Polish soldiers adopt an orphaned bear cub. He grows up to become a private in the army — and a war hero

A Syrian brown bear named Wojtek had one of the strangest military careers in World War Two. His journey started in April 1942 in the mountains of Iran, where Polish soldiers found him as a baby bear without a mother. These troops were traveling from a prison camp in Siberia through the Middle East to fight with Allied forces.

A young boy from Iran had found the bear cub after hunters shot and killed his mother. The boy took the cub to a train station and wanted to trade him to soldiers passing through. Polish soldiers from the 22nd Artillery Supply Company gave the boy a Swiss Army knife, some canned beef, and chocolate in exchange for the small bear. They called him Wojtek, which means “joyful warrior” in Polish.

The men gave the baby bear condensed milk in old vodka bottles and treated him like family. Sue Butler’s father, Corporal Andrzej Gasior, fought in the war with Wojtek by his side, as per BBC. She remembered what her dad told her about the bear. “Dad said he was a symbol that united the soldiers. He was much more than a bear, he thought he was one of them,” she said. Butler didn’t think her father was telling the truth about a soldier bear until someone at a Polish club showed her an actual photo of Wojtek.

The bear’s unusual military career really took off in 1943

Wojtek picked up some interesting habits from living with soldiers. He would drink beer, eat cigarettes after one puff, and play wrestle with the men. He loved sitting in the front seats of army trucks and taking long showers with cold water. In 1944, when the company got ready to sail to Italy, they ran into trouble. British rules said no pet animals could get on the ships.

The Polish troops came up with a smart fix. They signed Wojtek up as an official private in the army. He got his own rank, serial number, and military papers. This meant he counted as a soldier, not just a pet. When fighting broke out at the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, Wojtek helped move heavy boxes of ammunition that weighed 100 pounds each. He carried them from supply trucks to where the big guns were firing. He worked hard through all the noise and danger and never dropped anything.

Because of his good work, the army made him a corporal. The 22nd Artillery Supply Company even put a picture of a bear holding an artillery shell on their official badge. When the war finished in 1945, Wojtek couldn’t go back to Poland. The men taking care of him worried that the new communist leaders would try to use him for their own purposes. 

So Wojtek traveled to Scotland instead. He stayed at a military camp in Hutton with Polish soldiers who had also moved there. Kids from nearby towns would climb on his back for fun, and he sometimes went to dances with the troops.

The army sent Wojtek to live at Edinburgh Zoo in November 1947. He stayed there until he died in December 1963 when he was 21 years old. His old army friends would come see him and bring him beer and cigarettes, just like the old days. His story remains one of the most remarkable tales of animal companionship during wartime. 

People built several statues to remember him in Poland, Scotland, and Italy. One bronze statue in Edinburgh shows Wojtek walking next to a Polish soldier. Words on the statue say “In memory of the Polish men and women who fought For Your Freedom and Ours.” Stories of unusual wartime bonds between humans and animals still interest people many years later.