Category: Animal Stories
May 18, 2011 No Ordinary Donkey
Marines took him in, this malnourished Iraqi donkey, and built him a stable, and corral. The donkey would stroll into offices where he learned to open desk drawers in search of a goody. An apple, a carrot or some other sweet treat, planted there by some Marine. He loved to steal cigarettes whether lit or unlit and so it was, they called him "Smoke".
The air strip lies in central Iraq 50 miles west of Baghdad, on the Habbaniya plateau. Originally built by the RAF in 1952, the base was home to several Iraqi Air force units following the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy and ascension of the Arab socialist 'Baath" party, in 1958. The place was bombed during the Iran-Iraq war and destroyed by American Air forces, in 1991. Reoccupied by the US Army following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the abandoned base was briefly known as Forward Operating Base (FOB) Ridgeway.
In 2004 the name was changed to Taqaddum, Arabic for 'progress", to keep a more Iraqi face on the mission. In 2008, camp Taqaddum or "TQ" was home to several United States Marine Corps fixed- and rotary wing squadrons, plus ground support and combat operating units.
U.S. Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and John Warner of Virginia visit Al Taqaddum, in 2005
Marine Colonel John Folsom was stationed at TQ in 2008, along with the rest of Marine 1st Combat Logistics Battalion, stationed at the base near Fallujah. That was the year the small animal first appeared, wandering the countryside. Starved, emaciated and alone it was a donkey, arrived in hopes of a morsel. Marines took him in, this malnourished Iraqi donkey, and built him a stable, and corral. The donkey would stroll into offices where he learned to open desk drawers in search of a goody. An apple, a carrot or some other sweet treat, planted there by some Marine. He loved to steal cigarettes whether lit or unlit and so it was, they called him "Smoke". Smoke had his very own blanket, bright red and emblazoned with unit insignia, for the camp's September 11 parade. On the side were these words, "Kick Ass". Regulations prohibited keeping the animal on base but Colonel Folsom found a Navy psychologist, willing to designate Smoke a therapy animal. He was good for morale.
Dads would write letters home to their kids, telling stories about Smoke the donkey.
Folsom and his Marines left TQ in 2009. The army unit moving into the base, didn't want a donkey. Marines found an Iraqi sheikh who said he'd look after the animal, and they said their reluctant goodbyes. After half a life serving the United States Marine Corps, John Folsom returned home to Omaha. He'd often think of his "battle buddy" and those long walks, around the base.
In 2010, Folsom learned that Smoke was out on his own again, wandering half starved and alone. Thus began "Operation Donkey Drop", Folsom's 18-month odyssey first to raise the funds and then to wrangle the red tape thrown in his way through multiple jurisdictions, on Smoke's journey to his new home in Nebraska.
Turkey alone posed a titanic, 37-day ordeal to untie the bureaucratic Gordian knot, with help from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. Folsom himself grew a beard to help conceal his western identity and flew to Turkey to enlist the aid of the US Departments of State and Agriculture and the United States Marine Corps, with further aid from the German government. Terri Crisp heads SPCAI's "Baghdad pups", reuniting US troops with dogs and cats they had once bonded with, while serving overseas. This was her first donkey.
Reuters news service reports, ""He was a great traveler," Crisp said, noting Smoke posed for hundreds of photos during a six-hour wait in the Istanbul airport parking lot. "Everywhere we went, he'd draw a crowd.""
Smoke was formally released by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on May 18, 2011, arriving at JFK International Airport in New York for the long drive to his new home in Nebraska.
For Colonel John Folsom, USMC (retired), "semper fidelis" ("always faithful") had become "semper fi(nally)."
Smoke lived out the rest of his days at the Take Flight Farms in Omaha, helping therapists help children come to terms with deployed or war-wounded parents.
Smoke died of natural causes on August 14, 2012 and was cremated, along with that red blanket with the words, "Kick Ass".
The daily Star Newspaper of Lincoln Nebraska interviewed Sharon Robino-West, a Marine veteran who once worked with the donkey and "still has to bite her lip when she talks about laying a shiny Marine challenge coin on Smoke's red blanket".
Today, the ashes of John Folsom's old battle buddy are on his desk, in his own special urn. As of October 2014 a little donkey filly peered out of the stall, where Smoke's face could once be seen.
"She doesn't have the story that Smoke did," Folsom said, "but I needed to fill the void."
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on May 18, 2020 May 18, 2020 Categories Animal Stories, Humanitarian, Odds & Ends, Today in History, Wars and Military ConflictsTags Camp Taqaddum, Iraq War, Smoke the Donkey, USMC2 Comments on May 18, 2011 No Ordinary Donkey
February 2, 1887 Groundhog Day
Midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and well before the first crocus of spring has peered out across the frozen tundra, there is a moment of insanity which helps those of us living in northern climes get through to that brief, blessed moment of warmth when the mosquitoes once again have their way with us.
Here on Sunny Cape Cod™, we have a joke about the four seasons. There's "Almost Winter", "Winter", "Still Winter" and "Bridge Construction".
Midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and well before the first crocus of spring has peered out across the frozen tundra, there is a moment of insanity which helps those of us living in northern climes get through to that brief, blessed season of warmth when the mosquitoes once again have their way with us.
Groundhog Day.
The ancient Romans observed a mid-season festival on February 5, the pagan Irish on February 1. For Christians, it was February 2, Candlemas day, a Christian holiday celebrating the ritual purification of Mary. For reasons not entirely clear, early Christians believed there would be six more weeks of winter if the sun came out on Candlemas Day.
Clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter, their length representing how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on the idea by selecting an animal, a hedgehog, as a means of predicting weather. Once a suitable number of Germans had come to America, they switched over to a more local rodent: Marmota monax. The common Groundhog. Groundhogs hibernate for the winter, an ability some people of my acquaintance, would love to master. During that time, the animal's heart rate drops from 80 beats per minute to 5 as the slumbering rodent lives off stored body fat. Another ability some of us could learn to appreciate, very much.
The male couldn't care less about the weather; he comes out of his burrow in February in search of a mate. If uninterrupted, he will fulfill his groundhog mission of love and return to earth, not coming out for good until sometime in March. But then there is the amorous woodchuck's worst nightmare in a top hat, the groundhog hunter.
Groundhogs are something of a regional delicacy, said to taste like a cross between pork, and chicken. In the 1880s, groundhog hunters hosted annual Groundhog day festivals in addition to summer hunts, followed by picnics featuring steaming dishes like Country-Style Groundhog, Groundhog and Sweet Potatoes and Waco Groundhog in Sour Cream, all of it washed down with "groundhog punch" consisting of vodka, milk, eggs, orange juice "and other ingredients." Yumm.
