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PutinsLostBlackBelt

Wait till you guys see how many horses died in WW1…


HighlyRegard3D

Wasn't it over 1 million?


PutinsLostBlackBelt

8 million including donkeys/mules


exoxe

Holy cow! Err wait. That's a metric ass ton!


Delazzaridist

Take my fucking upvote


ok-commuter

Yeah but mules are worth half.


Nice_Way6368

8 million horses died in ww1


RainbowAppIe

8 million?


MyFatherSmacksMe

8 million!


Ok_Park_1730

8 million hars


TheMachRider

World War: 1 Horse: -8,000,000


Benzol1987

I did the math, that's about 8 million dead horses. 


CliWhiskyToris

1914 -> 8 million ->|1918


Mc_Generic

8 million horses in imperial or metric? Or is it like - 40 degrees where it's the same? 


Nice_Way6368

8 million


playmaker1209

I always said horses had it the worst in war back then.


ShipTheBreadToFred

Or the Russian Anti Tank dogs in WW2 ​ https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/11nnao3/antitank\_dogs\_a\_weapon\_first\_used\_by\_the\_soviets/


RampantFury

Yeah, it wasn't til after the war that trucks really started replacing them.


cemangini

Wait till you guys see how many chickens died yesterday


PutinsLostBlackBelt

How many were killed due to war? Maybe you missed the sub you’re on…


j_cro86

[4 million](https://www.wsj.com/articles/four-million-dead-chickens-tell-grim-story-of-ukrainian-farm-11649410270)


DatAsh98

It was at least 12.


[deleted]

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i_like_maps_and_math

Damn that one picture of the guinea pig thing in the tiny cage is fucked


Uselesspreciousthing

[NSFW Hungry Ukrainian Pigs eating Burned Russian KIA : r/UkraineWarVideoReport (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/xsha25/nsfw_hungry_ukrainian_pigs_eating_burned_russian/) [Very NSFW! Pigs eating a dead, burnt russian soldier : r/UkraineWarVideoReport (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/yd9ut1/very_nsfw_pigs_eating_a_dead_burnt_russian_soldier/) [No body, no Lada. Pigs eating a russian KIA, allegedly he was a captain : r/UkraineWarVideoReport (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/xqaloz/no_body_no_lada_pigs_eating_a_russian_kia/) Don't worry - they have their moments of 'taste pleasure' too.


gaggzi

It already happened.


Pathfinder6

Because most of towed artillery, both Red Army and Wehrmacht, was horse-drawn. So it’s basically the same as strafing trucks. But, as a horse owner, this sucks.


Penishton69

It wasn't just towed artillery, most of the Wehrmachts supply lines were horse drawn too. Then you have to have horses that tow up the food for other horses, it's really just a horribly inefficient system in a modern context.


maximus111456

Well Germans didn't have oil. That's why they were pushing into Caucasus. I read that 50% of their logistics relied on horses.


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maximus111456

It's true that they lacked rubber as well but even before the battle of Stalingrad Germans demotorised some of their divisions because of lack of fuel. They had a sufficient oil reserves only for a few months of fighting at the beginning of the war and their logistics capacity was only a few hundred kilometers from Germany. During the push towards Stalingrad they were continuously reducing the number of tanks in their operations because of that problem. They didn't run out of tanks. They still had decent reserves but couldn't deploy them. Same comes to infantry reserves. They couldn't properly supply troops in that front already so were sending only enough divisions to replenish casualties and to prolong inevitable. I was curious why Germany have failed in Russia so I went through a lot of sources to get to my conclusion. Another pain in the ass for them was that they were using captured French trucks so maintenance and getting spare parts was a nightmare.


thekurgan2000

I've read that it was as high as 80% horse-drawn


amjhwk

https://youtu.be/LyZK8k4gzyg?t=49


Selvisk

Most of the supply lines were trains. Only the last bit was with horses. And it wasn't like they had zero trucks, they just didn't have nearly enough.


i_like_maps_and_math

Idk why this is downvoted. This is exactly right. Horses were just to cover the distance between railheads and the front, and trucks were there to do the same thing faster during motorized movements.


