Wojtek the Soldier Bear | HusariaBeats

Wojtek the Soldier Bear — he carried shells so others could fight In nineteen forty three, in the mountains of Iran, soldiers of the Polish Second Corps found an orphaned brown bear cub. They fed him milk from a bottle, named him Wojtek, and took him in as one of their own. Nobody knew then that this small bear would become one of the most extraordinary soldiers of the Second World War. Wojtek grew up alongside the soldiers — marching through Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq. He learned from the men around him: walking on two legs, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer. He was officially enlisted into the Twenty Second Artillery Supply Company as a private soldier with a service number, a rank, and a wage. He was one of them. At Monte Cassino, on the eighteenth of May nineteen forty four, Wojtek carried crates of artillery shells to the firing line — without an order, of his own will, simply doing what he had watched the men do. When the red and white flag rose over the ruined monastery, Wojtek was there. The battalion changed their badge in his honour — a bear carrying a shell — a symbol that survives to this day. After the war he was sent to Edinburgh Zoo. Not home — a cage. Veterans of the Second Corps visited him regularly until his death in nineteen sixty three. They spoke to him in Polish. He would sit up on his hind legs and listen. His statues stand today in Edinburgh and London — but Western history books say nothing. Don't look for this story in Western history books. We speak it anyway. 📌 HISTORICAL FACTS: ▸ 1943, Iran — Wojtek found by soldiers of the Polish Second Corps ▸ Officially enlisted as a private in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company ▸ Monte Cassino, 18 May 1944 — carried artillery shell crates to the firing line ▸ Battalion badge changed to a bear carrying a shell in his honour ▸ Post-war — Edinburgh Zoo; visited by veterans until his death in 1963 ▸ Statues in Edinburgh and London; patron of Polish soldiers in Italy