Three dormer windows up against the roof, in the Cour d’Honneur of the Hôtel des Invalides © Paris, musée de l’Armée, dist. RMN-GP / Émilie Cambier

Decors of the Hôtel des Invalides

In 1670, King Louis XIV took the decision to build the Hôtel des Invalides to take care of his invalid soldiers and those too old to fight. Many renowned or anonymous artists contributed to the decor of the building. As part of the exhibition Animals & Wars and following the restoration of the galleries, the facades and the roof of the main courtyard as well as the central pavilion of the northern facade, we propose that you observe the animals carved in stone and whose image can be associated, directly or symbolically, with war.

Pachyderms

In the Cour d’Honneur, two dormer windows are decorated with elephants carved in stone. One of the elephants refers unmistakably to one of the greatest warrior in Antiquity to whom King Louis XIV, the “Sun King” liked to compare himself. Is it Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) who defeated King Porus and his 200 war elephants at the Battle of the Hydaspes, known today as the Jhelum River in the Punjab Province of Pakistan? Is it an allusion to the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca (247-c.183 B.C.) and to his 20 war elephants defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Zama in Tunisia in 202 B.C.? Or do they refer to Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) who defeated the war elephants of the Numidian King Juba I in 46 B.C. at the Battle of Thapsus in Tunisia, before using sixteen war elephants to terrify an army of Gauls? Julius Caesar chose the elephant as his emblem. Two hooks of mahout are placed over the elephants’ heads. It’s up to you to find them!

The Chained Animals

The chained eagle and lion appearing on this dormer window are symbolic representation of the defeated opponents of King Louis XIV who took part in the War of Devolution (1667-1668): the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of England, the Dutch Republic and the Swedish Empire, and in the Dutch War (1672-1678) to which must be added the Holy Roman Empire, the Margraviate of Brandenburg and Denmark-Norway. These allegorical animals are represented squatting, as if crushed, and fixed with terror on the sun, King Louis XIV emblem. Their wide-open beaks and jaws seem to implore its clemency. The lion is on the coat of arms of Spain, with reference to the Kingdom of León, the Dutch Republic, Denmark-Norway and the Kingdom of England. The eagle adorns the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The sun with a human face is surrounded by the club of Hercules and a ram, both symbols of strength.

Cockadoodle doo!

The Gallic rooster appears on several dormer windows in Cour d’Honneur and on a mural painting in the Salle de l’Europe, one of the four refectories of the Hotel. It is also present in the symbology of Louis XIV. Since ancient times, this bird has been associated with the sun and the dawn that dispels the darkness. It accompanies several divinities like Mercury. Ancient authors report that the sunrise and sunset of the planet associated with this god happen at the same time and in the same place as the sun. Due to its impetuous nature and combative character, the Gallic rooster is also the attribute of the gods Helios, Apollo, Minerva and Mars.

In Ancient Rome, the Gallic rooster was associated with the Gauls, because in Latin the word “gallus” designates both the Gauls and the rooster. In De Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar compared the courage of the Gauls with that of the rooster. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the English and the Italians who strongly opposed French hegemonic desires used the rooster to mock French arrogance and represented the bestiary of their respective coat of arms devouring the gallinaceous. In flagrant contradiction, the House Valois and later on the House of Bourbon adopted the Gallic rooster, relying on the ancient Greco-Roman qualities and virtues associated with the bird: victory, eloquence, vigilance and fertility.

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Bronze canon Saint Gilles, ca. 1507 © Paris, musée de l’Armée, dist. RMN-GP / Émilie Cambier

The lion

From Egypt to Rome

Although the lion does not fight alongside the soldiers, his image is extremely present on the battlefields. He is reputed to be powerful, courageous and generous. These qualities can only inspire the warrior who sees in him an ideal. This is the reason why his image has been present and revered in all cultures at all times.

