12/07/2024
Eighty-Three years ago today on December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was attacked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, with 2,403 service members and civilians killed, and another 1,178 people injured in the attack. Two U.S. Navy battleships – the USS Arizona and the USS Utah – were also permanently sunk, and 188 aircraft were destroyed.
The attack on Pearl Harbor sparked the first serious interest in war dogs by the U.S. military services. In May 1942, the U.S. Army received the first nine American-trained sentry dogs from Dogs for Defense Inc., an organization composed of American civilians interested in training dogs for the war effort. From these nine dogs, the U.S. Army Canine (K-9) Corps was formed. It grew to a force of more than 10,000 dogs before the close of the war.
During WWII, approximately 75% of dogs used during combat were Doberman pinschers, with 25% German Shepherds. Through a non-profit organization, Dogs for Defense, the public could loan their family dogs to the Marine Corps. The Doberman Pinscher Club of America also supplied many of the war dogs. The dogs used signals to alert the soldiers of Japanese presence as they were trained not to bark. The dogs could detect a human scent up to one-half mile away.
During the war, the Japanese ambushed none of the War Dog platoons. Each of the seven War Dog platoons fought in various locations in the Pacific during WWII, including Guam, Okinawa, and Guadalcanal. In August 1945, the War Dog Platoons disbanded. Many of the dogs were retrained for civilian life and sent back to their families, while several remained with their handlers. There were 1,047 dogs enlisted during the war, with 465 serving in combat.
(Pictured is Doberman Pinscher “Andy”, a Marine Corps War dog, who saved an entire tank platoon from annihilation during the Bougainville Campaign in WWII.)
