Animals at War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sergeant Stubby

Sergeant Stubby, the war dog, was a bull terrier who first entered the army as a scruffy stray in 1917. He had already forged a strong friendship with a private from the 102nd Infantry Regiment and was soon shipped out to the front line in France, hidden away in the hold of the SS Minnesota.

It is rumoured that when he was found out by the commanding officer, he held out his paw in salute, and it was then that he became a fully fledged member of the US army. After being injured twice, he was able to sense poison gas and warned his fellow troops of the danger.

He was awarded the rank of Sergeant after he captured a German spy. He lived for several years after the war as a hero, attending several parades and meeting Presidents Wilson, Coolidge and Harding.

He died in his sleep in 1926. His skin was preserved and mounted on display at the Smithsonian Museum for all to see and respect.

Answer: Slugs

Following a large spate of disasters, the US Bureau of Mines was created in 1910 to conduct research programs to improve extraction from mines with special focus given on occupational safety. When the United States entered World War 1 in 1917, they asked the Bureau of Mines to experiment in war gas, to try and find ways to detect mustard gas much earlier. Mustard gas attacks were fatal to those in the trenches as it could burn the eyes, throat and lungs. Through his previous research, Paul Bartsch remembered that slugs have a far more advanced rate of detecting mustard gas than humans. Slugs have a protective membrane around their lungs so they cannot be killed by the poisonous gas. Slugs were sent to work in the trenches and once they started reacting to a mustard gas attack, soldiers would quickly don their gas masks. Doctor Paul Bartsch (1871-1960) was a German born naturalist who was a curator at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

In 1922, he invented one of the first underwater cameras, as shown in the image of this quiz.

Answer: He delivered the first message from the Normandy beaches in 1944

The United States Army Pigeon Service was created in 1917 and ran until it was disbanded in 1957. Approximately 54,000 of their pigeons were used during World War 2. The National Pigeon Service was formed in Britain in 1938 and is believed to have used over 250,000 pigeons during the same war. Pigeons during the war were treated with great respect. Birds of prey along the British coastline were culled to give safe passage home to the pigeons. The messages were either inserted into small canisters attached to their legs, or placed in tiny satchels looped around their neck.

Famous war pigeons included G.I. Joe (USA43SC6390), the US army pigeon who delivered a message in quick time, saving up to 1000 lives in Colvi Vecchia, Italy. Royal Blue (NURP.40.GVIS.453) belonged to King George VI. The skeleton of NURP 40 TW 194 was found in a chimney in 2012 with an un-deciphered World War 2 message found inside the canister on his leg. It is unlikely that this will ever be deciphered without the encryption book linked to the person who sent the message. Gustav the pigeon delivered the first message from the Normandy beaches in June 1944. He travelled 150 miles in just over five hours with a message that read "First assault troops landed 0750. No interference from enemy gunfire on beach".

Answer: Able Seacat Simon

The image shows Blackie, the ship's cat, being greeted by Winston Churchill outside USS McDougal in 1941. Unsinkable Sam was the ship's cat aboard the German ship, Bismarck, when it was blown up in 1941. He was saved by the crew of HMS Cossack but this was blown up by a German submarine nearly six months later. He was rescued by HMS Ark Royal but this was torpedoed two weeks later. His last two ships were HMS Lightning and HMS Legion, both of which sank before the war ended. Sam spent the rest of his life out of harm's way living on land in Belfast! Trim was not an animal of war but his fame came when he circumnavigated Australia in 1801 aboard the Investigator along with Captain Matthew Flinders.

Able Seacat Simon was born in Hong Kong and was smuggled aboard HMS Amethyst by cat loving Ordinary Seaman Hickinbottom. Simon soon became friends with everyone on board and became adept at catching mice. It was on 20th June 1949 when the ship was fired on by the People's Liberation Army of China, immediately killing the ship's captain with Simon severely injured by shrapnel from the shell blast. He soon recovered and went back to rat-catching duties, not even deterred by a vicious rat the crew had nicknamed Mao Tse-Tung. The ship finally returned safely to home shores and Able Seacat Simon was sent into quarantine for the six months. Just two weeks before he was due to be awarded the Dicken medal for bravery, he contracted a virus and "the spirit of Simon slipped away quietly to sea". Simon is the only cat to have been awarded a Dickin medal.

Answer: APOPO

The HALO Trust is an organization which has destroyed over 1.4 million land mines since it inception in 1988. The acronym HALO stands for 'Hazardous Area Life-Support Organisation'. It was set up by two British men who noted the provision of humanitarian aid to war torn regions such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mozambique, and Kosovo was being hampered by land mines. MAG (Mines Advisary Group) is another organization which clears landmines and was created in 1989 by two British brothers. The No More Landmines trust also focuses on landmine clearance, treating areas such as Iraq, Vietnam and Columbia.

