BEARING AMMUNITION

Bearing heavy ammunition is a hard job, but not for a bear. His

name was Wojtek. Wojtek served in WWII with such distinction

that he earned two promotions. And this is his story.

Throughout waring history, the

animal kingdom has performed

a noteworthy role, displaying

courage, tenacity, and above

all else, loyalty. To mention

just a few: Cher Ami, a carrier

pigeon, saved the lives of 194

American soldiers in WWI. Also

in WWI, a mutt named

Sergeant Stubby became a

frontline soldier, trained and

deployed with an American

unit, American unit, supported

troops in the trenches,

withstood poison gas attacks,

and seized a German spy by the

seat of his pants.

A Mongolian horse named Sergeant Reckless served with the

Marines in Korea, humping ammunition under fire to the front

lines and carrying wounded Marines back for medical attention.

A cat named Simon was aboard the British ship, HMS Amethyst,

when it was ordered up the Yangtse River in April of 1949 to

protect the British embassy in Nanking during the civil war in

China between the Communists and Nationalists. A Communist

shore battery forced the Amethyst to run aground. Thus began

a 101 day siege of the ship. Simon, partially burnt from artillery

fire and peppered with shrapnel, continued his duty combating

a stream of rats that were feasting on the ship’s limited rations.

Simon’s rat-catching skills allowed the ship’s crew to survive the

siege. Simon was the first member of the Royal Navy to receive

the Dickin Medal for animal bravery.

Siwash the Duck was with the 1st Battalion, 10th Marines during

the invasion of Tarawa in WWII, an important but tiny speck of

coral and land in the South Pacific. While thousands of Marines

and Japanese fought to the death, Siwash flew from a Navy ship

to attack a Japanese rooster. Despite suffering numerous pecks

to her head, Siwash won the struggle. Amazingly, the victorious

duck refused medical attention until the remainder of her gun

crew was cared for. Siwash the Duck also saw action at Tinian

and Saipan.

During the night of December 4, 1966, dog handler Airman 2nd

Class Bob Thorneburg and his dog, Nemo, were attacked by VC

(Vietnamese Communists) while on patrol. Thorneburg was hit

in the shoulder and went down. Nemo took a round in his eye.

Thorneburg killed two of the attackers but would have certainly

been killed himself had Nemo not jumped into action to attack

the remaining enemy. Nemo bought the two enough time for

reinforcements to arrive to save the day. For his valor, Nemo

was sent into lazy retirement to a personal kennel.

And then there was an orphaned bear in WWII who became an

international star, Wojtek the Bear.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the world was once

again at war. Germany had made a ‘good old boy’ deal with the

Soviet Union giving Stalin and the Communist Party half of

Poland if the Soviet military would invade eastern Poland at the

same time, which they did. Thousands of II Corp Polish soldiers

and civilians were deported to the Soviet Union following the

lopsided battle. In the spring of 1942, the Soviet Union exiled

thousands of Polish citizens and a newly formed Polish military

unit called Anders’ Army, destination: Iran.

On April 8, 1942 at the

railroad station in Hamadan,

Iran, Polish soldiers came

across a young Kurdish boy

with a bear cub. The cub

had been orphaned when

its mother was shot by

hunters. An 18 year old

refugee Irena Bokiewicz, the

great-niece of the renowned General Boleslaw Wieniawa-

Dlugoszowski, took a liking to the bear cub and persuaded a

Lieutenant Tarnowiecki to buy the orphaned animal. Irena took

care of the cub for the next three months in a Polish refugee

camp near Tehran.

In August of the same year, the cub was donated to the Polish

2nd Transport Company, which later became the 22nd Artillery

Supply Company. The soldiers named the cub Wojtek, a Slavic

hypocorism of ‘Wojciech’, meaning Happy Warrior in Polish. At

first the young cub had trouble swallowing. The Poles came up

with a brilliant solution: they fed Wojtek condensed milk from

an old vodka bottle.