One group of groundhog hunters in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, imaginatively called themselves the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. One of them, a newspaper editor, declared on February 2, 1887, that their groundhog "Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary", was the only true weather forecasting rodent. There are those who would dispute the Gobbler's Knob crowd and their claims to Punxsutawney Phil's weather forecasting prowess. Alabama has "Birmingham Bill", and Canada has Shubenacadie Sam. New York can't seem to decide between Staten Island Chuck and New York City's very own official groundhog, "Pothole Pete".
Today, Phil himself is no longer on the menu. Groundhog punch has given way to a magic elixir said to give Punxatawney's hundred-year-old rodent, seven more years of life. Since 2010, Punxatawney Faithful can get text message alerts concerning the prognostications of their favorite rodent. (Text "Groundhog" to 247365, if you're interested).
There is no word for groundhog in Arabic. Accounts of this day in the Arab press translate the word as جرذ الأرض or, "Ground Rat". If that's not enough to make us all the life of the party, I don't know what is.
If anyone were to bend down and ask Mr. Ground Rat his considered opinion on the matter, he would probably cast a pox on all our houses. It's been a long winter. Mr. Ground Rat's all dressed up for a date. He has other things on his mind.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on February 2, 2020 February 2, 2020 Categories Animal Stories, Odds & Ends, Popular Culture, Today in HistoryTags Groundhog Day, Punxatawney Phil1 Comment on February 2, 1887 Groundhog Day
December 19, 1986 The Lost Dogs of Chernobyl
The devastating Chernobyl Prayer tells the story of: "dogs howling, trying to get on the buses. Mongrels, Alsatians. The soldiers were pushing them out again, kicking them. They ran after the buses for ages." Heartbroken families pinned notes to their doors: "Don't kill our Zhulka. She's a good dog."
It all began as a test. A carefully planned series of events, intending to simulate a station blackout at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine.
This most titanic of disasters, began with a series of small mishaps. Safety systems intentionally turned off. Inexperienced reactor operators, failing to follow checklists. Inherent design flaws in the reactor itself.
On the night of April 25-26, 1986, a nuclear chain reaction expanded beyond control, flashing water to super-heated steam. Violent explosions shattered reactor and building alike as reactor #4 belched massive amounts of nuclear material into the atmosphere. For the next nine days, intense updrafts created by the open-air graphite fire spewed vast quantities of radiation into the air, raining radioactive particles over large swaths of the western USSR and Europe. Some 60 percent of the stuff came down in the Republic of Belarus.
It was the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history and yet, this was 1986. The Soviet government didn't tell its own people for days, what was going on. In the West, the first alert came not from the USSR, but from Sweden.
An estimated 4,000 to 93,000 died in the aftermath of the accident, many of whom, were children.
The death toll could have been higher but for heroic self-sacrifice, by first responders. Anatoli Zakharov, a fireman stationed in Chernobyl since 1980, replied to remarks that firefighters believed this to be an ordinary electrical fire:
"Of course we knew! If we'd followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation – our duty. We were like kamikaze".
Work began within three weeks on the design and construction of a concrete sarcophagus, large enough to contain 200 tons of radioactive corium, 30 tons of contaminated dust and 16 tons of uranium and plutonium, trapped inside the twisted wreckage. It was the largest civil engineering project in history involving no fewer than a quarter-million construction workers, every one of whom received a lifetime maximum dose of radiation. By this day in December, work was substantially complete.
Officials of the top-down Soviet state first downplayed the disaster. Asked by one Ukrainian official, "How are the people?", acting minister of Internal Affairs Vasyl Durdynets replied there was nothing to be concerned about: "Some are celebrating a wedding, others are gardening, and others are fishing in the Pripyat River."
As the scale of the disaster became evident, civilians were at first ordered to shelter in place. A 10-kilometer exclusion zone was enacted within the first 36 hours, resulting in the hurried evacuation of some 49,000. The exclusion zone was tripled to 30-km within a week, leading to the evacuation of another 68,000.
Before it was over some 350,000 were moved away, never to return.
The chaos of these forced evacuations, can scarcely be imagined. Confused adults. Crying children. Howling dogs. Shouting soldiers, barking orders and herding now-homeless civilians onto waiting trains and vehicles by the tens of thousands. Dogs and cats, beloved companion animals and lifelong family members, were abandoned to fend for themselves.
The government didn't bother to explain. There would be no return.
There were countless and heartbreaking scenes of final abandonment, of mewling cats, and whimpering dogs. Belorussian writer Svetlana Alexievich compiled hundreds of interviews into a single monologue, an oral history of the forgotten. The devastating Chernobyl Prayer tells the story of: "dogs howling, trying to get on the buses. Mongrels, Alsatians. The soldiers were pushing them out again, kicking them. They ran after the buses for ages." There was no mercy. Squads of soldiers were sent to shoot the animals, left behind. Heartbroken families pinned notes to their doors: "Don't kill our Zhulka. She's a good dog." Most of these abandoned pets, were shot. Some escaped notice, and survived.
Later on, plant management hired someone, to kill the 1,000 or so dogs still remaining. The story is, the worker refused.
Today, untold numbers of stray dogs live in the towns of Chernobyl, Pripyat and surrounding villages. Descendants of those left behind, back in 1986. Ill equipped to survive in the wild and driven from forests by wolves and other predators, they forage as best they can among abandoned streets and buildings, of the 1,000-mile exclusion zone. For some, radiation can be found in their fur. Few live beyond the age of six but, all is not bleak.
Since September 2017, a partnership between the SPCA International and the US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit CleanFutures.org has worked to provide for the veterinary needs of these defenseless creatures. Over 450 animals have been tested for radiation exposure, given medical care, vaccinations and spayed or neutered, to bring populations within manageable limits. Most are released back to the "wild".
Some have been successfully decontaminated and socialized for human interaction. In 2018, the first batch became available for adoption into homes in Ukraine and North America, some forty puppies and dogs.
To this day, hundreds of dogs eke out a living, in the exclusion zone. The work of rescue is ongoing. A joint press release from the two organizations gives much-needed hope: "This unprecedented event marks an important partnership with the Ukrainian government, which has been reluctant in the past 32 years to allow anything to be removed from the nuclear exclusion zone."
Believe it or not there are visitors to the area. People actually go on tours of the region but they're strictly warned. No matter how adorable, do not pet, cuddle nor even touch any puppy or dog who has not been through rigorous decontamination.
For those lucky few the search for good homes goes on, for the lost dogs of Chernobyl.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on December 19, 2019 December 19, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, Disasters, Dogs, Humanitarian, Russian History, Today in HistoryTags Abandoned Animals, Chernobyl, Dogs, Ghost Town21 Comments on December 19, 1986 The Lost Dogs of Chernobyl
November 28, 1949 Simon
Equivalent to the American Medal of Honor or the British Victoria Cross, the "Dickin Medal" is the highest award in the British system of Military honors, awarded to animals for service in time of military conflict. The Dickin has been awarded only 71 times. Recipients include 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and, to this day, only one cat. A ship's cat. The champion rat killer of the Yangtze River. Simon.
