It rescued soldiers and transmitted secret letters. How did cats participate in the Great Wars?

Cats are one of the creatures that most like the human heart because of their tendency to play and caressing, but they can also "dig" their way to the front rows in many situations, and it has happened that it has achieved remarkable heroism in major wars, and contributed to saving many lives.

Although they did not hold any official positions in warfare such as horses, dogs or mules, cats had a place on ships, barracks and among soldiers in the army. Cats were often greeted on warships, barracks and field offices informally to help control rodents.

Rats could destroy precious food stores, contribute to the spread of disease, and even destroy important ropes and wires in important radios. To provide some fun among the soldiers, and to relieve the stress and trauma and depression of war, cats found themselves given a key function in armies as an "amulet" to bring good luck, and sometimes as a tool that could be used to perform some simple tasks.

Here are some examples of cats playing important roles in major wars:

One of the fighters of World War II (Getty Images)

1- A cat saves a British battalion from starvation

The Crimean War broke out in the fifties of the 19th century, when Britain and France supported the Ottoman Empire in its war against the Russian Empire.

The main battle was the siege by British and French forces of the then Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol for a whole year.

By the time the city fell, both sides were short of supplies and starving. As British Lieutenant William Gere searched a Russian basement for food, he noticed a cat sitting on a pile of rubble "covered in dust and dirt".

Lieutenant Gere brought the cat, whom he named "Tom," into the bunkers with the soldiers, where they noticed that he was well fed and did not lose weight or starve like them.

British soldiers followed Tom into town to see where he was getting such a good supply of mice and discovered a pile of rubble buried beneath a pantry full of food. When Tom died in 1856, he was embalmed and preserved in the National Army Museum in London.

2- Hero of World War II

In May 1941, Allied ships sank German armored vehicles Bismarck after a bloody three-day battle. Among the shipwrecks was a black-and-white cat that the crew of the British ship HMS Kozak called "Sam".

Five months later, at the height of World War II, the British ship was torpedoed by a German boat and the cat survived again, earning it the nickname "The Unsinkable." Sam proved lucky in November 5, when he was transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS Arch Royal, but the carrier was blown up only 1941 weeks later.

When British soldiers rescued their fellow survivors, they found the cat "a little worried but unharmed". After surviving with British teams, the cat retired from military service and spent the rest of his life as a mousehunter for a British official, immortalizing his name in history as a war hero.

"Sam". The Cat That Doesn't Drown (Georgina Shaw Baker)

3- The spy cat, the hero of the battle of "Stalingrad"

The Battle of Stalingrad during World War II was one of the bloodiest in modern human history, in which Soviet soldiers tried in various ways to send extremely dangerous intelligence messages about the movements of invading German troops through the city.

According to the website "Mental Floss", a Russian commander noticed that the cat that inhabits the army headquarters, called "Murka", always finds a way to go to the city and then return again.

Murka ordered to accompany the scouts on missions to the city, where reports of German troops inside his cordon were attached in a secret code, and the cat crossed the city-turned-battlefield in search of the official headquarters of the Soviet troops, where he was greeted with welcome and food to reward him.

After several successful missions, Morka lost influence on the work and his fate is still unknown.

4- The Polly cat and its service in the US Navy

The striped cat, Baboli or Polly, was born at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii on July 4, 1944. Brought in by a crew member of the assault transport ship USS Fremont, the ship witnessed several decisive battles on the Pacific front.

Polly chose to sleep in the mailroom during battles, got her own uniform and was given 3 service strips and 4 battle stars for her time in the Navy.

Simon Cat (Getty Images)

5- Simon and winning a high war medal

Another star among the ships' cats, Simon, was performing rat protection duties aboard the British warship Amethyst when the ship was trapped in the Yangtze River in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War.

Simon was injured in the Communist rebel bombing of the ship, but recovered and returned to the mission of killing insects and rodents and maintaining the morale of the crew.

He was named the "Sea Cat" and became famous upon his return to Britain, but died there shortly after being buried after receiving the honour of the Navy with a high military medal, the "Dicken Animal Medal".

Simon remains the only cat to win the Deakin Medal, which is awarded to those who demonstrate "demonstrated courage or dedication to duty" while serving UK troops.