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Quiz about The Dogs of War
Quiz about The Dogs of War

The Dogs of War Trivia Quiz


A quiz on the dogs who have faced battle throughout time.

A multiple-choice quiz by stuthehistoryguy. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
333,907
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
4243
Awards
Editor's Choice
Last 3 plays: katyrose (8/10), Nana7770 (9/10), rdhill (8/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. In ancient Athens there stood a grand building called the Stoa Poikile. Its murals depicted a dog bravely intervening in a 490 BCE battle. What was this historic conflict that gave its name to a great footrace? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In 1525, English King Henry VIII sent 400 war dogs to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This cemented a bond between the two leaders that would survive even Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church. What powerful breed were these dogs? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. One of the great innovators of early modern warfare once said: "The more I see of men, the more I like my dog." Who was this Prussian leader that subscribed to Enlightenment philosophy while revolutionizing military strategy, including the tactic of using dogs as messengers? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Though his official medals were later rescinded, this mixed-breed hero of World War II was, for a time, the most decorated American dog of the conflict. What was his name? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. During World War II, the US military tried an ill-advised experiment in dog training on the ironically-named Cat Island. What was the misguided goal of this project? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Most war dogs are larger breeds, such as German Shepherds. The versatility of other breeds has occasionally been put to good use, however. Such was the case of Smoky, who saved her American World War II unit from enemy fire with her special talents during the Luzon campaign. What kind of dog was Smoky? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. It may be naïve to ascribe true nobility to dogs in war, and the cynical among us would call their service merely a set of conditioned responses. Nevertheless, some uses of dogs in wartime are more unsettling than others. Which of these uses of dogs by the Soviet Army during World War II was repeated by Iraqi insurgents in the 2000s? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Over 4,000 dogs served in the American forces during the Vietnam War. How were these dogs used? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. The war dog's job is never done, it seems, even stateside. Such was the case with Tang, a collie who is credited with saving as many as five lives at Air Force bases in Alaska and Texas during the 1950s. How did Tang do this? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. On May 2, 2011, a Belgian Malinois (or German Shepherd; details remain classified) named Cairo parachuted into Pakistan near Abbottabad while strapped to a US Navy SEAL commando. This dog was used for bomb detection while the SEAL team sought what terrorist leader? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Oct 30 2024 : katyrose: 8/10
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Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In ancient Athens there stood a grand building called the Stoa Poikile. Its murals depicted a dog bravely intervening in a 490 BCE battle. What was this historic conflict that gave its name to a great footrace?

Answer: Marathon

The Battle of Marathon saw the Athenians rout invaders from Persia. If the most often cited sources are to be believed, the Athenian victory was spectacular, with the Greeks losing only 203 soldiers against 6,400 Persian dead. In the mural at Stoa Poikile, students of the stoic philosopher Zeno could see the graven image of a dog rushing to his master's side to fight the Persian line.
2. In 1525, English King Henry VIII sent 400 war dogs to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This cemented a bond between the two leaders that would survive even Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church. What powerful breed were these dogs?

Answer: Mastiffs

The mastiff has a history as a war dog that reaches back to antiquity. Some historians speculate that they were used by the ancient Phoenician and Celtic armies, and the Romans made good use of the breed (or an early variant) after conquering Britain in 43 CE. During the Middle Ages and into Shakespeare's time, mastiffs were used as pit fighters, often contending against bears, bulls and lions.

They were also used as military dogs in this period, with one mastiff, belonging to Sir Peers Leigh, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Agincourt. Since the nineteenth century, however, use of mastiffs as war dogs has markedly declined, and the breed standard now calls for a very even temperament. Though use of mastiffs for home defense is still common, it is very rare to see them cited as "attack dogs" today.
3. One of the great innovators of early modern warfare once said: "The more I see of men, the more I like my dog." Who was this Prussian leader that subscribed to Enlightenment philosophy while revolutionizing military strategy, including the tactic of using dogs as messengers?

Answer: Frederick the Great

Frederick began using dogs in the Russian theater of the Seven Years' War, a conflict which he often thought doomed if his correspondence is to be believed. In the Seven Years' War, Prussia faced an alliance of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and the German Duchy of Saxony; their only Allies were Britain and the House of Hanover. On multiple occasions, Frederick made plans to kill himself - or at least seek death on the battlefield - if it appeared that Prussia would fall. Largely due to Frederick's brilliance as a commander, Prussia prevailed.

In addition to being a great military leader and intellectual light of his era, Frederick was an avid dog lover. On the death of a beloved greyhound, he wrote: "I believe that anyone capable of indifference towards a faithful animal is unable to be grateful towards an equal."
4. Though his official medals were later rescinded, this mixed-breed hero of World War II was, for a time, the most decorated American dog of the conflict. What was his name?

