Animals in battle: from horses to killer elephants
JABAL-US-SARAJ, Nov 9: Hannibal of Carthage used elephants to battle the Romans, the US Navy trained dolphins to protect submarines and now opposition forces on horseback have attacked Taliban tanks in Afghanistan.
The Northern Alliance said on Thursday it used 2,000 horses in advances on Taliban positions near Mazar-i-Sharif.
“As you know the winter brings difficulties for moving around Afghanistan, so some of our soldiers travel on horseback,” said opposition commander Mustafah on the front line north of Kabul.
“The horses are fast and can move where we cannot get our vehicles. They are good for attack, it is usual for us to use horses, even in the summer.”
The cavalry charges — an ancient form of warfare — were directed against 20th century weaponry.
“This is opposition forces riding horseback into combat against tanks and armored personnel carriers,” said the vice chairman of the US military Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, in Washington. Since man has waged war, animals have played a key role.
Even in an era of modern mechanised warfare, animals have continued to serve with honour — or almost.
According to military historians, the US Army Air Corps contemplated using thousands of kamikaze bats against Japan during World War Two. An incendiary bomb was to have been attached to each animal but the idea never got off the ground.
BRING ON THE ELEPHANTS: The animal that has served with greatest distinction is the horse. From carrying supplies to leading the charge against the enemy, the horse was vital through to the end of World War One.
And even in the sophisticated war against the Taliban, in which the United States is armed with laser-guided bombs and high-tech jet fighters, the horse has found a place.
The US army used horses in World War One before the cavalry abandoned them for armoured vehicles. One last unit fought on horseback in World War Two, the 26th Cavalry in the Philippines.
Not that the horse should get all the glory. In both world wars, cats, mice and canaries often served to the death.
Cats lived with soldiers in trenches, where they killed mice and rats during World War One to limit disease.
Canaries and mice were used in World War Two, sent into the tunnels being dug behind enemy lines to detect poison gas.
Elephants, too, have held a starring role, particularly for their ability to frighten the enemy — or crush them underfoot.
Alexander the Great conquered India with the help of elephants. The Greek king Pyrrhus and his men rode elephants into battle against the Romans, as did Hannibal.
Perhaps more enduring is the use of dogs. While the ancient Romans and Gauls used dogs trained to fight in battle and the 15th century Spanish used dog warriors dressed in quilted overcoats. The US army used dogs in the Vietnam war as scouts.
The canines were attached to infantry units to detect ambush sites, enemy caches of weapons, food and ammunition. They also served with distinction during the 1990-91 Gulf War, alerting troops to concealed explosives and arms caches.
HIGH SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: Just as heroic are pigeons, which long served as messengers of victories and defeat for the Greeks and Romans and, more recently, were the first aerial spy photographers.
In World War One, pictures taken from pigeons fitted with cameras helped generals decide the course of a battle, while in World War Two pigeons were still used as messengers during missions that demanded radio silence.
Perhaps most imaginative was the Russian and US training of dolphins to seek and destroy underwater targets in the Cold War.
While that programme ended, the US navy also planned to use dolphins to protect Trident submarines from sabotage in their home ports. Animal activists scuppered the programme when they filed a lawsuit against the navy.
The US navy is said to study and train more than 100 dolphins, sea lions and beluga whales at underwater laboratories in San Diego, Key West and Hawaii as “advanced biological weapons systems”.
Part programme is said to include the training dolphins for a “swimmer nullification system”, which involves injecting a lethal blast of carbon dioxide into a swimmer or diver. —Reuters
