Monte Cassino famous soldier bear "Wojtek" gets memorial on battle site
A memorial to Wojtek a Syrian brown bear adopted by soldiers of the Polish 2nd Corps which fought alongside the Allies in the World War II Italian campaign, including the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino, will be erected in the town Cassino near the battle site.
Wojtek joined the Polish 2nd corps, also known as the Anders Army (see: NOTE 1) in 1942 in Iran and remained with the unit on its combat trail to Italy, where it fought among others at Monte Cassino (see: NOTE 2), Bologna (see: NOTE 3) and Ancona (see: NOTE 4). The bear was officially given corporal's rank and was with the soldiers during the Monte Cassino campaign.
As a regular soldier of the unit, Wojtek lived with the troops in their tents or in a specially-built wooden crate. According to accounts during the Battle of Monte Cassino the bear helped carry ammunition and never dropped a crate. In recognition of Wojtek's position in the unit, its command agreed for an image of the bear carrying an artillery shell becoming the the official emblem of the Polish 2nd Corps' 22nd Artillery Supply Company, to which he belonged.
After the war Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo, where he lived until his death in 1963 at 21 years of age.
Memorials to Wojtek, probably history's only bear to hold military rank, already stand in Imola, Edinburgh and Krakow. A plaque to him can also be found at the Imperial War Museum in London.
NOTE 1: The Anders Army, named after its commander General Wladyslaw Anders, was formed on the strength of the 1942 Sikorski-Mayski Agreement between the Soviet Union and Poland, which stated the formation of a Polish force to aid the Soviet army and other Allied states in their struggle against the Third Reich.
Conscripts to the Anders Army were mainly recruited from Polish people incarcerated in Soviet prisons and labour camps, who were amnestied to enable them to join the force. On March 24 1942 the Anders Army began its evacuation from the USSR, making its way through Iran to Palestine under a British-Soviet-Polish agreement. In Palestine the force passed under British command and formed the bulk of the Polish 2nd Corps which fought in the Italian campaign.
The Anders Army also played a role in the then formation of the state of Israel.
In Palestine the force's commanders became known for turning a blind eye to thousands of desertions by the army's Jewish-descended conscripts, who left Anders Army to join Jewish military organisations fighting for the independence of Israel. Among the soldiers granted an official release from the formation was Menachem Begin (born Mieczyslaw Biegun) - the founder of Israel's Likud party and the 6th Israeli prime minister.
In line with the policy of the Polish government in-exile, when leaving the Soviet Union the Anders Army also helped civilians of Jewish descent, including soldier families, groups of (Polish-)Jewish children and war orphans, to escape Soviet repressions and travel safely to Palestine against a British ban. Polish authorities circumvented the interdict by loading fellow citizens of Jewish descent on ships and navigating them around the Arabian Peninsula. Jewish children, on the other hand, are said to have been clad in Catholic school uniforms and transported to Palestine through Iraqi deserts by trucks.
In 1944 Anders Army troops proved crucial in defeating the Germans in what was called "the biggest inland battle in Europe" - the famous Battle of Monte Cassino. This exceptionally hard-fought and fateful victory, which cost much Polish blood, allowed Allied forces to capture Rome and later the whole of southern Europe.
On May 18, 1944 Polish 12th Podolian cavalry Regiment patrol climbed to the top and raised a Polish flag over the ruins.
In all, 923 Polish soldiers were killed in the fighting, with 2,931 wounded and 345 reported missing.
Another Italian-theatre decisive Battle fought by Anders Army's II Corps, actually becoming its only independent operation, was the Battle of Ancona, in which Polish troops took over a strategic Adriatic port. The operation contributed to breaking of the Gothic Line and subsequent surrender of the Axis forces in Italy.
The Polish 2nd Corps under General Anders also partook in the famous battle of Bologna, which began on April 9, 1945 and ended on April 21. It was one of the Italian Campaign's last battles, whose aim was the liberation of Bologna - a decisive step in Germans' ultimate defeat on the Italian territory. After the city's liberation a Polish rifle unit was the first to enter the city. (PAP)