According to the archaeological record, the earliest trade dates to the Neolithic period of the 10th millennium, BC. The Austronesian peoples of island Southeast Asia established trade routes with the Indian sub-continent, as early as 1500 BC. Egyptians traded with Asian merchants from the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The Greco-Roman palate of antiquity would not have been the same without the spice roads, plied first by land and later, by sea.
From the earliest times when man took to the ocean, food stores and trade goods alike were an attractive food source for the Black Rat, Rattus rattus.
Able to climb obstacles from trees to buildings to ship's ropes, DNA and other evidence suggests the black rat originates not from Europe, but southeast Asia.
Also known as the "ship's rat", the animal reaches sexual maturity in as little as three to four months and completes the act of reproduction, in the blink of an eye. Litters average 7 or 8 "kittens" with an average gestation period of only 20 to 22 days and a weaning period, of 20 to 28.
Rat infestations get out of hand with shocking rapidity. Left uncontrolled, rats will destroy a ship's stores in a matter of weeks. This is to say nothing of the black rat's prodigious ability to carry disease without itself, being affected. From Bubonic plague to Typhus to Toxoplasmosis, Trichinosis and any number of Streptococci, this third to half-pound animal has done more than any creature in history, to alter the course of human events.
Unsurprisingly, the "ship's cat" was a feature of life at sea since man first took to the water.
Ship's cat "Blackie" greets Winston Churchill aboard the HMS Prince of Wales. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
"Simon" was about a year old in 1948, one of countless and nameless feline waifs, starvelings roaming the dockyards of Hong Kong in search of a morsel. 17-year-old Ordinary Seaman George Hickinbottom smuggled the animal on board the frigate HMS Amethyst, the job of "ship's cat" being open at that time.
Lieutenant Commander Ian Griffiths liked cats and well understood the threat posed by rodents, in the hot and humid weather of that time and place. As Hickinbottom recalled, 'He warned me that if he saw any muck on board, he'd have me up on a charge.' The crew made sure any 'muck' was quietly tossed overboard.
Simon earned the admiration of the Amethyst crew, with his prowess as a rat killer. Seamen learned to check their beds for "presents" of dead rats while Simon himself could usually be found, curled up and sleeping in the Captain's hat.
China was embroiled in a Civil War at this time, between the Nationalist Kuomintang led Republic of China and the Communist Party led People's Republic of China.
The first mission assigned to incoming Skipper Bernard Skinner was to travel up the Yangtze River to Nanjing to replace the duty ship HMS Consort, then standing guard over the British embassy.
On April 29, 1949, Amethyst was on her way up river when she came under fire from the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The frigate returned fire but she was soon disabled, run aground with most of her guns too high to return fire. The first salvo from the Communist guns exploded in the Captain's quarters, killing Commander Skinner and badly wounding the ship's cat.
"Yangtse Incident by Timothy OBrien. HMS Amethyst about to return fire while a Sunderland of 88 Squadron makes a hurried departure, 23rd of April 1949". H/T worldnavalships.com
By 9:30, wounded First Lieutenant Geoffrey L. Weston made his last, desperate transmission: "Under heavy fire. Am aground in approx. position 31.10′ North 119.20′ East. Large number of casualties".
The order was given to evacuate. Some managed to swim across to the Nationalist side, despite fire from Communist batteries. For the rest, the following three months became a tense and deadly standoff known as the Amethyst Incident.
Simon was carried to the sick bay where surviving members of the medical staff removed four pieces of shrapnel from his little body, and dressed his burned flesh and singed fur. He was grievously wounded and wasn't expected to make it, through the night.
As weeks dragged to months, Simon did not die but recovered and resumed his duties as rat killer, below decks. A good thing it was, too. The trapped and cornered vessel was overrun, with vermin. Simon returned to his work with a vengeance, even earning the fanciful rank of "Able Sea Cat" after killing one notorious rodent known as Mao Tse-tung.
HMS Amethyst makes a nighttime dash for freedom. Painting by Montague Dawson
The Amethyst incident resulted in the death of 47 British seamen with another 74, wounded. HMS Amethyst herself sustained extensive damage in the episode. The heavy cruiser HMS London, the destroyer HMS Consort and the sloop HMS Black Swan were also damaged.
All but unseen amidst the economic devastation of World War 1, the domesticated animals of Great Britain were in desperate straits. Turn-of-the-century social reformer Maria Elizabeth "Mia" Dickin founded the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in 1917, working to lighten the dreadful state of animal health in Whitechapel, London. To this day, the PDSA is one of the largest veterinary charities in the United Kingdom, conducting over a million free veterinary consultations, every year.
The "Dickin Medal" was instituted on December 2, 1943, honoring the work performed by animals in World War Two. The "animal's Victoria Cross", the Dickin is equivalent to the highest accolade in the British system of military honors, comparable to the American Medal of Honor and bearing these words, "We Also Serve".
Simon the cat received the Dickin Medal, for catching rats and protecting food supplies during the time the ship was trapped by the Chinese. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)
Excepting the 2014 blanket award to all animals of the "Great War", the Dickin Medal has been awarded 71 times since its inception. Recipients include 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and, to this day, only one cat. A ship's cat. The champion rat killer of the Yangtze River. Simon.
Simon arrived to accolades in Great Britain, awarded a Blue Cross medal, the Amethyst campaign medal and Naval General Service Medal with Yangtze clasp. Unhappily, Simon didn't survive his war wounds, after all. Placed in quarantine like any other animal entering the United Kingdom, Simon succumbed to severe infections of his wounds and died on this day, November 28, 1949.
More than a thousand people including the entire crew of HMS Amethyst, attended the funeral for the two-year-old feline. Simon's gravestone at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford reads: "Throughout the Yangtze Incident his behavior was of the highest order."
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on November 28, 2019 November 28, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, Asian History, British History, Maritime, Today in History, Wars and Military ConflictsTags Amethyst Incident, Dickin Medal, Ship's Cat, Simon4 Comments on November 28, 1949 Simon
August 31, 1959 Sergeant Reckless
Reckless "went straight up" the first time she heard the weapon go off, despite being loaded down with six shells. All four feet left the ground and she came down trembling with fear, but Coleman was able to soothe her. The second time she snorted. By the fourth she didn't bother to look up. She was happily munching on a discarded helmet liner.
A Recoilless Rifle is a type of lightweight tube artillery. Kind of a bazooka, really, only the Recoilless fires modified shells rather than rockets. Think of a portable cannon, excepte the back blast of these shells compensates for the mule's kick which would otherwise be expected from such a weapon, making the rifle "recoilless".
