The first Tank Cat ?

Other Wars World War 1
#1

Lieutenant Harry Drader of the WW1 Royal Tank Corps and Tank D20, “Daphne” photographed with “Percy”, the vehicle’s mascot and perhaps the first “tank cat”. Percy apparently joined the tank early in its deployment, and was thereafter regularly carried into battle in “Daphne”. He “starred” along wiht Lieutenant Drader in an official film, “The Battle of Ancre”. Lieutenant Drader was mentioned in dispatches for his actions in that battle. Both Drader and Percy survived the war. Percy retired to live out his life with the Drader family at Colney Hatch, England.

Who says that black cats are unlucky ? Best regards, JR.

Soldier.jpg

#2

Indeed a lucky cat :army: A bit strange that Percy signed on as a tank mascotte.Most cats would run like hell from a stinking,very noisy contraption like a WW1 tank.Ours can’t even stand the noise of the vacuüm cleaner.

#3

True, brummbar - but there are exceptions. Years ago, I encountered a “resident cat” in a sherry bar in Madrid. This bar served (probably still does) sherry, sherry and … sherry, from the cask, with a small tapas menu. In the evening, the place was usually crowded with Madrilenos generating clouds of tobacco smoke to mix with the pervasive … aroma of sherry. Not to mention the noise, which must have come close to that inside a Tank Mk I. Did it bother this little tortie ? Not at all. She reclined in regal splendour atop a large cask of amontillado, apparently, with contemptuous indifference to the bedlamite surroundings. When I revisited the bar a few years later, I was sad to discover that the tortie had passed on to the Great Fudbowl in the Sky - but the staff were training in her little longhaired black successor … Best regards, JR.

#4

Tank cats have evolved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBKZPNsK74

#5

Nice story to start the weekend JR:D I still need to visit Madrid and when I do I’ll pop in for a cherry( or 2) and see if I can persuade the black critter to sit on my lap while sipping my drink.Have a nice weekend,brummbar
btw what is the name of the place or else I’ll probably be blasted before evening falls :lol: