Yes, it's more WWII animal action at the BBC, where they've rediscovered Voytek "the soldier bear", who took on the Wermacht single-pawed!
Voytek, who liked a fag & a pint like any good squaddie, is not to be confused with the Armoured Bears of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". No "sky-steel" armour for Woytek; the poor sod was basically used as a pack-horse, and then got dumped in a zoo.
(At the end of the war, the British Army constructed cages on the beaches near Dover to house the mass of stray dogs being brought home by troops, adopted during the march into Germany. The canine companions were to serve their statutory 6 months quarantine, before being offered back to the soldiers who had imported them.
Ad Hoc pet adoption appears to have been a past-time in the British Army. My own father's career featured many a grateful "Fritzy", although Dad's crowning glory was a leopard, raised from a cub in India, of which his REME colleagues were terrified. Try bringing that back on the boat!)
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