Answer: Chips

Chips was a sentry dog attached to the US Third Infantry. After serving as a guard during the 1943 Roosevelt-Churchill conference, Chips participated in the invasion of Sicily. With his handler's unit pinned down by pillbox fire, Chips broke from the group and charged the machine gun team. The Italian unit was forced to abandon their fortifications and was summarily captured. For this and other actions, Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and Purple Heart in addition to eight battle stars on his theater ribbon. All of these were revoked, however, by a new policy that animals could not receive military decorations. Granted, it didn't help that Chips bit General Eisenhower during a personal appearance after the invasion.

Like most military dogs during World War II, Chips was volunteered for service by his owner, Edward J. Wren. As the US military was dramatically downsized during peacetime, the purposeful breeding and training of war dogs had never taken hold in America, so US forces depended on dogs reared for civilian life. Just as many actors and athletes volunteered for military service, many well-known Americans, like Greer Garson, Mary Pickford, and Rudy Valee, volunteered their dogs.
5. During World War II, the US military tried an ill-advised experiment in dog training on the ironically-named Cat Island. What was the misguided goal of this project?

Answer: Training dogs to racially profile and attack Japanese soldiers

Swiss immigrant William Prestre convinced the Army to fund this project, which had Japanese-American Nisei soldiers beating dogs to make them hate people of their ethnicity. Carried out to its extreme, the idea was that the dogs could clear out trenches of Japanese without putting human American soldiers in harm's way.

As one might expect, practically everything went wrong with this operation. Prestre's racist precept that Japanese soldiers had some sort of distinctive smell did not bear out, and most of the dogs would flee from gunfire and shelling without intervention from their human masters.

After five months, saner heads prevailed, and Cat Island's dogs were trained for more conventional duties like sentry work and communications.
6. Most war dogs are larger breeds, such as German Shepherds. The versatility of other breeds has occasionally been put to good use, however. Such was the case of Smoky, who saved her American World War II unit from enemy fire with her special talents during the Luzon campaign. What kind of dog was Smoky?

Answer: Yorkshire Terrier

Using her natural earth dog instincts and diminutive size, Smoky ran seventy yards of communication cable through an eight-inch channel under a landing strip. Without Smoky, who did her job in about two minutes, this would have required three days work, and the crew would have been exposed to strafing.

It is no exaggeration to say that the four-pound Yorkie almost certainly saved lives in addition to building morale in her usual role as a mascot. Following the war, Smoky and her owner, Bill Wynne, toured for ten years sharing their wartime stories and doing perfectly-executed tricks.
7. It may be naïve to ascribe true nobility to dogs in war, and the cynical among us would call their service merely a set of conditioned responses. Nevertheless, some uses of dogs in wartime are more unsettling than others. Which of these uses of dogs by the Soviet Army during World War II was repeated by Iraqi insurgents in the 2000s?

Answer: Training dogs to crawl under tanks while strapped with explosives

The Soviets began their anti-tank dog program in the 1930s. The initial plan was to train dogs to leave bombs and run, but this proved impractical. The plan did have some effectiveness early on; dogs are credited with destroying thirteen German tanks at Stalingrad and 12 Axis tanks at the Battle of Kursk.

Unfortunately, this led to the German tactic of shooting every dog they saw in Soviet territory as their line rolled forward. The United States did experiment with this tactic as well in training exercises, but never implemented the program in combat. Iraqi use of bomb-laden dogs (and, more often, donkeys) has been more precise, with bombs being detonated by remote control.
8. Over 4,000 dogs served in the American forces during the Vietnam War. How were these dogs used?

Answer: Dogs performed in all of these ways

43 US war dogs and 73 US dog handlers were killed in Vietnam. Some military historians have estimated that they saved as many as 10,000 lives. Only 200 returned to the US after the war, however; the rest were declared war surplus and euthanized or abandoned.
9. The war dog's job is never done, it seems, even stateside. Such was the case with Tang, a collie who is credited with saving as many as five lives at Air Force bases in Alaska and Texas during the 1950s. How did Tang do this?

Answer: By alerting military vehicles to the presence of small children

Tang's most dramatic rescue may have been when he planted himself in front of a truck and refused to move, howling and barking all the while. When the driver stepped from the vehicle to remove the dog, he noticed a two-year-old child seated on the fender. Without Tang's alarm, the child could have easily been hurt-or worse.

In 1954, Tang was awarded the inaugural Ken-L Ration Dog Hero of the Year medal. His owner, Capt. Maurice Dyer, could not have been more proud.
10. On May 2, 2011, a Belgian Malinois (or German Shepherd; details remain classified) named Cairo parachuted into Pakistan near Abbottabad while strapped to a US Navy SEAL commando. This dog was used for bomb detection while the SEAL team sought what terrorist leader?

Answer: Osama bin Laden

The program that produced this combat dog had greatly evolved since the Vietnam War. Many of the dogs currently serving with units like the one that took down bin Laden are fitted with special dental implants of titanium that allow them to bite through body armor. On a happier note, the old policy that saw most military dogs euthanized at the end of their service has been greatly altered. Today, almost all military dogs are able to be reintegrated into civilian life as pets. Thankfully, the titanium implants are replaced with porcelain.
Source: Author stuthehistoryguy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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