While that reduces projectile range, reduced gas pressures permit a thinner-walled barrel, resulting in a weapon light enough to be served by a 2 to 3-man crew, and shoulder fired by a single infantryman.
The "RCLR" weapon system has provided the punch of artillery to mobile troop formations since the early days of WWII, including Airborne, Special Forces and Mountain units.
The problem arises when combat operations consume ammunition faster than the supply chain can replace it. Mountainous terrain makes the situation worse. Even today in the more mountainous regions of Afghanistan, there are times when the best transportation system, is horsepower.
Ah Chim-hai was a chestnut mare of mixed Mongolian and Thoroughbred lineage, a race horse at a track in Seoul, South Korea, her name translating as "Flame of the Morning".
Lieutenant Eric Pedersen of the recoilless rifle platoon, anti-tank company of the 5th Marine Regiment, needed a pack animal to carry the weapon's 24-lb shells up Korean mountain passes. In October 1952, Pederson received permission from regimental commander Colonel Eustace P. Smoak, to buy a horse.
Lt. Pederson and stable boy Kim Huk-moon agreed on a price of $250, which Pederson paid with his own money. Kim cried on watching his "Flame" leave the stable, but the sale had a higher purpose. The boy's sister had stepped on a land mine, and badly needed a prosthetic leg.
The Marines called the new recruit "Reckless" – a nod to the weapon system she was intended to serve, and to the fighting spirit of the 5th Marines.
Pederson wrote to his wife in California to send a pack saddle, while Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Latham and Private First Class Monroe Coleman provided for her care and training.
Navy Hospitalman First Class George "Doc" Mitchell provided most of Reckless' medical care. Latham taught her battlefield skills: how to step over communication wires, when to lie down under fire, how to avoid becoming entangled in barbed wire. She learned to run for cover at the cry of "Incoming!"
The platoon built Reckless a bunker and fenced off a pasture, but soon she was allowed to roam freely throughout the camp. She'd enter tents at will, sometimes spending the night if it was cold.
Reckless would eat just about anything: bacon, mashed potatoes, shredded wheat. She loved scrambled eggs. Just about anything else a Marine wasn't watching closely enough. Reckless even ate her horse blanket once, and she loved a beer. Mitchell had to warn his fellow Marines against giving her more than two Cokes a day, which she'd drink out of a helmet. Once, she ate $30 worth of winning poker chips.
General Randolph McCall Pate, a veteran of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Korea, served as the 21st Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1956 – '59. Pate wrote: "I was surprised at her beauty and intelligence, and believe it or not, her esprit de corps. Like any other Marine, she was enjoying a bottle of beer with her comrades. She was constantly the center of attraction and was fully aware of her importance. If she failed to receive the attention she felt her due, she would deliberately walk into a group of Marines and, in effect, enter the conversation. It was obvious the Marines loved her." Reckless was a Marine.
Reckless "went straight up" the first time she heard an RCLR go off, despite being loaded down with six shells. All four feet left the ground and she came down trembling with fear, but Coleman was able to soothe her. The second time she snorted. By the fourth she didn't bother to look up. She was happily munching on a discarded helmet liner.
Recoilless rifle tactics call for fire teams to fire four or five rounds, and then relocate before the enemy can shoot back. Reckless usually learned the route after one or two trips, often traveling alone to deliver supplies on the way up, and evacuate wounded on the way down.
In February 1953, Captain Dick Kurth and his Fox Company were fighting for a hill called "Detroit". Reckless made 24 trips by herself, carrying a total 3,500lbs of ammunition over 20 miles.
She made 51 solo trips that March, during the battle for Outpost Vegas. Reckless carried 9,000lbs of ammunition in a single day, over 35 miles of open rice paddies and steep hills. At times, artillery exploded around her at the rate of 500 rounds per minute. She was wounded twice during the battle. That night, she was too exhausted to do anything but hang her head while they rubbed her down.
Reckless was the first horse in Marine Corps history to participate in an amphibious landing. She was wounded twice, and later awarded two Purple Hearts and a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. Her name appears on Presidential Unit citations from the United States and the Republic of Korea.
On August 31, 1959, Reckless was promoted to Staff Sergeant in a ceremony at Camp Pendleton. 1,900 of her 5th Marine comrades attended, as did two of her sons, "Fearless" and "Dauntless". A third, "Chesty", was unavailable to attend.
General Pate wrote: "In my career I have seen many animals that have been adopted by Marines, but never in all my experience have I seen one which won the hearts of so many as did. . .Reckless."
Life Magazine published a collector's edition in 1997, listing 100 heroes from American history. Alongside the names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Sally Ride and Abraham Lincoln, was that of a small Mongolian race horse. Sergeant Reckless.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on August 31, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, Today in History3 Comments on August 31, 1959 Sergeant Reckless
April 21, 2019 The Easter Bunny
Many of the secular symbols associated with Easter trace back to the pagan goddess of spring and the dawn, Ēostre or Ostara, from the Old English Ēastre. History fades into mythology in the pre-Christian usage and accounts differ, but this Teutonic deity was frequently depicted with eggs symbolizing the rebirth of Spring. And rabbits.
In Christian tradition, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on Good Friday, arising from the dead two days later to reveal himself to his disciples, before finally ascending to heaven.
So where did the Easter Bunny come from?
"Titian's painting The Madonna of the Rabbit depicts this relationship. Mary holds the rabbit in the foreground, signifying both her virginity and fertility. The rabbit is white to convey her purity and innocence." H/T Ancient-Origins.net
Hat tip Ancient-Origins.net for this image
It's small wonder that the latter symbolized fertility. A female Hare, called a "Jill" has a 42-day gestation period, and is capable of conceiving while still pregnant. Kriss Kringle and an egg laying Easter Hare called "Osterhase" or "Oschter Haws" came to America in the 1700s, with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania. Children would make nests of clothing and blankets, in which the creature could lay its colored eggs. This is the origin of the Easter basket.
Hares and rabbits are different species of the same family, like sheep and goats. Until the 18th century, rabbits were called Coneys, after the Latin "cuniculus". The word has all but disappeared from American English vernacular, its only use today relates to Coney Island, in New York. It was around that time that the diminutive, fuzzier "bunny" came to replace the Easter Hare.
The Three Hares – A Curiosity Worth Regarding by Tom Greeves, Sue Andrew and Chris Chapman
More recently, the discovery of a Medieval "Three Hares" motif in a minor cathedral in Devon England led archaeologist and historian Tom Greeves, art history researcher Sue Andrew and documentary photographer Chris Chapman on a trans-continental odyssey, from Great Britain across the Eurasian landmass, to discover the origins of the enigmatic symbol.