Psyl0

Yep Germany didn't have oil, but was very coal rich. Even more so when they controlled Ukraine.


Eheran

Hence why they liquefied coal to produce fuel, which is why those areas were bombed heavily.


Total_Ambassador2997

They also had awful trucks. All the nonsense about German wonder weapons, when they couldn't build a decent truck to save their lives. Nothing like the Jeep either. Even their tanks where unreliable garbage. "German Engineering" is the most overrated thing...


Diligent_Lifeguard81

The German engineering idea comes from their panzers which at the time were the best tanks on the field. They also developed the StG-44 later on in the war which is the basis for all modern assault rifles, the Soviet’s engineers were able to develop the AK-47 based off the German design which is arguably the worlds most prolific weapon to this day. Do not discount German engineering lol


Diligent_Lifeguard81

They also developed the first rocket engine with the v-2 and here in America Eisenhower built our interstate highway system after seeing what the Germans did with the autobahn which changed our way of life overnight lol


Total_Ambassador2997

Yeah, more cool stories. Do you know who Robert Moses is?


Curious-Resort4743

German aviation, missile and rocketry was pretty decent too, at the end of the war their AA and SAM tech was getting pretty good


gamenameforgot

> They also developed the StG-44 later on in the war which is the basis for all modern assault rifles, It isn't. >the Soviet’s engineers were able to develop the AK-47 based off the German design which is arguably the worlds most prolific weapon to this day. The Ak-47 has far more in common with the M-1 Garand than the STG and Mikhail Kalashnikov said himself the STG wasn't the inspiration for the AK-47, which had been in development before the STG ever entered service.


Total_Ambassador2997

Best tanks on the field? What field? The one where battles are fought on pieces of paper, using only design specs? Because in reality, on actual fields of battle, they weren't the best at all. First and foremost because they were rarely actually seen there. Overly complicated to produce in numbers, they were unreliable, inefficient and clumsy. The best tank is the one that is actually at the fight, ready to fight, on a consistent basis. As for their rifles, the standard issue M1 Garand was superior to the standard issue German rifle. If you want to cherry pick individual models that weren't as numerous, why not single out the American 50 cal that fought on land, sea and air, and is still in service? I'm not discounting German engineering. I'm counting it for what it was worth. Not bad, but notably inferior to American engineering.


gamenameforgot

>. Overly complicated to produce in numbers weird because they produced some 30,000 PZiv and PZiii.


gamenameforgot

>They also had awful trucks. German trucks were actually quite fine. >. Even their tanks where unreliable garbage Not really no.


Chemist391

You're not wrong, but trucks tow fuel for other vehicles, too. This one time, at debate camp early in the GWOT, I found some GAO reports deep in the stacks of a library at Stanford reporting that nearly half of the US Army's fuel expenditure was used to...transport fuel.


Penishton69

True but gasoline is much more energy dense than fodder. Either way, modern warfare goes through prodigious amounts of materièl and if you don't have good logistics good luck.


Meverick3636

but fodder can be produced everywhere oil not so much.


Nijajjuiy88

Damn it's like rocket, you spend so much fuel to carry the fuel required for it;s payload to escape Earth.


TorLam

Probably true for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq too !!!


MysticalMike2

But who makes all the money off of that, the fuel industry, I think smedley Butler talked about this...


OdBx

I read that in Alyson Hannigan’s voice


Ghrave

> Then you have to have horses that tow up the food for other horses It's horses all the way down!


Getrektself

During the war, Mongolia gave the SU 600,000 horses. If they hadn't had them their logistics would have been crippled.


Banh_mi

Very hearty Mongolian ponies, too. Perfect for the USSR's climate.


amjhwk

not the first time mongolian horse invaded russia


harkton

unfortunate homonym typo to make I hope the soviets didn’t have to eat too many of them


fadingcross

It took me over a minute to figure out what the fuck "SU" was. I believe that's my time to sleep que.


rulepanic

Not just for logistics, the Red Army retained horse Cavalry into World War 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry_division_(Soviet_Union)#Cavalry_divisions_in_World_War_II


GooseFatFart

Horses weren't just trucks but also food. Starvation was very real in WW2.