In the ancient world, the lion was popularly known, thanks to the royal menageries and the circus games. His valour inspired the Egyptians who represented him on a pendant that was presented as a reward to officers for outstanding and valiant actions. The image of the lion was associated with the power of Pharaoh.  Receiving such an honour was very rare and only four awards of this type have been discovered by archaeologists up until now.

The Romans were also inspired by the image of the lion. They used to wear animal skins during the fighting and the veterans of the Roman Army choose the symbol of the lion on their gravestones.

A Powerful Symbol

Besides this pagan imagery, the lion also has a strong symbolic Christian value since it incarnates Mark the Evangelist in the Tetramorph. The lion is frequently quoted in the Old Testament and in the New Testament where the metaphoric image of Christ is associated with the Lion of Judah. The lion appears later in the lives of the Saints and the Martyrs of Christendom. Its breath is a symbol of resurrection.

Because of his power, the lion has been chosen as the emblem of aristocratic and royal families. He appears on the coat of arms of knights and sovereigns but also of states. Richard I of England (1157-1199) is even known in France under the name of “Richard the Lionheart”. This tradition still persists in the army where the lion can be found on the insignia and the mottos of several French regiments.

More recently and outside Europe, during the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) Ahmad Shah Massoud earned the nickname of “Lion of Panjshir” after repelling seven major Soviet attacks in the Panjshir Valley.

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The movie actress Lucienne Galopaud, godmother of the wintering center of the Côte d’Azur, circa 1944-1945. © Paris, musée de l’Armée, dist. RMN-GP / Émilie Cambier

The Sheep & The Ram

A weapon of war

Since the Antiquity, the ram left its name in poliorcetics as one of the most powerful war machine used in siege operations.  The battering ram consisted of a large wooden beam with a head of iron used in breaching fortifications during a siege, a reference to the ovine characteristic of giving heavy repeated blows against its opponent.

Essential

Sheep represents one of the vital materials for making uniforms: wool. In the Programmes des cours révolutionnaires sur l’art militaire, l’administration militaire, la santé des troupes et les moyens de la conserver, printed by the French Revolutionalry Committee of Public Safety in 1794, it is stated: “A medium pack of fleece, after washing and spinning, produces about 2 pounds of wool. Assuming that a sheep gives 2 fleeces per year; 1,067,797 sheep would be needed in order to produce the 4,271,190 pounds of wool required.

During the French First Empire, the breeches worn by the Carabiniers-à-Cheval, cuirassiers and dragoons were made of deerskin or sheepskin. Sheepskin was also used for the harnessing and leather equipment in the Artillery and for the horses’ saddle blankets used in the Cavalry. During the Russian Campaign, the Napoleonic troops suffered from the cold, while the Russians, equipped with gloves, woollen stockings and sheepskin lined with wool were more resistant to low temperatures.

The Soldier’s plate

Soldiers were fed with ox meat and sheep. Sheep was used in the “ratatouille”, the famous Provençal stew combining meat and vegetable. During the Great War, the French soldier’s ration pack included a tin of boiled beef or corned beef nicknamed “monkey (meat) tin”. The army cooks also prepared dishes in sauce such as the mutton sauté.

In 1935, during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, Italian units stationed in the Danakil Desert were supplied with lamb as planes dropped off ammunition, food and live sheep via parachutes.

The post Animals and war, episode 21: The Sheep & The Ram first appeared on The News blog.

Flagpole « Eagle » number 5, 1804 model, designed by French sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet and cast by Pierre-Philippe Thomire © Paris, musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-GP / Pascal Segrette

The Eagle

A Formidable Symbol

Like the lion, the eagle is one the national emblems most used in the world. The German tribes regarded the eagle as the bird of the Norse One-Eyed Father God of War and Peace Odin. In 800 A.D., Charlemagne adopted the single headed eagle as the symbol of imperial power widely spread in Ancient Rome. From the earliest antiquity, the eagle was heavily associated with military glories and regarded as a divine bird owing to its association with the god of the sky Zeus/Jupiter. In French, the noun “eagle” assumes the feminine gender in heraldry and also when speaking of the “Roman Eagles”, on account of the feminine gender of aquila the Latin noun for eagle. Thus, in French, “aigle” is feminine, in Roman or Imperial eagle.