The design depicts three hares in a triangle, each possessed of one ear and making in all, six. The image appears in tapestry, architecture and/or precious objects emanating from at least four of the world's great faith traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, cropping up from English cathedrals to Italian monasteries, German synagogues, Iranian metalwork and Russian reliquary caskets to Buddhist cave temples in North West China.
The three hares image may have spread across the 4,000-mile "Spice Road" during the "Pax Mongolica" period of the 13th and 14th centuries, in which it was said "A maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head could wander safely throughout the realm."
For Greeves, Andrew and Chapman, three decades of work has culminated in The Three Hares, a Curiosity Worth Regarding, a volume I have personally added to my must read list.
Medieval roof bosses, St Mary the Virgin, Throwleigh, Devon. Hat Tip, chrischapmanphotography.co.uk
Hat tip Three Hares Project 2018 and Chris Chapman photography, to whom these images are copyrighted http://www.chrischapmanphotography.co.uk
History gives us one tale concerning rabbits having nothing whatever to do with Easter, but it's too good not to tell here.
The story involves no less a figure than Napoleon Bonaparte. In July 1807, Napoleon had just signed the Treaty of Tilsit, ending the war between the French Empire and Imperial Russia. As a means of celebration, Napoleon suggested a rabbit hunt, and ordered Chief of Staff Alexandre Berthier, to make it happen.
Berthier put together an outdoor luncheon, inviting the highest brass from the French military. Meanwhile, Napoleon's men ranged far and wide, collecting rabbits for the hunt. As many as 3,000 of them.
Napoleon arrived at one side of a grassy field with his beaters and gun bearers, with all those caged rabbits lined up on the other side. Rabbits and Hares are predictably shy and retiring creatures, but Berthier's soldiers had found it easier to pilfer domesticated rabbits instead of flushing out the wild variety, and these things were hungry.
The hunt was supposed to begin when all those cages opened but, instead of scattering, a swarm of rabbits thought it was dinner time and pelted straight across the field.
H/T wearethemighty.com
The most powerful man in the world thought it was funny at first, until all those rabbits started coming up his legs. Coachmen cracked bullwhips and men grabbed sticks. There was shooting and shouting and pandemonium, everywhere. Still, the bunny horde came on.
French General and diarist Baron Paul Thiébault was there, let him tell the story:
"The intrepid rabbits turned to the Emperor's flank, attacked him frantically in the rear, refused to quit their hold, piled themselves up between his legs till they made him stagger, and forced the conqueror of conquerors, fairly exhausted, to retreat and leave them in possession of the field".
H/T Warner Bros., Napoleon Bunny-Part
Napoleon retreated to his carriage, but the onslaught, continued. Historian David Chandler picks up the story:
"With a finer understanding of Napoleonic strategy than most of his generals, the rabbit horde divided into two wings and poured around the flanks of the party and headed for the imperial coach."
The tide of bunnies continued the advance, some even got into the carriage. The bunny blitz finally ebbed away, only as the Royal Conveyance drove out of sight.
So it is that Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, a General who fought and won more battles than Hannibal Barca, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Frederick the Great, combined, was defeated and driven out of town…
By bunnies.
Featured image, top of page: The Dreihasenfenster (Window of Three Hares), Paderborn Cathedral, Germany. Photo source: Public Domain. H/T ancient-origins.net
A Trivial Matter
According to WomansDay.com, Americans are expected to spend over $2 Billion on Cadbury eggs, jelly beans and other Easter candies, this year. Peeps, the number one seller (sorry Cadbury), came out in 1953 when each one was extruded, from a pastry tube. In those days, Peeps took twenty-seven hours to set. These days' they're ready to eat in about six minutes.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on April 21, 2019 Categories Ancient History, Animal Stories, Odds & Ends, Religion, Today in HistoryTags Christ has Risen, Easter Bunny, Today in History4 Comments on April 21, 2019 The Easter Bunny
April 20, 1949 Ship's Cat
The Dickin Medal has been awarded 71 times since its inception, recipients including 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and, to date, one cat. A ship's cat, the champion rat killer of the Yangtze, Simon.
Mankind first crossed the line from hunter-gatherer to farmer, some ten thousand years ago. The earliest civilization known mainly for agricultural subsistence is the naturally well-watered region around Jericho, circa 8000BC. From that day to this, grain stockpiles and domesticated livestock have attracted vermin. With that came the wild ancestor of the common house cat, Felis silvestris catus.
From the earliest times when man took to the sea, food stores were an attractive free ride, for rodents.
Rats reach sexual maturity in as little as four to five weeks and complete the act of procreation, in the blink of an eye. Litters average 8 to 14 "kittens" and run as high, as 21. With an average gestation period of only 21 to 23 days, rat infestations get out of hand with shocking rapidity.
Left uncontrolled, rats and mice can destroy ship's stores in a matter of weeks. The "ship's cat" was a feature of life at sea from the earliest days, first controlling damage to pantries, ropes and woodwork and, in more modern times, electrical wiring. To say nothing, of rat-borne disease.
Not without reason, are cats seen as good luck at sea. The power of cats to land upright is due to extraordinarily sensitive inner ears, able to detect even minor changes in barometric pressure. Sailors paid careful attention to the cat's behavior, often the first sign of foul weather ahead.
Once driven nearly to extinction, the Norwegian Forest cat (Norwegian: Norsk skogkatt) is believed to descend from Viking-era ship's cats, brought to the Scandinavian peninsula from the modern-day United Kingdom, sometime in the first millennium.
"Simon" was found in 1948, one of countless and nameless cats roaming the dockyards of Stonecutter's Island, in Hong Kong. He was about a year old at that time, a sickly little waif, smuggled on board the HMS Amethyst by 17-year-old Ordinary Seaman, George Hickinbottom. Lieutenant Commander Ian Griffiths liked cats, and well understood the threat posed by rodents, in the hot and humid weather in that time and place. Happily, the job of ship's cat was open at that time, however (says Hickinbottom), 'He warned me that if he saw any muck on board, he'd have me up on a charge.' The crew made sure any 'muck' was quietly tossed overboard.
Simon, the Amethyst cat
Simon quickly earned the admiration of the Amethyst crew, with his prowess as a rat killer. Seamen learned to check their beds for "presents" of dead rats while Simon himself could usually be found, curled up and sleeping in the Captain's cap.
The first mission assigned to incoming Skipper Bernard Skinner was to travel up the Yangtze River to Nanjing to replace the duty ship HMS Consort, then standing guard over the British embassy. On this day in 1949 and only a hundred miles upriver, Amethyst came under fire from the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Amethyst returned fire but it wasn't long before she was disabled, run aground with most of her guns too high to return fire. The first salvo from the Communist guns exploded in the Captain's quarters, mortally wounding Commander Skinner and badly injuring the ship's cat.
