10 Astounding Animals of Mass Destruction


  1. Anti Tank Dogs

    Anti-tank dogs (Russian: Собаки-истребители танков or Противотанковые собаки; German: Panzerabwehrhunde or Hundeminen, “dog-mines”) were dogs taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. Although the original dog training routine was to leave the bomb and retreat so that the bomb would be detonated by the timer, this routine failed and was replaced by the impact detonation procedure which killed the dog in the process.


  2. Bat Bombs



  3. Cat Bombs



  4. Death Dolphins



  5. Elephants of War



  6. Land Mine Retrieval Rodents

    Bart Weetens, a Belgian national, founded APOPO to provide a low-technology solution to the global landmine problem.


  7. Orcas of War

    In a project, called Deep Ops, a pilot whale and two killer whales demonstrated their ability to recover objects from greater depths. The recovery device the whales attached to the target object, a dummy torpedo containing an acoustic beacon, incorporated a hydrazine gas generator which was activated upon attachment of the device to the torpedo. The generated gas filled a large lift bag which raised the torpedo to the surface.
    The picture shows an orca named “Ahad” enlisted in the navy working off the coast of Hawaii. Ahad was one of two orcas working in the navy in Hawaii retrieving decoy torpedos on the ocean floor. The other orca named Ishmel swam off when they were brought out to the open ocean and he never returned.
    Ahad was captured in 1968 in October off the coast of Washington. He was a member of either J or L pod. He died in 1974 after a short life of only 5 1/2 years in captivity.


  8. Pigeon Guided Missile

    Although skeptical of the idea, the National Defense Research Committee nevertheless contributed $25,000 to the research. The program was canceled on October 8, 1944, because the military believed that “further prosecution of this project would seriously delay others which in the minds of the Division have more immediate promise of combat application.” Project Pigeon was revived by the Navy in 1948 as “Project Orcon”; it was canceled in 1953 when electronic guidance systems’ reliability was proven.


  9. Rat Bomb Booby Traps

    Dead rats were prepared for use by the British Special Operations Executive in World War II against Germany. Rat carcasses were filled with plastic explosives, to be left in locations such as factories where, it was hoped, the stoker tending a boiler would likely dispose of the unpleasant discovery by shoveling it into the furnace, causing it to explode.


  10. War Pigs

    War pigs are pigs said to have been used – at most, rarely – in ancient warfare as a countermeasure to war elephants. Pliny the Elder reported that “elephants are scared by the smallest squeal of the hog”. The Romans would later use the squeals of pigs to frighten Pyrrhus’ elephants. Procopius, in book VIII of his History of the Wars, records the defenders of Edessa using a pig suspended from the walls to frighten away Khosrau’s siege elephants.
    While the above use of pigs in war is plausible, another historical reference – incendiary pigs or fire pigs – is much less so. Aelian reported that Antipater’s siege of Megara during the Wars of the Diadochi was broken when the Megarians poured oil on a herd of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy’s massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming squealing pigs often killing great numbers of the army the elephant was part of.

[Published for Ranker]

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