Napoleon I’s emblem

In accordance with Napoleon’s own choice, the eagle associated with power and majesty in reference to the Roman and Carolingian eagles and the bee became the emblem of the French First Empire. The decree of 21 Messidor, An XII (10 July 1804), stipulates that the Empire great seal and coat of arms of should be “azure with a gold, ancient eagle clutching a thunderbolt of the same colour”. The symbols were created by Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825) and Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764-1843).

Absolute Power

The heraldic eagle also appears on the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Otto von Bismarck, the architect of German unification, introduced the single-headed eagle; a symbol still maintained in the coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Germany. During the First World War, this eagle became the symbol of the enemy, as opposed to the Gallic rooster. Accordingly, the eagle had come to symbolize not only the Germans but also the incarnation of evil. It was a symbol that was seen over and over again on French war propaganda posters and mentioned in patriotic songs such as R. Mercier’s 1916 song: Verdun! They shall not pass :

A dark eagle swooped over the city,

Swearing it would be victorious.

From all sides, crows are edging their way

In the furrows and the sunken paths.

All at once the cockerel of France begins to sound,

Cockadoodle doo! Up, little soldiers,

The sun is up, the guns are roaring.

Young heroes, here is the great Battle

The post Animals and war, episode 20 : The Eagle first appeared on The News blog.

The Captain will dine. Lithograph by Englemann from a drawing by Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d’Albe © Paris, musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-GP / Émilie Cambier

The Rabbit & The Hare

“The trembling fools! They take me
for the very thunderbolt of war!”
Jean de La Fontaine The Hare and the Frogs.

Cunicularii

The Romans used the symbol of the rabbit and named their sappers and miners: munitores, fossores, fodientes or cunicularii. The Latin term cuniculus, meaning “rabbit”, refers to the tunnelling used as an offensive weapon in siege warfare.

In his Chronicles, many years later, Jean Froissart quoted an episode of the Hundred Years’ War, which took place between King Philip VI of Valois and King Edward of England in 1339, during the so-called Battle of Buironfosse. Before the fighting, as knighthood was conferred on many esquires, a great shouting was raised by the French due to a hare that had sprung up in the lines, causing alarm amongst the ranks. Finally, there was no fighting and the new knights were dubbed “Knights of the Hare”.

Rabbit Fur

Rabbit fur is used to make warm and windproof clothing such as overcoats. At the end of the Second World War, Sigrid Schultz (1893-1980), a Chicago Tribune Berlin correspondent, acquired an album documenting the so-called “Angora Project” while assisting the American Counter Intelligence Corps in the search for documents missing from in Himmler’s Alpine villa. Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) launched the “Angora Project” in 1941, in order to breed Angora rabbits for their warm and soft wool to make clothes for several branches of the German military.  Specialists were incorporated into special canine sections called Reichsfachgruppen Kaninchenzüchter to provide the Angora Rabbits with veterinary care and controlled diet. By 1943, the “Angora Project” consisted of some 65 000 rabbits, all bred in special hutches in different concentration camps all throughout the Reich, with a production of 5 tons of wool per year. Nowadays, the “Angora Rabbit Raising in Nazi Concentration Camps” photo album is housed at the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Rabbits at the Invalides

During the Second World War, French civil servant with the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (ONAC) Georges Morin, his spouse Denise and daughter Yvette lived in the Hotel des Invalides. In 1940, he and this family joined the French Resistance Movement Action Vengeance de la France Combattante. From 1942 to 1944, the Morin hid Allied pilots from the RAF, the RCAF and US Air Force inside the Hotel des Invalides, prior to their transfer with false documents to either Spain or Britain. The pilots ended up nicknaming Denise “Mammy Rabbit” because she was raising rabbits in order to feed them. On 5 July 1944, following denunciation, the Morin Family was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp, where the members were separated in order to be sent to two different camps: George was sent to Mittelbau-Dora while Denise and her daughter Yvette to Ravensbrück. Nowadays, a commemorative plaque with George’s name inscribed on it can be seen in the Hotel des Invalides.

