About the section
Dr. Amanda Furman’s bi-monthly column is published in the Wall Street Journal and is published exclusively in the Globes. In this column, she says, she “searches the past for the origins of today’s world”
Dr. Amanda Furman is an American-British biographer and historian. She has written five award-winning books and served as a judge on the committees of the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award Game of Thrones and the Great Experts
“Sher Amy”, a carrier pigeon credited with saving an American regiment in World War I, has been displayed as a stuffed animal at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for more than a century. About a year ago
The bird made headlines, when DNA tests showed that the flying heroine was “he” and not – as many movies, books and songs described – “she”.
“Sher Emi” was one of more than 200,000 postal pigeons used by the “Consensus Forces” in the war.
In October 1918, a battalion from the 77th Division of the US Army, which was in the city of Verdun in northern France, was surrounded by a German force. The Germans intercepted any suspicious bird. They hit the chest and leg of “Sher Amy”, but he managed to fly back to the thicket at the American headquarters, At his feet there is a desperate call to rescue the battalion.
The Serpents of Hannibal of Carthage
Since ancient times, animals have played a central role in human wars. Animals on the battlefield were commemorated on a tablet discovered in the city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, a Sumerian archaeological exhibit known as the “Royal Miracle of Ur”. One side records war scenes, the other side, scenes from times of peace. On the side of the war, animals which are probably some kind of wild donkey, are seen pulling a carriage over the corpses of the enemy soldiers.
In the classical world the most threatening war animals were horses and elephants. Alexander the Great perfected the use of horses and used elephants to invade India in 327 BC.
At the Battle of Heraklia in 280 BC, only 20 elephants helped Pyrrhus, King of Epirus – whose victories inspired the phrase “Pyrrhic Victory” – defeat the Roman army.
Fighting animals did not have to be large to be effective. The Romans learned how to defeat elephants by exploiting their fear of pigs.
In 198 BC, the citizens of the city of Hatra, near Mosul in present-day Iraq, managed to repel a Roman attack by throwing scorpions on the heads of the attackers.
Eight years later, the general Hannibal of Carthage scored a surprising naval victory against King Eumanes II, ruler of Pergamon, after throwing “snake bombs” – jars with poisonous snakes in them – on his ships.
Napoleon’s horse
In the ancient world, fighting animals experienced extraordinary cruelty. When the Romans sent the pigs to deter Pyrrhus’ army elephants, they smeared oil on the animals and set them on fire to make them look more frightening. Hannibal would get his elephants drunk and stab them in the legs to provoke their anger.
Contrary to expectations, as war became more mechanized, the need for animals increased. Gunners need porters; Supply facilities, soldier camps and prisoner of war camps need guarding.
A lucky horse or mascot may be given special treatment: George Washington had a horse named “Nelson,” and Napoleon I had a horse named “Marengo.” But the lives of the ordinary fighting beasts were bitter and short. Between 1-3 million horses, mules and donkeys were killed in the American Civil War.
The dogs of the US Army
According to the Imperial War Museum in London, about 16 million animals served in World War I, including canaries, dogs, bears and monkeys. Horses bore the brunt of the fighting: about 8 million horses were killed in the four years of the war.
Dolphins and sea lions conducted underwater surveillance for the US Navy and helped clear mines in the Persian Gulf. Dogs helped the US military detect side charges, search for missing persons and even served in combat roles.
In 2016, four sniffer dogs who served in Afghanistan received the Canine Medal of Courage from the Humane Society of the United States. With the withdrawal of the soldiers from there, the four-legged warriors also returned home.