Wojtek: The bear who was a private in the Polish army – BBC.com

A bear known for its love of beer, cigarettes and boxing and who sided with the Allied forces in World War II has been turned into the subject of a play.

Wojtek was adopted by the 2nd Polish Corps in 1943 after his mother was shot by hunters.

The Syrian brown bear traveled with them from the Middle East until they were sent to Italy. Allied soldiers described their shock when they saw Wojtek carrying artillery shells during The Battle of Monte Cassino.

The story of friendship and courage has been adapted for a production at the Albany Theater in Coventry by writer Alan Pollock from his children’s book The Bear Who Went to War.

Sue Butler’s father was one of the soldiers in the war along with Vojtek.

“Dad said he was a symbol that brought the soldiers together. He was so much more than a bear, he thought he was one of them,” she said.

Like many veterans, Corporal Andrzej Gasior didn’t talk much about his war experiences growing up, said Ms Butler, from Solihull.

“When he started telling me stories about this soldier who was actually a bear, I didn’t believe him at first. I thought he was winding me up.

“But at a local Polish club, a friend of his brought a picture of Wojtek to show me.”

Ms Butler’s father was sent to a Siberian labor camp aged 16 after being caught crossing the Polish border to trade boots and food.

He fell ill and said the war saved his life because the invasion of Poland caused the Soviet Union to let the Poles leave.

He then joins the Polish Free Army, as he calls it, and meets Wojtek while in the Middle East.

Wojtek was known as a bear who loved beer and cigarettes, but the truth was perhaps a little more prosaic.

The bear was particularly fond of the dates her father carried in his top pocket as a treat, Ms Butler said.

“If Dad pretended to walk past Vojtek, he knew he had something and would go after him,” she said.

“He told me that other soldiers had wrestled the bear, and although he was sometimes seen drinking bottles of beer, my father said that beer was sometimes too precious and was often just water.”

He will also ask for cigarettes, which he will eat.

Ms Butler said the soldiers were very protective of their colleague, who served as a great morale booster.

“He was a displaced bear and they were displaced people and they were both without their families,” she said.

The animal was “very funny and quite mischievous”, she added, but eventually “thought it was one of them”.

She said: “Everyone was out [of Siberia] emaciated and oppressed by the Russian state for so long, and this bear suddenly appears in their lives that doesn’t have its mother.”

When Polish forces were stationed in Europe, the only way to take the bear with them was to “recruit” it.

Thus he was given a name, rank, and number, and took part in the Italian campaign.

In an interview, said a British veteran how surprised he was when he saw the 1.82 m (6 ft) bear carrying shells during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

The company logo became an image of Wojtek carrying a projectile.

Mrs Butler said her father told her: “I’m sure he was keeping us going” during that fight.

“He absolutely showed that he was frightened by the explosions, but he got used to it and he was carrying artillery around the place in big boxes,” she said.

When the Polish soldiers were demobilized, Wojtek lived in Berwickshire in Scotland before being taken to Edinburgh Zoo, where he eventually died in 1963.

Cpl Gasior traveled to England, first working in a quarry in Preston before joining the circus and ending up in the West Midlands.

He married Johanna O’Connell, a canteen worker he met at Gaydon Airport in Warwickshire before the couple settled in Birmingham.

Mrs Butler said her father went to visit Vojtek in Edinburgh before moving south.

“Polish men of his era were taught not to cry, as it was considered a sign of weakness,” she said.

“But he told me that when he saw Wojtek at the zoo, he sobbed like a baby.”

Playwright Mr Pollock said he was alerted to the story by a 90-year-old woman while doing research at the Polish Club in Coventry.

He said: “I had to stop her and say, ‘I’m sorry, can you say that again?’ A bear was a private in the Polish army?’

“She told me the story and from that moment I was hooked. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story that I so instantly knew I wanted to tell.”

Many of the soldiers eventually settled in the UK, he said.

“They think that when the battle is won they can go home, but of course Poland is occupied by the Soviet Union and they can never go back,” he said.

“Most of them left their homes in 1939 or 1940, and many of them never saw their homes or their families again.”

Ms Butler said she only recently heard about the production from her daughter-in-law, who works at the theatre.

“I think Julia mentioned it to my son Tom and he said, ‘I’m absolutely sure my grandfather met that bear,’ but I don’t think she believed him at first.”

She added: “It’s a small world and sometimes it all works out, right?”

Her father lived to the age of 92 and died in 2014.

Mrs Butler said: “He’s my hero, he’s my dad. He was an amazing man and I’m so proud to be his daughter.”

The Bear Who Went to War by Alan Pollack is published by Old Barn Books and the play is playing at the Albany Coventry Theater until 2 November.