Like most other war WWII was not only fought by humans, animals also took part in the war. It was in a variety of roles how animals partook in the war efforts,sometimes for transport ,like the picture above of a soldier with a pack Reindeer, on slippery ice, near the tiny village of Nautsi, in northern Lapland, Finland, on October 26, 1941.
Other times as mascottes or just as pets, and occasionally as combatants and even served as food. Just like their human counterparts they also became victims.
Below are some examples of the animal of WWII.
Army Pfc. Raymond Gasiorowski takes Leipzig, his company s pet puppy, for a walk in Leipzig, Germany. April 19, 1945
Marine Cpl. Edward Burckhardt found this kitten at the base of Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, the scene of some of the most brutal fighting of the war. February 1945.
Russia, 1941. German soldier and his horse. In two months, December 1941 and January 1942, the German Army on the Eastern Front lost 179,000 horses.
Cpl. William Wende brushes GI Jenny, the burro mascot of an Army unit in North Africa. The interested terrier is named Pito. Ca. 1943.
Two women collect the remains of a dead horse for food, Siege of Leningrad, 1941
Poland, 1939. German horsemen cross the Polish border.
G.I Joe is one of the most famous pigeons in history, most noted for saving a thousand American and Allied soldiers during WWII.
The reindeer of Murmansk
