I found this and thought it was hilarious . Now this is a "What If?" LOL.




"The German tank men would well be forgiven if they thought that every living creature in Russia was against them, particularly in view of the telex message from Army Operations Section of OKH and sent to all Army Groups. This read: "A panzer division on the Eastern Front which had placed its vehicles under cover and in a warm place, in accordance to standing orders, found that when an alarm call was received only 30 percent of its vehicles were ready for action. Mice had gnawed through the electric leads on the engines of the tanks."

A Staff Officer with a sense of humour had annotated the document with the words "Soviet mice!!!!"

-"War on the Eastern Front 1941-45"; James Lucas

When I first read the above, it seemed just an amusing anecdote from the OstFront, but the chance discovery of previously restricted Soviet files, and a fluke of luck during an interview with a former Waffen-SS member, put me onto the trail of that most secret of secret wars within WW2. Initially following the lead on Soviet mouse detachments, this led to revelations about SS cat operations, and eventually to the untold story of what really happened to the disbanded antitank dog units of the Red Army. This is the story of animal heroics amidst the carnage and brutality of the OstFront. Battles fought in cellars and engine-compartments, away from the prying eyes of the better-known human combatants.


Formation of the First Soviet Mouse Units

During the bleak days of "Barbarossa" in 1941, the beleagured Soviet Union was struggling desperately for survival, and all non-essential tasks were put to one side to concentrate on the defeat of Nazi Germany and her allies. One such area of non-essential work was the "Mouse Research Unit" at the University of Smolensk, led by Dr. Igor Valenkho. He had pioneered Pavlovian methods for teaching tricks to laboratory mice, and intended to use his mice for fine repair/recovery in industry and engineering - allowing work to be carried out without need to strip down machinery. But it was not regarded as realistic, and (especially with the approach of the Wehrmacht) Valenkho was re-assigned to the newly created anti-tank dog training unit. While despairing of his new work, the mouse-expert secretly continued with his old research, but with a new goal - anti-tank mice! Combining the two areas of research with which he had become involved, he spotted a niche for his trained mice. With their ability to get inside engines and destroy wiring and other small components, they were ideal for the task of disabling tanks and other vehicles. But there was a problem - how to get the mice to their targets?

A flash of new inspiration came to Valenkho - the Polikarpov light bomber aircraft were famously making low-level nuisance raids on the Germans. They could drop his mice directly into action!

After some persuasion, he was allowed to carry out an experimental drop on a German Panzer unit near Kirov in early April 1942. The results must have impressed the Red Army, because further drops were authorised, and in particular the mouse attack on 22 Panzer Division, 18-19 November 1942 which had a dramatic effect on the Stalingrad Campaign...

The German Response

Following this successful operation, Valenkho examined one of the disabled tanks (recovered by the Soviets) and discovered one of his mice sleeping in the engine compartment. This was the famous "Mikhail", who was honoured with a special "Hero of the Soviet Union" medal for his part!

However, the easy days for the mouse specialists were drawing to a close. Apart from the awareness of mouse activity (as represented in the quote at the start of this document), the shooting-down of one of the specially-equipped Polikarpovs gave the Germans a clue as to what was going on...Thus, in late 1942, there developed the use of cats in Panzer units to combat the Red Army Mice. In Wehrmacht units, a random collection of cats were unofficially added to the ration list, and gave sterling (if unrecorded) service. But, in typical style, the SS would only allow pure black cats into their "Katzesicherheitabteilungen" (KSA - Cat Security Units). While showy, these units were often inferior to their scruffier Heer contemporaries (where the cats were chosen as mousers, rather than by how they looked). But Germany could not seem to supply enough cats.

In desperation, the SS then organised special "Handschar" and "Hiwi" units of non-German cats, with some success. (It has been noted that, in the immediate post-war period, due to intelligence gleaned from former-Wehrmacht and SS officers, the US and UK both organised provisional cat units to protect their armoured units from possible Soviet sabotage - this was later rendered unnecessary when British scientists discovered a wire-coating inedible to mice).

Every Dog Has His Day?

With the reduction in success of his rodent legion, Dr. Valenkho despaired again - until another flash of inspiration struck him. The anti-tank dogs had proved a failure, and dogs were now being reassigned (mainly to Gulasch or Vivisection duties!). Realising a use for limited numbers of these already trained dogs to escort his mice into action. If one or two dogs could be dropped in conjunction, these would chase off or distract the cats and allow the mice to infiltrate the AFVs. It was a desperate measure, but given the options a number of dogs did "volunteer" for duty. The resulting actions were of limited success, however, partly as the new Tigers were virtually proof against mouse attack - the petrol fumes tended to kill/overcome the mice before they could chew through the wiring.

__________________
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

A literal war of cat and mouse with dogs entering the fray as a diversion. Desperate times do inspire desperate measures!

This makes the Japanese fire baloons and US incidiary bats appear practical.

__________________
I forgot my password, can I use yours?

Somehow I smell a rat!

__________________
No Rest for the Wicked!

So were the dogs parachute trained? The reason I ask is if they were it would literally be raining cats and dogs.......

__________________
Truth is stranger than bullshit!

LOL

__________________
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Now I'm waiting for the first post to be cited seriously somewhere else on the internet. Or, God help us, plagerized for some school boys history essay.

__________________
I forgot my password, can I use yours?

I would love to see that!! I was looking up the mice incident as I remembered reading about it long ago and came upon the article. I thought some would enjoy it as a "What if?".

__________________
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Well, I've never heard of this before, but I have heard of starving soldiers eating cats! Maybe they should have kept us this campaign, without the cats, who knows what might have happened!

__________________
Members of the Dutch Resistance with 101st AB, Eindhoven. Operation Market Garden.

Scott

Were these Spetznaz mice?

__________________
No Rest for the Wicked!

Nice one!

Since Acker brought this up I think its a good time for a bump LOL.

__________________
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

A paratrooper dog?

Are you putting me on? As if I believed that is a WW2 model parachute!

__________________
No Rest for the Wicked!

Okay, I sit corrected. I hope this one fits the bill better. This is said to be a dog, believed to have been a pet of a Japanese soldier, that was recovered from a fox hole in New Guinea.

This is from members.aol.com/Bwynne/smoky.html

Well clearly it is a war on all fronts, no matter how small. :-)
That photo is quite intriguing. Reading the link to the AOL member page was even more interesting. Its astonishing how much faith was put into Corporal Smokey. Animals certainly played their part in the war.

Kaiser