A brown bear served in the Polish army in World War II. Wojtek was enlisted as a private so he could board a ship in Egypt, and his company’s badge became a bear carrying an artillery shell.
The events
- Wojtek the bear at Monte Cassino1944 · Monte Cassino. Polish soldiers bought the cub Wojtek in Iran in 1942 and enlisted him as a private so he could board a ship. At Monte Cassino, his comrades recalled, he carried crates of shells, and he became the company’s emblem.
- World War II1939–1945 · Westerplatte. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. The war between the Axis and the Allies engulfed much of the world and killed tens of millions, including the victims of the Holocaust. It ended with Germany's surrender in May and Japan's in September 1945.
More amazing facts
- 1941 Velcro was invented after a walk with a dog. In 1941 Swiss engineer George de Mestral came back from a hunt in the Alps covered in burrs and saw hundreds of tiny hooks under the microscope.
- 1942 · 1951 Superglue was discovered by accident and promptly rejected.
- 1942 Casablanca was not filmed in Casablanca.
- 1943 · 1945 The Slinky was invented when a spring fell off a shelf.
- 1943 During World War II the Oscars were made of plaster.
- 1943 In World War II the American psychologist B. F. Skinner trained pigeons to guide bombs.