During the Second World War, cats played a vital role aboard warships. Valued for their practicality in protecting food stores and maintaining hygiene, they also provided sailors with comfort and companionship during the hard realities of war.
Using rare archival footage from IWM's unique collection, this flip book brings to life a group of sailors posing with the ship's mascot on board HMS Belfast during the Second World War.
IWM has managed a Film Archive since it was first established in 1917. The constantly growing collection extends to over 25,000 hours of moving images, representing a wide and diverse range of material from public and service information films, documentaries and unedited combat film, through to official newsreels and amateur films.
