History - Wojtek, the Soldier Bear

The badge of the 22nd Artillery Support Company of the Polish Armed Forces featuring Wojtek (Imperial War Museum)

The story of an orphaned bear cub, bought by Polish soldiers in Iran, who saw action at the Battle of Monte Cassino, and lived out the rest of his life in Scotland.

Sounds like a children’s novel.

Except the story of this soldier bear is real, and it began during the Second World War and involved soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the East, commonly known as Anders’ Army.

The army, so-named because of its commander, Wladyslaw Anders, was created in the Soviet Union, and consisted primarily of liberated Polish prisoners of war.

Wladyslaw Anders, commander of Polish Armed Forces or Anders’ Army (Wikimedia Commons)

These prisoners of war had been deported from Poland following the two-pronged invasion of their country in September 1939.

On the 1st of September, Nazi Germany had invaded from the west, and on the 17th of September, the Soviet Union, declaring that the Polish state no longer existed, invaded from the east.

In 1940-41, about 325,000 Polish citizens were deported to the Soviet Union from Soviet-occupied Poland.

But then the Soviet Union faced a drastic reversal of fortune, forced to fight its former allies when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa on the 22nd of June 1941 – the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers.

The invasion, coupled with pressure from Britain who mediated between the 2 parties, led to the Soviet Union and the London-based Polish government-in-exile agreeing to re-establish diplomatic relations.

With the signing of the Sikorski-Mayski agreement on the 30th of July 1941, the Soviet Union agreed, among other things, to release thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war being held in Soviet camps, and granted many Polish citizens amnesty.

Signing of the Sikorski-Mayski agreement, 1941 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Amnesty for Polish citizens in USSR was a one-time amnesty granted to those who had lost their freedom after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and resulted in a temporary halt to their persecution.

The Polish military force, formed from these men, was subordinate to the Polish government-in-exile.

On the 4th of August 1941, General Wladyslaw Anders, newly released from Lubyanka prison in Moscow, was nominated commander of the army.

In the spring of 1942, soldiers of Anders’ Army were making their way through Iran to Palestine, accompanied by thousands of Polish civilians.

On the 8th of April 1942, while at a railroad station in Hamadan, Iran, the soldiers came across a young boy caring for a bear cub that had been orphaned after its mother had been shot by hunters.

A young civilian refugee, Irena Bokiewicz, was so taken with the cub, she asked one of the lieutenants to buy the bear.

Irena, or Inka as she was known, was the great-niece of General Boleslaw Wieniawa-Dlugoszowski, who had been nominated president of Poland by the retiring president, Ignacy Mościcki, on the 17th of September 1939, the day Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union.

The cub spent 3 months under Irena’s care in a Polish refugee camp that had been established near Tehran.

In August, the young bear was donated to the 2nd Transport Company, which would become the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, and the soldiers named him Wojtek, the diminutive form of ‘Wojciech’, meaning ‘joyous warrior’.

Wojtek with a Polish soldier, 1942 (Wikimedia Commons)

Wojtek, assigned his own carer, was fed condensed milk from an old vodka bottle because he had trouble swallowing.

In time, his diet developed to include fruit, marmalade, honey, and syrup, with his favourite drink being beer, something he was often rewarded with.

Wojtek had a knack for copying the other soldiers.

He, too, would drink beer, smoke cigarettes or eat them, drink coffee in the mornings, and march alongside the soldiers on his hind legs.

An attraction for the soldiers and civilians, Wojtek was taught to salute when greeted, and he enjoyed wrestling with the soldiers.

If any of the soldiers were cold during the night, he’d sleep with them.

Before long, he’d become the unofficial mascot to all the units in the area.

Wojtek and the 22nd Company eventually moved on from Iran to Iraq, through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

Wojtek with Piotr Mackowiak, Palestine 1942 (Wikimedia Commons)

From Egypt, the Polish II Corps was reassigned to fight with the British Eighth Army in the Italian campaign.

