Category Archives: Animals

One Size Does Not Fit All During—and before—the war, gas masks were fitted to pets as well as to working animals.

Memories of the gassing horrors from the First World War were still fresh.  Read more

Patton Pissing in the Rhine?

George S. Patton crossed the Rhine in March 1945 at Oppenheim, south of Frankfurt. While still on the pontoon bridge, the irrepressible American general heard the call of nature – and answered it.

And he was supposedly photographed doing so. Read more

shostakovich-buy-ticketShostakovich’s Starvation Symphony

A Red Army soldier purchases a ticket for the historic – in some ways, miraculous – performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh – the “Leningrad.” At the time, cats – being edible – were more valuable than roubles. Read more