Within short order, Wojtek took a liking to honey, marmalade,

fruit, and syrup. As a special delicacy, he was given beer, which

quickly became his favorite drink. He enjoyed having coffee in

the morning and loved a good

smoke (eating cigarettes).

When greeted, he would

salute; if challenged, he would

wrestle with a soldier; and on

cold nights he’d sleep with the

soldiers to keep them warm.

Soldiers and citizens alike

considered Wojtek the major

attraction in the area, and all

the military units in the vicinity

adopted Wojtek as their

unofficial mascot.

Traveling with the 22nd, the big

mascot moved to Iraq then

traveled through Syria and

Palestine, and finally Egypt, all

along the way drinking beer

and smoking with the troops. He often stood on his hind legs

and marched alongside the troops, mimicking his human

buddies. Wojtek was assigned his own caregiver and steadily

gained weight. By the time the Polish troops joined the Italian

campaign alongside the British 8th Army, Wojtek weighed a hefty

200 pounds.

There was a slight problem with Wojtek boarding the transport

ship heading for Italy. British transport regulations prohibited

mascots and pet animals, so Wojtek was officially drafted into

the Polish Army as a private and listed among the soldiers of the

22nd Artillery Supply Company. He had his own paybook, serial

number, rank, and slept with the troops in tents or in a specially

built wooden crate used to transport him by truck.

On January 17, 1944, the costly assault on the German ‘winter

line’ began as part of the Allied drive on Rome. The rugged

mountainous terrain favored the defending Germans, especially

a historic hilltop abbey called Monte Cassino. The abbey was

founded in AD 529 and dominated the nearby town of Cassino,

along with the entrances to the Liri and Rapido Valleys which

were both under control by well-entrenched German troops.

The abbey caused a dilemma for Allied leaders; Monte Cassino

was in a protected historic zone, although Allied Intelligence

believed the Germans were using the abbey as an observation

post. In truth, the abbey was manned by few enemy soldiers,

yet on May 15, 1944 a massive air armada of Allied bombers

leveled the historic abbey. Experienced German paratroopers

poured into the abbey and took up defensive positions in the

rubble.

It took a total of four assaults, starting on January 17, to take the

abbey. On May 16, the Polish II Corps launched the final assault

as part of a 20 division assault along a 20 mile front. The fighting

was brutal, close quarter, hand-to-hand combat, but on May 18

the Polish and British flags flew over the abbey. Allied casualties:

55,000. German casualties: around 20,000.

During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek helped his unit by

transporting 100-pound crates of 25-pound artillery shells. He

never dropped a single one. Wojtek carried ammo boxes that

normally required a four-man team, and like the other ammo

carriers, stacked them on a truck or atop other ammo boxes. For

his contribution and valor, Wojtek received a well-earned

promotion to corporal. Afterward, the 22nd Company adopted a

new official emblem (shoulder patch): a depiction of a bear

carrying an artillery shell.

After the war, Wojtek and the 22nd were sent to Berwickshire,

Scotland to be stationed at Winfield Airfield on Sunwick Farm.

Wojtek was an instant sensation, popular among local residents

and the press. The Polish-Scottish Association made Wojtek an

honorary member. He was a regular guest on BBC Television’s

Blue Peter program for children. Corporal Wojtek died during

December of 1963 at the age of 21. At the time of his death, the

soldier bear weighed 490 pounds and stood over six feet tall.

Corporal Wojtek, the soldier-bear, is not forgotten: A plaque at

the Imperial War Museum in London honors him; a sculpture of

the bear is in the Sikorski Museum and a wooden sculpture

honors him in Weelsby Woods, Grimsby. A statue of Wojtek the

Bear was unveiled in Krakow, Poland’s Jordan Park on May 18,

2014, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino; and

the City of Edinburgh dedicated a bronze statue in 2015 of

Wojtek and a Polish soldier walking together. He’s been the

subject of children’s programs on BBC television, the subject of

a 2011 film, Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War; game board

pieces; a music video, and referred to in numerous books.

Hopefully, the little Syrian brown bear orphaned cub, who grew

into a brave soldier-bear, will be remembered and honored, for

a long, long time.