Animals at war: 12 amazing pictures

c1925: Animal film star Rin Tin Tin (1918–32), who was rescued from a German trench during the First World War by an American soldier and went on to star in numerous silent films

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c1944: A veterinary surgeon attends to a dog in the street after damage from a wartime bomb forced him to close his premises

15 August 2011: A US army specialist rests with Dasty, a Belgian Malinois who has the rank of sergeant, at an airfield in Afghanistan following a mission

c1918: A soldier with Nancy, the springbok mascot of the 4th South African Regiment during the First World War

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c1944: An unidentified man reads and smokes a cigarette on the deck of a submarine, while the ship's mascot – a dog – lies next to him

c1945: Captain Caiger of the British Army Pigeon Service holds a carrier pigeon equipped with a message capsule

c1914–18: German soldiers and their dogs wearing gas masks during the First World War

10 November 2016: A displaced Iraqi woman holds her cat, Lulu, after fleeing her home to take refuge at a camp in Arbil with her children

c1943: Soldiers enjoy a baseball match at Wembley Stadium in London between the United States Army and Canadian Forces. With them sits Bobby, the mascot of the Canadian Highland Scottish regiment

c1940: British soldiers on horseback charge through a smoke screen in North Africa during the Second World War

March 2012: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, presents a 'shamrock' to a Regimental mascot at a St Patrick's Day parade in Aldershot, England

This article was first published on History Extra in February 2019