Dirty Bombs and Shell Shock: Biology Goes to War

Dirty Bombs and Shell Shock: Biology Goes to War — page 5
Horses pull gun carriages for a Union artillery battery during the Civil War Five horses died in the war for every soldier who died SCIENCE FILE HORSES IN LATER WARS Horses were still used in warfare in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries In the US Civil War 1861 1865 horses pulled supply wagons and heavy guns Officers led their men from horseback and Confederate commanders also used cavalry to gather information by riding horse patrols into enemy territory To keep the animals healthy each horse was fed about 26 pounds of food per day Armies needed hundreds of wagons of feed for their horses Killer Bats Some armies have tried to use animals as weapons but they usually have little success In World War II US forces planned to attach small fire bombs to hibernating bats The army aimed to release the bats from planes over Japan so that when they landed they would start fires The plan was scrapped when thousands of bats burned down a US Army airfield during tests in 1943 In World War I horses were cared for by the British Royal Army Veterinary Corps RAVC and the US Army Veterinary Corps Veterinarians cared for horses and treated millions of injured animals As recently as World War II 1939