BEARING AMMUNITION
Transcript of BEARING AMMUNITION
BEARING AMMUNITION
Bearing heavy ammunition is a hard job, but not for a bear. His
name was Wojtek. Wojtek served in WWII with such distinction
that he earned two promotions. And this is his story.
Throughout waring history, the
animal kingdom has performed
a noteworthy role, displaying
courage, tenacity, and above
all else, loyalty. To mention
just a few: Cher Ami, a carrier
pigeon, saved the lives of 194
American soldiers in WWI. Also
in WWI, a mutt named
Sergeant Stubby became a
frontline soldier, trained and
deployed with an American
unit, American unit, supported
troops in the trenches,
withstood poison gas attacks,
and seized a German spy by the
seat of his pants.
A Mongolian horse named Sergeant Reckless served with the
Marines in Korea, humping ammunition under fire to the front
lines and carrying wounded Marines back for medical attention.
A cat named Simon was aboard the British ship, HMS Amethyst,
when it was ordered up the Yangtse River in April of 1949 to
protect the British embassy in Nanking during the civil war in
China between the Communists and Nationalists. A Communist
shore battery forced the Amethyst to run aground. Thus began
a 101 day siege of the ship. Simon, partially burnt from artillery
fire and peppered with shrapnel, continued his duty combating
a stream of rats that were feasting on the ship’s limited rations.
Simon’s rat-catching skills allowed the ship’s crew to survive the
siege. Simon was the first member of the Royal Navy to receive
the Dickin Medal for animal bravery.
Siwash the Duck was with the 1st Battalion, 10th Marines during
the invasion of Tarawa in WWII, an important but tiny speck of
coral and land in the South Pacific. While thousands of Marines
and Japanese fought to the death, Siwash flew from a Navy ship
to attack a Japanese rooster. Despite suffering numerous pecks
to her head, Siwash won the struggle. Amazingly, the victorious
duck refused medical attention until the remainder of her gun
crew was cared for. Siwash the Duck also saw action at Tinian
and Saipan.
During the night of December 4, 1966, dog handler Airman 2nd
Class Bob Thorneburg and his dog, Nemo, were attacked by VC
(Vietnamese Communists) while on patrol. Thorneburg was hit
in the shoulder and went down. Nemo took a round in his eye.
Thorneburg killed two of the attackers but would have certainly
been killed himself had Nemo not jumped into action to attack
the remaining enemy. Nemo bought the two enough time for
reinforcements to arrive to save the day. For his valor, Nemo
was sent into lazy retirement to a personal kennel.
And then there was an orphaned bear in WWII who became an
international star, Wojtek the Bear.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the world was once
again at war. Germany had made a ‘good old boy’ deal with the
Soviet Union giving Stalin and the Communist Party half of
Poland if the Soviet military would invade eastern Poland at the
same time, which they did. Thousands of II Corp Polish soldiers
and civilians were deported to the Soviet Union following the
lopsided battle. In the spring of 1942, the Soviet Union exiled
thousands of Polish citizens and a newly formed Polish military
unit called Anders’ Army, destination: Iran.
On April 8, 1942 at the
railroad station in Hamadan,
Iran, Polish soldiers came
across a young Kurdish boy
with a bear cub. The cub
had been orphaned when
its mother was shot by
hunters. An 18 year old
refugee Irena Bokiewicz, the
great-niece of the renowned General Boleslaw Wieniawa-
Dlugoszowski, took a liking to the bear cub and persuaded a
Lieutenant Tarnowiecki to buy the orphaned animal. Irena took
care of the cub for the next three months in a Polish refugee
camp near Tehran.
In August of the same year, the cub was donated to the Polish
2nd Transport Company, which later became the 22nd Artillery
Supply Company. The soldiers named the cub Wojtek, a Slavic
hypocorism of ‘Wojciech’, meaning Happy Warrior in Polish. At
first the young cub had trouble swallowing. The Poles came up
with a brilliant solution: they fed Wojtek condensed milk from
an old vodka bottle.