Even now, wild rabbits can be seen coming in and out of their holes in the gardens located on the northern façade of the Hotel.

Two rabbits on the esplanade of the Hôtel des Invalides. © Paris, musée de l’Armée

The post Animals and war, episode 19: The Rabbit and The Hare first appeared on The News blog.

The Liberating War of 1914-1915. Symbolic map of Europe. By B. Crétée, printed by the éditions Delandre © Paris, musée de l’Armée

The Bear

The Absolute Warrior

For the longest time, the bear was considered as the incarnation of the king and the invincible warrior among the Celts, the Germans, the Balts, the Slavs, the Lapps, the Japanese … In Europe, he was believed to be the king of the beast, the totemic animal young men had to fight and kill during initiation rites in order to be admitted into the world of adult warriors. The fighter used his name, his canines, his claws or his hair as talismans for protection, to appropriate the strength of the animal and / or to scare his enemy. His image is also present on signs, weapons and armour.

Too Wild?

In his book, The Bear, the Story of a Fallen King (La librairie du XXIe siècle, Seuil, 2007), Michel Pastoureau reminds the reader that during the second century of our era, Pausanias (c. A.D. 110 – c. 180) wrote in his Graeciae Descriptio (The Description of Greece), in that in ancient times, the men from Arcadia, meaning bear from Greek Arktos, fought against the Spartans dressed in bear skins. Michel Pastoureau mentions that during a mission to Saxony in 742, Saint Boniface related to Daniel, then bishop of Winchester, that the “ritual of the pagans” consisted in dressing up as bears and drinking the blood of this animal before going to battle. The Western Church fought violently against the pagans’ fascination for the bear, for a very long time and succeeded in linking the animal to six of the seven Deadly Sins; the bear was only tolerated when presented to the public in popular fairs, chained and muzzled.

Bearskin headdress of a non-commissioned officer of a regiment of Chasseurs-à-Pied of the French Imperial Guard. From the seventeenth century, soldiers who served in the Guard were selected according to their height and strength, a prerequisite for joining this specialized grenade-throwing assault unit. As such, they were considered to be the elite, and were better paid than the other units because of the dangerousness of their missions. To facilitate the throwing of the hand grenades, the tricorne, a wide hat with broad trims, was gradually replaced with caps trimmed with fur, which evolved with time. The tall cover of the Guard was designed to make a strong impression upon the enemy. It is not known when bearskin headdress first made their appearance, but it is believed that it was imported from Eastern Europe. The bear is an animal known for its great strength. The adoption of bearskins in the West cannot be dated but it would seem it originated from Eastern Europe. In the course of the centuries, this costly and impractical headdress was gradually confined to full dress, ceremonial uniforms worn outside of battle, with the exception of the elite troops of the Imperial Guard during the Napoleonic era, which kept on wearing bearskins during battle as a mark of distinction. © Paris, musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-GP / Pascal Segrette

A Caricature of the Russians

During the seventeenth century, as the Russia expanded eastward, the British ridiculed this thirst for conquest by caricaturing Russia as an imperialistic bear.  By doing so, they opposed their own national emblem, the noble leopard to the barbaric and lazy bear that hibernates for months only to wake up unexpectedly and violently.

During the 1950’s, Soviet aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev designed his turboprop strategic bomber, the Tu-95. This strategic intercontinental heavy-payload bomber aircraft was used during the Cold War. In the NATO reporting names list, this gigantic aircraft – 46 m long, 50 m wide – is called “Bear” (B for bomber) or simply “Bear”. This aircraft is still in service in the Russian Air Force and Naval Aviation.

