The Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs, extraordinary new research shows.

Hitler hoped the clever creatures would learn to communicate with their SS masters - and he even had a special dog school set up to teach them to talk.

The incredible findings show Nazi officials recruited so-called educated dogs from all over Germany and trained them to speak and tap out signals using their paws.

One mutt was said to have uttered the words 'Mein Fuhrer' when asked who Adolf Hitler was.

Another 'spoke' by tapping letters of the alphabet with his paws and was said to have speculated about religion and learnt poetry. He was said to have speculated about religion, learnt foreign languages, wrote poetry and asked a visiting noblewoman 'could you wag your tail?'

The patriotic German dog even expressed a wish to join the army, because he disliked the French.

最近的研究表明，在二战时，德国人觉得狗跟人一样聪明，于是他们决定建立一支会说人话的令人害怕的狗部队。

希特勒希望这些聪明的生物能够学习跟党卫军首领交流——他甚至建立了一支犬族学校去专门教它们说话。纳粹从全德国征募这些据说受过教育的狗，训练它们说话以及用爪子打出一些暗号。

据说，当被问到希特勒是谁时，一只杂种狗开口说了“元首”。另一只有杰出表现的狗狗则是通过打字来写诗、学习外语以及表现它对宗教的思索。它甚至问了一个来访问的陌生女人“你能摇尾巴么？”

这只爱国的德国犬还表达了它想加入军队的愿望，因为它不喜欢法国人。

至于训练结果怎么样，文章里没写，但也不言而喻了。