What sounds as a joke in the first place really existed: this photo shows captured soldiers of the &quot;Tankbuster-company of Moscow&quot; and their dogs. The animals carried an exploding charge tied on their back which was activated by a towering pin when the dog crawled under an enemy tank. they were trained to do so by getting fed under tractors with running engine only. Soviet literature never officially mentioned this contentious weapon but there is no doubt about its existence. War-diaries of 1st, 3rd and 7th german tank-division reported about it. Due to humble success the use of the &quot;minedogs&quot; got sporadically over the war, mostly with partisan-units.

Soviet Anti-Tank-Dog unit

Young women, soldiers fighting against German occupants in Ukraine. Members of lieutenant-general Sydir Kovpak units.

Ukrainian female snipers

The flipside of the coin: on another (propaganda-) photo of this section you can see two smiling female snipers of the Red Army. Here's the reality: the Soviet female sniper was killed by a German counter sniper, the scoped rifle at her side. The impact of the explosive bullet totally destroyed the lower part of the woman's face. Due to the Hague Convention of the laws of war Germany did not produce explosive rifle-ammunition. So the German snipers in the field equipped themselves with looted Soviet and Yugoslavian bullets and rifles. The rare explosive ammo was used for &quot;important shots&quot; on enemy officers and especially counter-sniper action.