The Bear Information: The True Story of Wojtek the (Have been)Bear

Meet Wojtek, Sumerian Six‘s Most Loveable Warfare Machine

Sumerian Six is a tactical stealth sport set in an alternate-history World Warfare II, the place a squad of supernatural operatives is shipped behind enemy traces to cease a Nazi occult programme. It’s a sport full of vibrant characters, however one stands head and shoulders – and several other hundred kilograms – above the relaxation: Wojtek, a Polish soldier who additionally occurs to be a werebear. In fight, he can shift freely between his human type, the place he brings stealth, dexterity, and tactical pondering to the mission, and his bear type, the place subtlety goes out the window and uncooked, unstoppable pressure takes over. He’s one of these characters who earns his place in a roster instantly – the second you realise you’ll be able to ship a shapeshifting bear crashing by way of a German patrol, the sport has you. However as splendidly over-the-top as a werebear soldier sounds, the actual story that impressed him is one way or the other even higher.

The Actual Wojtek: A Bear Who Really Enlisted

It’s 1943, someplace in Iran. A gaggle of Polish troopers – exiles combating their means throughout the Center East after escaping Soviet labor camps – encounter a younger boy with a bear cub in a burlap sack. His mom had been killed by hunters. In alternate for a Swiss Military knife, some canned beef, and a bit of chocolate, the troopers took him in. They named him Wojtek, a Polish diminutive which means, brilliantly, “joyful warrior.”

They fed the tiny cub condensed milk from an empty vodka bottle. They wrestled with him, shared their rations, and let him experience in the entrance seat of their vans. Wojtek, for his half, took to navy life instantly – he marched in formation on his hind legs, realized to salute, and picked up a couple of of his comrades’ much less healthful habits alongside the means, together with a style for beer and a passion for consuming cigarettes complete (he by no means fairly received the dangle of the smoking half).

By the time the twenty second Artillery Provide Firm ready to ship out to Italy, Wojtek had grown right into a full-sized Syrian brown bear. This created a small bureaucratic downside: the British transport ship forbade mascots and animals. The Polish troopers’ answer was splendidly simple – they merely enlisted him. Wojtek was drafted as a non-public, given a serial quantity and a paybook, and formally listed amongst the troopers of the firm. Nobody, apparently, questioned this.

The Battle of Monte Cassino: The place Legends Are Made

In Could 1944, the Allied forces confronted one of the most punishing battles of the total Italian marketing campaign – the assault on Monte Cassino, a fortified German stronghold perched atop a mountain that had already repelled three earlier assaults. The Polish II Corps was tasked with taking the summit.

Throughout the battle, Wojtek did one thing that may cement his place in historical past. Watching the males round him haul heavy crates of artillery ammunition by way of the chaos, he merely began doing the identical. He carried 25-pound artillery shells in crates that may usually take 4 males to maneuver, hauling load after load with out dropping a single one. Whether or not by way of mimicry, solidarity, or some mixture of each, he had determined his unit wanted assist – and he helped.

After the Polish victory, Wojtek was promoted to corporal. The twenty second Firm adopted the picture of a bear carrying an artillery shell as their official emblem, printed on autos, pennants, and uniforms. One of the most adorned items of the Italian marketing campaign went into battle below the banner of their bear.

After the struggle, when Poland fell below Soviet management and most of the troopers couldn’t safely return house, Wojtek got here along with his unit to Scotland. He spent his retirement at Edinburgh Zoo, the place former troopers recurrently visited, tossing him cigarettes over the fence and chatting with him in Polish – which he reportedly nonetheless responded to. One story tells of a person who introduced a violin to the zoo and performed a Polish mazurek, and Wojtek, the previous soldier, started to sway. He died in 1963, aged 21, weighing practically 500 kilograms. Statues in his honour now stand in Edinburgh, Warsaw, Kraków, Cassino, and past.

From Historical past to Sumerian Six: The Joyful Warrior, Reimagined

It’s not onerous to see why the builders reached for Wojtek when constructing their ensemble of supernatural WWII operatives. The actual bear was already nearly mythological – loyal past motive, absurdly succesful, as comfy amongst troopers as he was being a bear. All Sumerian Six needed to do was lean into what was already there and add a contact of the supernatural.

The sport’s Wojtek carries ahead the spirit of his real-world counterpart in each instructions. In human type, he brings the intelligence and adaptableness that the historic Wojtek confirmed simply by current in a navy unit and figuring issues out – from carrying ammunition to studying the camp routines. In bear type, he channels the uncooked bodily pressure and the simple presence of a 500-kilogram creature that after singlehandedly improved Allied logistics at Monte Cassino. The potential to modify between the two isn’t only a cool mechanic; it’s a portrait of an animal who was at all times a little bit bit of each – a bear who thought like a soldier, and a soldier who occurred to be a bear.

The actual Wojtek’s story resonated so deeply as a result of it captured one thing true about loyalty, about belonging to one thing greater than your self, and about the sudden locations the place braveness exhibits up. A shapeshifting werebear combating Nazis in a supernatural commando unit is, in the most honest means attainable, precisely the sort of sequel he deserves.

Wish to see Wojtek in motion for your self? Sumerian Six is obtainable now — and whether or not you’re in it for the story, the tactical gameplay, or just the pleasure of sending a werebear by way of a Nazi checkpoint, there’s one thing in it for you.