Imagine a World War Two soldier who trekked the deserts of the Middle East, fought at Monte Cassino, drank beer with his unit, and never dropped a single crate of artillery shells under fire. Now imagine that soldier was a 500-pound Syrian brown bear.

This episode tells the wonderfully true story of Corporal Wojtek through Polish military records, British testimonies, and historical analysis. But beneath the novelty is a profound story about how a group of deeply traumatized refugees found a reason to keep going through the companionship of an orphaned bear cub.

• How the displaced soldiers of Anders Army, survivors of Soviet labor camps, adopted an orphaned cub on the road to Tehran in 1942
• The vodka-bottle baby bottle and the bear's soldier-like habits of drinking beer and eating lit cigarettes
• How the Polish comm ...