I am having some trouble trying to pin down this camp at Hutton in the Borders. The mapping services seem to have ignored this area and all we have is small scale images. The BBC news item suggested that there were remains of huts on the site.
Interesting to hear about a 'soldier'-bear helping the Polish Division capture the monastry at Cassino. It's surprises me too, that this news-worthy item never made it into the popular press. Cannot imagine people befriending a wild bear in 'darkest Iran'; my natural tendency would be to put as much distance between myself and the bear as possible. By the way Fox, you had it right, i was up to my oxters in snow...as well!
Dugald , it occurs to me that we should make clear , for the uninitiated, that oxters are armpits lest anyone underestimate the thickness of your snow!!
Re the bear story I have the notion of something like this occuring on the German lines at Monte Casino or elsewhere. "Hans". "Ya Hermund". "Hermund this war hell is. I think too much of it I have had. A Bear carrying ammunition to the Poles I am seeing." " Ya Hans, I the bear am seeing also. We have here been too long!"
Now Fox, surely we're not going to come upon someone uninitiated on Secret Scotland... anyway, let me tell you, the snow really is higher than that part of the male anatomy which the uninitiated might well have been led to believe the snow came up to.
I liked your conversation between Hans and Hermund!
The Soldier Bear was on the Scottish News again, reporting that the original item had caught the eye of some film-makers (never slow to miss an opportunity for making a fast buck from someone else) who reckoned this would be a good plot for a film.
If you scour the articles listed, you'll see reference to a documentary raised last March (2007) but the referring links seems to be dead now, changed, or in error.
You can dig out some more details about Voytek, The Iranian soldier-bear of Monte Cassino at...
Thanks Apollo. I was somewhat hamstrung by the BBC's spelling on the digital text page where the name was spelt as Voycheck. I knew this was almost certainly wrong but not speaking Polish at tried a couple of possibilities and gave up.
I see in one of the reports that he was kept at Winfield Aerodrome , Sunwick Farm Nr Hutton.
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