Animals in the trenches...........

[CarylW]

First I've heard of it! I've seen many photos of dogs in trenches as messengers or pets and cats on ships but cats in the trenches and showing an indifference to shellfire? I don't think so. Do they? Always thought cats had more sense plus a more selfish and probably sensible desire for self-preservation.

Was this a propaganda photo designed to reassure those back home?
This must be in a quiet sector because for one thing the soldiers are sitting on top of the parapet and I'm sure that any loud noises and bangs and the cat would be off


.

Caryl

[squirrel]

Our two take no notice of thunder and lightning - it is just the rain that accompanies it that they dodge - most of the time.

Neither is spooked by fireworks either.

[27thBN]

Not my nervous wreck cat ,any loud noise wind ,rain storm and he is hiding ,he is 19 years old but was basically the same his entire life.Great Picture I have always had a cat or two lovely pets

MC

[River97]

The photo doesn't surprise me.

I Served in Afghanistan in 07-08 and we had four cats in the workshop there. They never batted an eyelid when the Dutch 155mm Panzer Howitzer was unleashing hell. We did though!

Cheers Andy.

[centurion]

Our cats mind neither thunder nor fireworks but if someone is using a 12 bore in the fields and woods around they stick very close to the house - shows a certain sagacity.

Plenty of mice and rats in the trench areas which would be an attraction.

[CarylW]

Some of the replies did surprise me, especially Andy posting about the cats in Afghanistan!

Come to think of it my cats aren't unduly nervy on bonfire night, but they (or we) usually make sure they are indoors but any loud bangs or noise in the house they are leaping through the cat flap; very funny when two tried to do it side by side!

I realise that dogs used in wartime would have been trained not to be gun/shell shy but hadn't realised that cats already had this quality!

Found the following quotes from these websites:

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War...ldiers_Pets.htm

"Cats are often to be found in the trenches. Some even penetrate into' the fire trenches. They are curiously unafraid of shell fire, and love to bask in the sun on the edge of the parapets, and decline to be kept under cover".

http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/war01.html

"In World War I, the British army employed 500,000 cats as gas detectors and ratters in the trenches"

You learn something new every day.....

Caryl

[truthergw]

There would be lots of fairly tough farm cats in residence when the trenches were dug. Their kittens would not be afraid of the noise of a shell or bomb. I suspect gas would be their big threat.

[J Banning]

Richard van Emden’s new book, Tommy’s Ark is out in November and contains some amazing stories about all animal life on the western front. The product description says that it “looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there, and examines their relationship with a strange and unexpected range of animal life, from horses, dogs and cats to monkeys and birds”. I did some of the research with Richard on this and I know there are some cracking and very surprising stories in it. Oh, and plenty of cats too....

[CarylW]

Richard van Emden's new book, Tommy's Ark is out in November and contains some amazing stories about all animal life on the western front. The product description says that it "looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there, and examines their relationship with a strange and unexpected range of animal life, from horses, dogs and cats to monkeys and birds". I did some of the research with Richard on this and I know there are some cracking and very surprising stories in it. Oh, and plenty of cats too....

Ah I've heard of this book

I'm really looking forward to it coming out

Caryl

[Ron Clifton]

Two stories spring to mind:

H Hesketh-Prichard in his book "Sniping in France" tells the story of a cat which regularly sunned itself around lunchtime on the parapet of some German trenches. British snipers spotted it and logged it in their regular reports. The battalion intelligence officer told a visiting staff officer from Corps about it; he arranged an aerial reconnaissance which identified newly constructed dugouts, on a fairly large scale, in what had been thought to be empty trenches; and the gunners were told to deal with it. As the torrent of shells rained down, the cat was observed making towards Martinpuich at high speed.

Somewhere on the Loos front a man was lying wounded in no man's land, when a cat came and sat on his chest. This kept kim warm until the stretcher bearers found him, and it probably saved his life.

Ron

[Pighills]

I realise that dogs used in wartime would have been trained not to be gun/shell shy but hadn't realised that cats already had this quality!

