When necessary, the animals can also become “super soldiers” on the battlefield.
In the military history of the world in general and Vietnam in particular, there are many animals that have been used by humans in battle. In addition to some familiar animals such as elephants, horses, camels… have you ever heard of snakes attacking enemy ships, or how Vietnamese soldiers used bees to frighten the enemy?
The following article will help you better understand the animal “warriors” with 1-0-2 in history. Although little known, in fact, they have contributed significantly to the great victories of the world.
For a long time, dogs have helped people in many things from the middle of the house, rescue to the police … but rarely used as a weapon in war. However, for the ancient Greeks, dogs were once powerful “warriors” on the battlefield.
Big dogs used to be fearsome “warriors” on the battlefield
In the 7th century BC, the Greek city-state of Magnesia added to their army large dogs, which could weigh up to 113kg.
With their ferocity, the canine “warriors ” will play a pioneering role in disrupting the enemy’s formation, helping the soldiers following to take advantage of the chaos to easily defeat the enemy.
Using dogs for this purpose now sounds quite cruel, but at the time they were treated equally as any other soldier , even equipped with spiked armor to protect their bodies. possible in battles.
They are considered a true soldier and sometimes even wear armor to battle
In the world’s military history, Hannibal (247 – 182 BC) is considered one of the greatest generals when his military talent terrified the whole Roman Empire.
One of Hannibal’s most famous strategies was to lead a herd of war elephants across the Alps to attack Rome from behind, a feat unthinkable at the time. However, his most creative and strangest strategy goes beyond that.
Hannibal is one of the greatest generals in history
According to historical documents, after the end of the Punic War with Rome, Hannibal waged another war against King Eumenes II of the Pergamon Empire.
This was a naval battle in which Hannibal’s forces commanded much less than the opponent’s. To win, he devised a magic trick.
Before entering the battle, Hannibal looked closely to find the battleship of King Eumenes. When the battle began, Hannibal’s boat bypassed the remaining warships and quickly approached Eumenes’ boat.
Once within the right distance, he immediately ordered the launch of vials filled with venomous snakes onto the command boat. That frightened King Eumenes and turned his boat and fled, dragging the remaining battleships with him.
Vessels containing venomous snakes helped Hannibal not have to spend much effort to defeat enemies outnumbered him
Before communication systems developed as they are today, one of the most effective “messengers” in battle was the pigeon. During World War II, the British army used 250,000 pigeons to send messages to soldiers behind the German front lines.
This is a perfect tactic as each trained pigeon can fly 1,800km to exactly the designated location.
Another advantage is that they are as difficult to detect and eavesdrop as radio communications. However, the Germans also recognized the advantages of this method and succeeded in forming an army of pigeons to serve the invasion campaign of England.
Nazi Germany set up an army of pigeons to carry out their plots
In response, the British trained a small force of falcons to intercept the Nazi pigeon army . These falcons will patrol the coast and attack any winged intruder .
An army of patrolling falcons has been bred to fight the Nazi force of messenger pigeons
This idea of using falcons brought victory to the British army on the communications front when many German pigeons were defeated and at least two German pigeons were captured. made “prisoners” by this patrolling falcon force.
Bees have long been used as a weapon to cause panic in the enemy’s history. However, that was in the Middle Ages, and in modern warfare with advanced guns, few would think they were still a formidable weapon. However, with the ingenuity of the Vietnamese army and people, this unique weapon was cleverly reused in the resistance war against the US.
Beehives like these were once used by our people as an extremely effective weapon to destroy the enemy.
Around 1962, in Ben Tre, guerrilla soldier Nguyen Van Tu (1935-1964), invented a way to fight the enemy with wasps in combination with the battlefield of wars and mines , causing the enemy many significant losses. tell.
The battle of wasps was elaborately designed by him . Accordingly, the bees are captured to the point where they will build the battlefield from the time the nest is small, daily fed with buffalo and cow meat to make the nest grow quickly. In addition to the beehive, he designed a battlefield consisting of bunkers, mines, and dense spikes in nearby ditches.
Wasp nests combined with tunnels have become the fear of the American army
When the enemy has entered the ” socket”, from a distance Mr. Tu will pull the rope to break the nest, causing the bees to fly out to attack, causing the enemy to panic, not knowing that the surrounding battlefield has been arranged: As a result, the enemy army Some people fell into the pit, some fell into the spot where the mines were planted, or if they jumped into the ditch to escape, they were hit by the spikes below.
This battle of Mr. Tu destroyed many enemy troops and caused the enemy’s sweeping operations to fail.
Tiny “air soldiers” contributed to the historic victory of our nation
In addition, in Can Tho, people also created another type of fighting against the enemy. People catch bees to raise, bring their clothes and towels every day to hang near the beehive, so that the bees get used to the smell and see it as acquaintances, so it will be okay when they get close to the hive. But when the American troops rushed in, the bees saw a strange smell and rushed out to sting, causing American soldiers to flee.
Since the 1960s, the US Navy has established a separate branch to research and train marine creatures for military purposes. And one of the good candidates is dolphins, because of their swimming skills and intelligence.
The dolphin’s usual task is to scout for mines and mines in the water and then warn patrol boats of the danger. When necessary, the dolphins can also be equipped with additional weapons to attack enemy frogmen entering the area they control.
The Soviet Union also established a dolphin unit to detect and attack enemy warships by teaching them to distinguish the noises made by propellers underwater.
In 2000, some of these dolphins were sold by the Russian military to the Iranian Navy to control the Persian Gulf and were humorously called “mercenaries”.
Rats were used for the first time in the military as a biological weapon.
According to the book “Black Death and Contagion to the West” (1997, Harvard University), around 1347, when the Mongol army expanded into Central Asia and Europe, unfortunately many of their soldiers became infected. plague.
While besieging Caffa on the Crimean peninsula, the Mongol army came up with the idea of using catapults to bring the corpses of soldiers and mice that died due to disease into the city so that the enemy side would also be infected with the plague.
But the consequences don’t stop at Caffa. The lucky merchants who escaped the city quickly brought the disease to Southern and Western Europe, turning it into a terrible pandemic. History records this as the “Black Death” pandemic, which killed 50% of the population of Europe at that time.
By World War II, the British Special Operations Operations (SOE) had a daring plan to use rats to inflict damage on the Nazis.
The design of the bomb was put inside the dead rat carcass of the British army – (Image: DAILY EXPRESS).
According to The Guardian, the British military “planned” to put explosives hidden in dead rats, then sneak them close to German military targets.
The British army calculated that when they encountered rat corpses, the Nazis would burn them to avoid spreading the disease.
If this scenario happened, the bomb inside the rat would explode under the impact of the heat, damaging the Germans.
But this plan was discovered by German intelligence and warned the Germans, and German barracks quickly discovered hundreds of rats carrying weapons, so the British plan failed.