17. Secret Military History

1942-0313, UCMJ, War Dogs, K-9 Corps.
The Army began training dogs as part of a new war dog program, or “K-9 Corps.” Though dogs carried messages for both sides during WW1, the military never created a formal program.
During WW2, members of the American Kennel Club and other civilians formed Dogs for Defense, intended to train donated dogs to guard US coastlines. Soon after, the Army approved an experimental dog-training program to be operated by the QM Corps, which established five training centers across the country and initially accepted more than 30 breeds.
By 1944, the list of dog breeds was shortened to seven: German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, Siberian huskies, Belgian sheep dogs, collies, malamutes, and Eskimo dogs. During WW2, the Army dismissed 8,000 of the 18,000 dogs sent by Dogs for Defense, citing reasons such as excitability when exposed to noise or gunfire, disease, poor sense of smell and unsuitable temperament.
The training normally lasted eight to 12 weeks, consisting of basic obedience training and instruction to prepare them for work as sentry, scout, patrol, messenger, or mine detection dogs.
In March 1944, the Army created 15 war-dog platoons and deployed them to theaters in Europe and the Pacific. The dogs are credited with deterring some Japanese attacks in the Pacific.
After WW2, the MP Corps took over responsibility for training military dogs. It is estimated the Army used 1,500 dogs during the Korean War and 4,000 in the Vietnam War. Several hundred-dog teams have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

1942-0315, Gender, the First Woman to Shoot Down a Plane in a Dogfight.
Air CPT Valeria Khomyakov, downed a Ju-88 near Saratove, Soviet Union while piloting a Yak-1 fighter of the Red AF’s 586th Fighter Squadron.

1942-0327, Military, Free Letters Home from Combat Begins.
Congress grants military men in combat zones free first-class letter mailing privileges. That is still in effect today.

1942-0410, War, Bataan Death March.
The US Army surrendered thousands of soldiers to Japanese forces at Bataan, Philippines. It was the largest group of US soldiers ever to surrender.
Weeks before, Japanese forces had cut US supply lines and were starving American and Filipino soldiers, who were subsisting on less than 1,000 calories a day, barely enough to survive. Weakened by poor diets, thousands had succumbed to diseases such as malaria when Japanese forces launched a pulverizing artillery barrage and sliced through the American and Filipino front lines in early April.
Against GEN Douglas MacArthur’s orders, MG Edward King Jr. surrendered 78,000 troops, 66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans.
The Japanese soldiers forced their famished captives to march 55 miles to prisoner of war camps without necessary food and water. The captors beat and drummed them along the way and bayoneted those unable to walk. As many as 11,000 Filipinos and Americans died because of the enemy’s extreme brutality.
The movement later became known as the Bataan Death March.
The commander of the Japanese forces in the Philippines, LTG Homma Masaharu, was held responsible for his soldiers’ cruel behavior and executed by a US Army firing squad in 1946, following an International Military Tribunal established by MacArthur.

1942-0615, VD, Hot Seat on Navy Ships
In WW2, Navy ships had a commode with a seat for soldiers with VD. The seats were painted red.

1942-0615, Hookers, in POW Camps.
Heinrich Himmler constructs brothels in every concentration camp, to incentivize hard work from the POW. The first ‘special building’ was built in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Prisoners could use the brothels for 15-minutes with a hooker. There was 1-hooker per 300-men. Jewish men and women did not participate.
They were called: Das KZ Bordell (concentration camp brothel). The hookers joined the brothels willingly. There were 20-hookers per brothel. They were well paid, fed and housed. All the women were hookers before they were POWs. How much did they charge? A pack of cigarettes cost 3-Reichsmarks, a hooker charged 2.
Germans sent homosexual POWs to the brothers, so they can discover, "The joys of the opposite sex"
Using POWs to provide sex to other POWS was a NAZI first. This was the first time in history POWs worked as hookers for other POWs. All the hookers survived the concentration camps.

1942-0615, Sex, Victory (V) Girls.
V Girls in the USA helped the moral of troops by being “war groupies.” These patriotic women would offer sex to returning troops free of charge.

1943-0501, War, Awarded the Medal of Honor and Then Demoted.
SSG Maynard Smith joined the AF at age 31. He was assigned in England as an aerial gunner. On his very first mission Maynard emerged with the Medal of Honor.
Smith climbed into the ball gun turret of his B-17 and headed out for France. The target was a series of U-Boat pens near Saint-Nazaire which was a heavily defended location with the nickname “flak city.”
Dropping their bombs and heading for home, the crew of Smith’s B-17 felt they had made it. Unfortunately, the Germans sent up a wave of fighters. Their Acft damaged, the crew wounded, Smith, leaped into action. He tended to the wounded crew as the pilots attempted to navigate the plane home. They were a long way from home and Smith spent the next 90 minutes treating the wounded, manning the machine gun and fighting the fire.
Smith earned the Medal of Honor, Smith continued to fly before being diagnosed with “operational exhaustion”. He was reduced in rank to Private with a clerical job.
Smith lived until 1984. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.