Odd facts of things you did not know often pop up in other research which lead to  curiosity trails that may or may not  grow into much - but perhaps someone here knows a bit more.

For instance, I've just read that Hitler had the body of Napoleon's young son moved to be buried beside his father; some parts were left in jars in Austria though: gruesome. This reburial was done to  please the French. But did it?

I doubt the French cared much one way or the other. In his short life  Napoleon II wasn't much involved with France, being King of Rome, then Prince of Parma and finally, after his dad's abdication, Duke of Reichstadt. For most of his adult life until his death he lived in Austria with his maternal grandfather's family.

But an equally curious bit of trivia is that his heart, which as you say was put in a jar and kept in Austria ... still sits in a special vault, the Herzgruft (Hearts Crypt), along with the potted hearts and bottled other bits of another 53 members of the Habsburg family. Napoleon II's heart is in urn 42 and his intestines in urn 76.

..... Which would comprise a veritable Smörgåsbord for that eccentric epicurean dean Dr William Buckland ... ("Talk of strange relics led to mention of the heart of a French King [Louis XIV] preserved at Nuneham in a silver casket. Dr. Buckland, whilst looking at it, exclaimed, 'I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before', and, before anyone could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and the precious relic was lost for ever." Augustus Hare, The Story of My Life, vol. 5, p. 358).

I've just finished a historical whodunnit novel* by S G MacLain set towards the latter part Cromwell's Protectorate.  Ms MacLain in her notes to the novel refers to young Charles Stuart's escape with the assistance of a Staffordshire woman, Jane Lane.  I had heard of Charles hiding in the Boscobel Oak (Boscobel is in Shropshire and not too far from the Staffordshire/Shropshire border so I've visited there more than once though not recently).  However in my ignorance I hadn't known that Charles escaped to Bristol by passing himself off as Jane Lane's servant (she rode side-saddle behind him).  The link I'm providing is to a romantic fiction type blogspot but it gives the basics of the story https://hoydensandfirebrands.blogspot.com/2012/09/jane-lane-girl-who-saved-english.html

* The novel is called "The Bear Pit" - S G MacLean imagines a scenario where one of the Bankside Bears not had not been shot and not all the mastiffs used for bull/bear baiting had been sent off to Jamaica.  I hadn't realised that Cromwell had ordered an end to bull/bear baiting.  Poor bears - if they were not shot the life as a baited bear cannot have been a pleasant one.

The following incident took place in Jersey City, New Jersey, probably sometime over the winter of 1864/65. as printed much later in The Century Magazine;

"The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name."

The Edwin Booth mentioned was a well known actor of the time. Booth had a brother, also an actor, named John Wilkes Booth. The man recounting the story, whom Booth had saved from serious injury, possibly death, was Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln.

During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the state of Liechtenstein sided with the Austrian Empire and duly sent a company of 80 men to fight on Austria's side.

Not only did all of these men return, but they had increased in number to 81 as an Austrian liaison officer decided to settle in Liechtenstein.

In the days before anaesthesia, surgeons worked at top speed when carrying out operations. The fastest was Robert Liston. Sometimes things didn't always work out as planned.

from Atlantic Magazine;

Occasionally, Liston's speed and showmanship actually were a hindrance to his operations. Once, he took a patient's testicles off along with the leg that was being amputated. His most famous (and possibly apocryphal) mishap was the operation where he was moving so fast that he took off a surgical assistant's fingers as he cut through a leg and, while switching instruments, slashed a spectator's coat. The patient and the assistant both died from infections of their wounds, and the spectator was so scared that he'd been stabbed that he died of shock. The fiasco is said to be the only known surgery in history with a 300 percent mortality rate.

Thank you Trike, this one has gone into my box of 'Jokes de jour.'

Triceratops wrote:

During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the state of Liechtenstein sided with the Austrian Empire and duly sent a company of 80 men to fight on Austria's side.

Not only did all of these men return, but they had increased in number to 81 as an Austrian liaison officer decided to settle in Liechtenstein.

