The Sad and Remarkable Soviet Anti-Tank Dogs
The tale of communist puppy suicide bombers
In the years following the Russian Revolution, the new Soviet military command was looking for novel ways to modernize and improve their lagging military capabilities. To address this issue, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics approved the training and use of dogs in 1924. The edict called for a dog training school to be opened in Moscow. This quickly spread, and at its height, there were twelve such training schools spread throughout the Soviet Union.
At first, the dogs were trained for field tasks such as ferrying first aid to wounded soldiers, search and rescue missions, and communication. But as the program expanded, a new idea was explored: anti-tank dogs.
The idea was to have a dog run up to a tank and drop a live explosive charge before returning to its handler to retrieve another bomb. But as training commenced, it was found that the idea had some serious issues.
The dogs could not drop their explosives consistently and would often return to the handler with the explosive still intact, a flaw that could prove lethal. The dogs were also inconsistent and easily confused by the hectic conditions on the simulated battlefields. The idea of noble Soviet hounds blowing up enemy…