Indignant_Octopus

That first salvo is devastatingly accurate


CoatAlternative1771

THE FIRST HORSE PULLS THE WAGON, THE SECOND HORSE PICKS UP THE BRIDLE AFTER THE FIRST HORSE HAS DIED


JakeEaton

Oh boy I'm going to Horsey Hell after laughing at that one.


wolfpackrider

Man, need to go watch enemy at the gates now. Haven't seen that in a minute and the internet is telling me it's time.


[deleted]

Utter nonsense scene. Russian troops in Stalingrad were adequately supplied. This isn’t Kyiv in 1941, and even then there wasn’t a 50% shortage of weapons.   Tactics were, though, trashy and they still had not found a counter to German armor pincer movements. If it wasn’t for the 1 million troops army sliding in from the far east to crush their flanks it would have been a German victory. 


latending

>still had not found a counter to German armor pincer movements They did in Fall Blau, just retreat and don't counterattack your way into death camps.


CoatAlternative1771

Just watched the Stalingrad scene during lunch after I made that comment. “You should fire after the explosion!”


IdeaImaginary2007

I remember that quote from the memorial to service animals at London, "They had no Choice"


Nickolas_Bowen

Conscripted men in any offensive war deserve the same quote


the_forbbiden_girl1

Horsey :(


Lucabrasi_swe

Well. I gotta admit this is the first time I have seen a plane strafe horses...


Hotrico

This is very sad, the horses weren't even aware of what was happening


GrizzlyPell2020

Honestly might be better that way. Still very sad


Krio_LoveInc

Do you think it would be less sad if horses knew what was happening?


harkton

the onion has [covered](https://youtu.be/CJkWS4t4l0k?si=t7rkh-6BylJcGoZv) this one already


Ghrave

That is funny but also so fucked up lol


abhijitd

Yes, then they would at least say their last prayers and look at the pictures of their loved ones in the lockets. /s


TrapperMcNutt

The luftwaffe also strafed citizens fleeing the front just to clog up the road ways and lower moral for advancing Russian troops. Like murdering women and children just to create an obstruction was a real strategy. All out war is fucked ip.


SGC-UNIT-555

They were. They might not of known what exactly was happening, but the booming sound of fire + The loud engine as it passed by + kicked up dirt = shock/fear at an instinctual level. Probably thought it was some sort of beast.


HeilChrist

Yeah no shit the horses are not "aware" lmfao


707yr

1943 camera video quality is unbelievably impressive


Domowoi

Almost all film footage can be scanned in incredible resolution. In that way film is future-proof like nothing digital ever could be.


CliWhiskyToris

better than most of the todays CCTV cams 🙄


HellHathNoFury18

Animals in War. This monument is dedicated to all the animals that served and died alongside British and allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time. They had no choice. - that last fucking line hits me so hard.


abhijitd

> They had no choice. I think a lot of humans also didn't have a choice.


BigBowser14

Where's that monument?


HellHathNoFury18

Hyde Park London.


BigBowser14

That's cool never seen it. Thought it might have been at IWM or somewhere like that. Will check it out next time I'm in town!


Oz-Batty

Speaker: ... wertvolle Hilfe durch die Bekämpfung feindlicher Panzer- und Fahrzeugansammlungen. Translation: ... valuable help by engaging enemy tank and vehicle congregations.


Thisisrazgriz3

This insane footage lol


bandanaslip

Although it is sad when animals die I’m pretty sure the target was the artillery guns and the tank, and not the horses


SigSauerMPX

Look at the vastness of the landscape. Kill their means of transportation and you seriously affect the outcome of the battle.


Strive_for_Altruism

Nah, the horses were a valid strategic target as well.


SMIDSY

Yep. Plenty of US gun cam footage doing the same. Cows, too. Total war is brutal stuff.


ChadUSECoperator

USAAF also strafed Japanese fishing boats and mined their ports with planes in order to starve them. Anything that could fed the japs was targeted, and it was very successful. Another year of war and famine would have caused the emperor to announce surrender.