Did they put up "Thankful Grand Duchy" signs?

The Benefit of Clergy:


Charged with a capital offence, it was possible to escape the noose by reciting the first line of Psalm 51, thus proving the offender was a member of the clergy and could be tried by an ecclesiastical court rather than under common law.

wiki:

Unofficially, the loophole was even larger, because the Biblical passage traditionally used for the literacy test was, appropriately, the first verse of Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 according to the Vulgate and Septuagint numbering), Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam ("O God, have mercy upon me, according to thine heartfelt mercifulness"). Thus, an illiterate person who had memorized the appropriate Psalm could also claim the benefit of clergy, and Psalm 51 became known as the "neck verse" because knowing it could save one's neck by transferring one's case from a secular court, where hanging was a likely sentence, to an ecclesiastical court, where both the methods of trial and the sentences given were more lenient.


The playwright, Ben Jonson, used this loophole to escape the death sentence after kiling another man in a duel in 1591.

Gosh, Ttrike, that snippet should  be in  our - well not everyone's here - I mean the  Res Hist thread 'Religion - The Benefits.'
One of the best benefits put forward, I reckon. Are you certain it has ben repealed?

Yes, it's gone now Priscilla. Initially by the Criminal Law Act of 1827, but due to some doubt in that act, gone for definite in 1841.

Two of the soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre 1770 used this defence, and had their sentences reduced from hanging to branding of the thumb. Quite a difference.

From the British Newspaper Archives, an account of how two suitors for the hand of a Mlle Tirivet, fought a duel using balloons and blunderbusses in 1808:

Re the benefit of clergy.

Well before the practice was finally ended, Henry VIII had a good go at restricting the benefit of clergy when he made certain offences "unclergyable", meaning they were "felonies without benefit of clergy." A further statute during Henry's reign also allowed benefit of the clergy a second time, only if the second conviction was for manslaughter, but barred it for "petit treason, murder or felony". These restrictions were condemned by Pope Leo X and the resulting controversy was one of the background issues that led to Henry VIII's split with the Catholic Church in 1532.

1862 and 16 year old Mose Triplett goes off to fight for the Confederacy, joining the 53rd North Carolina regiment, subsequently transferring to the 26th North Carolina.
In June 1863, Mose first of all fell ill (possibly faked) and then deserted, later joining the Union Army namely the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry.
Mose survived the War and lived on into the 20th century and at the age of 78 married his second wife, Elida Hall almost 50 years his junior. Only two of Mose and Elida's children reached maturity, one son, now deceased and one daughter, Irene born in 1930 and living in a nursing home in North Carolina.
Mose was entitled to a veteran's pension for his war service, which on his death went to his widow, Elida, and on her death to Irene. Incredibly, at the time of this post, 155 years after the American Civil War ended, Irene Triplett receives a monthly cheque of $73.13, the last ACW veteran payment.

NB: The pension has not increased with inflation. $73.13 is the same as Mose received back in the 1920s.



Irene Triplett, last living recipient of an American Civil War pension:

... and we can't have donkeys 'wondering' as they please: the next thing, they'll be asking questions and then having their own ideas, such as, "You say I might get blown up, so, when was I asked if I wanted to go on this dangerous caper?"

Indeed - the "moral of the story" would seemingly be not to employ illiterate jackasses to write the "moral of the story".

In this case I'm rather reminded of all the apoplectic 'Daily Mail' readers, who on a daily basis comment at length on the DM articles whilst clearly having failed to actually read them, and who continue to rant in the comments section, following their simple prejudices, about the vital need to control 'our boarders' ... as if French, Dutch, Australian, Japanese, or indeed humble 'bed & breakfast' clients from Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow, were somehow in league with Satan's unspeakable minions in trying to undermine the British body politique.

I do understand that now limiting travel and contact are vitally important - although frankly British Government ministers are shamefully doing a superlatively bad job in that regard - but the assault against 'boarders' has been going on for years now. What was it Tony Blair said about education, educaition, edoocayshun?