By 9:30, wounded First Lieutenant Geoffrey L. Weston made his last transmission: "Under heavy fire. Am aground in approx. position 31.10′ North 119.20′ East. Large number of casualties".
The order was given to evacuate and some managed to swim to the Nationalist side, despite fire from Communist batteries. For the rest, the following three months turned to a tense and deadly standoff known as the Amethyst Incident.
Simon was brought to the sick bay, where surviving members of the medical staff removed four pieces of shrapnel from his body and dressed his burned flesh and singed fur. He was not expected to make it through the night.
As the weeks dragged to months, Simon did not die but recovered and resumed his duties, below decks. A good thing it was, too. The trapped and cornered vessel was overrun, with vermin. Simon returned to his work with a vengeance, even earning the fanciful rank of "Able Sea Cat" after killing one notorious rat known as Mao Tse-tung.
The Amethyst incident resulted in the death of 47 British seamen with another 74, wounded. HMS Amethyst herself sustained heavy damage in the episode. The heavy cruiser HMS London, the destroyer HMS Consort and the sloop HMS Black Swan were also damaged.
Unseen amidst the economic devastation of World War One, the domesticated animals of Great Britain were in desperate straits. Turn-of-the-century social reformer Maria Elizabeth "Mia" Dickin founded the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in 1917, working to lighten the dreadful state of animal health in Whitechapel, London. To this day, the PDSA is one of the largest veterinary charities in the United Kingdom, conducting over a million free veterinary consultations, every year.
The "Dickin Medal" was instituted on December 2, 1943, honoring the work performed by animals in World War Two. The "animal's Victoria Cross", it is equivalent to the highest accolade in the British system of military honors, comparable to the American Medal of Honor.
Simon returned to accolades in Great Britain, awarded a Blue Cross medal, the Amethyst campaign medal and Naval General Service Medal with Yangtze clasp. Unhappily, Simon did not survive his war wounds, after all. Required to be placed in quarantine like any animal entering the United Kingdom, Simon succumbed to complications of his injuries and died on November 28, 1949.
Hundreds attended Simon's funeral at the PDSA Ilford Animal Cemetery in east London, including the entire crew of HMS Amethyst. These words were inscribed on the stone, which marks his grave:
MEMORY OF
SERVED IN
H.M.S. AMETHYST
MAY 1948 — NOVEMBER 1949
AWARDED DICKIN MEDAL
DIED 28TH NOVEMBER 1949.
THROUGHOUT THE YANGTZE INCIDENT
HIS BEHAVIOUR WAS OF THE HIGHEST ORDER
"Oskar" was plucked from the ocean on May 27, 1941 by sailors from HMS Cossack, following the sinking of the German Battleship, Bismarck. So named from the International Code of Signals for the letter 'O', code for "Man Overboard", Oskar became ship's cat aboard the British warship until October 27 when a German torpedo blew off the forward one-third of the destroyer, killing 159 sailors. Oskar survived this disaster as well, making his way to land and thence to the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and dubbed "Unsinkable Sam". The mighty carrier was herself sunk by a German torpedo on November 14, leaving Unsinkable Sam "angry but quite unharmed" clinging to a plank, in open ocean. World War Two would would rage for another four years, but not this particular ship's cat. A superstitious lot, no sailor wanted any part of a shipmate who'd been through three wrecks. Sam was transferred first to the Governor of Gibraltar and then back to the United Kingdom where he lived out the rest of his days, at the "Home for Sailors", in Belfast.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on April 20, 2019 April 20, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, British History, Maritime, Today in HistoryTags Amethyst Incident, Dickin Medal, Ship's Cat, Simon, Today in History5 Comments on April 20, 1949 Ship's Cat
April 4, 1926 American War Dog
With the exception of a few sled dogs in Alaska, the US was the only country to take part in World War I, with virtually no service dogs in its military.
By the last year of the Great War, the French, British and Belgians had at least 20,000 dogs on the battlefield. Imperial Germany had 30,000.
General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force recommended the use of dogs as sentries, messengers and draft animals in the spring of 1918. However, with the exception of a few sled dogs in Alaska, the US was the only country to take part in World War I, with virtually no service dogs in its military.
America's first war dog, "Stubby", got there by accident, and served 18 months 'over there', participating in seventeen battles on the Western Front.
He looked like a terrier of some kind, similar to a pit bull. Nobody knows anything more about him. He showed up as a stray at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut, while a group of soldiers were training. The dog hung around as the men drilled and one soldier, Corporal Robert Conroy, started taking care of him. Conroy hid Stubby on board the troop ship when the outfit shipped out in 1917.
Stubby saved his regiment from surprise \gas attacks, located and comforted the wounded, and even once caught a German spy by the seat of his pants. The Hun, who'd been prowling behind allied lines at the time, was mapping trenches for artillery bombardment. He was found spinning in circles with a large, muscular terrier affixed to his behind. The Bosch was easily disarmed, but it took a considerable amount of coaxing before Stubby could be persuaded to let go of that German's rear end.
Stubby saw his first action at Chemin des Dames. Since the boom of artillery fire didn't faze him, he learned to follow the men's example of ducking when the big ones came close. It became a great game to see who could hit the dugout, first. After a few days, the guys were watching him for a signal. Stubby was always the first to hear incoming fire. We can only guess how many lives were spared by his early warning.
Following the Armistice, Stubby returned home as a nationally acclaimed hero, and was eventually received by presidents Harding and Coolidge. Even General John "Black Jack" Pershing, who commanded the AEF during the war, presented Stubby with a gold medal made by the Humane Society, declaring him to be a "hero of the highest caliber."
Stubby toured the country by invitation and probably led more parades than any dog in American history. He was promoted to honorary Sergeant by the Legion, becoming the highest ranking dog to ever serve in the Army.
Old age caught up with the small warrior on April 4th, 1926, as he took ill and died in his master's arms.
Sergeant Stubby and a few of his contemporaries were instrumental in inspiring the creation of the US K-9 Corps. Just in time for World War ll.
On returning home following service during WW2, only 4 of 592 Marine Corps dogs failed to adapt to civil life.
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on April 4, 2019 Categories American History, Animal Stories, Dogs, Today in History, Wars and Military Conflicts, WWIITags Sgt. Stubby, Today in History, War Dog, WW17 Comments on April 4, 1926 American War Dog
February 25, 1944 Soldier Bear
If you're ever in Edinburgh, stop and see his monument. Erected in honor of the "Soldier Bear" and his keeper. The orphaned brown bear who helped to win a World War.
The most destructive war in history began on September 1, 1939, with the Nazi invasion of Poland. German forces invaded from the north, south and west, following an SS-concocted false flag operation known as the Gleiwitz incident. The Soviet Union, then allied with Nazi Germany, invaded from the east on September 17, according to a secret provision of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Polish forces fought back with stunning bravery, horse cavalry riding to meet German tanks, but little Poland never had a chance. German and Soviet forces were in full control of Polish territory by October 6.
