The US Marine Corps introduced war dog platoons in 1943. Dogs first took part in the Bougainville operation in November, and went on to support US Marine forces at Guam and Peleliu in 1944, and Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. The majority of the dogs used were Doberman Pinschers and the remainder German Shepherds. Dogs were trained as scout dogs or messenger dogs. Scout dogs alerted their handlers to the presence of enemy positions, ambushes and hidden snipers, and proved very effective in this role – often alerting troops to the presence of enemy machine gun nests or sniper positions before they came under fire. Other dogs were trained to carry messages between Marine units. Again they proved more effective than runners, although often coming under fire or even suffering wounds in the course of duty.
Contains two metal handler and two metal dog figures with plastic bases.