There is a greater time difference between Stegosaurus and Triceratops (c 82 million years) than there is between Triceratops and Humans (c 66 million years)

I had no idea of that Trike. Children’s picture books tend (or at least tended) to show varied dinosaurs as being contemporaneous with one another. Paleontologists know otherwise.

Here are some similarities and differences regarding Georgia (in the Caucasus) and Georgia (in North America):
 
i) In terms of land area Georgia the country is less than half the size of Georgia the state while the Caucasian country has 3.7 million inhabitants compared to the American state which has 10.6 million. One might have thought that an ancient country on the Eurasian landmass would have been more densely populated than a state in the Deep South. But it's the other way around.

ii) Both Georgias were also once more than double the size they are now. The Kingdom of Georgia stretched from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea in the 12th Century while the Province of Georgia stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi in the 18th Century. 

iii) In 1783 Georgia in North America formally ended its ties with the British Empire following a treaty. Meanwhile Georgia in the Caucasus formally began submitting to the suzerainty of the Russian Empire following a treaty that same year.

iv) Slavery in Georgia the state and serfdom in Georgia the country were both abolished in 1865. 

v) Georgia the state adopted its current flag in 2003 while Georgia the country adopted its current flag in 2004. 

vi) When Joseph Stalin (Georgian) was General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Soviet athletes took part in the Helsinki Olympics of 1952. No US athletes attended the Summer Olympic Games during the presidency of James Earl Carter (from Georgia) who boycotted the Moscow Olympics of 1980.

Re Daily Wail and the boarders.
According to the BBC

"People on accommodation rental site Airbnb are advertising properties as "Covid-19 retreats" - despite government advice saying no-one should be going outside except for essential journeys. New laws say holiday lets can be rented to key workers who need to self-isolate, but some lettings allow you to book instantly without any checks."

Perhaps the Wailers are prescient?

Vizzer, the timescales are immense. The Mesozoic Era, aka The Age of Dinosaurs, lasted circa 185 million years.

Interesting info on Georgia, some surprising historical coincidences.

Green George wrote:

Re Daily Wail and the boarders.
According to the BBC

"People on accommodation rental site Airbnb are advertising properties as "Covid-19 retreats" - despite government advice saying no-one should be going outside except for essential journeys. New laws say holiday lets can be rented to key workers who need to self-isolate, but some lettings allow you to book instantly without any checks."

Perhaps the Wailers are prescient?

Gil, how do you do that to replace the URL by a text. I suppose nordmann explained it already once to me, but I forgot.

I tried yesterday and today to edit my Strategic bombing thread to change all the long URL's by shortening... before we had the Google shortener that worked (but seemingly don't exist anymore)...asked even the daughter of the neighbour and indeed the shorteners work but for instance only if you shorten a "honest?" link as https://www.bbc.com/news/world otherwise all my shortened links with for instance https://bitly.com/
turn into a malware attack or from other shorteners it turns only in a black and white shortened URL...
And now I think to see why on wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebase#Firebase_Dynamic_Links

Kind regards from Paul.

Paul, do you see the long strip at the top of the reply box, the strip which begins B I U S? Go along to the fifteenth little icon, or whatever they call these things - the one before the YouTube thingy. Click on it, and you will see a space to enter the original, great long URL address. You can then enter your own title in the  "Description" box. Press "Insert" and - Hey Presto! - all is wonderful and clear in your post. Here is your last Wiki (Grrrrrr!) link:

Firebase Dynamics: Whatever That - Or They - Is/Are!

Temperance wrote:

Paul, do you see the long strip at the top of the reply box, the strip which begins B I U S? Go along to the fifteenth little icon, or whatever they call these things - the one before the YouTube thingy. Click on it, and you will see a space to enter the original, great long URL address. You can then enter your own title in the  "Description" box. Press "Insert" and - Hey Presto! - all is wonderful and clear in your post. Here is your last Wiki (Grrrrrr!) link:

Firebase Dynamics: Whatever That - Or They - Is/Are!

