We then knew that Nationalist China faced trouble, and Chennault and CAT would be drawn into China’s Civil War, and Chennault would help Chiang Kai-shek resist the spread of a Communist police state. Tin drinking cups dangled from belts of hand grenades and they wore sneakers, and ever-present military police prevented the kids from deserting. They boarded our C-46s in Tsingtao carrying rifles from the First World War and parchment umbrellas. Many of the reinforcements we flew north were draftees of the Nationalist China Youth Corps. By the end of 1947, our first year, we had rescued 22,000 refugees and 4,500 wounded Nationalist soldiers from Communist dominated territories. When China’s Communist 8th Army besieged China’s northern cities, we delivered arms, ammo and food to the defenders and returned to Tsingtao with refugees and wounded soldiers. United Nations relief supplies overwhelmed the docks of Shanghai with no way to distribute them inland except by navigable rivers and air. Operating under the aegis of the China National Rehabilitation and Relief Association (CNRRA), CAT distributed food and medicine to the interior of China where roads, railways and bridges had been destroyed by Japan’s Imperial Air Force. They purchased war surplus cargo planes, enrolled WWII veterans, and wound up with an enthusiastic, colorful group of former Flying Tiger aces and CAT airmen from the U.S. Someone sent in the following suggestion:Ģ.Civil Air Transport (CAT) was a unique airline formed in China after World War II by General Claire Lee Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, and Whiting Willauer of the China Defense Supplies (CDS). Not an ideal combination for a bomb delivery vehicle that might abruptly decide to hop on its owner's lap.ĪDDITION: I just remembered my favorite cat weapon story: During the Battle of Britain in 1940, when radar was still in its infancy, the British were looking for ways to shoot down German night bombers. Cats - bless their stubborn souls - have their own agenda, a remarkable sense of preservation, and an innate genius for making mischief. It is also why armies have long used dogs and horses, because these animals can be trained to be compliant and sometimes even enthusiastic.
This is why modern armies spend a great deal of money on guided missiles. The essence of a useful weapon is control it hits where it is supposed to and when it is supposed to, presumably without blowing up the user. And for this, cats can thank their independent streak.
Yet cats have been used in warfare far less often than dogs and horses. Using cats as weapons is cruel, though no more or less morally reprehensible than using any other animal. More recent non-military uses include a cat that recently used in an attempt to smuggle saws and a cellphone into a Brazilian prison, and a CIA project, codename "Accoustic Kitty", that wired cats to eavesdrop on Soviet diplomats (the project was dropped when the cat was hit by a car). Mourka the courier cat reportedly carried messages to Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Thus even 2,500 years ago, cats had convinced some humans to carry them around, while thumbing their little noses at other humans who dared not raise a hand to them.Ī 16th Century German officer planned to attach jars of poison gas to cats and panic them towards enemy lines, while the British Army used 500,000 cats as poison gas detectors in the trenches during World War I. Legend has it that in the Battle of Pelusium in 525 B.C., the Persians defeated the Egyptians because the Persian soldiers carried cats into battle, knowing the Egyptians would be reluctant to attack for fear of injuring a sacred animal. It turns out that humans have attempted to use cats as weapons for thousands of years.
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