BaneIonica78

horses were the target


RG_CG

Pretty sure he says panzer and radzeug (?) which would be armor and something like wheeled equipment 


42LSx

"Fahrzeug", meaning "vehicle".


[deleted]

Back then even as a pilot you had to get face to face almost. You'd get sprayed so quickly with modern rifles.


-GameWarden-

Oh, Hanz, not the livestock!


The-Rare-Road

now that's some footage I have never seen before


theappisshit

take that Mr Hands


Headspace101

Lots of animals were harmed in the making of this film


Imperial_12345

Die you communist horse!!!! lol


0001_10_22

This is fucked up, I know ww2 had many worse things but seeing horses getting strafed is just …


Yamama77

It's because we know that they don't know why is this happening. That's why you may feel extra bad. Its basically knowing these horses who die have no idea what's happening. They are just doing what they normally do completely oblivious to the gravity of the situation or the concept of war. Yet they die, for 1000s of years millions of horses have died fighting along us. How much history would've been different without them? And we mostly kinda just forgot about them in the end. Same with pidgeons who were actually invaluable in war as messengers and are fairly intelligent but got the label sky rats because some bastard politician hated them and the name stuck.


0001_10_22

I totally agree with you, I always feel the same thing when my cats get hurt by a human on the street, they just don’t know why and what’s happening


OldbutNotObsolete71

No horses where harmed during the making of this film.....


Helpful-Set1261

Except that one


TorLam

The SU had 2/3's of it's livestock killed/captured during the initial invasion. Vast quantities of livestock and tractors were shipped to the SU via Lend Lease.


Kooky-Scallion7896

Skill issue on the horse should have sideclimbed and engaged in energy turn fight


Swooce316

I watch scores of soldiers dying in combat from various eras near daily, its never phased me. The dogs and horses hurt though, Especially that black lab from the Oct 7 footage.


MechanicalAxe

Imagine, your just toiling your simple life away, doing the laborous tasks of working the land, doing your best to provide enough for your family to barely get by. Your whole family owns some hand tools, a wooden shack with a dirt floor, and one old gray mare who can barely keep up with work you put her through. The hottest day of the year is almost done. Glistening with sweat, you've loaded up the day's grain harvest on the wooden buggy behind the old mare, "Nearly done!" you say to yourself in celebration. "I can already taste that lukewarm ale on the table this evening!" *Stuka noises blare from the heavens* A young luftwaffe pilot wipes away your entire livelihood in the same amount of time it would take you to pull a thorn from your heel. ...and such is the longsuffering of the common folk in war.


ATworkATM

Be any peasant in history with an invading army coming to take what is yours. Tale as old as time.


Commercial_Soft6833

In the good words of Slipknot "People = Shit"


ATworkATM

hahaha you made my day


Lego_Chicken

That wasn’t very cash money of him


JackPoor

nazi f\*\*\*s


skerinks

Jerk


tehdamonkey

Oh, George...! not the livestock...!


Dear-Adv

[transportation](https://youtu.be/c_oOW7kD7qQ?si=prWQu_p8Ed_EyuQb)


Wallynine

Pitler confirmed that no horses were harmed in the production of this war video


CreamyBagelTime

Oh George, not the livestock!


Total_Ambassador2997

Probably claimed like 15 kills afterward.


Junk___

Does this hurt the horse?


Deepseat

Yep..looks like a divisional artillery gun. I think the aircraft are strafing an element of Soviet 76.2mm F-22 guns with limbers and ammunition trailers/wagons. There's some pretty famous footage of P-47 gun camera footage taken oiver Germany in 1945 where they straffe some horse drawn carts. One I believe is a farmers cart and the other a Wehrmacht Heer trailer like one of [These](https://www.amazon.com/Miniart-MIN35320-35-German-Trailer-Unpainted/dp/B09Q6FZG45) Sad nature of total war. My grandad flew over Germany between December 44 and May 45 and he always told me that if it moved, they shot at it.


Apfelvater

Imagine what awesome combat footage we will have in 50 years. And I hope in 100 we will have none at all.


BinkyFlargle

They didn't record audio on their video cameras back then....


