Category: Historic animal abuse

Remembering the carers of the war horses.

We tend to overlook the men who often risked their lives to care for and safeguard their comrades the war horses under atrocious conditions while in action at the front.

When we think of the war horses during the remembrance period we tend to overlook the men who risked their lives to safeguard and care for them, particularly while in action at the front. These men not only witnessed the horrors of their human comrades being killed and mutilated but also their equine comrades. My grandfather Edwin Clark was one of these men.

Men were often killed caring for their beloved horses.

At about 6 p.m. on the evening of the 30th. September 1918 my grandfather Edwin Clark and his fellow artillery drivers of the 13th. Battery Canadian Field Artillery were “feeding-up” and watering their war horses at the wagon and horse line a mile back from the front line near the town of Raillencourt.

Suddenly they heard an aircraft approaching. It was a German plane and before they could take cover it dropped some newly invented  “Daisy-Clipper” bombs into the middle of the horse lines. They were designed to explode a few inches from the ground throwing shrapnel all around. The bombs killed one driver named Wishart and badly wounded nine others including Edwin. He received his third wound of the war, hit by shrapnel in his upper thigh, but survived. Many of the poor horses were killed, injured or fled. The scene was described in this way in the battalion war diary:

“The affair was over in less than 30 seconds but the bursting charges, the shouts of the men and the agonised shrieks of injured and terrified horses made a scene of indescribable chaos”

I cannot imagine my grandfather’s state of mind at that precise moment surrounded by crying injured men, shrieking horses, the sound of shots as horses were put out of their misery and the smell of cordite and blood. Hopefully he was too shocked and dazed to take it all in.

war horses, horses in war
War horse being treated for shrapnel wounds. They were viewed as legitimate targets.

The war horses were viewed as legitimate targets.

The horses and mules were viewed as legitimate targets by both sides due to their importance in supplying the gun batteries with ammunition as well as transporting the guns. They faced being shelled, bombed, gassed, sometimes shot and suffered horrific shrapnel injuries. Many suffered shell shock and remarkably others learned to lie down and take cover when under fire.

An officer wrote in the war diary that:

“the duty of the ‘stable pickets’ was an unenviable one, especially at night, when horse lines were being bombed or shelled. Quite apart from the danger of the explosions, there was always the chance of the picket ropes breaking and the horses stampeding. Horses frequently fought and kicked, becoming entangled in ropes and had to be followed and caught in the dark.”

 Like most of the human recruits, the horses had never experienced such noise, chaos, smells, violence and hardships and they did not have the capacity to realise what was happening to them or likely to happen to them. So everything occurring around them was terrifying until they became accustomed to it.

War horses in Great war, war horses
The horses were friends, comrades and confidents. They were in it together.

The ultimate example of man’s dependence on animals for solace.

The horses and mules became friends, confidants, fellow comrades and pseudo counsellors with whom the men could air their grievances, discuss their suffering and help alleviate their depression and melancholy. Without their companionship, the physical and mental well-being of the men would have been far worse than it was. The relationship is probably one of the ultimate examples of man’s dependence on animals for solace.

The men spent most of their waking hours caring for them often under almost impossible conditions. They fought together, rested and ate together, often slept together and ultimately died together. They were in it together. There is no getting away from the fact that their lives were unforgiving and unremitting, but at the same time the men responsible for them lavished as much care as they could to alleviate their suffering and formed incredible bonds with them.

An officer responsible for vetting his men’s letters home wrote in the war diary:

“Drivers often almost wept as they wrote of their faithful friends – the horses – wishing so much that they could be given more feed and better shelter. Such care and attention they gave these dumb animals. When nothing else was available an old sock was used to rub them down or to bandage a cracked heel, while breast collar and girth galls were eased by wrapping light articles around the harness to keep it from rubbing against the sore spot.”

It is impossible for me to visualise or comprehend the carnage and horrors my grandfather must have witnessed to both humans and horses as it is the stuff of nightmares, but I like to think that my grandfather was a humane man and did all that he could to ease the suffering of the horses and mules in his care.

I am so proud of him that I wrote a book about his experiences and the life of war horses at the western front. BUY IT NOW from Bitzabooks.com the publisher using the PayPal link below or from Amazon Books.
War horses. There From the Start book cover
RRP £9.99 ISBN: 9781094956763 UK orders £11.00 including shipping using PayPal button below. Shipped direct from publisher bitzabooks.com

Related article:

A tribute to the faithful war horses and their human comrades.

Bimbo’s Great Escape at London Airport.

In 1966 a rhesus monkey destined for research performed a great escape at London Airport gaining her worldwide fame during her 204 days of freedom.