France and Great Britain declared war in support of their Polish ally on September 3, but effective relief came too little, too late. In the end, some 65,000 Polish troops were killed in the fighting, compared with 16,000 Germans. 420,000 became prisoners of the Reich and a quarter-million more, of the USSR. In April 1942, some 22,000 Polish officers were murdered in the forests of Katyń, an atrocity carried out by Soviet troops but blamed at the time, on German soldiers.
Scene from the 2007 Polish film, "Katyń"
Some 120,000 Polish troops escaped via neutral Romania, another 20,000 to Latvia and Lithuania. The second Polish Republic was dead, but Polish soldiers made some of the most heroic contributions to the allied war effort. Polish units fought from North Africa to Italy, to the north of Europe. Polish pilots and air crews made some of the largest contributions of any non-British nationality, to the Battle of Britain. As the first light of dawn broke over the age of the inter-continental ballistic missile, Polish partisans captured the first V2 rocket, that supersonic and potentially game-changing super weapon of the Third Reich.
The doors to the Soviet Gulags opened after June 22, 1941, following Hitler's surprise invasion of his Soviet "Ally". While tens of thousands of free Poles worked their way to the assistance of France and Great Britain, these former POWs became the core of the Polish II Corps, numbering some 100,000 soldiers by 1945.
Around the time of the Katyń massacre, Polish troops of the newly formed "Anders Army" were passing through Hamedān Iran, in the company of thousands of civilians fleeing Soviet territory. A Kurdish boy was keeping a bear cub at that time, a Syrian brown bear whose mother had been shot, by hunters. Eighteen-year-old Irena Bokiewicz was smitten with the animal, prompting Lieutenant Anatol Tarnowiecki to buy him. The young bear spent three months in a Polish refugee camp before being handed over to the 2nd Transport Company, which later became the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. The soldiers called him Wojtek ("VOY-tek"), the diminutive form of "Wojciech", meaning "Happy Warrior".
Wojtek was small in the beginning, yet to be weaned from his mother's milk and having trouble swallowing. Soldiers fed him condensed milk from an old vodka bottle, leading to honey or syrup and marmalade and whole fruit.
From Iraq through Syria and on to Palestine and Egypt, Wojtek moved with the 22nd Company. He loved to wrestle and learned by imitating, marching alongside on his hind legs, and learning to smoke. As he grew larger, soldiers rewarded Wojtek with a beer, which soon became his favorite libation.
With the Italian armistice of September 3, 1943, Allied planners hoped to occupy the Italian peninsula with minimal bloodshed. It wasn't meant to be. The Italian campaign was embarked on its eighth month on this day in 1944, with another three months yet to go. No campaign in all the West of Europe, cost the lives of more infantry, on both sides.
I personally have an uncle among them, killed in the fighting around Anzio.
The shattered ruins of Monte Cassino cost the Allied side 55,000 casualties, to 20,000 Germans. H/T Life Magazine
The 22nd Artillery Supply Company joined a British transport out of Egypt, bound for the Italian peninsula. Regulations prohibited mascot animals from troop ships. So it was that Wojtek was officially enlisted as a soldier with his own serial number and paybook, and given the rank of Private.
Twenty divisions of Allied troops were engaged against the fortified strong points at Monte Cassino and the Gustav line, in terrain that would have challenged the talents of a mountain goat. On May 18, the Polish flag was raised over the shattered ruins, followed by the Union Jack. The former abbey had cost the Allies 55,000 casualties.
"Polish soldiers carry ammunition to the front lines just before the capture of the abbey". H/T Wikipedia
The 22nd Artillery Supply Company helped provide ammunition during the battle for Monte Cassino, the men carrying 100-pound crates of shells and stacking them on trucks. Wojtek was quick to imitate and, though a mere stripling of a bear at 200-pounds, could carry a crate by himself, which would've taken four men. He never dropped a single one.
Wojtek's actions earned him a promotion to the rank of Corporal, his image becoming the official emblem of the 22nd Company.
Wojtek was transported to Berwickshire, Scotland after the war, along with the 22nd Company. There he became a local celebrity, and honorary member of the Polish-Scottish association.
Following full demobilization in 1947, Wojtek was given over to the Edinburgh Zoo, where he spent the rest of his life. Journalists and former Polish soldiers would visit from time to time. Some would toss him a cigarette which he would eat, not having anyone to light it for him. At the time of his death in 1963, the former soldier bear weighed in at 490-lbs.
Monument to Wojtek in West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on February 25, 2019 February 25, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, Today in History, Wars and Military ConflictsTags Italian Campaign, Soldier Bear, Today in History, Wojtek, WW27 Comments on February 25, 1944 Soldier Bear
February 6, 2007 Animals at War
Neither knowing nor caring why they were there, the animals of the Great War suffered at prodigious rates.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Felis silvestris catus suggests two great waves of expansion, first with the dawn of agriculture, when grain stores attracted vermin. Genetic analysis of the common house cat suggests they all descend from one of five feline ancestors: the Sardinian, European, Central Asian, Subsaharan African or the Chinese desert cat.
The second "cat-spansion" occurred later, as man took to water. From trade routes to diplomatic missions and military raids, men on ships needed food, and that meant rodents. The "ship's cat" was a feature of life at sea from that day to this, first helping to control damage to food stores, ropes and woodwork and, in modern times, electrical wiring.
Fun fact: Who knew the Vikings had cats!
One Viking site in North Germany from ca 700-1000AD, contains one cat with Egyptian mitochondrial DNA. Once driven nearly to extinction, the Norwegian Forest cat (Norwegian: Norsk skogkatt) descends from Viking-era ship's cats, brought to Norway from Great Britain sometime around 1000AD.
Not without reason, were cats seen as good luck. The power of cats to land upright is due to extraordinarily sensitive inner ears, capable of detecting even minor changes in barometric pressure. Sailors paid careful attention to the ship's cat, often the harbinger of foul weather ahead.
Ship's cat, HMS Queen Elizabeth, Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915
Togo, ships cat aboard the HMS Dreadnought
Ship's cats "inspect" the breech of a 4-inch gun aboard an unidentified US ship
Left to right: 1. Ship's cat, HMS Queen Elizabeth, Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915. 2. Togo, ships cat aboard the HMS Dreadnought, 3. Ship's cats "inspect" the breech of a 4-inch gun aboard an unidentified US ship.
When the "Great War" arrived in 1914, animals of all kinds were dragged along. Cats performed the same functions in vermin infested trenches, as those at sea.
Gunner with the regimental cat in a trench in Cambrin, France, February 6th, 1918.
