The Surprising Story of the Only Cat Ever to Win the Highest Honor for Animal Military Gallantry
Simon was discovered in March 1948 poking around the docks of Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong. Thought to be about a year old, the scrawny black and white tomcat was scrounging for food when a British sailor spotted him. Seventeen-year-old Ordinary Seaman George Hickinbottom decided a cat was just what the ship needed to get rid of its rats. The rodent infestation posed risks to onboard foodstuffs—and to the crew’s overall health. So George tucked Simon inside his jacket, smuggled him aboard the Amethyst, and hid the tomcat in his cabin.
In April 1949, the Amethyst was ordered to sail up the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Nanking, then relieve the HMS Consort of her duties. China was in the midst of a bloody civil war between the communist insurgents of Mao Tse Tung’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the ruling nationalist (or Kuomintang) Party of Chiang Kai-shek, and the Consort was long overdue for relief, having guarded the British Embassy for some time in case Mao’s army took the city and forced an embassy evacuation.
Because Britain had not taken a side in the Chinese conflict, no trouble was expected, and British officials believed the Amethyst could reach Nanking before the cease-fire ended. But, on the morning of April 20, the Amethyst was still about 60 miles from the city when communist fire resumed from the north shore. Explosions rocked the ship, with the bridge, wheelhouse and low power room hit first. In all, the ship sustained more than 50 hits. Nineteen men, including its captain, were killed in the April 20 attack; 27 more were wounded. Eventually, the Amethyst took shelter in a creek a little way upstream. Negotiations with the communists soon began for the release of the stricken, cornered Amethyst and its crew.
Where was Simon during the chaos and carnage? No one knows for sure, but when the shelling began, he likely was in the captain’s cabin curled up in his cap. A Chinese shell blasted a huge hole in the nearby bulkhead, and four shards of shrapnel hit the defenseless cat in the back and legs as he bolted or was thrown by the force of the explosion. Simon’s face was also burned, and his whiskers and eyebrows singed. The stunned cat apparently crawled into a corner, out of the way, and passed out.
https://time.com/5396568/simon-cat-war-medal/?xid=tcoshare
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Thank you for that - a seriously loved cat. 