APOPO (Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development) is a Belgium based organization which trains African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) in land mine and tuberculosis detection. It has its headquarters in Mozambique and trains rats to sniff out mines in Mozambique, Thailand, Angola and Cambodia. Rats have a very sensitive sense of smell and they are able to detect landmines by scent. The rats trained by APOPO are called HeroRats. They receive at least nine months of training, starting with socializing and then operant conditioning, a method of learning by obtaining rewards. They are then taught to detect TNT, the main component of mines. A similar process is used for the rats to detect tuberculosis by using positive samples of the disease to detect.

Answer: United States of America

A Pennsylvanian dentist called Lytle S Adams was so incensed when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that he thought of a plan that could reverse the tables on the Japanese. His idea was for thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats to be placed in a bat bomb, with a tiny incendiary device attached to each bat. The bomb would be parachuted over Japan, and the bats released in mid-flight by a release mechanism. The bats would then hide in the eaves of buildings, resuming their hibernation until the bombs destructed with their built-in timers. The Marine Corps began to test the bombs, calling it Project X-Ray, but after $2 million dollars spent, the project was cancelled so that funds could be channeled into testing the atomic bomb instead. Lytle S Adams went on to invent other products including a fried chicken vending machine.

Other experimental weapons involving animals have included kamikaze camels strapped with explosives, or even set alight to run screaming towards the enemy line. Animal carcasses have been used to conceal explosive devices. Acoustic Kitty was launched by the CIA during the 1960s, with cats sent into the Kremlin, implanted with microphones and an antenna in their tail. The experiment was soon declared a failure and sent into the CIA archives!

Answer: A Soldier's Kiss

This poem has been neglected over time, but it well describes the horror for an animal fallen in war. Henry Lang Chappell was born in Cornwall and became a station porter, working for Great Western Railway. Because of his writing, he became known as the "Bath Railway Poet", and wrote his most famous poem "The Day" which was published in 1914. It is uncertain when he wrote "A Soldier's Kiss" but a copy was sent home by a soldier, Jack May, in 1916 after his horse died.

Many horses have died during war and conflict, with huge casualties during the four years of the Great War. They were used to transport heavy artillery over harsh and muddy terrain to the front line. As the war dragged on, they were used less and less for cavalry charges because of the deep trenches surrounded by barbed wire. Instead, they carried messengers, ambulances and equipment, still deep in the area of conflict where they were powerless to avoid bullets hailing from the enemy line. They suffered with poison gas, disease and starvation due to lack of food. The relationship between man and horse was deep seated during the war. There were many veterinary posts where injured horses were treated, making them well enough to continue through the war. However, this did not save the estimated eight million horses which died on both sides.

Answer: Navy Marine Mammal Program

NMMP, or the Navy Marine Mammal Program, was created in 1960, initially to experiment with the capabilities of the dolphin's hydrodynamics to improve on torpedo functions. The experiment later went on to utilise the dolphin's intelligence and train them in search and rescue missions as well as equipment recovery and underwater mine detection. After several tests, it was found that the bottlenose dolphin and California sea-lions were most receptive to training.

Dolphins were used for mine detection in 2003 during the Iraq War and they detected over 100 devices that had been planted around the port of Umm Qasr. There have been much publicized reports about the welfare of the mammals and the program is due to end in 2017 with the dolphins being replaced by robotic underwater vehicles.

Answer: Blackbuck antelope

As a tradition since the 19th century, the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers has called their blackbuck mascot by the name of Bobby. If one Bobby dies, a replacement is found and given the same name. The infantry regiment is part of the Queen's division that served in the Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars. The blackbuck antelope is native to the Indian subcontinent.

A host of different animals have been used as military mascots, including different breeds of dog and ponies. Goats, ferret, mules, camel, kangaroo, and even a penguin in Norway have also been used as a regimental pet. Military mascots have not been used in direct warfare, but served as a psychological function to aid military personnel, giving them strength at a time of need. They are often seen on parade, dressed in animal regalia and finery, standing proudly on two or four legs as they march along with their human colleagues.

Answer: Dickin medal

The first creatures to be awarded the Dickin medal were White Vision, Winkie and Tyke, all pigeons delivering messages in 1943 during World War 2. It was the brainwave of the British veterinary charity, People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) to award animals for their gallantry and devotion. Other animals awarded the medal have included Rob the Collie who made over 20 parachute jumps for the SAS (Special Air Service) in World War 2 and Judy the pointer who kept spirits up in a Japanese POW camp, again in World War 2.

Special mention should be given to award winners Salty and Roselle, two Labrador guide dogs who led their owners to safety after the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. The medal is still awarded even today to animals for their bravery. In 2008, Sasha the Labrador retriever was a bomb detection dog serving in Afghanistan. Both she and her handler lost their lives. Sasha was posthumously awarded the Dickin medal in 2014.