Cats in Wartime
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NOTE: We would be delighted to hear from anyone who can add to our account of cats in wartime – on land, sea or in the air – from any part of the world. Photos would be even better!
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1. On Land and in the Air
On this page, below:
Land
Air
[ for wartime cats at sea, this separate page ]
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 will know!) it is very difficult to get a cat to do what you want. There were stories that the Americans tried to use cats during the Vietnam war, but they were too easily distracted and either started playing or disappeared into the jungle! However, these tales are apocryphal. 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 (see our second Cats in Wartime article), 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.
Many of these wartime tales are short and without photos, as they date from decades ago now; information is sparse and snippets have been gleaned from many sources.
A memorial to all the animals that have been caught up and have suffered in human wars has been erected in England, in London's Park Lane. You will find more about it, with some photographs, at this separate page.
War on Land
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During the Crimean War (1854-5), it was reported that some captured Russian soldiers were found to be carrying kitten mascots beneath their coats.
Getting on for a century later during World War 2, in Britain and many other countries, all pet animals, including cats, were hard hit by rationing — those that survived, that is: and many did not. In Britain it was actually illegal to give cats milk to drink and they were obliged to drink water (which we now know is better for them anyway). There was some heavy lobbying, though, on behalf of warehouse mousers that had a job to do, and sick cats, and for these the rule was relaxed so that they could have a dried-milk ration.
Andrew became the mascot of the Allied Forces Mascot Club. This organisation was formed by the PDSA in 1943 to obtain recognition for all the animals and birds that served their country during WW2; membership was confined to creatures serving with the Allied Forces (not necessarily British) and the Civil Defence services. It met with great success and approval and there was a very large membership. Although Andrew did not himself go to war, he was based in London and was in the front line for air attacks (he slept through most of them!); but he had a very useful attribute — he seemed to know when a flying bomb was going to fall near his home. When he took cover, everyone around knew they should do the same. Weighing in at nearly 14 pounds (over 6 kilos), he was a very large fawn-and-brown tabby with spotless white front, tummy and 'socks' and an inverted 'V for victory' on his nose.
One war widow had a 10-year-old son to support and a feline companion known simply as Cat. The day came when she could no longer afford to feed Cat, who was told by her grieving mistress that she was going to have to be 'put to sleep' the following day. Cat seems to have taken in this information, for early next morning she went out and returned later with a dead wild rabbit for the pot. Thereafter, for the duration of the war, Cat's hunting skills earned her keep; three or more times a week she brought in rabbits that were often bigger than she was. She always waited patiently for her share.
During 1942 in Malden, Essex, south-east England, an area subject to heavy bombing, a 19-year-old cat called Jim saved his owners when their house caught fire. He ran upstairs and woke them in time for them to be able to get up and get the fire under control. Jim was awarded the Blue Cross Medal (see picture below), which was instituted for animals that had helped to save human lives and was only sparingly given.
Little One is seen with his owner Mrs Day, London, 1941 (left). He is wearing a NARPAC collar, standing for 'National Air Raid Protection for Animals Committee'. This was described officially as an 'animal lovers' voluntary wartime organisation that ensures, should he stray in blitz or blackout, he will be returned safely to his owner'.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
Mike was the studio cat and mascot of the wartime (WW2) Australian Army broadcasting station at Bosley Field, Bougainville in what was then the British colony of the Solomon Islands (right).
The kitten sitting in the sousaphone (left), with Corporal Manuel Campos we hope only pretending to blow it, was called Misfire; it would be interesting to know why! She was a mascot in 1942 at Fort Totten, New York, a Civil War-era fort that formed part of America's coastal and aerial defences until 1967.
Mourka was a cat during the terrible German siege of Stalingrad (now called Volgograd) in 1942-43, who risked all his nine lives carrying messages about German positions from a group of Russian scouts back to their headquarters. He was probably well rewarded for his efforts and devotion to duty, as there was a kitchen in the HQ building.
An unusual story involves a cat and a rabbit. Both were mascots of a Bofors gun team of the Royal Air Force Regiment; the rabbit was called Bofors and the cat, a female, was known as Preedy. She was described by one of the team as 'a beautiful pet who has made herself quite at home with us. She is always on duty with me during an alert; in fact she follows all of us as we go on duty, day or night.' Cat and rabbit were on 'quite good terms' and ate together; but Preedy could not understand why Bofors wasn't interested in mice. She would catch one, play with it for a while, then bring it to the rabbit — which would ignore it and let it escape! When the time came for the team to be moved to a different position, Preedy did not wish to go; she was put in the luggage truck six times, escaping each time; finally she was put aboard it in a box. But when someone opened it to see how she was faring, she shot out like greased lightning and was never recovered.
A cat called Pussy (names don't seem to have been as imaginative in those days as they are now!) did the same as Jim, mentioned above, when fire broke out downstairs where she lived, and she also gained the Blue Cross Medal (left). Whiskey, belonging to a Corporal Witcomb, saved his family in similar circumstances, although it isn't recorded whether he too received a medal.