Officers of the U.S. 2nd Army Corps with a cat they discovered in the ruins of Le Cateau-Cambrésis
Trench cat, Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915
1. Gunner with the regimental cat in a trench in Cambrin, France, February 6th, 1918. 2. Officers of the U.S. 2nd Army Corps with a cat discovered in the ruins of Le Cateau-Cambrésis 3. Trench cat, Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915
Tens of thousands of dogs performed a variety of roles, from ratters to sentries, scouts and runners. "Mercy" dogs were trained to seek out wounded on the battlefield, carrying medical supplies with which the stricken could treat themselves.
"A dog pulling the wheelchair of a wounded French soldier in the remarkable series of images featured in new book Images of War, Animals in the Great War" H/T Daily Mail
The French trained specialized "chiens sanitaire" to seek out the dead and wounded, and bring back bits of uniform. Often, dogs provided the comfort of another living soul, so the gravely wounded should not die alone.
"Messenger dogs pictured running the gauntlet of rifle fire during their training during the First World War" H/T Daily Mail
With the hell of no mans land all but impassable for human runners, dogs stepped up, as messengers. "First Division Rags" ran through a cataract of falling bombs and chemical weapons. Gassed and partially blinded with shrapnel injuries to a paw, eye and ear, Rags still got his message where it needed to be.
"First Division Rags"
Other times, birds were the most effective means of communication. Carrier pigeons by the tens of thousands flew messages of life and death importance, for Allied and Central Powers, alike.
"A carrier pigeon held tight before release from the belly of a tank in 1918. Birds were often used to pass messages between troops" H/T Daily Mail
Cher Ami
During the Meuse-Argonne offensive of 1918, Cher Ami saved 200 men of the "Lost Battalion", arriving in her coop with a bullet through the breast, one eye shot out and a leg all but torn off, hanging by a single tendon.
Even the lowly garden slug pitched in. Extraordinarily sensitive to mustard gas, "slug brigades" provided the first gas warnings, allowing precious moments in which to "suit up".
The keen senses of animals were often the only warning of impending attack.
Private Albert Marr's Chacma baboon Jackie would give early warning of enemy movement or impending attack with a series of sharp barks, or by pulling on Marr's tunic.
One of many wrenching images of the Great war took place in April, 1918. The South African Brigade withdrew under heavy shelling through the West Flanders region of Belgium. Jackie was frantically building a stone wall around himself, when jagged splinters wounded his arm and all but tore off the animal's leg. Jackie refused to be carried off by stretcher-bearers, hobbling about on his shattered limb, trying to finish his wall
Constituted on June 13 1917, British Aero Squadron #32 kept a red fox, as unit mascot.
H/T Daily Mail
The famous Lafayette Escadrille kept a pair of lion cubs, called Whiskey and Soda.
German soldiers in Hamburg, enlisted the labor of circus elephants in 1915.
The light cruiser Dresden was scuttled and sinking fast in 1914, leaving the only creature on board to swim for it. An hour later an Ensign aboard HMS Glasgow spotted a head, struggling in the waves. Two sailors dove in and saved him. They named him "Tirpitz", after the German Admiral. Tirpitz the pig served out the rest of the war not in a frying pan, but as ship's mascot aboard the HMS Glasgow.
"Tirpitz" the pig
No beast who served in the Great war was as plentiful nor as ill used as the beast of burden, none so much as the horse. Horses were called up by the millions, along with 80,000 donkeys and mules, 50,000 camels and 11,000 oxen. The United States alone shipped a thousand horses between 1914 and 1917, every day.
Horsepower was indispensable throughout the war from cavalry and mounted infantry to reconnaissance and messenger service, as well as pulling artillery, ambulances, and supply wagons. With the value of horses to the war effort and difficulty in their replacement, the loss of a horse was a greater tactical problem in some areas, than the loss of a man.
Few ever returned. An estimated three quarters died of wretched working conditions. Exhaustion. The frozen, sucking mud of the western front. The mud-borne and respiratory diseases. The gas, artillery and small arms fire. An estimated eight million horses were killed on all sides, enough to line up in Boston and make it all the way to London four times, if such a thing were possible.
The United Kingdom entered the war with only eighty motorized vehicles, conscripting a million horses and mules, over the course of the war. Only one in sixteen, lived to come home.
Neither knowing nor caring why they were there, the animals of the Great War suffered at prodigious rates. Humane organizations stepped up, the British Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) processing some 2.5 million animals through veterinary hospitals. 1,850,000 were horses and mules. 85% were treated and returned to the front.
The American Red Star Animal Relief Program sent medical supplies, bandages, and ambulances to the front lines in 1916, to care for horses injured at a rate of 68,000 per month.
The century before the Great War was a Golden age, mushrooming populations enjoying the greatest rise in living standards, in human history. The economy at home would be dashed to rags and atoms by the Great War. Trade and capital as a proportion of the global economy would not recover to 1913 levels, until 1993.
Unseen amidst the economic devastation of the home front, was the desperate plight of animals. Turn-of-the-century social reformer Maria Elizabeth "Mia" Dickin founded the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals in 1917, working to lighten the dreadful state of animal health in Whitechapel, London. To this day, the PDSA is one of the largest veterinary charities in the United Kingdom, carrying out over a million free veterinary consultations, every year.
Dickin Medal
The "Dickin Medal" was instituted on December 2, 1943, honoring the work performed by animals, in WW2. The "animal's Victoria Cross", the highest British military honor equivalent to the American Medal of honor, is awarded in recognition of "conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving or associated with any branch of the Armed Forces or Civil Defence Units."
The Dickin Medal has been awarded 71 times, recipients including 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and a cat. An honorary Dickin was awarded in 2014, in honor of all animals serving in the Great War.
Two Dickins were awarded on this day in 2007. the first to Royal Army Veterinary Corps explosives detection dog "Sadie", a Labrador Retriever whose bomb detection skills saved the lives of untold soldiers and civilians in Kabul, in 2005. The second went to "Lucky", a German Shepherd and RAF anti-terrorist tracker serving during the Malaya Emergency of 1949 – '52. Part of a four-dog team including "Bobbie", "Jasper" and "Lassie", Lucky alone would survive the "unrelenting heat [of] an almost impregnable jungle".
Handler Beval Austin Stapleton was on-hand to receive Lucky's award. "Every minute of every day in the jungle" he said, "we trusted our lives to those four dogs, and they never let us down. Lucky was the only one of the team to survive our time in the Malayan jungle and I'm so proud of the old dog today. I owe my life to him."
Ship's cat, Her Majesty's Australian Ship (HMAS) Encounter, World War I
Author Cape Cod CurmudgeonPosted on February 6, 2019 February 6, 2019 Categories Animal Stories, Dogs, Odds & Ends, Today in History, Wars and Military Conflicts, WWIITags Animal's Victoria Cross, Animals at War, Dickin Medal, Today in History, WW18 Comments on February 6, 2007 Animals at War