ANIMALS AT WAR Animals have been used in warfare for thousands of years both to carry or pull loads and for fighting Armies that used animals learned how to keep animals strong and healthy ne of the first animals used in warfare was Uthe horse Over four thousand years ago warriors in Mesopotamia hitched horses to open vehicles called chariots and charged toward the enemy One warrior used reins to steer the horses while others used bows to fire arrows from the platform at the back of the vehicle An Assyrian king drives a chariot into battle The open platform allowed up to four warriors to ride
SCIENCE FILE MOUNTED WARFARE From around the eighth century CE mounted warriors called knights dominated battlefields in Europe Knights wore heavy armor so their warhorses had to be very strong Squires traveled with the knights to look after the horses and make sure they were given enough food It was also essential for horses to be shoed to protect their feet In the thirteenth century the Mongols of central Asia built an empire using mounted archers to defeat enemy armies Mongolian horses were stocky and had great stamina The archers could advance deep into enemy territory ooooo FILE Hannibal's Elephants Elephants have a long history in warfare Indian armies used elephants as early as the fourth century BCE Hannibal was a military leader from the ancient North African city of Carthage on the Mediterranean Sea When Carthage fought the ancient Romans Hannibal led an army accompanied by elephants across the Alps mountains into Italy He used the elephants in battle to defeat the Romans 218 201 BCE nooooºooºoooooo This painting shows Hannibal riding on an elephant In battle elephants were used to charge at enemy soldiers sending them
Horses pull gun carriages for a Union artillery battery during the Civil War Five horses died in the war for every soldier who died SCIENCE FILE HORSES IN LATER WARS Horses were still used in warfare in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries In the US Civil War 1861 1865 horses pulled supply wagons and heavy guns Officers led their men from horseback and Confederate commanders also used cavalry to gather information by riding horse patrols into enemy territory To keep the animals healthy each horse was fed about 26 pounds of food per day Armies needed hundreds of wagons of feed for their horses Killer Bats Some armies have tried to use animals as weapons but they usually have little success In World War II US forces planned to attach small fire bombs to hibernating bats The army aimed to release the bats from planes over Japan so that when they landed they would start fires The plan was scrapped when thousands of bats burned down a US Army airfield during tests in 1943 In World War I horses were cared for by the British Royal Army Veterinary Corps RAVC and the US Army Veterinary Corps Veterinarians cared for horses and treated millions of injured animals As recently as World War II 1939
horses were still used to transport soldiers and weapons These days horses are used for ceremonial parades Veterinarians look after their welfare and nutrition A SOLDIER S BEST FRIEND In modern times the RAVC also looks after military dogs During World War I and II dogs carried messages to and from troops on the front lines In wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dogs have been used to detect mines and improvised explosive devices They work in K9 or canine teams Dogs have a far better sense of smell than humans While humans have six million receptors for smell in their noses dogs have up to 300 million scent receptors Dogs use their sense of smell to sniff out buried explosives so that they can be made safe The RAVC trains the dogs and their handlers and cares for any dogs that are injured A K9 team works with British soldiers in Iraq The dogs wear goggles to protect their eyes in case of an explosion 9
