Polish soldiers in World War II enlisted a Syrian brown bear named Wojtek, giving him an official rank, a paybook, and a steady supply of beer and cigarettes.

A closer look

Polish soldiers in World War II enlisted a Syrian brown bear named Wojtek, giving him an official rank, a paybook, and a steady supply of beer and cigarettes. Adopted as an orphaned cub in Iran, the bear grew up surrounded by troops and quickly adopted their bad habits, developing a taste for eating lit cigarettes and guzzling alcohol from the bottle. When the Polish II Corps was deployed to Italy, they couldn't bring a pet on the transport ship, so they cleverly bypassed the regulations by drafting him as a private in the artillery division. Wojtek proved his worth at the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino, where he carried heavy crates of mortar shells to the front lines without dropping a single one. After the war, this decorated, 500-pound combat veteran retired to the Edinburgh Zoo, where his old army buddies would occasionally visit and illegally toss him a pack of smokes for old times' sake!