Caryl

Not necessarily, Caryl, our dog likes nothing better than to go for a walk on bonfire night. He actually stands there watching the fireworks going off and cocks his head from side to side, his tail wagging and he never flinching.

I'd say some dogs, along with some cats and some humans, can endure loud noises naturally. There will be some who can be trained to it and others who will never take to it no matter how long is given over to 'getting used to it'.

[Dragon]

Up in the Vosges: Christmas, with cat. These men were responsible for the telephone links up on Reichackerkopf. Their shelter is still there; I've been in it.

[CarylW]

Not necessarily, Caryl, our dog likes nothing better than to go for a walk on bonfire night. He actually stands there watching the fireworks going off and cocks his head from side to side, his tail wagging and he never flinching.

I'd say some dogs, along with some cats and some humans, can endure loud noises naturally. There will be some who can be trained to it and others who will never take to it no matter how long is given over to 'getting used to it'.

Yes, you are right, I realised there were exceptions. We've had dogs that aren't scared of anything and those that were nervy, likewise with cats. I'd just never heard of any cats being indifferent to shellfire before

As for the dogs being trained not to be gun shy, I was having deja vu because I remember asking that question before in this thread

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/l...php/t66693.html

Lots of links in that thread about cats and dogs in the Great War and even Chester Messenger dog takes part

Can't remember if I ever found the answer though to what I was asking!

Caryl

[David B]

Probably too stupid to realize what the banging noise is. If they could reason they would be off like a shot (No pun intended).

David

[Black Watch]

It isn't a cat anyway, its a sporran.

[27thBN]

Going by some of the above my cat must be a whimp.

[David B]

What ? A sporran with a striped tail ?

David

[Ron Clifton]

It's not a striped tail - it's a badger's nose. Much used in making sporrans.

Ron

[centurion]

Thought I've seen expressed on another forum

After a nuclear attack would a surviving cat have 18 half lives?

[CarylW]

Up in the Vosges: Christmas, with cat. These men were responsible for the telephone links up on Reichackerkopf. Their shelter is still there; I've been in it.

That little cat looks quite at home in his mountain retreat Gwyn. I suppose they will always go where the food is

Can understand why they would be attracted to the trenches and the food, natural prey or cooked and the company and warmth and I realise a lot would be farm cats or those owned by civilians who had fled the battle areas just always thought that self preservation was also high on their agenda - or they had more sense!

I see there was a cat awarded the Dickin medal, (and a Blue Cross medal) the animal version of the VC. Simon the cat. Simon was the ships cat aboard HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident in 1949 according to this site.

http://www.hmforces.co.uk/Join_The_Forces/...dal-and-mascots

He has his own page on Wikipedia (ahhh)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(cat)

Black Watch wrote> It isn't a cat anyway, its a sporran

Caryl

[Chester-famous Messenger Dog]

Up in the Vosges: Christmas, with cat. These men were responsible for the telephone links up on Reichackerkopf. Their shelter is still there; I've been in it.

...and this is the same room as of 2009, unfortunately no cats today.

P.S. I love cat threads

[Dragon]

I think it's so poignant. Winter up there is bitterly cold, bleak, windswept. There would be little tree cover, just bare, steep mountainside, rocks, rubble, snow and they're dug into a slope sveral thousand metres up. It's Christmas. They have a thin tree which they've decorated, they're reading letters, opening parcels and caring for a little cat. I think the man on the left looks so wistful.

I don't know the exact date of the photo, but Christmas was certainly not sacrosanct from ferocious and prolonged attacks. In some places the French were a few metres away - here they were just round the hillside. What did these men know about their fate in the next days? It was wholly unpredictable.

Gwyn

[Dragon]

...and this is the same room as of 2009, unfortunately no cats today.

My photos here and posts onwards.

Have you been up there and not told me, Chester?

Gwyn

[Chester-famous Messenger Dog]

Please forgive me I am getting older (my master too) and I thought it was the Hexenweiher telegraph- and pumpstation from the Buchenkopf. I am afraid I cannot make it into the Vosges anymore - the time has come now that I cannot walk mountaineous regions anymore.....

[Dragon]

I'm sorry to hear that, Chester. Look after yourself.

Gwyn