In the winter of 1917, the Russian and German soldiers who fought in the bleak trenches of the Eastern Front of the First World War were very difficult: enemy bullets, frostbite, countless diseases, bayonets, tanks, sniper fire. And wolves to heaps.
In February of the same year, a message came from Berlin that large packs of wolves were moving from the forests of Lithuania and Volyn to the interior regions near the front line. Like many living creatures, the poor fellows were expelled from their homes by the war and were now just looking for food. "Because the animals are very hungry, they enter villages and exterminate calves, sheep, goats and other livestock," says a report in the El Paso Gazette. "Two cases of attacks on children were recorded."
According to other news from St. Petersburg, wolves were so redundant on the battlefield that they were one of the few reasons that could unite the soldiers of both sides. "Detachments of Russian and German scouts recently met and fought hotly as a large pack of wolves entered the battlefield and attacked the wounded," the message says. "The hostilities were immediately suspended, and the Germans and Russians directed their forces against the pack, killing about 50 individuals." There was an unspoken agreement among the snipers that if the Russians and Germans decided to participate in a collective wolf hunt, all shooting would stop.
A July 1917 New York Times report recounts how soldiers in the Minsk region of Kovno-Vilno (near present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) decided to cease hostilities to combat this common furry enemy:
“Rifle fire, hand grenades and even machine guns were consistently used to try to eradicate the trouble that arose. But all to no avail. There are no such strong and large wolves anywhere except in Russia, and these animals desperately needed food. As they were exterminated, more and more predators appeared”.
“In the end, two opponents, with the consent of their commanders, entered into truce negotiations and joined forces to defeat this plague of wolves. For some time, peace reigned between the warring parties. Their primary task was to cope with a common surprise enemy. The wolves were soon surrounded, and several hundred were eventually killed. Others fled in different directions, fleeing a massacre, the likes of which they had never seen."
After that, the soldiers apparently returned to their places and continued to shoot at each other.
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