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To: PsyOp
Yep, it was a stop gap measure until panzerfausts could be cranked out in huge numbers.

Reminds me of the Soviet use of "mine dogs"

Even as early as 1941 special service units (Spets sluzhba) started to be formed for combating the enemy's tanks. Each unit consisted of four companies with 126 dogs in each company, making 504 dogs in each unit. Altogether during the war there were two special service regiments formed and 168 independent units, battalions, companies and platoons.



Two Russian Anti Tank "Suicide" Dogs On The German Front

The dogs selected for the special service units were strong and healthy and possessed plenty of stamina. Their training was very simple. First, they were not fed for several days, and then they began to receive food near some tanks: the meat was given to them from the tank's lower hatch. So the dog learned to go beneath the tank to be fed. The training sessions quickly became more elaborate. The dogs were unleashed in the face of tanks approaching from quite considerable distances and taught to get under the tank, not from the front but from the rear. As soon as the dog was under the tank, it stopped and the dog was fed. Before a battle the dog would not be fed. Instead, an explosive charge of between 4 and 4.6 kg with a pin detonator was attached to it. It was then sent under the enemy tanks.

Anti-tank dogs were employed in the biggest battles, before Moscow, before Stalingrad, and at Kursk. The dogs destroyed a sufficient number of tanks for the survivors to be considered worthy of the honour of taking part in the victory parade in the Red Square.

88 posted on 03/16/2004 12:34:25 PM PST by SAMWolf (No one wants to talk about the number 288, it's too gross.)
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To: SAMWolf
As I recall, the Ruskies lost a few of their own tanks to Comrade Spot as well.
103 posted on 03/16/2004 2:07:51 PM PST by PsyOp ("Zapatero" is Spanish for "Girly-Man.")
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