Thank you very much Temperance. And yes now it works. As it was obvious yesterday to do that, I did it several times, for instance with this link: And I put in the Description case "here" and "overhere", but it didn't work when I tried to insert it in my "edit" message. And so I ended on the shortener...It is perhaps because I copied and pasted the URL from my edit message? And now I have taken it from the original URL from the internet...

Discussion

And again thanks, Temperance for your always friendly and compassionate assistance.

Kind regards from Paul.

Imperial Japanese Warship Names

Battleships were named after Japanese provinces, Nagato, Mutsu etc. Although Fuso, "The Land of Divine Mulberry Trees" is an old name for Japan itself, as is Yamato which also the name of a province. NB, Kirishima Class battleships are named after mountains as they were originally built as Battlecruisers and converted to fast battleships in the 1930s

Aircraft Carriers  Akagi and Kaga were conversions and retained their original names, Akagi, Red Castle, was originally a battlecruiser, and Kaga, a battleship was named after a province. Other carriers were named after flying creatures. Soryu, Blue-Gray Dragon; Zuikaku, Lucky/Fortunate/ Auspicious Crane; Taiho, Great Phoenix; Junyo, Wandering Falcon.

Heavy Cruisers & Light Cruisers were named after rivers (usually light cruisers) and mountains (usually heavy cruisers) Aoba, Green Leaf, a mountain; Takao, High Hero, a mountain NW of Kyoto; Mikuma, Three Corners, a river, originally planned as a light cruiser but built as a heavy.
Sendai, Natural Lake, a river in Satsumo province; Tenryu, Heaven's Dragon, a river rising in Lake Suwa in Shinano province; Kitakami,Territory, a river and mountain range in Rikuchu province.

Destroyers, first class destroyers were named after environmental or calendar events. Shimakaze, Island Wind; Yuzuki, Evening Moon; Isonami, Shore Wave; Yamagumo, White Clouds in the Hills; Niizuki, New Moon.
Second class destroyers were named after plants. Matsu, Pine; Kashi, Oak; Nashi, Ornamental Pear.

This is only a brief look at the names of the IJN's warships. A comprehensive guide is a available at combined fleet IJN Names

Site I came across by accident, full of historical photographs:

History Lovers Club



Marcel Proust plays air guitar on a tennis racket sometime in the 1890s:

One of the pictures in the above is so absurd, I had to check it out and it's absolutely true.

The US Postal Service introduced a parcel delivery service in 1913 with no restriction on what items could be sent through the post, up to a limit of 11lbs. Incredibly people began mailing children.

Mailing Babies

Something else found on the web. This from a book by physicist Jim Al-Khalili:

That's great Trike. I saw already the evolution of the alphabet, but never of the Hindo-Arabic numerals.

Thank you,

Paul.

Of course the numerals, of themselves, aren't really the point. It's the positional basis that really matters.

Green George wrote:

Of course the numerals, of themselves, aren't really the point. It's the positional basis that really matters.

 
Yes Gil, those decimal Hindu-Arabic numerals are "positional based" and therefore have advantages.

Thanks to you I struggled  through
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_notation
and through this:
https://www.britannica.com/science/numeral/Development-of-modern-numerals-and-numeral-systems#ref797079

Kind regards from Paul.

This was a story I came across originally on twitter :

This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses.

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany, and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks.

Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.

On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. There were 11 unexploded shells where only one would have been sufficient to blast us out of the sky.

It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought. Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer.

Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.

Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech.

The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: "This is all we can do for you now.... Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea."

Not like you to be re-posting stuff without fact checking, Trike.

Spot the difference between the e-rumour and the actual text written by Bendiner.



.

Trike, and this...

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/unusual-inventions-of-wwii.html

For instance from the site:

Laxatives.

