Corporal Wojtek: The Syrian Brown Bear Who Carried Artillery Shells at Monte Cassino

In April 1943, soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps were passing through the Hamadan region of Iran when they encountered a small Syrian brown bear cub, alone in the foothills, recently orphaned. A local boy had found it, and the soldiers bought it for a tin of corned beef and a bar of chocolate.

They named him Wojtek — the Polish diminutive of Wojciech, meaning "happy warrior."

Growing Up Soldier

The bear grew up in a military camp. He slept in tents with the soldiers, ate what they ate — he developed a particular fondness for cigarettes, alcohol, and tinned fruit, in no particular order. He learned to march on his hind legs. He learned to salute. He learned to wrestle with officers, and he was always gentle enough not to hurt them, though he could have.

He traveled with his unit through Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. By the time the Polish II Corps reached Italy in 1944, Wojtek had been officially inducted into the Polish Army. He was enrolled as a Private. He had a military paybook. His rank was listed, his service number recorded. He received rations, just like the other men.

Monte Cassino

The Battle of Monte Cassino — four grinding Allied assaults against a German defensive position anchored to a historic monastery on a commanding Italian hilltop — lasted from January to May 1944. The final and successful assault in May, Operation Diadem, was led in significant part by the Polish II Corps under General Władysław Anders.

The 22nd Artillery Supply Company's job was to keep shells moving from depots to the guns. This meant loading artillery shells — 25-pound high explosive rounds — onto trucks and carts, through rubble and uphill, under German fire.

Wojtek, who had watched the men work for months, began to help. He picked up artillery shells and carried them in his arms, walking upright, just as he had observed the soldiers doing. He made trip after trip, carrying munitions alongside the men. No one trained him to do this. He simply watched and understood.

Corporal, 22nd Artillery Supply Company

Following the battle, General Anders formally recognized Wojtek's contribution. He was promoted from Private to Corporal. Eventually he rose to the rank of Corporal. The Polish II Corps adopted as its symbol a bear carrying an artillery shell — the emblem that today still represents the 22nd Artillery Supply Company in military heraldry.

After the war, Wojtek immigrated to Scotland with his unit. He lived at the Edinburgh Zoo until his death in 1963, at the age of approximately twenty-one. Polish veterans who had settled in Scotland visited him regularly. They would pass him cigarettes through the fence, just as they had in the camps. He remembered the soldiers. When they came, he recognized them.

In 2015, a bronze statue of Wojtek carrying an artillery shell was unveiled in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens. He stands upright, as he had learned to walk, in the same pose that had once made Italian farmers stare in disbelief as a bear and a column of Polish soldiers went up the mountain toward the guns.