The amazing bear -soldier that fought the Nazis

by Chamari Senanayake

Animals are amazing and most of the time heroic, there is no doubt about that. Apart from giving us unconditional love, companionship and daily support, most of them also work for us in special ways. Starting from bulls, donkeys, camels and horses like animals that pulls carts, work on the fields, there are everyday heroes that work to keep us safe from danger and even go to war to fight against our enemies. They are mostly military dogs and police horses.

But there is a world famous story about a bear that went to war with soldiers to fight against the Nazis. This special animal was recently honoured with a £200,000 proposed statue in Edinburgh.

Named, ‘Private Wojtek’, he was a 6ft-tall 35 stone Syrian brown bear and was adopted by a Polish regiment stationed in the Middle East during the World War II.

When Allied commanders issued an order that troops advancing on Rome were not to be accompanied by animals, the bear was promptly enlisted in the 22nd Transport Division (Artillery Supply) of the Polish 2nd Army Corps as a soldier and from there on he was called ‘ Private Wojtek’ (soldier Wojtek).

Wojtek, which means - ‘He who enjoys war’ or ‘smiling warrior’ became a popular figure, enjoying treats of beers and cigarettes given to him by soldiers. Most people say he actually hid the cigarettes that were given to him instead of smoking them, which in a way was reducing the amount of smoking amongst soldiers.

The most touching part of the story is that during his most famous escapade, the animal voluntarily carried shells for Allied guns during the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. They say that he never dropped a single shell and in recognition of the bear’s popularity, the HQ approved an effigy of a bear holding an artillery shell as the official emblem of the 22nd Company (by then renamed to 22nd Transport Company).

The story goes as in 1942, a local boy found a bear cub near Hamadan, Iran.

Favourite drink

He sold it to the soldiers of the Polish army. As the bear was less than a year old, he initially had problems swallowing and was fed with condensed milk from an emptied vodka bottle and soldiers looked after him and raised him.

The bear was fed with fruits, marmalade, honey and syrup, and was often rewarded with beer, which became his favourite drink. He lived with the other men in their tents or in a special wooden crate transported on lorries.

The bear became quite an attraction for soldiers and civilians alike, and soon became an unofficial mascot of all units stationed nearby. He won the hearts of all soldiers around him and when orders came from the top that troops advancing on Rome were not to be accompanied by animals, they did not want to leave him and the bear was promptly enlisted in the 22nd Transport Division as a soldier so that the soldiers could take him with them.

This amazing animal moved to Iraq and then through Syria, Palestine, and to southern Italy with the soldiers. In 1945, the bear was transported to Berwickshire in Scotland, along with parts of the II Corps. While stationed in the village of Hutton, near Duns, Wojtek soon became popular among local civilians and the press. The Polish-Scottish Association made Wojtek one of its honorary members. In 1947 he was moved to Edinburgh Zoo where he spent the rest of his life.

Now the Scottish capital will commemorate his extraordinary life with the statue by sculptor Alan Herriot.

It will show the bear and his ‘keeper’, soldier Peter Prendys, placing a hand on the shoulder of the gentle giant, a stance he always adopted when the pair walked around camp together.

Alan Herriot, who knows a lot about the bear said, ‘Wojtek may be most famous for assisting his fellow soldiers in carrying the shells, but really the value was in the effect his presence had on morale’ .

‘I was very keen to depict that close friendship they enjoyed with him, as well as the entertainment and laughter he brought to the troops’ .

‘We are also talking to people about raising a similar statue in Warsaw and Monte Cassino. It’s not just about the bear, it is also to commemorate the part the Polish played in the Second world War. The British and other European countries owe a great deal to them.’ he added.

He provided a ‘welcome distraction’ from the horrors of the desert war, wrestling with the troops and entertaining them by getting into countless scrapes, from getting stuck up a palm tree to cornering an Arab spy.

Even the people who did not want to talk about the war still fondly talk about this bear, likes of Aileen Orr’ s grandfather. Aileen Orr is the author of the book “Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero”.

She said she had been captivated by his story ever since she visited him at Edinburgh Zoo, aged eight, with a Polish friend. When Wojtek heard her friend speaking Polish his ears pricked up and he waved to the two delighted school girls.

In addition, Ms Orr’s grandfather, who had met the bear on a number of occasions during the war, told her stories about him when she was a child.

She said: ‘Like many men, my grandfather didn’t like to talk about the war.

‘But he was able to talk about it a bit by telling me about Wojtek. He met the bear while he was serving in Palestine and Egypt and it made a great impression on him’ .

Enclosure

‘What the bear offered all of these men was comfort. At a time when they were far from home, had nothing, and often no-one, Wojtek stood in for the wives, children, pets, family they’d left behind’.

‘He was someone to love and someone who loved them back,’ the author says.

While living his final years at the Zoo, he was frequently visited by journalists and former Polish soldiers, and some say he often recognised when someone was talking in Polish and waved from his enclosure.

Sometimes visiting soldiers would toss him cigarettes. Wojtek died in December 1963, at the age of 22.

He was a frequent guest of BBC’s Blue Peter program. Many memorial plaques were created commemorating the bear-soldier and there is one stone tablet in the Edinburgh Zoo, plaques in the Imperial War Museum and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, as well as a monument in Sikorski’s Museum in London. By next January, the £200,000 statue would also be erected in Edinburgh.

This bear soldier’s popularity extends to the Royal family as it is said that Prince Charles, when visiting the Imperial War Museum with his sons, remarked to the guide that there was no need to tell the story of Wojtek since all three of them knew it well.

What an amazing war hero.

(A similar story of a bear who lived and travelled with soldiers is heard during the World War I, about a female bear called ‘Winnipeg’ adopted by Lt. Harry Colebourn which later inspired the book ‘Winnie-the Pooh’ and the 2004 movie ‘A bear named Winnie’ )

During the bloody battle Private Wojtek voluntarily carried shells to help his soldier buddies never dropping a single one.

His popularity later led the 22nd Transport Division (Artillery Supply) to change its emblem to a shell carrying bear.