In 1942, a group of Polish soldiers in Iran traded a few tins of meat, some chocolate, and a knife for a bear cub wrapped in a burlap sack. That cub grew into Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear who was later ...

Wojtek endeared himself to members of a Polish army unit in 1942 when he alerted them to the presence of a spy in their camp. The Polish soldiers, who were released by Russia after the German invasion ...

WHEN British soldiers looked along the Italian battlefield at the height of World War Two, they were met with a surreal sight: a fully-grown bear lumbering with an armful of artillery shells. The ...

A big, brutal, blundering and untrustworthy bear – its accurate and enduring emblem. Some of its oblasts (administrative regions) still boast them on their coats of arms. Bears are best avoided, and ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

Archibald Brown had already seen a lot during the war -- but nothing like this. It was mid-February 1944, and the courier for British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was in the port of Naples to help ...

Wojtek used to entertain Allied troops by smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and wrestling with them, but the 30-stone bear was also a handy soldier who carried artillery shells and terrorised enemy ...