So after this video I got hit with requests for just about every human being who fought
in the Second World War, but there’s one thing you forgot: not every soldier in the
war was a human being.
This video was sponsored by Skillshare.
Free stuff at the end!
So, if you don’t know, Word War Two was a thing, and while Hitler was blitzkrieging
the West side of Poland, Stalin came stomping in through the East and Poland goes poof!
For like the third time.
Then Stalin did what Stalin does and deported hundreds of thousands Polish citizens to Siberia
and/or gulags, making sure to pick out any military officers, police, lawyers, priests,
landowners, possible spies, possible saboteurs, or miscellaneous officials and disappear them.
And if anyone asks, the Nazis did it.
Speaking of the Nazis, they attack two years later and Russia goes “What happened to
that buffer state between us?
What do you mean Poland doesn’t have an army!”
So they haphazardly grab whatever Polish soldiers were still alive, pop ‘em in a uniform and
tell them “Go defend our country!”
“Are we…
Poland or Russia?”
“Da.
Our country.”
In a stunning plot twist, Soviet Russia doesn’t have enough food rations for them, but unlike
Ukraine they fix the problem by letting them leave the USSR.
As long as they fought in Iran, which was being invaded to secure a supply route to
Russia, they were allowed to team up with the Brits instead.
It’s in Iran that the general’s great-niece finds Wojtek alone and orphaned with an unexpected
companion and says “Poor thing… we simply must save him!”
“Well all right, but just this once.
Come along, we’ll get you -”
“The bear, Anatol, the bear!”
Thus the happy warrior found a new home, and he fit in in no time - he could bat his eyelashes
and his comrades were lining up to serve him milk and honey, and when he was old enough
he was marching and saluting, drinking and smoking just like one of the boys.
According to one story, Wojtek awoke one night to discover a thief had snuck in to steal
munitions, not expecting to round the corner to a 200 pound bear.
Well, Wojtek saved the day by rousing his fellow soldiers and catching the man before
he could escape.
Wojtek may never have been to Poland, but it was his fatherland now.
Eventually, though, the army got the call to Italy in 1944 where they would face the
full force of the Axis powers.
The Winter Line across the heel of Italy was unyielding, costing the Allies six months
and thousands of lives as they tried and failed to pass through it.
It was no place for pets.
No dogs, goats, lions, monkeys, reindeer, cassowaries, nothing.
Luckily, Wojtek’s division didn’t have any pets.
They just drafted an extra soldier.
So Wojtek’s fighting in the trenches, carrying crates and artillery shells that would normally
take the work of four men, allowing his division to bombard the enemy lines while the infantry
stormed the German’s last holdout in Monte Cassino.
Now, am I saying Wojtek single-handedly provided the support needed to break the line and capture
Italy simply by imitating his friends?
Well I’d sure like to!
But he did do enough to earn a promotion to corporal, meaning, assuming the percentages
are similar to the US in 2020, about 25% of all soldiers at the time were outranked by
a bear.
Wojtek would go on to see the end of the war, as Germany was defeated and Europe was liberated
and everything was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Bit less of a celebration for the Poles since Poland would be under the thumb of the country
that originally put them in gulags for the next forty years, but uh… woo, silly bear
time!
After the war, the members of the Polish Armed Forces in the East bid their goodbyes and
went their separate ways.
Menachem Begin went on to become the sixth prime minister of Israel.
Monty Kuper became a real estate developer in Texas.
Julian Bussgang enrolled in MIT and published his thesis on his own theorem of stochastic
analysis.
He’s currently 95.
As for Wojtek, he was dispatched with his division to an airfield in rural Scotland,
where he ended up becoming a bit of a local celebrity.
He retired from active duty in 1947 at which point he decided to continue his work in the
public eye, occasionally making appearances on the BBC but living out the rest of his
life from his place of work in the Edinburgh zoo.
He never saw Poland with his own eyes, but every once in a while the men from his division
would bring a piece of Poland to him, jumping into his exhibit to give him a hug and a cigarette,
just like old times.
The zookeepers were not happy.
And if you want to know how to, um – it's Skillshare, they're today's sponsor!
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I'm trying to get back into drawing, there's a great class by Gabrielle Brickey and yeah
I'm pretty happy with where I'm at.
They're sponsoring another video next month so I'll be able to show off my progress.
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That's – that's all I got, if that doesn't sound like fun I don't know what does.
Cheers!