So, this is one of those delightful pieces of nonsense trivia that I love.
Soldiers are nonsense creatures that shouldn't be left unsupervised.
This has been proven many times over, certainly my own soldiers when I was a sergeant managed to remind me of this universal truth every day we were together (and some days we weren't).
But my 'Joes', as unruly as they got . . . well, at least they never bought a bear.
The Polish II Corp, which fought under British command during WW2 (the story of how that happened is wild and I highly recommend the wikipedia page for Ander's Army if you want the weird details) on their way through Iran en route to Italy, bought a bear.
His name was Wojtek.
They brought him to the war with them.
He traveled with them throughout the campaign, was enlisted to help pay for his rations (as a Private, but promoted to Corporal eventually!) and he even helped carry ammunition crates in at least one key battle!
I have known about Wojtek for a long time, but I had forgotten this bit about what happened after:
And when the war was over and the Polish II corps was being dissolved, his company was brought to Scotland, and he retired as a resident of the Edinburgh zoo, where he lived to the ripe old age of 21.
And for that reason, he has a memorial in the park here!
So of course we had to visit that.
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