Vojtek The Fuzzy Polish Soldier

Vojtek: a Polish soldier

One of the least known heroes of World War II served in the Polish Second Army Corp. Polish troops fought in Italy at Monte Cassino, winning the battle when the Americans and British failed to overtake the Germans. Recognized as the bloodiest campaign in the European theater since the war began, the Poles after sustaining tremendous loss of fighters conquered the objective when no other allied army could. And, they did it with Vojtek the Polish soldier bear in their ranks.

It is virtually undisputed from the time of Bolesław the Brave through the 18th century Poland had the most astonishing cavalry ever know to mankind. Decimating the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 to saving Europe by defeating the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire from over running the Continent at the Battle of Vienna on 9-12 1683, Polish Hussars were a formidable force feared by opponents.

Long after the glory days when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest and perhaps the most powerful nation in Europe, Polish people got about as much respect as Lois Lerner formerly of the IRS, and the once-proud nation had been carved up more times than Joan Rivers’ face.  

The early days of World War II was no exception, when the unsuspecting, peaceful Poles suddenly found themselves getting sneak-attack double-teamed by the dictators of Germany and the Soviet Union. Sure, the Fascists and Communists hated each other, but apparently they were willing to join forces and work together to oppress the citizens of Poland, steal their land, and imprison anyone they pleased. 

Of course we know what the Germans did to the 3 million Catholics and 3 million Jews of Poland who were sent to concentration camps or faced summary execution, but it certainly wasn’t any picnic being on the receiving end of the sickle and hammer either.  

Captured Polish POWs that weren't executed on the spot by the Russians were shipped out to horrendously hardcore Gulags in Siberia, where they spent twelve hours a day eating disgusting borscht and gruel, mining snow from ice caves with pickaxes like the Dwarves in Snow White.  

However, once Germany double-crossed the Soviets and started bludgeoning the Red Army, Josef Stalin had a change of heart and decided to let captured Polish POWs out of prison so they could help fight for the Allies.  

Since the Poles weren't too keen on fighting on behalf of the Russians who had oppressed and imprisoned them, they decided to serve under the British instead. In 1943, a large number of these men were put on trains and sent to Iran, where they became the Polish Second Army Corps commanded by General Wladyslaw Anders. Their first mission was to travel to Palestine, link up with the British 8th Army and assist in the Allied invasion of Italy. 

On their trip through Iran, the men of the Polish 22nd Transport Artillery Supply Company came across a young Iranian boy wandering through the desert carrying a large cloth sack. The men thought the boy looked tired and hungry, so they gave him some food. When the kid thanked them, the Poles asked what was in the bag. The boy opened it up and revealed a tiny, malnourished brown bear cub. Since the soldiers knew the little cub was in very poor health and needed attention quickly, they bought the bear from the kid, and fed it some condensed milk from a makeshift baby bottle. For the next several days, they nursed the bear back to health, giving it food, water, and a warm place to sleep.

On the long journey from Iran to Palestine, Voytek quickly became the unofficial mascot of the 22nd Company. The bear would sit around the campfire with the men, eating, drinking, and sleeping in tents with the rest of the soldiers. The bear loved smoking cigarettes, drank beer right out of the bottle like a regular infantryman, and got a kick out of wrestling and play-fighting with the other soldiers. Of course, he was the most powerful wrester in the entire company, thanks in part to the fact that he grew to be six feet tall, weighed roughly five hundred pounds, and could knock small trees over with a single swing of his massive, clawed paw.

Vojtek going a round of boxing with a comrade

He grew to be a part of the unit, improving the morale of men who had spent several years getting their asses kicked in slave labor camps, and was treated as though he were just another hard-drinkin’, hard-smoking’, hard-fightin’, hair-growin’ soldier in the Company.

When the unit marched out on a mission, Vojtek would stand up on his hind legs and march alongside them. When the motorized convoy was on the move, Vojtek sat in the passenger seat of one of the trucks, hanging his head out the window and shocking people walking down the street.

Vojtek also enjoyed taking hot baths for some reason. Over the summer in Palestine, he learned how to work the showers and you could pretty much always find him splashing around the bath house. Once, he entered the bath hut and came across a spy who had been planted to gather intelligence on the Allied camp. Vojtek growled, slapped the spy in the head, making him immediately surrender. The Soldier Bear was lauded as a hero for successfully capturing the enemy agent, who in turn was interrogated and gave up vital intelligence on enemy positions. 

When it was time to fight, Second Corps linked up with the British 8th Army and headed out to Italy were there was a major impasse in Allied progress. The problem, however, was that the British High Command did not allow any pets or animals in their camp. As an end run, the Polish Army formally enlisted Vojtek the Bear into their ranks. He was given the rank of Private, assigned a serial number, and from that point on was included in all official unit rosters. The Brits were like, “whatever chaps”, and didn't even bat an eye when Vojtek marched ashore with the rest of the 22nd Company.

The Poles’ Finest Hour of the war came in the incredibly bloody battle for Monte Cassino. By the time they arrived, the Germans were deeply entrenched in the hilltop monastery, and three previous Allied assaults on the position had all proved more fruitless than a  Florida orange tree in the middle of Antarctica.

The campaign was proving to be one of the bloodiest battles of the Western Front, and the Poles were brought in to make the final push to capture the fortress. During the fighting, Vojtek the Hero Bear actually hand-carried boxes of ammunition, some weighing in at over 100 pounds, from supply trucks to artillery positions on the front lines. He worked tirelessly, day and night, bringing supplies to his friends who were bravely battling the Nazis. He never rested, never dropped a single artillery shell, and never showed any fear despite his position being under constant enemy fire and heavy shelling.

Insignia of the 22nd Artillery

His actions were so inspiring to his fellow soldiers that after the battle the official insignia of the 22nd Artillery was changed to a picture of Vojtek carrying an armful of howitzer ammunition. In the same vein, you have to assume that it was pretty demoralizing to the Germans to see that the Poles had a giant brown bear fighting on their side.

Thanks to the heavy shelling by their artillery, the Polish forces broke through the Nazi defenses and captured Monte Cassino. Vojtek and his comrades would go on to fight the Germans across the Italian peninsula, breaking through the enemy lines and forcing the Krauts out of Italy for good.

After the war, some elements of the Polish Army, including Vojtek, were reassigned to Scotland, since Poland was under USSR control, and many Polish soldiers did not like the prospect of living in a Soviet-run police state. Vojtek lived out the rest of his days in the Edinburgh Zoo, where he passed away in 1963 at the age of 22. It was said that he always perked up when he heard the Polish language spoken by zoo guests, and during his life in there he was always being visited by his old friends from the Polish Army – some of whom would throw cigarettes down into his open arms, some of whom would even jump into the bear enclosure and wrestle with him for old time's sake.

The idea of a Nazi-fighting bear is so awesome that you'd think it was something out of a bizarre cartoon or a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. It’s the sort of thing that, even with all of the historical evidence, seems too weird to be true. The bear was a hero of World War II, and there are statues of him and plaques memorializing his brave service in Poland, Edinburgh, the Imperial War Museum in London, and the Canadian War Museum as well.