Queenie was a tabby cat befriended by the famous 'Desert Rats' when they were battling for Tobruk in North Africa during WW2. She has an 'honourable mention' in a little book I have about WW2 animals.
Sevastopol Tom (aka Crimean Tom) became something of a saviour to the British troops following the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean campaign in the mid-1850s: he still 'lives' today and his story is here.
Tillie, pictured with her own 155mm. artillery piece and First Lt C.A. Gross (right), was the wartime mascot of an American Army Coast Artillery unit. The photograph dates from 1941.
Tom Cat was a Confederate mascot at Fort McAllister, Georgia, in the American Civil War: his story has a slight twist and can be read here.
Many cats were adopted by shore-based establishments. One 'Wren' (Women's Royal Naval Service) depot had a cat that wore 'a black coat with a white shirt-front and knee stockings, not to mention whiskers'. She was named Wren Figaro and was affectionate, an excellent mouser, and 'a most convenient cat' because she preferred dried milk to the real thing! Morale at the depot increased when she was adopted, even when 'she devoured part of the Chief's lunch while he was out of his office'. Sadly, as happened to many cats, she disappeared one day, and was much mourned.
New Zealand Army cats
Several cats have been mentioned that were with New Zealand troops during their North African and Italian campaigns during WW2, in 20 Battalion and Armoured Regiment.
Mrs Rommel was caught during the 1941 Libyan campaign and cared for by C Company. After the battalion returned to Baggush she produced two kittens, selecting for their maternity couch the bed of Lieutenant Charlie Upham (later awarded a VC and Bar). When he came into his tent and saw what had taken place, Charlie, with true courtesy and consideration for a lady in distress, slept that night on the sand. The kittens were named 'Tiger' and 'Tankie'.
Tankie was acquired by Tom O'Connor of the quartering staff. Most army cats are pretty hardy as regards diet, but a few meals of bully beef made Tankie very unwell! However, he lived to accompany the battalion to Syria. While riding in the cab of the Quartermaster's truck one day he made it plain that he thought it high time for a wayside stop. This was not possible while in convoy, and Tankie became desperate. Finally, escaping from the cab, he scampered over the top of the engine (the bonnet covers being open) and, miraculously avoiding injury from the whirling fan blades, gained his urgently desired temporary freedom. Tankie was finally lost in June 1942 when the battalion came through the minefield after leaving Mersa Matruh.
Tiger became cat mascot of the former transport platoon, and particularly of truck driver Corporal Hamilton. The corporal had been left behind in a base camp in North Africa and was fed up with the routine and the boring duties, so he managed to bluff his way to the action in Italy, taking Tiger with him. Tiger enjoyed a lordly life under the protection of the transport platoon; he had a special bed and a handsome collar bearing an Egyptian coin on which his name and unit were inscribed. After being smuggled across the Mediterranean, it was bad luck that he should become one of the first casualties in Italy when he was run over in the street in the town of Atessa. After the death of his pet 'Hammy' seemed to lose interest in Italy and returned to Egypt, in much the same irregular manner as he had left.
Wallad, originally a native of Syria, was a handsome cat with beautiful markings and belonged to New Zealander George McAllister. Wallad was a dandy and incurably lazy, disdaining to hunt. It is on record that on 12 October 1942, with the help and encouragement of a noisy mob of troopers, he caught his first mouse. At moments during the chase Wallad was markedly reluctant to come to grips with his prey, and as soon as the exhausted victim was within his paws he promptly went to sleep!
Unnamed cats
This delightful photo, sent from the US courtesy of Mary Ann Brown, turns out to be originally an Imperial War Museum image, and shows 'an officer of 444 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), smoking a pipe as he supervises a kitten balancing on a 12-inch gun shell near Arras in France'. The photo was taken in July 1918. Further information gleaned from the backing on which the print was mounted says that the little feline had been found in a devastated part of France by the Germans, who looked after it. However, maybe they rubbed its fur the wrong way, as apparently it then stalked out of a German dugout and joined the advancing British forces in the Champagne sector of the country, and became an official British mascot.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
November 1918: A canteen supervisor named Mrs Chisholm is pictured with an unnamed cat at Kambara, Egypt, in what was then the Suez Canal Zone.
Many soldiers kept pets of various kinds during World War 1 to alleviate the horrors and the boredom of the trenches. Here is one such, but we have no further information about the photo.
Gaza, Palestine, June 1940: Australian Pte D. Norman is pictured with a kitten in between air raids.
Animal ARP (Air Raid Precaution) volunteers did sterling work during WW2 rescuing family pets and abandoned or injured animals from bombed-out buildings. Here a cat is rejoining its owner who is returning to her house following an air raid during the dark days of London’s blitz, November 1940.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
Haifa (now in Israel), December 1940: a wharfside cat was photographed as a batch of Italian prisoners-of-war invaded her domain (right).
An inmate of Murchison prisoner-of-war camp in Australia is photographed with his pet in December 1942.
In April 1943 an Australian army detachment was working at Sydney Harbour during a strike of dock workers. A member is shown befriending a young cat (although the cat doesn't seem sure about it!)