The NATO reporting names list is used by NATO members to name military equipment from the former Eastern Bloc – USSR and nations of the Warsaw Pact.

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Camouflage in the shape of a cow. Anonymous, ca. 1914-1915 © Paris, musée de l’Armée

The Cow and The Bull

Feeding the Army

“BEEF” (noun) – [from BULL]. A word derived from Latin and Greek “bos”, “bous”, and considered here a staple food for the Army (…) – The Regulations 13 May 1818, labelled beef as “the meat which must be considered to be the FOOD FOR THE TROOPS. – The need for food for an ARMY is estimated one ox per one thousand men. – Beef belongs to so-called FORTRESS GOODS, either as a standing animal or as CORNED BEEF”. (Dictionnaire de l’armée de Terre by Étienne Alexandre Bardin, vol 2, 1841-1851, p. 788).

Symbolically, the horns of the last bull killed to feed the Parisians, during the siege of Paris in 1871, are preserved, mounted on a wooden stand (Museum of Art and History of Saint-Denis).

During the First World War, butchers followed the armies with herds of cattle and pigs. In his book Journey to the End of the Night (1932), French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline tells in a scene of slaughter that took place at the beginning of the war: “On sacks and tent cloths spread out on the grass there were pounds and pounds of guts, chunks of white and yellow fat, disembowelled sheep with their organs every which way, oozing intricate little rivulets into the grass round about, a whole ox, split down the middle, hanging on a tree, and four regimental butchers all hacking away at it, cursing and swearing and pulling off choice morsels”.  From the start, war of movement, retreats and exhausted animals made transportation more difficult. From November 1914, army meat supplies switched to frozen meat imported from Argentina or Australia.

To Equip and Transport

If the cow and bull meat are primarily used in the army to feed the troops, they also serve as raw material to manufacture equipment. In ancient times, the Scythians had their helmets made of ox hide; the Roman used the clipeus, a shield covered with leather. In France during the eighteenth century, soldiers’ equipment was often made of cowhide, as specified in the royal warrant of 19 January 1747 on clothing regulation of the Infantry by which it was specified that each infantry soldier was to carry a “red or black cow hide giberne and a pouch”.

During the French invasion of Russia, Napoleon supplemented the artillery train by establishing new battalions drawn by oxen in order to spare the horses. On 6 January 1812, he addressed a letter to the Comte de Cessac, then Minister of the Administration of War, requesting a report on the cost and the capabilities of these animals. On 22 January, he asked his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, to form another ox-drawn battalion since “the kingdom of Italy has many oxen; it is a way to use them”.  On 24 January, Napoleon notified to the Comte de Cessac that he wished to have four more ox-drawn battalions consisting of 1,224 wagons and a horse-drawn battalion from the Kingdom of Italy, harnessing 306 wagons, all destined to the Artillery Train.

The post Animals and war, episode 17 : The Cow and The Bull first appeared on The News blog.

Les Compagnons ou la Ménagerie du Poilu (Pets or the Poilu’s Menagerie). Postcard, 1914-1918. © Paris, musée de l’Armée

The Roach

A Pest in the Poilus’ Menagerie

Roaches are omnivores that attack food supplies and litter left behind by the soldiers. Although, only 1% of the listed species are known to transmit infectious agents to man, their sole presence is a real nuisance to the soldiers trying to enjoy a moment of rest and recreation. During the Great War, unhygienic circumstances in the trenches attracted an abundant and diverse fauna, making life in the trenches unbearable. On the front lines, the soldiers were forced to share their tight living quarters filled with stagnant water and their food supplies with fleas, lice, rats and roaches.