"The coastline of Norway had an economy based mainly on salted fish. Thus, when the Germans announced that they were requisitioning Norway’s entire catch of sardines, people were outraged. In the ranks of the Resistance was an informant at Nazi headquarters who said that the sardines would be used to feed German troops. Canned food was supplied to U-boat crews.
At the request of Resistance members, the British sent large reserves of croton oil. This oil has a fishy taste and a strong laxative effect. Norwegians secretly delivered it to canneries, where it was mixed with vegetable oil and added to sardines. Soon after, the sardines were sent to German submarines.
In one case, this operation was a great success. However, a large-scale operation based on a laxative was never realized, since the war ended before it could be implemented."

Kind regards, Paul.

nordmann wrote:

Not like you to be re-posting stuff without fact checking, Trike.

Spot the difference between the e-rumour and the actual text written by Bendiner.

Can't see the link, Nord. Story not true???

.

It's Bohn's story, as told to Bendiner 35 years later. And no mention of Jews.

Paul wrote:

At the request of Resistance members, the British sent large reserves of croton oil. This oil has a fishy taste and a strong laxative effect. Norwegians secretly delivered it to canneries, where it was mixed with vegetable oil and added to sardines. Soon after, the sardines were sent to German submarines.

Seems to be the day for cutting and pasting bullshit.
1. How would "the British" send "large reserves" of a product they had in short supply to a country under German occupation?
2. What canneries in Norway? A few existed during the occupation, and their product was indeed largely commandeered for axis military and the German home market, but for that reason were under close supervision by government (Quisling) inspectors and staffed with government approved personnel.
3. How were specific canned products containing the laxative ensured to end up in U-boat rations?
4. In which documented "case" therefore was this "a great success"?

The stories from WWII involving misapplication of croton oil and its unfortunate laxative effect seem to have originated far from Norway, and not even among the same warring parties. It was used by the US Navy in small doses as an additive to the ethyl alcohol mixture used to propel some older torpedoes. US sailors prior to this addition had often "borrowed" some of this ethyl alcohol to mix with other ingredients (normally pineapple juice) to make what they then called "torpedo juice", a highly illegal and equally highly toxic alcohol at the best of times. The oil was inroduced by the manufacturers at the navy's request as a replacement for methanol, which was causing blindness when consumed after distillation in too many cases, in the knowledge that it would more likely produce nothing more debilitating than severe cramps when consumed and so would act as a theft deterrent without necessarily incapacitating the sailors permanently, as before. While certainly removing this bigger danger, this laxative effect, as well as the other mildly poisonous qualities of the oil, were understandably noticed immediately by the sailors, who then began to devise more sophisticated distilling techniques to remove the oil, though never completely successfully - giving "torpedo juice" a whole new and not too welcome meaning.

Apocryphal stories regarding how this could then have been weaponised and used against the Japanese began to proliferate even before the war in the Pacific ended, and these grew in post-war years to include many new forms involving whole new casts of characters. Why the Norwegians should have ended up among the cast is not very clear, and even the chemical properties of the product at the heart of the story have had to be invented anew to make them fit. Croton oil does not have a "fishy" taste, as the story claims, but is instead quite odourless and with a faintly bitter taste before dilution. Adding it to sardines, or any other canned food, would in fact have turned the contents into a form of mush - among its many powerful properties croton oil is also a highly caustic solution and will tend to dissolve organic materials into a rather acidic slime, especially if hermetically sealed with the material in a can.

My fault, I just copied and pasted from here:

https://www.johnpratt.com/items/email/2014/not_luck.html

nordmann, thank you so much for the rectification and the adjacent stories...normally I am critical and always looking to the "about us" and the "sources"...and  for once... ...

But I completely agree that I could thought a bit logically...and checked it...but I know I will never reach that intellectual logical and critical thinking of yours...and I had now just to take that example of the Norwegian resistance...

Kind regards and with esteem, Paul.

The Treaty of Versailles includes the following:

ARTICLE 246.

Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, Germany will restore to His Majesty the King of the Hedjaz the original Koran of the Caliph Othman, which was removed from Medina by the Turkish authorities and is stated to have been presented to the ex-Emperor William II.

Within the same period Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's Government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany.

