It’s said that soldiers in combat rely most upon those fighting alongside them, and during World War II, some Polish troops had the privilege of that someone being a 600-pound bear.
Wojtek was a Syrian brown bear, a cousin of Wyoming’s grizzlies. He was adopted as an orphaned cub by a Polish Army unit early in the war and served with distinction. He helped move ammunition during the pivotal battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, after which he was promoted from private to corporal.
Some Wyoming military veterans had mixed reactions when asked by Cowboy State Daily about the idea of serving alongside a lumbering bear.
“It would have been frickin’ awesome,” noted Wyoming outdoorsman and Navy veteran Paul Ulrich said.
Marine Corps veteran Vince Vanata of Cody wasn’t so certain.
“I’m not sure how to respond to that. That’s an interesting one,” he said.
Found In Iran
When World War II broke out in 1939, Poland got the worst of it right away, when it was invaded from the west by Adolf Hitler’s forces.
To the east, the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin, had many Polish prisoners of war in its gulags.
The uneasy alliance between Hitler and Stalin fell apart in 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
In early 1942, some Polish soldiers were being transferred from a Siberian gulag through the Middle East, and then on to Europe – where they join the fight against the Germans.
On April 8, 1942, Wojtek, then just a tiny, orphaned cub, was discovered in Iran by soldiers from the 22 Transport Company, Artillery Division, II Corp of the Polish Army. The soldiers decided to keep him, according to the History Collection website.
The soldiers nursed the cub by feeding him condensed milk from empty vodka bottles. As Wojtek grew, he developed a taste for beer and wine.
And the bear also had a fondness for cigarettes. Although he reportedly would take only a single puff from a lit cigarette before swallowing it.
While the unit was still in Iran, the bear proved his worth, when he helped to capture a would-be thief trying to break into the ammunitions compound where Wojtek was sleeping.
Off To War
As the unit prepared to enter the war zone in Italy in 1943, they hit a snag. The rules stated that animals were not allowed to accompany troops directly into battle.
The Poles figured out a way to work around that rule. They officially enlisted Wojtek as a private, giving him a salary and a serial number.
The company was thrown into fierce and pitched fighting against a Nazi strongpoint at Monte Cassino.
During the battle, Wojtek was reportedly seen moving crates of ammunition from supply trucks to the artillery firing line. The bear was said to have been focused on his duty and undeterred by the chaos of the battle raging around him.
After fierce, bloody fighting, the Poles took their objective, and Wojtek was promoted to corporal, a rank he held until the end of the war.
“The 22 Transport Company was also permitted to change their official badge to a silhouette of Wojtek holding an artillery shell,” according to the History Collection.
After the war, Polish veterans scattered off to various nations. Wojtek ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was given to the local zoo on Nov. 15, 1947.
He lived out the rest of his life there, dying at age 21 in December of 1963.
It’s not unheard of for bears to live past 30 in captivity. It’s thought that Wojtek might have died at a relatively early age because his throat was damaged from swallowing lit cigarettes during the war.
In 2015, a bronze statute honoring Wojtek was dedicated in Edinburgh.
Wojtek was an orphaned brown bear cub that was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and served honorably during the war. He helped move ammunition during battle and achieved the rank of corporal. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Wojtek was an orphaned brown bear cub that was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and served honorably during the war. He helped move ammunition during battle and achieved the rank of corporal. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
93-year-old former Polish soldier Wojciech Narebski stands in front of a monument of brown bear Wojtek, who was his fellow Polish soldier during World War II in Krakow. (Photo by Janek Skarzynski, AFP via Getty Images) 
Wojtek was an orphaned brown bear cub that was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and served honorably during the war. He helped move ammunition during battle and achieved the rank of corporal. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Wojtek was an orphaned brown bear cub that was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and served honorably during the war. He helped move ammunition during battle and achieved the rank of corporal. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Wojtek was an orphaned brown bear cub that was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and served honorably during the war. He helped move ammunition during battle and achieved the rank of corporal. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
93-year-old former Polish soldier Wojciech Narebski sits next to a statue of brown bear Wojtek, who was his fellow Polish soldier during World War II . (Photo by Janek Skarzynski, AFP via Getty Images)
Serving With Bears?
While Wojtek’s story might seem too wild to be true, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise that a bear would be smart enough to deliver ammunition and perform other soldiering tasks.
Bears in general, and brown bears/grizzlies in particular, are incredibly intelligent, biologists have told Cowboy State Daily.
Bears are highly adaptive, display problem-solving skills and have keen memories, biologists said.
Those natural bear smarts must have come into play when Wojtek figured out how to help during the battle.
Even so, Vanata said he probably would have had trouble trusting a bear being right next to him and his fellow Marines. Bears are still wild animals, after all, and might have trouble telling friend from foe.
Ulrich was more enthusiastic.
“Can you imagine how having a grizzly bear right alongside you would boost the morale of anybody on the ground, let alone the fear it would instill in the enemy?” he said.
Ulrich mused whether the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump could broker a deal between wildlife agencies and the military, to put orphaned grizzly cubs into military units.
“It could give the bears new life and purpose, to rip through terrorists,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