The “Anti Roach” of the Trenches

In the French language, cafard (roach) corresponds to a slang expression used by the military referring to the spleen, a connotation of strong lassitude. During the Great War, this term became very popular and its meaning broadened to include sadness, nostalgia, deep dismay and even a state of increasing depression. The dreadful living conditions in the trenches imposed upon men who for most of them had seldom been away from home, led to a feeling of discouragement which the soldier could not share with his family because of letter censorship on the front line in order to maintain civilian morale on the Homefront.  To beat their gloomy state of mind, soldiers started editing trench newspapers named after the cockroach such as: L’Anti-Cafard (The Anti-Roach), Le Cafard enchaîné (The Chained Roach) or Le Cafard muselé (The Muzzled Roach). In their articles, the Poilus fended off the roach with a hearty dose of derision: “But on the other hand, we must carefully guard ourselves from the cockroach, this particular and eminently contagious disease of the occupants of the trenches. To fight against this affection, there is only one remedy laughter, laughter that dilates the spleen, shakes the belly, stirs the guts and defeats neurasthenia”.

The post Animals and war, episode 16: The Roach first appeared on The News blog.

A captured German Taube monoplane, 1915. This German plane was called “Taube”, meaning “pigeon” or “dove” in German. It was designed by Igo Etrich (1879-1967), an Austrian engineer. Its fuselage and tail were modelled after a pigeon. This plane was displayed in the courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides from 1915 to 1917, along with pieces of artillery. In 1914, it made an emergency landing in the Meuse following an engine failure. Captured, it was considered a “war trophy”. Its display was aimed to show visitors an aircraft that was closest to those that had flown over Paris in early 1914. The wing and tail are decorated with a simplified version of the Iron Cross, the German national symbol. © Paris, musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-GP / Pascal Segrette

The pigeon

A Messenger since Antiquity

Since Antiquity, homing pigeons have been used to carry dispatches, such as the announcement of the winner of the Olympic Games. They are also used in commercial networks and Julius Caesar employed them to transmit information on enemy troop movements. This practice persisted during the Crusades, and later on during the sieges.

The twentieth century marks the birth of a new sport: pigeon racing.  In 1870, over 800 racing homers were brought to the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), they became the only means of communication between the besieged French capital and the rest of France. The birds were flown safely over the Prussian lines by floating balloons and flew back to Paris with their precious dispatches. However, this pigeon service could not prevent from disinformation since the Prussians were able to capture some only to release them with bogus dispatches.

At the end of 1914, as the war of stagnation developed and the entrenched armies turned to positional warfare, means of communication became of vital strategic importance. The pigeons’ homing abilities, even under the most dangerous conditions (gas, bombardments), secured the delivery of dispatches and messages when other means of transmission – telephone lines for example – were cut.

Home pigeons were also used during the Second World War during which 16,500 birds were fitted with mini parachutes and air-dropped into occupied France in order bring intelligence back to Britain. During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), they were used for liaisons between outposts in a remote location in the jungle and their command post.

Pigeongrams:  miniaturizing the Official Dispatches

Before 1840, messages carried by homing pigeons were simply rolled and placed in a goose-quill tube that was tied with a thread to the tail feather of the pigeon. Various methods for transporting messages were tested. At the beginning of the First World, the use of aluminium or rubber canisters fixed to the bird’s leg with a ring was significantly widespread. Initially, the dispatches were hand-written on thin paper; later on they were micro-photographed. The process of microphotography allowed for a much reduced size of the folio pages that could contain thousands of dispatches. The microfilm was projected on screens by means of a Megascope, a type of magic lantern.