The Sultan Mkwawa in the Article was a chief in what was then known as German East Africa, and had led his people in a guerrilla war against the Germans until his death in 1898. His head was cut off by German soldiers and sent to Berlin. The return of the skull was a symbol that the time of German rule was over.
Wiki:

Chief Mkwawa

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is best known for his actions at the Alamo & the Texas War of Independence. However, he was involved in much more.

In 1838 what became known as the Pastry War broke out between Mexico and France. Santa Anna, at the time a civilian, volunteered himself for combat and, during fighting at Vera Cruz, had his leg shattered so badly that it had to be amputated. The limb was then buried at his hacienda.
This was not the end of the story for the Leg. Returning to power as President in 1842, Santa Anna had his leg exhumed and given a state funeral in Mexico City. Another change of government saw Santa Anna deposed, and the unfortunate Leg was dug up by a mob who paraded it through the streets shouting "Death to the Cripple", subsequently tearing the Leg apart.
Santa Anna was soon back, this time for the Mexican - American War of 1846. During this conflict, Santa Anna was surprised by US troops and had to abandon his camp in haste leaving behind his new prosthetic Leg, which was seized as a trophy by the 4th Illinois Regiment.
This Leg can be seen today on display in the Illinois State Military Museum:

Triceratops wrote:

In 1838 what became known as the Pastry War broke out between Mexico and France.

See also, Dish of the Day II - page 3 for 9 March 1839 - the end of the First Franco-Mexican War.

The aerial bombing campaigns of WW2 caused more than human casualties. Berlin Zoo was hit on numerous occasions during the war and severe losses were experienced by the animals housed there.

However, on 29th May 1943 a baby bull hippo was born. The small hippo, named Knautschke, survived later bombing raids, the Battle of Berlin and subsequent occupation.
In fact, Knautschke lived until 1988, producing 35 offspring. It was in a fight with one of his children that Knautschke was injured and had to be put down.

Berlin Zoo in WW2

Meles meles wrote:

See also, Dish of the Day II - page 3 for 9 March 1839 - the end of the First Franco-Mexican War.

I had forgotten the story of the Leg was already there. No harm in repeating it.

Douglas B Hegdahl was a member of the crew of the USS Canberra during the Vietnam War when he was blown overboard by the blast of a gun. Picked up by Cambodian fisherman he was later handed over the NVA and held as a POW in the "Hanoi Hilton"

wiki:
Hegdahl memorized names, capture dates, method of capture, and personal information of about 256 other prisoners—to the tune of a nursery rhyme "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". Hegdahl is still able to repeat the information.
Although the POWs had agreed that none would accept early release, they agreed that Hegdahl's release should be an exception. He was ordered by Stratton to accept an early release so that he could provide the names of POWs being held by the North Vietnamese and reveal the conditions to which the prisoners were being subjected.

Did she replied or was it a case of :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU5xxh5UX4U


Dirk

That's absorbing (to me anyway) information about Berlin Zoo, Trike.  A serial I liked on TV from my childhood was an adaptation of Ian Serraillier's The Silver Sword about some children from Poland surviving in Nazi-occupied Europe and also in Europe in the period immediately after the cessation of hostilities.  One of the boys hears that a chimpanzee is on the loose after escaping Berlin Zoo but I don't know if anything like that ever happened or the author was taking artistic licence.  Regarding some of the animals from Berlin Zoo having earlier been transferred to other zoos such as Mulhouse Zoo.  I spent a short while in Mulhouse when I was 16 and thought it was a rather dismal zoo.  However it was an overcast and showery day when I went there so I possibly didn't see it at its best and after all these years, decades it could have had a makeover or several makeovers.

An alligator named Saturn died recently in Moscow Zoo.

WW2 Alligator dies.
Saturn was gifted to Berlin Zoo in 1936 soon after he was born in the US. He escaped the zoo being bombed in 1943.
British soldiers found him three years later and gave him to the Soviet Union.
How he spent the intervening years always remained a mystery, but since July 1946 the alligator has been a hit with visitors in Moscow.