Wojtek’s story begins in 1942, when Polish soldiers traveling through Iran bought a small, orphaned bear cub from a boy. They named him Wojtek (“joyful warrior”) and raised him like one of their own. He grew up among uniforms and mess tins, sharing their rations—fruit, marmalade, honey, and famously, beer. He even accepted cigarettes, which he would calmly chew or “smoke,” to the delight of the men. When the 22nd Artillery Supply Company was transferred, regulations said only soldiers could offi

On 17 July 1453, near the Dordogne River, the English charged what they thought was a retreating foe—and galloped into the future. Behind timbered earthworks, France’s Bureau brothers massed field artillery like never before. The English relief army under the famed John Talbot was shredded by shot; Talbot fell, and with him England’s last real hold on Gascony. Castillon wasn’t the largest battle of the Hundred Years’ War, but it was decisive. French guns, carefully sited behind trenches and pali