Military Dovecotes

After the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the Telegraphic Section of the French Corps of Engineering created a homing pigeon service. Military dovecote was the result of long term collaboration between the military and civilians. In accordance with the Law of 3 July 1877, pigeons were subject to requisition, in the same way as horses and mules.  In accordance with the Decree of 5 September 1885, the “civilian” pigeon census and the right of requisition were also regulated.  In 1888, eight military dovecotes were established in Paris, Vincennes, Perpignan, Marseille, Belfort, Lille, Toul and Verdun. Operating a dovecote and using homing pigeons were both regulated by the Law of 22 July 1896. In 1919, the French Federation of Pigeon Fanciers was created. And it was not until the passing of Ministerial Order of 28 June 1926 that the rules of the organization of military dovecotes were finally clearly defined.

Around 1895, the French 24th Battalion of the 5th Engineers Regiment, composed of pigeon fanciers and telegraphists, was stationed in Fort Mont-Valérien. It was later transferred to the 8th Engineers Regiment in 1912. Nowadays, the dovecote of the 8th Signal Regiment of Suresnes stationed in Fort Mont-Valérien, is the last remaining military dovecote in France.

Honouring our War Heroes

The heroic services of the birds during the two World Wars were fully recognized. This is the reason why, “Cher Ami” of the US Army Signal Corps was awarded the French “Croix de Guerre” with palm for saving 194 men of the “Lost Battalion” of the US 77th Division of Infantry during the Battle of Argonne, in 1918.  As for “Vaillant”, it was during the battle of Verdun that he illustrated himself in order to save Major Raynal and his besieged garrison, in a difficult position in the Fort Vaux. The bird was awarded a Certificate of Merit of the Carrier Pigeon Ring and a grant of the summons to the Order of the Nation of French Pigeon Fanciers.  The stuffed bodies of “Dear Ami” and “Vaillant” are respectively kept in the National Museum of American History in Washington DC and the Musée des Transmissions in the Fort Mont-Valérien. In addition, a memorial “to the 20,000 pigeons that died for their country” and “to the pigeon fanciers who were executed by the enemy for having kept them” was erected in Lille, in 1936.  After the Second World War, 46 pigeons were awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal.

The post Animaux and war, episode 15 : The pigeon first appeared on The News blog.

Bonaparte riding a dromedary and pointing to the horizon. Gilt bronze figure modelled by Henri-Alfred Jacquemart and cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne. General Bonaparte did a dromedary riding test during his stay in Egypt. The African Museum in the Ile d’Aix keeps in its collections a stuffed dromedary believed to have been ridden by Bonaparte during the Campaign in Egypt. The idea of the future emperor riding a dromedary stood up and was remembered for a long time. Several artists of the French Orientalist movement chose to portray him in this posture. On the piece reproduced above, Napoleon is depicted as a war leader who points to the primary objective to be achieved while encouraging his men to follow him. As for the dromedary, it remains placid © Paris, musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-GP / Thierry Ollivier

Dromedaries & Camels

One Hump & Two Humps Camels

Since Antiquity, dromedaries and camels have been present on the battlefields in Africa, Asia, but also in Europe where both species were introduced between the first and the second century A.D.

Dromas

Fast and nervous, the dromedary – from Greek dromas – is employed in warfare, either to quickly carry troops to areas of armed confrontation or used against enemy mounted units since its smell and physical appearance frightened the horses.

Abundantly used in North Africa and Arabia, the use of this animal in European countries was solely occasional or anecdotal. Bonaparte created the first French Camel Regiment during his Campaign in Egypt. This elite unit compensated for the lack of horses in the occupied territory by introducing new military tactics. Dromedaries did not engage directly into battle but carried the infantry to areas of armed confrontation. In case of a definite military advantage, dromedaries also were perfectly suitable to pursue the enemy during the retreats to secure conclusive victory. The achievements of this regiment inspired colonial powers to use animal resources in the occupied territories. The British Army created a Camel Corps in Egypt and in Afghanistan. Like horses, dromedaries were gradually being replaced during the 20th century by motorized vehicles. Nowadays, the only operational Camel contingents are those attached to the Border Security Force of the Union of India whose main task is to carry out surveillance border outposts located on the India-Pakistan border…

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