Why is there a rocket cat in this 16th-Century drawing? Dating back 500 years, this peculiar illustration seems to show a cat and a pigeon with rockets attached to their backs.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRAUtLPG9U8
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Reminds me of that awful 'anti-tank-dog' thing that was used in WW2 [specially during 'Operation Barbarossa'] ... when dogs had explosives strapped to them and [fingers crossed] run beneath the enemy's tanks and other vehicles and take them out .. along with themselves.
... This horrible practice lasted for about one year [1941-2] during the Nazis attempt to conquer Russia because after a few successes a general order to all soldiers to annihilate any dogs on the spot was sent out and practiced.
But even then, dogs weren't safe from this practice because this despicable invention of the Russians did not go un-noticed , or unappreciated by the Nazis [for whom the fiendish plot was originally hatched] .... The Imperial Japanese Army received about 25,000 dogs from their ally Germany and organized several dog training schools in Japan, and one in China at
Nanjing. In 1943, U.S. forces considered using armed dogs against fortifications. The aim was for a dog to run into a bunker carrying a bomb, which would then be detonated by a timer. Dogs in this secret program were trained at
Fort Belvoir. The dogs, called "demolition wolves", were taught to run to a bunker, enter it, and sit while waiting for a simulated explosion. Each dog carried a bomb strapped to its body in canvas pouches, as with the Russian method. The program was terminated on 17 December 1943 out of safety concerns. During the training, dogs often returned to the senders without entering the bunker or waiting there for supposed period of time which would have caused friendly casualties in a live fire situation. It was feared that in the actual battle, dogs would return much more often, scared by enemy fire. Attempts to continue the program in 1944 and 1945 failed ... thankfully!!
Cheers.