War tactics in the Middle Age had a particular flair, often centered around respectively invading or defending cities and fortified structures. Moats, catapults, pouring hot oil onto besieging forces, battering rams—Medieval warmongers came up with all kinds of creative devices. Recently discovered manuscripts from 16th century Germany add a new idea to the fray that we're particularly fond of however: say hello to rocket cats!
Researchers have uncovered several illustrations and accompanying descriptions floating the idea of strapping a crude incendiary device to the back of a hapless cat, hoping the terrified animal would then flee into an otherwise impenetrable city and ignite other flammable materials, thus burning that enemy sucker to the ground. What remains unclear is if the ultimate goal was to create chaos (enabling your army to infiltrate) or if the cat-igniters simply wanted to decimate a rival conglomerate. Likewise, there’s no indication whether this fiery feline idea was ever actually used.
In any case, we can see the longevity of German preoccupation with projectiles (ever heard the theory that after the U.S. and U.S.S.R. gobbled up post-WWII German rocket scientists, the space race boiled down to “our Germans” versus “their Germans”?)
True story.
(Image: commons.wikimedia.org)
