. For the entire duration of the war, they cleared about four million charges of various kinds. These actions saved the lives of tens of thousands of people. Hero dogs cleared mines in Kyiv, Novgorod, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin and Budapest.

A prominent cynologist and officer A.P. Mazover, who commanded a battalion of mine-detecting dogs during the war years, came up with the legendary “plate 37”. Seeing this inscription on the road, everyone understood that safe movement is guaranteed by a sensitive canine scent. Among the most talented dogs were champions who cleared about 12 thousand mines during the entire war. Having comprehended this figure, you will appreciate the huge role that miner dogs played during the Great Patriotic War.

Tasks of mine-detecting dogs

During the war years, detachments of miner dogs performed the following combat missions.

In preparation for offensive operations, miner dogs were used to make moves in minefields. Thus, rifle units and armored vehicles could pass through them.
One of the main tasks of the miner dogs was the clearance of transport roads, which the enemy, retreating, constantly mined.
If time and situation allowed, the units were used for the complete clearance of settlements, individual buildings and the area in general.

Subversive dogs

This type of detachment, like sabotage dogs, was used during the Great Patriotic War in SMERSH detachments to search for enemy saboteurs, especially German snipers. The sabotage detachment consisted of several dogs, a rifle squad, a signalman and an NKVD worker. The deployment of such a detachment was preceded by careful and painstaking preparation, selection and training. Saboteur dogs successfully performed not only search tasks, but also undermined German trains, even while on the move.

Shepherd Dina

A striking example of a saboteur dog is Dean's shepherd dog. She served in the 14th sapper brigade and went down in history as a participant in the "rail war" on the territory of Belarus. While still young, the shepherd was very well trained in the military school of dog breeding. After that, she worked under the command of dog handler Dina Volkats in the 37th separate engineering battalion.

Shepherd successfully applied her talent in practice. So, in mid-August 1943, Dina blew up an enemy train on the Polotsk-Drissa stretch. The shepherd literally flew onto the rails right in front of the approaching train, in which there were German officers, dropped the pack with a charge, pulled out the detonator with her teeth and ran into the forest. As a result of the explosion, about 10 wagons of enemy manpower were destroyed, and the railway was also disabled.

Dina's dog during the Great Patriotic War carried out dozens of successful sabotage operations, and also helped clear the mines of the city of Polotsk.

scout dogs

The reconnaissance dogs have proven to be more than excellent, especially in such operations as "Rail War" and "Concert". This type of fighting dogs ensured the inconspicuousness of the passage of scouts to the rear of the enemy's defense and the success of their activities among the overwhelming majority of opponents. If there was a scout dog in the search group, then it was not difficult to prevent an unwanted clash with an enemy ambush. Scout dogs were specially trained and never barked. The fact that a detachment of enemy forces was discovered, the dog informed the owner only by specific movements of the body. The legendary scout dog named Fog was able to silently knock down sentries at the post and make a death grip on the back of the head, after which the scouts could safely operate behind enemy lines.

Also, reconnaissance dogs could detect enemy sabotage groups that were trying to covertly penetrate the Soviet defense line.

The exploits of dogs during the Great Patriotic War

Archival information about the history of the Great Patriotic War keeps the names of man's true friends. Demolitionists Raid and Dick, scouts Sailor and Jack, miners Boy, Yelik, Dick. They all died...

For a better understanding of the role that dogs played during the Great Patriotic War, one should know their exploits.

Shepherd Mukhtar has already been mentioned. She was trained (and later became a guide) by Corporal Zorin. For all the years of the war, the dog took out more than 400 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefields. He also saved his guide, shell-shocked by the shell explosion.
A guard dog named Agay dozens of times discovered German saboteurs who tried to get into the rear of the Red Army.
A dog named Bulba worked as a liaison at the front. For the entire duration of the war, he transmitted more than 1.5 thousand dispatches and laid hundreds of kilometers of cable. And the camp leader Terentev taught him this craft.
A dog named Jack with his guide, corporal Kisagulov, went through the whole war as scouts. On their common account, dozens of captured "languages", among which were officers. In such a combination, a man and a dog could do amazing things. As you can see, service dogs during the Great Patriotic War played an important role.
Laika, whose name was Bobik, together with his guide Dmitry Trokhov, took out about 1,600 wounded from the front line during three years of military service. The conductor was awarded the medal "For Courage" and the Order of the Red Star. Which is a little unfair, since the orderly for 80 soldiers taken out of the battlefield was given the title of Hero.
Dog signalman Rex crossed the Dnieper three times in one day under heavy fire from machine guns and artillery, delivering very important documents. And all this was in cold November water.

The volleys of guns died down long ago. Many people who trained military dogs are no longer in the world, as are the legendary participants in the Great Patriotic War. But in the people's memory the feat of the four-legged friends of the warriors is alive.

In the fierce battles of the summer of 1941, the Red Army lost more than 70% of its anti-tank artillery. In the absence of a layered defense, the dominance of German aviation in the sky and miscalculations in tactics, Soviet artillerymen could not effectively restrain the advance of enemy armored vehicles. In view of the fact that in the autumn German tanks were already rushing towards Moscow, and there was an acute shortage of guns at the front, the command decided to use any means on the battlefield, including anti-tank dogs

Training of tailed specialists

The decision to use dogs as tank destroyers in the USSR was made before the war, in 1935. It is believed that the idea of the combat use of dogs was first presented by the famous Soviet cynologist Vsevolod Yazykov. Studies of the actions of animals in the defeat of armored vehicles were carried out at the Saratov armored school and the Scientific Research Armored Range in Kubinka. The main problem faced by the military and scientists was that the dogs were simply afraid of moving tanks. To overcome tank fear, cynologists did not feed the dog for several days, and then put food under the tank so that hunger turned out to be stronger than the instinct of self-preservation. After the animal ceased to be afraid of the "steel monsters", a model of an explosive device was attached to its back and taught to climb under the tank. After that, the task became more difficult - the dog had to get food from under the tank, which had the engine turned on.

Tank Destroyer Dog Training

Mostly mongrels were taken into the fighter squads, and the training course for the “tailed fighter” lasted six months, but after the start of the war it was reduced to three months. The criteria for selecting dogs was simple - the animal had to be strong enough to carry two anti-tank mines. For tank destroyer dogs, a special explosive device was developed - a canvas pack, on the sides of which were placed two TNT blocks weighing 6 kg each. In addition, a contact wooden detonator was attached to the back of the animal.

Dog with anti-tank mines

The essence of using such an explosive mechanism was as follows: the dog had to run under the tank so that the detonator came into contact with its bottom (when the detonator was deflected back, the mine exploded). Since the bottom of the tank was the least protected (its armor protection was only 15-30 mm), the vehicle was disabled.

Baptism of fire

In July 1941, combat tests of the new weapon began. On the battlefield, dogs were released hungry - the handler directed the animal directly at the tank or at a slight angle to the direction of its movement. The tests were unsuccessful - out of twenty dogs released towards enemy armored vehicles, not one completed the task. Some of the animals were destroyed by the German infantry and tanks, while the rest simply fled. Despite the first failure, work in this direction did not stop, and during the war years in the USSR, thirteen detachments of tank destroyers were formed, each of which consisted of 120-126 dogs.

Tank Destroyer Dog Unit

In August 1941, near Chernigov, dogs were able to destroy six enemy tanks, and in the autumn they successfully operated in battles near Moscow. According to the report of the commander of the 30th Army, Lieutenant General Lelyushenko, “During the period of the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, the enemy tanks launched into the attack were put to flight by the dogs of the fighter squad. The enemy is afraid of anti-tank dogs and specifically hunts for them..

Tank destroyer dogs in combat
Artist - Ivan Khivrenko

Triumph in the battles for Stalingrad

The most striking episode of the use of "anti-tank" dogs was the fighting in the Stalingrad direction. Fierce fighting took place in the defense zone of the 62nd Army, which included special detachments of "four-legged fighters" - the 28th under the command of Major Anatoly Kunin and the 138th under the command of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Shantsev. On June 10, 1942, near the Gavrilovka farm, 50 German tanks broke through the defenses of the rifle platoon of Lieutenant Stolyarov, and the 138th detachment became the only obstacle in the way of the enemy. The fighters let the German tanks into close range, after which they brought their dogs into battle. The first tank was destroyed by the pet of senior sergeant Evgeny Builin, and then the dogs of the counselors Kolesnikov, Romanov, Shamsiev and others successfully completed their work. In total, in the fierce battles of June 1942, the 138th detachment destroyed 14 German tanks. Senior Lieutenant Shantsev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner - according to his award list, “06/10/1942, in the area of the farms Khudoyarovo and Gavrilovka, 11 enemy tanks were shot down by fighters of the detachment under the leadership of the commander of the detachment, Senior Lieutenant Shantsev. 06/23/1942 on the Novo-Nikolaevka-Kupyansk road, 3 enemy tanks were shot down by fighters of the detachment under the leadership of Lieutenant Shantsev ". In these clashes, nine fighters of the detachment died along with their pets, but the enemy offensive was suspended. "Anti-tank" dogs were active later, during the urban battles in Stalingrad - in street clashes, they had the opportunity to hide behind the rubble and walls of houses, unexpectedly appearing in front of the enemy. On September 15, 1942, the dogs of the 28th detachment managed to destroy 6 tanks. The fighter of this detachment, Nikolai Maslov, recalled:

“With dogs, we blew up tanks one after another, and the Germans turned back. When our unit was given the task of holding the approaches to the tractor plant, we were urgently transferred to positions at night. The Germans tried to take the plant by night attack, but they met with strong resistance from our units, and the dogs especially worked. In this battle, when an enemy tank was coming towards me, I threw a Molotov cocktail, but did not make it to the target. The crew, seeing me, fired a shot from the tank and wounded me with a fragment of a shell: the thumb on my left hand was torn off. The dog was also injured. But I managed to give her a command, and she blew up the tank.”.

The detachment in which Maslov fought, during the battles for Stalingrad, was able to destroy 42 German tanks, and together with the results of the Shantsev detachment, this figure was 63 vehicles. The losses of the fighter detachments were also very high, amounting to three-quarters of their original composition (about 200 dogs died).

On other sectors of the front

On July 22, 1942, when repelling an enemy attack near the village of Sultan-Saly (not far from Rostov-on-Don), dogs of the 30th Irkutsk division showed "aerobatics". 64 dogs rushed towards the German tanks and, despite the fact that the Germans opened heavy machine-gun fire, the animals managed to destroy 24 vehicles (all 64 four-legged fighters died). The day before, 56 fighter dogs were able to stop the attack of 40 tanks near the village of Chaltyr, destroying more than ten of them.

For German tankers, the destruction of "anti-tank" dogs was not an easy task, since tank machine guns were located very high and could not always hit a low-lying target, which, moreover, was moving fast. Trying to somehow solve the problem, the Germans came up with a protective apron made of metal mesh with spikes, which was attached to the front of the tank, preventing it from approaching it. However, this solution turned out to be ineffective - while the car was moving, the mesh clung to the ground, raised heaps of garbage, or even broke off. In addition, Soviet cynologists began to teach dogs to go under the target from behind. Realizing the danger that "anti-tank" animals carried for armored vehicles, the German command ordered each soldier to open fire on any dog that appeared in sight. However, in 1943, the need for tank destroyer dogs almost disappeared, since the Red Army already had a huge number of anti-tank guns and armored vehicles in service. But still, the dogs managed to take part in the Battle of Kursk - for example, on July 5, 1943, in the defense zone of the 52nd and 67th Guards Rifle Divisions, dogs from the unit of Lieutenant Lisitsyn destroyed 12 German tanks. On another sector of the front, 20 enemy tanks rushed to storm the height defended by Soviet infantrymen, but the soldiers of the special squad under the command of Junior Lieutenant Mukhin, who kept their pets in the trenches, waited until no more than a hundred meters were left to the tanks, and released seven dogs on them (all animals died, destroying four tanks).

Nameless Kamikaze Heroes

During the Great Patriotic War, tank destroyer dogs were not widely used, since the "anti-tank" animal was a disposable weapon, the preparation of which required time and great effort. In addition, even a well-trained dog could be killed before approaching the enemy or run away, frightened by the roar of explosions. German tankers used flamethrowers, machine guns and their personal weapons to destroy dogs. In Paul Karel's book "Hitler Goes East" there is a fragment of the memoirs of a German tanker, where he describes his "acquaintance" with tank destroyer dogs:

“The first dog dived right under the lead tank. Flash, muffled roar, fountains of mud, clouds of dust, bright flames. Non-commissioned officer Vogel was the first to understand what was happening. "Dog! he shouted. - Dog!" The shooter drew a P-08 Parabellum and fired at the second dog. Missed. Shot again. And again by. From the tank number 914 they gave an automatic burst. The animal, as if stumbling, flew over its head. When people approached the sheepdog, she was still breathing. A pistol bullet put an end to the dog's suffering."

According to some reports, during the war years, Soviet fighter dogs destroyed about 300 German tanks, although this figure has not been documented. At the same time, the book "Fighting Tanks" (authors - G. Biryukov and G. Melnikov) gives more modest figures - 187 destroyed armored vehicles. "Anti-tank" dogs remained nameless heroes of the war, but nevertheless they were honored with perpetuation. In 2010, in Volgograd, on Chekistov Square, the world's only monument to tank destroyer dogs was erected - a life-size bronze dog.

Monument to tank destroyer dogs in Volgograd