This is an unusual photograph of an American marine near Bunker Hill during the Korean War feeding a young kitten. It looks very strange to me. The kitten looks starkly vulnerable. What chance of even living to the end of the week? And that might have applied to the marine as well.

Photo: Sgt Martin Riley/Getty — A US Marine feeds an orphan kitten found after a heavy mortar barrage near ‘Bunker Hill’ during the Korean War.

It is the juxtaposition of the burly soldier and the tiny, vulnerable kitten which makes the photograph. He appears to be feeding the kitten but God knows what he is feeding her or how he is doing it (on the end of a pencil?).

It’s all a bit bizarre but an interesting photo nonetheless. Bunker Hill was originally called ‘Hill 122’. It was a communist position and crucial to the fighting.