"James Hart" wrote in message ...
robert arndt wrote:
"Ian" wrote in message
...
"Jim Doyle" wrote in message
...
I found this earlier today, it may not be new to yourselves - but
the thought of some pigeon tapping away frantically inside a
speeding missile had me in stiches!

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m.../article.jhtml

Hope it tickles something,

Jim Doyle

Thanks for the story. Here's another one concerning Britain's use of
Falcons to combat the Nazi Pigeon menace during the pre-invasion plans
for Operation Sea Lion.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_r...ies/263333.stm

The article does not, however, tell of the continued development of
the Nazi pigeon. The German Army and SS used specially trained pigeons
to target troops
and perform recon with special cameras developed by Zeiss.
I'll try to find that info as well somewhere in an "animals at war"
site.

Rob

p.s. You are aware of the CIA exploding pigeons, right? Supposedly
they and the exploding dogs were successfully used against terrorists
in the '80s. The exploding pigeon was used with a pinpoint laser
designator while the dog was just introduced into the area and
detonated when convenient.

As opposed to the exploding cat of course, it would explode when
inconvenient.
No doubt someone will be along shortly with tales of the not particularly
succesful anti tank dogs and the anti shipping torpedo dolphins.

Uh, the Russian AT dogs were a failure because they usually went for
Russian tanks which used gasoline. Since the dogs were taught to crawl
under Russian tanks in training they smelled the gasoline from the
engines. German tanks used diesel so the Pavlov training the Russians
used turned against them. Only a few German tanks were ever destroyed
this way but 22 Russian tanks were lost to their own dogs!'
The Germans used AT dogs as well, but with a special harness that
released the dog once under or on top of the enemy tank. The Germans
loved their animals and none were starved to perform nor blown apart-
the charges being timed. A few German dogs even recieved the Iron
Cross! No lie. You will see particularly many photos during the war
with the SS and their dogs riding with them in the Sdkfz 251s,
Kubelwagens, or in Zundapp/BMW motorcycle sidecars!
Besides pigeons and dogs, the Germans also used Elephants in Hamburg
to plow and move machinery. They used horses and mules to carry
panzerfaust and panzerschrek AT weapons in wooden carts at wars end,
sometimes in a quad arrangement.
BTW, the dolphin stories are true. They were used to protect Trident
boomers as well as recently used in Iraq to locate mines and possible
enemy divers.

Rob