Humpty Dumpty

Why is an egg on a wall?

And why does he always have to fall?

I’ve no idea.

But what I do know is that children allllllll over the world sing this song.

Poor old egg!

So…what have ‘all the King’s horses’ and ‘all the King’s men’ got to do with Humpty Dumpty?

Well, the king is the boss of all the horses and men, because he’s very rich and powerful.

And the very high wall Humpty is sitting on is part of the King’s enormous castle, which shows just how important the King really is.

But…

even though the king has all that power, it is useless when Humpty Dumpty falls and breaks in two.

All those horses and all those men cannot put Humpty together again!

The kids want to know if any other animals have been used in warfare.

They certainly have!

Would you like this elephant charging at you?

He even has his own armour.

Have a look at this amazing example in The Royal Armouries Museum in England.

Or meet Hannibal, who was famous for using elephants against the Romans.

So, elephants have been used as fighting machines.

But…did you know that other animals have helped in wars too?

Not to fight…but to protect people!

Yep.

Rats!!!

Rats have a fantastic sense of smell and can smell TNT from leftover landmines.

They’re not heavy enough to set the mines off, but are clever enough to let their handlers know when they’ve smelt TNT.

The handlers reward the rat with something yummy, get it safely away from the bomb and then blow the bomb up so it doesn’t hurt people ever again.

Now that is a skill Humpty could have used!