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The ultimate goal of a large-scale project known as “Wooffan SS” was for dogs to take over as SS officers, spies, and concentration camp guards. The Telegraph sifts through the sordid kennel of history:

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.

The Germans hoped to use the animals for the war effort, such as getting them to work alongside the SS and guard concentration camps to free up officers. The bizarre ‘Wooffan SS’ experiment has come to light after years of painstaking research by academic Dr Jan Bondeson into unique and amazing dogs in history.

The school, based in Leutenburg near Hannover and led by headmistress Margarethe Schmitt, was set up in the 1930s and continued throughout the war years. It was reported to have had some success, with dogs tapping out words with their paws. Some of them were able to imitate the human voice and one, when asked who Adolf Hitler was, is said to have replied ‘Mein Fuhrer’.

This weekend marked the passing of film composer John Barry, who wrote most of the music for the early James Bond movies starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Barry was 77, and died in his home in Oyster Bay, NY.

The family did not release the cause of death.

His work on the Bond films in the 1960s helped launch Barry into the forefront of movie music composers.

It began with Barry’s work on Monty Norman’s theme for “Dr. No,” the 1962 movie debut of authorIan Fleming’s 007, starring Sean Connery. The movie was scored by Norman.

Barry went on to score “From Russia With Love,” “Goldfinger,” “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice,” “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “The Man with the Golden Gun,” “Moonraker,” “Octopussy,” “A View to Kill” and “The Living Daylights.”

“I think James Bond would have been far less cool without John Barry holding his hand,” fellow Bond movie composer David Arnold told BBC Radio after learning of Barry’s death.

Of Barry’s memorable arrangement of the Bond theme for “Dr. No,” Arnold told Burlingame for a 2008 article in Daily Variety: “You have the bebop-swing vibe coupled with that vicious, dark distorted electric guitar, definitely an instrument of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Sound-wise, it represented everything about the character you would want: It was cocky, swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous, suggestive, sexy, unstoppable. And he did it in two minutes.”

In 2001, Norman won libel damages over a Sunday Times of London article that reported that he did not write the famous James Bond theme. The newspaper denied libel, arguing that Barry was the composer of the tune.

The case for the newspaper, according to a Press Association account, was that Barry had been brought in to write the theme at a late stage in the project “because Norman had run out of inspiration and there was a crisis.”

Although Barry reportedly told the jury that Norman’s claim that he alone wrote the theme was “absolute nonsense,” the jury delivered a unanimous verdict in Norman’s favor.

In the 2008 Daily Variety article, Barbara Broccoli, who began producing the Bond films in 1995, praised Barry’s work. She is the daughter of original Bond producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli.

“John is part of the original DNA of the Bond film franchise,” she said. “The sound he created was unique and ultimately very important to the whole cinematic history of Bond.”

Robert Culp, who, as the debonair secret agent Kelly Robinson on “I Spy,” was one half of the first racially integrated television cast to feature an African-American actor in a lead role, died, the Associated Press reported. He was 79.

Mr. Culp appeared alongside Bill Cosby, who played fellow agent Alexander Scott, on “I Spy.” The series, which mixed humor with high-stakes action, ran for three seasons on NBC from 1965 to 1968.

Mr. Culp’s agent, Hillard Elkins, told The A.P. that the actor died after collapsing on a sidewalk outside his home in Hollywood. The police say he hit his head while on a walk and was pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital.

US actor Peter Graves, who became popular in the 1960s because of his role in the television series “Mission: Impossible” died Sunday at the age of 83, police said.

The police said the actor had died of “natural causes” at his home in the posh Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades.

During his nearly 60-year Hollywood career, Graves appeared in more that 130 movies and television shows.

But he rose to the pinnacle of his career in 1967, when he became lead actor on “Mission: Impossible,” where he played Jim Phelps, the leader of the Impossible Missions Force, or IMF, for six seasons of the series.

The series was taken off the air in 1973.

During the 1990s, Graves hosted the documentary series “Biography” on the A&E cable television channel.