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The more I see of humans, The more I love Dogs
DOGS OF WAR
Dogs have been used in battle since ancient times and many have become war heroes and mascots.
Assyrian attack dogs : were shown in a Pergamon frieze of 280 BC.
Herodotus describes a battle where men fought men, horses fought horses, and dogs fought dogs.
British Mastiffs were exported in considerable numbers to Rome and Gaul for battle work, they usually wore armour.
Rottweilers were used by the Romans, at first to herd 'meat on the hoof' for the soldiers, and later as agrressors. The Romans also used Pyrenean and Bernese Mountain dogs.
Henry VIII sent mastiffs to Charles V of Spain for his French war, as war dogs and for reconnaissance.
Elizabeth I's soldiers used hundreds of dogs against the Irish rebels.
In World War I dogs were extensively used by several armies, for the Red Cross work and as messengers, draft dogs and sentries.
Germany had 6,000 trained German Shepherd dogs ready and waiting before 1914 and sent 20,000 to the battlefield.
France used Braids extensively. 10,000 dogs were sent to the battle front to locate the wounded for the Red Cross, to act as front-line sentries, and to carry ammunition in back-packs. They also used 8,000 sledge dogs in the Vosges Mountains.
Britain also used thousands of dogs, many from Battersea Dogs' Home, and 7,000 were killed in action.
In World War II dogs were used again in large numbers
America used dogs to search for wounded and to flush out snipers in the jungles of Pacific arena.
Germany used 2,00,000 dogs, mostly to guard concentration camps.
In Norway the Defence minister is empowered to mobilize all privately owned Norwegian Elkhounds in case of war- they are highly prized as sledge dogs.
Raj Prateek Verma
