The Bear Who Fought in WWII: Wojtek the “Smiling Warrior”

Doris Hua (10) | STAFF REPORTER

Travelling through these mountains was a troop of young Polish men, who were displaced and thrown around Europe due to the shifting alliances of World War II. These individuals were separated from their family when they were sent to camps in Siberia at the start of the war and then released in 1941 when Germany changed its mind about not attacking Russia… by attacking Russia. 

Yet these abandoned men were soon to become the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps, and they were going to have a mascot much larger and furrier than bargained for. 

Deep in the Iranian mountains, a brown bear cub orphaned due to hunters, meets a shepherd boy. And as boys do, the shepherd boy kept the cub until his hungry stomach got the better of him. (Spoiler: He doesn’t eat bear.)

They came across the shepherd boy, who, hungry and daring asked the tired soldiers for food. 

Soldier: Hey boy 

Boy: Oh hi 

Boy: I’m hungry got any food 

Soldier: Sorry buddy can’t help you…. Fhahfjs is that a bear? 

Bear: Rawr.

Boy: Yeah, I might have to eat him now since you good men can’t spare some food for me, a starving boy in the frigid mountains 

Soldier: Oh fine take these coins, uh this knife, this can of beef and this chocolate bar and give us the… bear i guess 

Boy: Sure 

Bear: Rawr. 

And just like that, the soldiers gained possession of the young bear. Feeding it diluted condensed milk from an old vodka bottle with an improvised rag teat, the soldiers hid the bear in their barracks for a couple of weeks. However, hiding a growing brown bear isn’t an easy task, as they can grow up to 550 pounds and 140cm from nose to tail. 

The growing bear was soon found and the fellow soldiers had to find a reason to keep the cub in company. One option was to raise the bear as a dancing or tame bear, but this option was tough on the bear and the trainer, so the soldiers decided against it. The task of trainer was appointed to Peter Prendys, who ended up teaching the cub very crucial skills in the battlefield: saluting, drinking, smoking, even though the bear’s way of smoking was less … conventional. 

Syrian Bear’s Guide to Smoking: 

1. Take one puff of the cigarette. 
2. Eat it. Whole. The entire thing. 
3. More?

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Soon the charismatic bear, with its elegant smoking technique, had encharmed the whole battalion and even the general were convinced: the cub would stay as a sort of “mascot”, a spirit lifter and a general companion of the troops. To reflect this, the bear was named Wojtek, meaning “joyful or smiling warrior”. 

Wojtek spent his cubhood sticking his head out of the artillery truck window, visiting countries such as Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon on artillery supply runs. Between missions, he stayed at camp racing the camp dog, a large dalmatian, begging mercilessly for snacks and again, drinking beers and smoking. The bear was also a mischievous rascal through and through. Once, he stole an entire clothesline of underwear women’s underwear from a Polish signal unit on a mission to Iraq. 

Another one of Wojtek’s significant personality traits was his fond love of showers. In the boiling heat, there’s nothing better to a furry bear than a cold shower! In the beginning he would wait for someone to turn on the nozzle for him, but after he figured it out himself, he would be found guilty several times for using up all the water in camp and was forbidden to take showers without supervision. 

Ironically, his excessive love of showers also led to Wojtek capturing a spy. One hot day, he was stumbling into the showers to rinse off a day of hard work (drinking and lazing around) when he found a spy in the showers hiding out. The spy was incredibly terrified by the sudden appearance of a bear and surrendered after screaming in panic.  

In 1944, Wojtek had grown quite a bit by this time, and external conflicts outside his bear world growing as well. As the 22nd Artillery Supply Company was shipped to war in Italy, they, of course, had to bring Wojtek along. The British troops at the checkpoint were not only plenty shocked, but they were also reluctant to let the bear on board the train. 

British soldiers: We can’t let a bear on board! 

Polish soldiers: But why? Is he not a soldier like one of us? Look, as he smokes with the same furor a soldier does! 

Wojtek: *smokes one cigarette and then proceeds to eat the whole thing whole* 

Polish soldiers: Well, you get the point 

British soldiers: We certainly can’t bring such animals on our train! It’s not like he IS a soldier anyhow

Polish: ………

And thus, with the careful paperwork done, Wojtek was given a rank (private), a service number, an official pay book, although he was only ever was paid in food all under the now-very-official-name Wojtek. In the rulebook, there might be a rule disallowing bears to ride, but there was never a rule saying a legal soldier could not, so in the end, Wojtek rode with his comrades to war in Italy on February 13th, 1944.

Wojtek served not only as a soldier alongside his foster family and brothers but as a spirit lifter in the midst of a strenuous and violent war. But his courageous service did not end at being an extraordinary mascot and moral booster. 

The 22nd Artillery unit, just a few months of their arrival in Italy, was placed into the Battle of Monte Cassino, the largest European land conflict of World War II. In order to move on to Rome, the allies had to break through a small mountain that the German army had tune into a stronghold for their defensive line. Wojtek’s unit was tasked with transporting the enemy from stockpiles, through winding mountain passes to enemy lines. 

Out on the battlefield, Wojtek observed his fellow soldiers carrying artillery shells, and following their examples, he did the same, bracing the gunfire and chaos. The allies won the Battle of Monte Cassino and the story of Wojtek spread far and wide across Europe. Wojtek, a legend, became the regalia of the 22nd Artillery Company and to this day, it shows an insignia of a bear carrying an artillery shell. 

Life after war for Wojtek was different than he had ever experienced, and tough in a different way. The 22nd Artillery Company was his family, and being with them since infancy meant that Wojtek couldn’t go back to being a wild bear, as he never was one. As members of the company settled into permanent jobs and returned to their human families, Wojtek was left behind, and with great regret, his trainer and first friend, Peter Predys, sent him to Edinburgh Zoo. 

Even though Wojtek drooped in the zoo, his campmates came to visit him frequently, and they tossed him treats, lit cigarettes, even jumping in his cage to wrestle. Imagine walking up to an enclosure and seeing a human wrestle with a bear! When any of the visitors spoke Polish, Wojtek would perk, recognizing the language of his family. 

Wojtek lived in the zoo until he died in December 1963. But to this day, we remember him as the abandoned bear who met a group of abandoned soldiers, who fought for his (adoptive) country alongside his foster brothers. Commemorated around the world through statues, insignias, and movies, Wojtek the “smiling warrior” stands for unconditional love and comradery, in a time where our world needed it the most.