BEASTS OF WAR! Creatures in Historical Warfare

I am a bit surprised you dod not at least in passing mention the London memorial to animals in military service. As for bears, it seems ligical that with preforming bears a supprisingly common thing in earler history, at least on occasion, a brar trainer would have been conscripted and brought his companion along with him. Just logical speculation, but seems more plausable to than whole packs (hreds...congresses?) of war bears. Good video.

War dogs

It's nothing for a pig to be 200lbs, and they have a VERY low center of gravity, so if they run into a horse's leg it's going to feel really bad, and even worse for a wimpy human leg. Wild boars would be even nastier.

What about dolphins and porpoises? Did they come up? They've guided lots of ships, spied apparently, and saved sailors lives.

The king is having a party for his pet bear.

You mean platypus bear? Skunk bear? Armadillo bear?

No, just... bear.

This place is _weird_.

Snakes were used often, in a similar manner to the scorpions you mentioned. Particularly in south east Asia

Another beasts of war story ;-)

During the Peasants' War of 1525, Salzburg was under siege by rebellious peasants and mercenaries aiming to starve the city into surrender. Facing dwindling supplies, the Salzburgers devised a clever ruse. With only one bull left, they painted it a different color each day and paraded it along the city walls, creating the illusion of abundant livestock.

This deception convinced the besiegers that Salzburg had ample provisions, eventually prompting them to abandon the siege. The story of the "Bull Washer" became a symbol of Salzburgers’ ingenuity and resilience, demonstrating how cunning can outwit brute force.

Bear tamers, and baboon trainers, along with their animals... participated-in considerable numbers- at Cairo I&II revelotion against Napoleon Bonaparte 1798,1800

In ww2 horses were more important than motorized vehicles

Don't know if it's true or just a myth but apparently the Mongol's used birds to set fire to a city, america tried bat bombs in ww2, there's stuff about the navy and CIA trying to train dolphins and sea otters to plant mines etc

I've seen an image of warriors mounted on reindeer from a 16th century manuscript, the Carta marina, and I can't really find much more information about reindeer in military roles. They were used even in WWII as transportation and beasts of burden, but I'd like to know if they were used in battle.

Yes let slip the dogs of war . . .

About importance of cats, I have read a couple of articles, especially during World War I in trenches. Of course main use in all fronts was mentioned pest control, especially against rats, which were a plaque in the tranches spreading diseases, eating supplies and even biting soldiers when threatened or if human was wounded; but in some regions and what you haven't mentioned also problem were snakes, which were more than pests and cats were useful to hunt them too. Maybe in articles which I have read, danger of snakes especially in the Middle East and trench war between British and Turks was exaggerated, yet definitely existed on some level and cats were there to not only reduce numbers of mice and rats (there were so many that never could kill them all), but also clean trenches from those dangerous when venomous reptiles.

The Inew would use bears against the japanese. Also oftentimes greens were cast into the.
Mote so as 2 draw in geese. Because geese, we're quite difficult to get rid of. And the next part is, they went crazy when the enemy decided to sneak up on you

So you’re telling me there were camel technicals? Are camels the original Toyota hilex?

My great grandfather was a ferrier for the Empire in WWI, so that is a nearer and dearer one to me, as well as dogs that worked along side my platoon in Afghanistan.

Bears, however, I do not see being super useful. I am no expert, but I grew up around a lot of bears and had many encounters in my own time and with an old job I had in the bush (note this is all British Columbia, Canada black and grizzly experience, other species may differ). They are increadibly smart, I would say far more so than dogs, and can plan ahead better than most animals. However they are very injury adverse, as being a loner animal if they get hurt they can not protect their territory and have trouble getting food. This tends to mean hurt=dead in their mind, so the concept of choosing to go toward the danger would be a hard sell for them. They are increadibly strong and durrable, so if you could convince them they would be quite powerful, but conflict avoidance is more their thing. Yes I know several people who have been attacked and I have been charged by a bear, but those cercumstances when broken down all still stay within my point of them choosing situations they beleive they will not get hurt in, prottecting their cubs, or in their mind a personal deffensive situation of fight or flight.

Would be cool to see a video on anti-animal weapons or strategies, like trenches, caltrops etc.

cant remember the name of the island but one could technically argue this one but there was or is a island in the phillipines during ww2 that australian troop had and lost to the japanese when we took it back the fleeing japanese ran through a saltwater croc infested mangrove and out of the 200 i think japanese that went in something like 10 made it out to the japanese camp the other side so having a croc infested defence system kinda worked

The Bible has Samson using foxes with incendiaries at their tails to set the fields of the Philistines on fire.

The Mongols caught (or according to another version demanded as danegeld) swallows, pigeons, cats etc of a city they wanted to take. They tied incendiaries to them and let them loose. The animals tried to run home and set fire to roofs etc. With the city on fire it was easy for the Mongols to storm it because most people were occupied with fighting the fires and not manning the walls.

Hannibals famously catapulted clay pots with diverse poisonous animals (snakes, scorpions etc.) on the ships of his opponents causing a panic. His own fighters wore leather leg protection when the boarded to protect themselves.

Australian Aborigines in the outback had always bred kangaroos for war going back to the goliah which was the height of an Indian elephant. In more recent times they used the slightly smaller red kangaroo which were used in WW1 by the RKU, a small cavalry unit to jump over the trenches at Galipoli.

