The Soldier Who Was a Bear
a BEAR was an enlisted soldier. rank, serial number, carried live shells at Monte Cassino.
He had a rank, a serial number, and a paybook. And he was a bear.
In 1942, Polish soldiers freed from Soviet prison camps bought a starving bear cub in Iran. They named him Wojtek. He grew to nearly 500 pounds, wrestled the men, drank their beer, ate their cigarettes. When their troop ship to Italy banned animals, they enlisted him as a soldier: Private Wojtek, serial number 253, 22nd Artillery Supply Company.
At the Battle of Monte Cassino he carried crates of live artillery shells to the guns and never dropped one. His company made its badge a bear carrying a shell, and wore it for the rest of their lives.
When the war ended, these men had no country left to return to. They could not keep a bear. In 1947 they walked Wojtek into Edinburgh Zoo and said goodbye. For 16 years, the only thing that ever brought him back was the sound of Polish at the railing.
Corporal Wojtek. 1942 to 1963. Not a mascot. A soldier they never forgot.
Every claim checked against the record at bskiller.com.
Statue photo: Taras Young, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
Every claim in the film, checked against the record.
The full receipts — every claim, every source, checked against the record — are for BSKiller members. That is the whole point of the show: the receipts.