This cat awaits rescue from a bombed building. Cats might flee during an air raid, but would often return to the wreckage of their former homes.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
The photo shows Claudette Blance with her cat. She was an intelligence officer in the French Resistance (the Maquis) and an officer in the Free French Army. Her house was used as a 'safe house' by the SOE (Special Operations Executive) 'Jedburgh' team during 1944.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
Official Australian war artist Arthur Murch is shown with his cat in 1945.
* * * * * * * * * *
Coming up to date, I was interested — and impressed — to learn that Israel has a Cat Welfare Society (CWSI) that attempts to rescue cats that have been left abandoned or injured by wars or terrorism. Begun following the Gulf War of 1991, when thousands of pets were abandoned as their owners fled their homes in panic, it aims to provide shelter for abandoned cats, organise teams of people to feed feral cats, set humane traps and search for injured cats after attacks. Practically all their money comes from donations and fund-raising activities. A symbol of their work is a cat called Phoenix, who survived a direct missile attack on his home that killed his owners; taken in by a CWSI volunteer, he has lived 12 years in relative peace.
The organisation is based in an agricultural town called Even Yehuda, and its shelter provides boarding facilities for cats, veterinary care, pet supplies, and most recently educational groups to teach children how to care for cats, and a nationwide spay-and-neuter programme. For more information, see this page.
War in the Air
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Cats were nothing like as commonly found on aircraft as on ships, but there were a few exceptions; and there were those that lived at air bases.
This delightful kitten (left) was called Aircrew and was the WW2 mascot of the flying training school at Cressy, in Victoria, Australia. Six kittens were airbase residents at Cressy, shown in March 1943 (right) with three sergeant-pilots of the Royal Australian Air Force relaxing between flights.
Jinx (left) was wartime mascot at a Texas base for training heavy-bombardment crews. Although she didn't see any action, she was a real 'flying cat' and chalked up plenty of hours in the air.
Pincher (right) was the WW1 mascot of HMS Vindex, which was one of Britain's first aircraft carriers. He is seen here sitting on the propeller of one of the seaplanes the ship carried, which is why we've put him in the Air section.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London - see notice above.
Salty (left) was a US Coast Guard mascot and became the first cat to take part in a rescue mission when she stowed away, with her kitten, on an amphibian reconnaissance plane just before it took off to effect the rescue of a pilot who had come down at sea. She was based at the San Diego Coast Guard Air Station in California.
Colonel Fred J Christensen was an American World War 2 flying ace, thought to be the last surviving one until he died in April 2006. He flew P-47 Thunderbolts with the 56th Fighter Group, known as the Wolfpack; he is credited with shooting down 22 German warplanes, including an amazing six in just a few minutes of one day in 1944. From early in 1943 the Wolfpack was based in Britain.
Christensen attributed much of his good luck to a small black kitten he had found and adopted while in Britain; he called it Sinbad and it flew in the cockpit with him on many of his missions. The cat might not have been taken on high-altitude missions, which could have harmed it, but in any case the Thunderbolt flew mostly on lower-altitude support sorties. One of the colonel's daughters, Diane Haagensen, said that seeing her father return safe and sound from his missions, complete with Sinbad, was a great help in motivating other pilots.
One day a reporter and photographer came to the base to do a feature on the Wolfpack, and of course wanted a picture of Sinbad — but the cat played hard to get and kept leaping around and cavorting among the stack of parachutes! Eventually a photo was obtained (left) — and it is reported that all the pilots whose parachutes Sinbad touched that day returned safely, many with victories to their credit. Naturally this increased the cat's prestige and reputation for being lucky.
Sinbad survived all the flying unscathed and in September 1944 returned with Christensen to the United States, when his tour of duty ended, to live with his family — and surprised them all by producing kittens! Sinbad had been a female all along, and went on to have several litters of youngsters. Sadly, as with all too many cats and although she had survived the perils of WW2 flying, she was killed by a car in the early 1950s.
The photo of Sinbad and Fred Christensen in the aircraft cockpit was taken in a Spitfire and not a Thunderbolt; it isn't known why. Maybe Spitfires flew from the same base, or one was visiting, and it was thought appropriate to photograph a British kitten in a British plane.
During WW2 a German bomber was shot down near Newport, in South Wales, and was found to have a cat on board! He became the first feline prisoner of war when he was taken to an animal shelter in the area, run by Our Dumb Friends' League (later part of the PDSA). He was named Tiger, and initially was said to 'show several German characteristics' (not enlarged upon). After living in the League's care for a while, he apparently became 'a docile, well-mannered and well-behaved cat'. [No offence intended to any German readers; I'm simply reporting what was written - Ed.]
As well as his well-known black Labrador dog Nigger, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, of Bomber Command and 'Dambusters' fame, had a cat named Windy that apparently accompanied him on many of his hazardous wartime missions. He was described as 'an all-swimming, all-flying cat, who put in more flying hours than most cats'!
Continue to our second Cats in Wartime article, covering
War at Sea
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