The Viet Cong reportedly used snakes for traps in tunnel warfare. Snake pits are at least found in stories quite a lot, they might have a historical precedent. Oh, and some african rat species can apparently be turned into quite economical tools for mine detection, when trained and organised by having them run along spread lines.

I feel that since horses 🐎 have had such an impact on warfare that they are popularly named as the best animal for humanity, I disagree and think that beyond the canine man's best friend and original tame, sheep were the most important for the wool the meat the dairy and the simple ease of care. If you have a sheep dog and one single shepherd whose life was sheep you can supply an extremely large amount of people with food and woolens for a small investment from a Lord's point of view.

Hawks could be trained to react and behave in a certain way to indicate the approximate size of an enemy army and to circle over cavalry units. Ghengis Khan seemed to have tons of falconry use in-between battles to entertain and feed his soldiers.

The MI5 used falcons to catch German carrier pigeons in WWII.

Can't forget the bat bomb project costing the US billions of dollars!

Dolphins were used to detect and defend against enemy swimmers, used in the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars. They helped protect ships from sabotage.

British SOE tried to use rat carcasses filled with explosives near boilers and furnaces in hopes the heat, fire, or stray burning fuel would ignite them.

I hear the Russians are using bears to dismantle washing machines. ;)

I personally wouldn't be too keen on watching a 'dogs in warfare' episode because I'm sure I'd be upset hearing about mass suffering and death of dogs on the battlefield.

... he said after just finishing, and thoroughly enjoying, an in-depth video on the massacre of an entire Roman army in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

Pigeons were apparently also used offensively by tying lit fuses to them (story of Olga?). If they land on straw roofs, the entire place may burn down.

i read what was purported to be a real aa from the time of the early British involvement in India but I read it long ago and I don't know the source.
An elephant in the service of an Indian noble had been fitted with a sword for its trunk. It was in line, waiting to go into battle when another elephant, with whom it had often quarreled, passed by. It slashed the other elephant with its new sword, cutting its shoulder open.

war dogs please

Its crazy to imagine what the elephants were thinking while being armoured up... did they dread what was to come... or did some of them enjoy it maybe..

Throw a bee hive into a trench and mow them down as they jump out ... viscous 😮

The bat bombs of world war 2

Interesting topic, thank you for compiling this knowledge for us.

Please stop the clickbait thumpnails. It's really turning me off and I can't imagine I am the only one

Another point about elephant deterrents and bees in warfare: bees are still being used as "weapons" in elephant conservation. Apparently, elephants dislike bees. Humans have been building wire fences, strung with beehives, around fields that might be damaged by foraging elephants. As you mentioned, these provide the owners with honey, However, when the elephants push against the wires, it jostles the hanging hives and stirs up the bees. The elephants hear their agitated swarming, think "Nah, better not," and go the other way. It's much safer (for both human and elephant) than hazing the animals with fireworks, chasing them bodily with a crowd and so on.

Regarding moose: there have been multiple attempts to train riding moose - usually for cavalry purposes, but also by plucky civilians. Apart from the difficulty in feeding (they're browsers, who need fresh twigs and water plants), they also don't bear a lot of weight compared to horses, cattle/oxen, donkeys and so on - and, as mentioned, they're wild herbivores who tend to flee when nervous. Generally, it's been decided that the time needed to develop riding meese (yes, I'm sticking to that plural), one could import, breed and set up care infrastructure for a multitude of horses, donkeys or other animals.

Shinobi used all kinds of cribbly crawleys to cause distractions, mostly snakes and spiders

IIRC, another use of pigs (usually accidental) was agricultural/ecological devastation.

dog

The Thesis of the deliberate infection of Kaffa with the black death by the mongols is widely disregarded in more modern history.

I have it on good authority from a bat biting Brit that there are indeed quite powerful War Pigs.

And it just so happens that when flaming pigs exhaust themselves, it can be quite a tasty post battle meal. Too bad that they would have to wait several centuries for sauce.

I kept waiting for you to mention the tales of incendiary bats; strap embers to them, release them near the enemy, they roost in attics, chaos ensues. I cannot remeber who they are associated with though....

How often, during war, were frogs and snakes and such kept to extract their venom? I wonder...

Was Corporal Wojtek not cool enough for you Matt!?!

I read about a very clever viking.
He got the idea of catching sparrows outside a besieged town.

The sparrows were nesting inside the walls but fourraging outside.
The vikings catched the sparrows and tied burning materiel to the birds and then released them.
The birds flew "home" and set fire to the straw roofs of the town.
I think that it was in the sagas I read the story. So maybe it is just a good story

Fascinating video with lots of information, but I felt it lacked some images about the subjects he is talking about😅

Two mentions of Polyanus? That guy was such an asshole...

(Sorry, it was right there...)

In Wakanda, they use armored war rhinoceroses, which is objectively the most badass mount available.

Let's see a video about combat/attack dogs! *starting with those ferocious Greek Molossors! (You can show a picture of that infamous, [ONLY, from the ancient-world] canid-statue of that ABSOLUTE hell-hound-looking terrible muscular beast)...

berserking, flaming, squealing, anti-elephant 'Firepigs'!!! Hahahah