I think we’ve all been taken by the photographs of the Ukrainian military saving and nurturing displaced pets. I know I have. However, along with Eleanor and the vast majority of humanity, I hate war. So, it shocked Electra when I asked her if she knew of any historical photos of soldiers or sailors at war tending to cats. “Well, I never thought you would be asking for battlefield photos, but yeah, I do,” she answered.
Electra calls them ‘battlefield photos’, but they have all been snapped during
lulls in the fighting — which suits my fancy just fine.
I’m dubious, but it's said that the ancient Persians took cats into battle against the Egyptians because they knew it would give them an advantage. The Egyptians, with their reverence for cats, would do anything to avoid harming one, so would be reluctant to attack anyone with a cat.
In the 16th century a German artillery officer came up with a plan to use cats as firebombs. The cats, he proposed, would have jars of flammable materials attached to their backs (with the openings facing backwards) and be driven amongst enemy troops to spread alarm and fire. Fortunately, his plan was never put into use.
In World War I, the British army employed 500,000 cats as gas detectors and ratters in the trenches. During World War II, cats as guardians of food stores were so important to the war effort that thousands of them were donated by the British public and also by the US via a Cats for Europe scheme, with an official powdered milk ration for 'all cats engaged in work of national importance'.
Cats do not have a natural or important place in mankind's wars in the same way as dogs, horses and some other animals do, since (as cat owners know) it is very difficult to get a cat to do what you want. During the nineteenth century it is said that the Belgians tried using cats to deliver letters, but with a marked lack of success.
There is one function that cats have fulfilled since time immemorial, though, and that is as ship's cats, where they kept the vessel's stores free from rodents and also acted as mascots and companions to the crew. They were especially important in wartime, when supplies could be short, and men were far from home for extended periods and welcomed feline companionship. Sadly, since 1975 the British Royal Navy has banned cats, and indeed all animals, from its ships. It's a far cry from the days of Louis XIV's French Navy in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when it is reported that all French ships were ordered to carry two cats for rodent-control duties.
Cats, being attached to a territory as much as to people, are better mascots for a ship's company — or perhaps for an air-force base — than they are for an army regiment which is likely to be on the move for much of the time during war.
Follow this twitter thread for stories and photos of cat rescues
during the London Air Raids of WWII:
War is hell — a Wikipedia article on the British Pet Massacre of 1939.
It’s heartening to see the Ukrainians continuing the legacy of animal rescue.
Nothing but good thoughts tonight to those in the path of Hurricane Ian.
This is an open thread.
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