On August 9th. 1966 a female rhesus monkey made a great escape at London Airport and in the process became the darling of the worldwide press and public who were enthralled by her talent for outwitting her human chasers. She spent six months and 21 days evading capture in a British Overseas Airways Corporation (B.O.A.C) cargo warehouse on Heathrow Airport and had a whale of a time. She was christened Bimbo by the media and became a star.

It all began when she arrived at Heathrow on a Quantas flight, along with 99 others, in transit from Delhi to the USA destined for vivisection. While she sat in the cargo shed contemplating what her future might bring she decided she did not fancy the onward flight. Being an extremely intelligent lady, as this story illustrates, she carefully unpicked the wire of her cage and quietly said goodbye to her poor comrades and left them to their fate.

It was several hours before she was reported missing.

Then she found a hiding place up in the roof and surveyed her surroundings. It was a perfect environment, heated and air-conditioned and a metal jungle of girders, conduits and pipes to climb and swing on. There were also crates of tasty fruit and vegetables every day to break into and eat when no one was about. It was several hours before her absence was discovered and a search all over the airport commenced while she watched from 6o feet up in the roof.

Bimbo escaped macaque at Heathrow Sunday Mirror 19 feb 1967
Bimbo was quite at home in the cargo warehouse which was the size of a football pitch and 60 feet high with heating and air-conditioning. [Photo: Sunday Mirror 9 February 1967]

It was not long before she was spotted, and the chase was on. Her first would be capturers were the RSPCA who had a presence on the airport, and they set traps baited with tasty food every morning and evening, but Bimbo had already fallen for that trick back home which had got her into this predicament.

Bimbo outsmarts the experts.

There then followed weeks of futile attempts to capture her but at every turn she outsmarted everyone. While this went on the nation and the world eagerly followed her antics through hundreds of regular newspaper and media reports. She had thousands of supporters and well wishers and many confederates amongst the staff of the warehouse, except for the cleaners. At one point they refused to clear up after her and the airline had to employ a specialist firm which they were not happy about.

Every method was tried including drugging food, trying to shoot her with a drugged dart, setting up nets and barricades and even playing the sounds of a male of her species to attract her. Everyone wanted to have a go at catching her including scientists, zoo-keepers, pet owners, safari operators and even an American trapeze woman who wanted to live in the roof with Bimbo for two weeks to befriend her. It became literally a circus. None of it worked.

Four months later……

Four months later in December, BOAC were getting fed up and declared her a health hazard and a danger to staff and threatened to have her shot, but she was left in peace over the Christmas and New year period. The local authority stepped in and forced the airline not to store food in the warehouse under health and hygiene regulations which involved the airline having to make other costly arrangements.

This was the final straw for them, but they had a public relations problem because Bimbo was now so popular it was difficult for them to contemplate the final solution of killing her for fear of attracting adverse publicity.

Bimbo’s luck runs out….

The standoff continued into February and the local authorities told the airline that it had to end and they made an announcement that they had hired a marksman to shoot Bimbo. His identity was kept secret for fear of reprisals, and he visited the warehouse at 2230 and 0230 every night when she was most active, but for some reason he never fired a shot.

Finally, on the 3rd. March, 1967 to everyone’s disappointment, Bimbo’s 204 days of luck ran out when three pest controllers  trapped her in a ventilation shaft, then smashed holes in it to get a net around her. She was removed to the RSPCA Airport Hostel, who cared for her until she was offered a home by Chessington Zoo.

Bimbo’s bid for freedom comes to an end -or did it…… [Picture: Daily Mirror]

The reluctant captive – Bimbo escapes again.

But it was not the end of Bimbo’s notoriety. In true Steve McQueen great escape fashion she spent a few weeks contemplating escape plans and decided to try the wire route again not a tunnel. On the 13th. June she carefully unpicked the wire of her cage and bolted along with four of her inmates, but not far.

For two days she put on an extra show for the zoo visitors by eluding all attempts by her keepers to recapture her just as she had at Heathrow and she hit the headlines again. The newspapers dubbed her the “artful dodger”, causing embarrassment for the zoo professionals. But eventually it was game over for Bimbo when she was corralled again and an escape proof cage was constructed. But was it?

And again….

Two days later while being transferred into this new cage she made what was her final bid for freedom and slipped out of the keepers grasp and was on the run again. It was short lived though and she was soon caught again and remained at the zoo for the rest of her life, probably still planning yet another escapade. Bimbo still holds the record for the longest fugitive at Heathrow. Another female rhesus which the media named Jennifer managed six weeks in 1961 rampaging round the village of West Drayton beside the airport before being caught.

Escaped monkeys at the airport were a regular occurrence in the 1950’s and into the 1970’s. During this period an average 120,000 monkeys a year passed through the airport for research and pets in a sickening trade which caused terrible suffering and thousands of deaths during capture and transport even before what they had to endure at their destination. Monkeys are still transported around the globe but thankfully not in such large numbers.