Bearly remembered war hero

6th January 2012

Warsaw looks set to see its own statue of Wojtek the Syrian bear - one of Poland’s unsung war heroes.

The bear joined the Polish army during the Second World War, eventually becoming a symbol for the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. Here he was treated almost like a brother by the soldiers and stories are still told about how he drank alcohol with troops and even carried ammo for them.

According to Rzeczpospolita, Wojtek saw out his final days at Edinburgh zoo, where a similar statue is soon to be erected, before passing away in 1963.

“Talks have already begun,” says Aileen Orr, the British politician who helped with the statue’s campaign. “Poland is now a free country and it’s possible to celebrate this by building a statue in the capital.”