Scotland Here and Now.
Private Wojtek - The Unusual Soldier
A statue by sculptor Alan Herriot has this week been commissioned to celebrate the life of an extraordinary Polish soldier Private Wojtek. The £200,000 statue is to be erected in Edinburgh where Private Wojtek lived out his life after the end of the Second World War.
So what's so special about this guy? Well Wojtek was a 6ft tall, 500 pound Syrian brown bear adopted by a Polish regiment in 1940 while stationed in the Middle East.
The Polish troops found the young bear in a very poor condition. They quickly helped him back to health with food, condensed milk and a warm place to sleep. When they tried to release him back into the wild, the bear refused to go!
Due to his popularity with the soldiers, the bear was enlisted into the company, given the rank of Private and named Wojtek which means 'happy warrior'. Don't think this new soldier sat about doing nothing oh no.
During battles Wojtek would carry shells from the ammo dump to his fellow comrades manning the guns. The most famous story of his bravery happened during the brutal battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 when under heavy German fire he kept the guns in ammunition without dropping a single shell case.
The Polish forces soon broke through the Nazi defences and helped liberate Italy. Can you imagine being a German soldier during those battles, it must've been pretty damn demoralizing watching a huge brown bear firing shells towards you!!!
At the end of the war Wojtek and his company were relocated to Berwickshire where he remained until 1947 when he was given a home in Edinburgh zoo. Private Wojtek passed away in 1963 at the ripe old age of twenty two.
There are statues of him in Edinburgh, London, Poland, Italy and Canada.
I salute you Private Wojtek, the Nazi fighting bear of the proud Polish army.
So what's so special about this guy? Well Wojtek was a 6ft tall, 500 pound Syrian brown bear adopted by a Polish regiment in 1940 while stationed in the Middle East.
The Polish troops found the young bear in a very poor condition. They quickly helped him back to health with food, condensed milk and a warm place to sleep. When they tried to release him back into the wild, the bear refused to go!
Due to his popularity with the soldiers, the bear was enlisted into the company, given the rank of Private and named Wojtek which means 'happy warrior'. Don't think this new soldier sat about doing nothing oh no.
During battles Wojtek would carry shells from the ammo dump to his fellow comrades manning the guns. The most famous story of his bravery happened during the brutal battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 when under heavy German fire he kept the guns in ammunition without dropping a single shell case.
The Polish forces soon broke through the Nazi defences and helped liberate Italy. Can you imagine being a German soldier during those battles, it must've been pretty damn demoralizing watching a huge brown bear firing shells towards you!!!
At the end of the war Wojtek and his company were relocated to Berwickshire where he remained until 1947 when he was given a home in Edinburgh zoo. Private Wojtek passed away in 1963 at the ripe old age of twenty two.
There are statues of him in Edinburgh, London, Poland, Italy and Canada.
I salute you Private Wojtek, the Nazi fighting bear of the proud Polish army.
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