Within short order, Wojtek took a liking to honey, marmalade,
fruit, and syrup. As a special delicacy, he was given beer, which
quickly became his favorite drink. He enjoyed having coffee in
the morning and loved a good
smoke (eating cigarettes).
When greeted, he would
salute; if challenged, he would
wrestle with a soldier; and on
cold nights he’d sleep with the
soldiers to keep them warm.
Soldiers and citizens alike
considered Wojtek the major
attraction in the area, and all
the military units in the vicinity
adopted Wojtek as their
unofficial mascot.
Traveling with the 22nd, the big
mascot moved to Iraq then
traveled through Syria and
Palestine, and finally Egypt, all
along the way drinking beer
and smoking with the troops. He often stood on his hind legs
and marched alongside the troops, mimicking his human
buddies. Wojtek was assigned his own caregiver and steadily
gained weight. By the time the Polish troops joined the Italian
campaign alongside the British 8th Army, Wojtek weighed a hefty
200 pounds.
There was a slight problem with Wojtek boarding the transport
ship heading for Italy. British transport regulations prohibited
mascots and pet animals, so Wojtek was officially drafted into
the Polish Army as a private and listed among the soldiers of the
22nd Artillery Supply Company. He had his own paybook, serial
number, rank, and slept with the troops in tents or in a specially
built wooden crate used to transport him by truck.
On January 17, 1944, the costly assault on the German ‘winter
line’ began as part of the Allied drive on Rome. The rugged
mountainous terrain favored the defending Germans, especially
a historic hilltop abbey called Monte Cassino. The abbey was
founded in AD 529 and dominated the nearby town of Cassino,
along with the entrances to the Liri and Rapido Valleys which
were both under control by well-entrenched German troops.
The abbey caused a dilemma for Allied leaders; Monte Cassino
was in a protected historic zone, although Allied Intelligence
believed the Germans were using the abbey as an observation
post. In truth, the abbey was manned by few enemy soldiers,
yet on May 15, 1944 a massive air armada of Allied bombers
leveled the historic abbey. Experienced German paratroopers
poured into the abbey and took up defensive positions in the
rubble.
It took a total of four assaults, starting on January 17, to take the
abbey. On May 16, the Polish II Corps launched the final assault
as part of a 20 division assault along a 20 mile front. The fighting
was brutal, close quarter, hand-to-hand combat, but on May 18
the Polish and British flags flew over the abbey. Allied casualties:
55,000. German casualties: around 20,000.
During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek helped his unit by
transporting 100-pound crates of 25-pound artillery shells. He
never dropped a single one. Wojtek carried ammo boxes that
normally required a four-man team, and like the other ammo
carriers, stacked them on a truck or atop other ammo boxes. For
his contribution and valor, Wojtek received a well-earned
promotion to corporal. Afterward, the 22nd Company adopted a
new official emblem (shoulder patch): a depiction of a bear
carrying an artillery shell.
After the war, Wojtek and the 22nd were sent to Berwickshire,
Scotland to be stationed at Winfield Airfield on Sunwick Farm.
Wojtek was an instant sensation, popular among local residents
and the press. The Polish-Scottish Association made Wojtek an
honorary member. He was a regular guest on BBC Television’s
Blue Peter program for children. Corporal Wojtek died during
December of 1963 at the age of 21. At the time of his death, the
soldier bear weighed 490 pounds and stood over six feet tall.
Corporal Wojtek, the soldier-bear, is not forgotten: A plaque at
the Imperial War Museum in London honors him; a sculpture of
the bear is in the Sikorski Museum and a wooden sculpture
honors him in Weelsby Woods, Grimsby. A statue of Wojtek the
Bear was unveiled in Krakow, Poland’s Jordan Park on May 18,
2014, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino; and
the City of Edinburgh dedicated a bronze statue in 2015 of
Wojtek and a Polish soldier walking together. He’s been the
subject of children’s programs on BBC television, the subject of
a 2011 film, Wojtek: The Bear That Went to War; game board
pieces; a music video, and referred to in numerous books.
Hopefully, the little Syrian brown bear orphaned cub, who grew
into a brave soldier-bear, will be remembered and honored, for
a long, long time.