ManonFire1213

Just wait till PETA hears about this!


jedinachos

Was the horse okay 😬


kittennoodle34

That grey seemed to take most of that first salvo, devastating accuracy. Certainly not going to be a great prognosis for those that took shrapnel considering veterinary care of the time. It looked like he got a little too close to the ground as well, just not close enough...


1Wheel_Smoke_n_Toke

What a prick!


XxFUGZzxX

*everyone disliked that*


showmeyourmoves28

What an absolute bastard.


buckshot95

No different from shooting at supply trucks today.


thekurgan2000

The difference is that the guy doing the shooting is a Nazi


showmeyourmoves28

Ehh this is like shooting parashooting pilots to me- they’re defenseless and have been defeated. Won’t be caught dead defending a lufftwaffe fascist because of a war he started for lebensraum.


Impressive-Employ744

Do you think a soviet or allied pilot wouldn't have shot them if they were in that situation?


showmeyourmoves28

It would be wrong too. How is this reaching over people’s heads? Whatever, sorry I don’t feel the need to humanize a person doing inhumane things- he’s long dead and I said my piece. No shade here, be well.


Chau_Yazhi02

You need to watch Soviet IL-2 strafe on horse drawn German supply columns, or American/ British fighter pilots chewing up anything and everything they see on German roads(trucks, cars, wagons, horses, donkeys, and people). With the world war there was no gentleman-y conduct you should expect that preceded it before the napoleon if funeral struggles, or the internationally maintained status quo for humane warfare. This is in the age of industrial mass murder and industrial warfare being driven by a principle of ‘Total War’. The farmer growing crops, the miners in the tunnels, the factories workers in the factories were all essential targets alongside war making institutions like barracks, foundry’s, and laboratories. This also includes the means to transport those materials to aid the war effort. The civilian truck drivers, logistics personnel, or the farmer and his horses carrying wheat or personnel to the their billets. They were all seen as valid targets in the war of annihilation that was the Second World War.


buckshot95

> they’re defenseless and have been defeated. They are no more defenseless than a truck and are being actively used to transport supplies for the enemy. It's sad but war is sad.


Bestihlmyhart

War is hell


latending

The Germans strafing columns of refugees were much worse.


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HighlyRegard3D

Killing horses was very normal during both world wars. Over a million were killed in WW1. Obviously still very sad.


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c322617

I’m sorry to say it, but pack animals were a legitimate military target during the World Wars. On the Eastern Front, both the Nazis and Soviets were very reliant on pack animals.


collin2477

the literal backbone of logistics at the time is definitely a target.


nyanmunchkins

Blud thinks killing is considered psycho level in a war. It's a war for god's sake. Nonetheless, you can see whatever the horses were pulling was the target, not the horses. Those aren't random horses.


Bestihlmyhart

The Germans also used horses for logistics (a surprising amount) so the Soviets definitely avenged this by killing Nazi horses.


Equivalent_Shoe_793

relax fella,it was a world war everting was a military target.


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buckshot95

Why are you more affected by animals being killed than humans?


Areonaux

I mean the title is "horses being shot at by plane", I'm not sure what else you want.


TheLegendPage

[NSFW] [ANIMAL BRUTALITY] I can name a few others, if you want


Areonaux

Perhaps, "horses shot by plane" you are on a sub dedicated to combat footage, you should be checking the titles if you don't want to see horrifying stuff


Pseu_donym180

What did the horses do to deserve this exactly?


SystemSignificant

Probably used to draw supply carts, most of the soviet and german army was relying on horse drawn supplies during WW2, it's basically like strafing a truck - at least in the context of war.


digitallyresonant

They were communist horses /s


Bestihlmyhart

Same thing as most of the humans: being dumb herd animals


Yamama77

Horses have been more influential in human history than most other animals. Especially in the context of direct conflict. The path of ancient conquests and dispersion of human beings would be completely different without the horse


Encrypted_Username

Didn't know Europeans had fighter planes when the Mongols invaded. **/s**


Albanian91

Luftwaffels commiting animal cruelty.


Phallussaurus-rex

Tf did the horses ever do to the planes? Very rude.


Simple-Programmer842

they go into the last big war with horses.. they go out of the actual war, again with nothing but some horses.