The Eighth Army, a field army of the British Army, had been initially formed as the Western Army in 1941 in Egypt, then renamed as the Army of the Nile, and finally the Eighth Army.

Throughout its various campaigns, from the Western Desert campaign to the Tunisian campaign and, finally, the Italian campaign, the Eighth Army was a multi-national force with units, at different times, coming from the UK, Australia, Canada, Greece, India, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Poland, Free French Forces, Rhodesia, and Mauritius.

A potential problem arose concerning Wojtek when the Polish II Corps got to the British transport ship for the journey to Italy; regulations forbade mascot and pet animals.

Undeterred, the Corps officially drafted Wojtek into the army as a private, listing him among the soldiers of the 22nd Company with 2 of his fellow soldiers, Henryk Zacharewicz and Dymitr Szawlugo, assigned as his caretakers.

An enlisted soldier with his own rank, serial number, and paybook, Wojtek lived with the other men in tents or in a special wooden crate, which was transported by truck.

No longer a little cub, Wojtek had grown to weigh about 200lb by the time of the Battle of Monte Cassino, which began in January 1944.

Also known as the Battle for Rome, it comprised a series of 4 assaults by the Allies against German forces in Italy to break through the Winter Line, allowing them to advance towards Rome.

The Winter Line, a series of German and Italian military fortifications, comprised 3 lines designed to defend an area around the town of Monte Cassino through which ran the important Highway 6, which ran uninterrupted to Rome.

During the battle, the story goes that Wojtek helped his unit, tasked with conveying ammunition, by carrying 100lb crates of 25lb artillery shells.

Despite the debate around the accuracy of this story, there is at least one account of a British soldier who recalled seeing a bear carrying crates of ammunition.

Wojtek had already shown a penchant for mimicking the soldiers, so when he saw them lifting crates, it’s entirely plausible that he copied them.

The soldier bear had no trouble carrying boxes that normally required 4 men, and he stacked them either onto a truck or on other ammunition boxes.

His service at Monte Cassino earned him a promotion to the rank of corporal, and a depiction of a bear carrying an artillery shell became the official emblem of the 22nd Company as seen in the image at the beginning of this post.

When the Second World War ended in 1945, the 22nd Company, including Wojtek, was transported to Berwickshire in Scotland where they were stationed at Winfield Aerodrome near the village of Hutton on the Scottish Borders.

Wojtek at Winfield Aerodrome, Scotland (Wikimedia Commons)

Many of the Polish soldiers, having experienced Soviet oppression, chose not to return to Poland, opting instead to remain in Scotland.

Wojtek soon became popular with the locals and the press, and he was made an honorary member of the Polish-Scottish Association.

On the 15th of November 1947, the 22nd Company was demobilised, and Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo.

Often visited by his former fellow Polish soldiers, whom he still recognised, Wojtek continued to respond to being spoken to in Polish.

They weren’t his only visitors; journalists would also visit as did many new admirers as his popularity grew thanks to ongoing media attention.

Wojtek the soldier bear died in December 1963, at the age of about 21, weighing nearly 1,100lb and standing over 5ft 11inches tall.

On the 7th of November 2015, a bronze statue of Wojtek was unveiled in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.

Bronze statue of Wojtek and a Polish soldier at Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh - photo copyright MJ Richardson, taken day after Remembrance Sunday (geograph.org.uk)

The statue is a tribute to the beloved bear and the Polish soldiers he’d shared wartime experiences with who had all eventually found a home in Scotland.

Part of engraving behind the bronze statue - Seanetta (atlasobscura.com)

More of the engraving behind the bronze statue - Seanetta (atlasobscura.com)

It still amazes me that alongside the horrors of wartime reports, there are unexpectedly feel-good stories to be found, and the story of Wojtek is definitely one of those.

I’ll go out on a strong limb here and say he brought delight and comfort to his fellow soldiers who’d suffered so much before he came into their lives, then during their time together, and that he ‘saw’ himself as one of them and took equal delight in that.

There are more photos of the remarkable Wojtek in the gallery at ‘The Soldier Bear’.