A group of friends sent asking about the subject of psychological warfare and animals, after we spoke about the cat "Simon" and his fellow-countryman "Togo" and the bear "Wojtek" before.. is this talk real? And is anyone still using animals in wars?

The story of "Wojtek" and "Simon" and the cat "Togo".. they are in the first and second references for anyone who wants to read them..

The animals used in wars are very many.. among them we remember a famous story of the Canadian goat "SGT. BILL" whom the soldiers kept as a lucky charm, in the First World War.. and he was wounded with them with injuries and dozens of shrapnel pieces and stayed alive.. and he got lost once.. and came back to the base on his own.. and he was put in detention once on a charge of damaging military equipment.. because he devoured the trousers of the unit commander...

"Bill" once saved the lives of 4 soldiers in one go.. when he suddenly butted them for no reason and threw them into a trench and jumped in after them.. before a shell exploded in the place where they had been seconds earlier.. and that made him receive the "1914 Star" medal and the Victory Medal.. and a film was made especially about him called "The Invincible Sgt. Bill", showing next May..

As for the duck "Siwash", a sailor won her in a poker game in New Zealand.. and travelled with her on the ship heading to the "Gilbert Islands" at the beginning of the "Battle of Tarawa".. and before docking the soldiers were extremely demoralised and their morale was low.. but "Siwash" disembarked with them and the moment she reached the beach.. she suddenly entered into a violent, incomprehensible struggle with a Japanese rooster.. and killed him..

This small battle raised the soldiers' morale.. and a very sober report about it was raised to command.. on the strength of which "Siwash" was honoured and a special house was made for her in the zoo.. and it was decided to give her a ration of beer for the rest of her life.. given that she was a beer addict.. until she died in 1954 of liver failure due to alcohol...

As for Sergeant "Reckless".. she was a young mare.. a Korean boy sold her to the Marine forces in 1952, to get with her price an artificial limb for his little sister who had lost her leg because of a landmine...

And in March 1953, during the "Battle for Outpost Vegas".. "Reckless" made 51 trips to the front, a total of about 90 kilometres.. during which she carried more than 4 tons of ammunition to the soldiers unaccompanied.. and although she was wounded and hit by bullets.. she kept carrying out her mission..

After the battle a celebration was held for Reckless and they brought her flowers and made her a birthday cake.. and "Reckless" celebrated and ate the cake and.. and the flowers...

"Reckless" retired and died in peace in 1968 at one of the army camps...

And while the Indian elephant "Lin Wang".. fought in the ranks of the Japanese and the Chinese together and was selling his effort to anyone from the two sides who waved a bunch of sugarcane at him, in the "Second Sino-Japanese War".. given that he was neither Chinese nor Japanese.. on the contrary.. there was the wolf-dog "Nemo A534".. who defended with his life the American communications code in Vietnam.. when he was with the soldier who took care of him, who was a signals soldier.. and a group of the enemy surrounded them to get hold of the radio.. and "Nemo"'s friend was wounded and lost consciousness.. and his comrade ran away to call for support.. and Nemo stood over his companion's body defending him and the radio...

Nemo lost his left eye.. and his thigh was broken and he was wounded with dozens of injuries but he kept defending the radio for about an hour.. until help arrived..

When the help arrived, "Nemo" considered them among the enemy as well... and he refused to hand them the radio or allow them to come near.. to the point that they had to sedate him in order to treat his friend.. when "Nemo" was sent to retirement he began to get depressed and refused to eat.. so they had to return him to service.. and he was happy and recovered his health.. and he kept working all his life...

And in our current era there is the "United States Navy Marine Mammal Program".. which began in the sixties.. and this trains dolphins and seals to be fighting soldiers or naval reconnaissance forces.. they use them to attack enemy frogmen, because the dolphin is intelligent, not a beast like the shark.. and your chance of surviving a shark attacking you is many times your chance of surviving a dolphin doing the very same thing...

They also use them to monitor submarines and accompany special forces and detect mines and rescue divers and other things.. Russia has a similar programme, by the way, called "Dolphins of Crimea"...

The stories of animals that helped armies are many.. most of these animals were honoured.. their countries honoured them and made statues for them and granted them medals.. while they did not honour any of their spies who betrayed his country for their sake.. they consider him a traitor who took the price.. and that is that...

The subject makes you wonder more about the intelligence of animals.. or about the stupidity of some humans who betray their homelands or seek their ruin.. and makes you give them their real standing.. as creatures lower than the animal...

You will not find a statue of "Hassan al-Banna" or "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi" or "Erdogan" in the United States.. but you will find several statues of the dog "Nemo"...

---------

References

---------

1 - https://goo.gl/rx49IT

2 - https://goo.gl/kXxGl5

3 - https://goo.gl/QCiQ3W

4 - https://goo.gl/jPX2wn

5 - https://goo.gl/O0WLYQ

6 - https://goo.gl/7qpMm9

7 - Animals in War: Jilly Cooper: https://goo.gl/nPndvS

8 - https://goo.gl/nYuWsL