K. Muse

In 1942, a group of Polish soldiers marching through Iran met a young boy carrying a sack. Inside was a tiny bear cub. They bought it from him. Reportedly for some tins of food, a little chocolate, and a pocketknife. That bear went on to serve in the Polish army, fight in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and earn the rank of corporal. His name was Wojtek. The soldiers who adopted him had already been through hell. They were Poles who had been deported by the Soviets to labor camps after 1939. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, they were released to form a new Polish army, and they marched out through Iran into the Middle East. Most of them had lost their homes, their families, their country. And now they had a bear. They fed him condensed milk out of an old vodka bottle. He slept with the soldiers in their tents. When he got bigger, he wrestled with them for fun. He learned to salute. He liked beer. He liked cigarettes too, though he ate them instead of smoking them. He went with the unit through Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In one popular story, he even caught an intruder sneaking around the camp's shower hut and terrified him into getting caught. Then in 1944 the unit was ordered to Italy. There was a problem. Animals weren't allowed on the ships. So the soldiers enlisted him. Wojtek was officially made a private in the Polish army, with his own name, rank, and serial number. On paper he was just another soldier in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. That spring, the Polish Second Corps was thrown into the Battle of Monte Cassino, one of the brutal battles of the Italian campaign. According to the soldiers who were there, Wojtek watched the men carrying heavy crates of artillery shells up to the guns. Then he started copying them. Picking up crates and carrying them. Under fire. Without dropping one. The story spread. The unit made a new official badge, a bear carrying an artillery shell. He was later promoted to corporal. When the war ended, Poland fell under Soviet control. Many of the men in Wojtek's unit couldn't go home. They'd already been in Soviet labor camps once. In 1946 they were brought to Scotland instead, and Wojtek came with them. He lived at their camp, became a local celebrity, and even swam in the river. When the unit was disbanded, Wojtek went to Edinburgh Zoo. For years afterward, Polish veterans visited him. They spoke to him in Polish and tossed him cigarettes through the bars. He reportedly perked up whenever he heard the language. He died in 1963. Today there are statues of Wojtek in Edinburgh, in Poland, and elsewhere. A bear that started life in a sack ended up as a corporal in the army of a country that no longer existed in the form he served it.