The Army’s Polar Bears 1918 – 1920

That photo isn’t too far off from what you might have seen from a rail car on the Trans-Siberian Railway.  That, and the Trans-
Siberian Highway from Moscow to Irkutsk in Yakutia are still there. The Trans-Siberian Highway is called  the Road of Bones for a very good reason. There is no telling exactly how many died during its construction.

During World War I, American troops were sent to Russia to help the White Russians push out the Bolsheviks/Red Army during Russia’s civil war. Most of them left when the Armistice was declared, but some remained behind to guard the Trans-Siberian Railway from Japanese troops. The Japanese had set up housekeeping and military facilities with about 72,000 troops near Vladivostok, in a part of Siberia that Russia claimed as its own. And our guys were supposed to push them out.

Photo: Unsplash

They were the Polar Bears. Not all of them made it home. The full story is at this link. The author of the article does a fine job of reviewing the book titled “The Polar Bear Expedition”,  that describes the history of the conflict our guys were sent into.  It is available at Amazon at a reasonable price.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-doughboys-who-died-fighting-russian-civil-war-180971470/

From the Smithsonian article:   As the Red Army neared, with bayonets fixed on their guns, Mead and his soldiers retreated. They ran through the village, from house to house, “each new dash leaving more of our comrades lying in the cold and snow, never to be seen again,” Mead said. At last, Mead made it to the next village, filled with American soldiers. Of Mead’s 47-man platoon, 25 died that day, and another 15 were injured.

For the 13,000 American troops serving in remote parts of Russia 100 years ago, the attack on Mead’s men was the worst day in one of the United States’ least-remembered military conflicts. When 1919 dawned, the U.S. forces had been in Russia for months. World War I was not yet over for the 5,000 members of the 339th U.S. Army regiment of the American Expeditionary Force deployed near the port city of Archangel, just below the Arctic Circle, nor for the 8,000 troops from the 27th and 31st regiments, who were stationed in the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok, 4,000 miles to the east. – article

Woodrow Wilson’s indecisiveness cost more of their lives than should have happened. Those American soldiers still in Siberia were ordered to stay there and support the White Russians and defend the eastern parts of Russia. When they were finally ordered to return to the USA, some of the dead were exhumed from their graves and brought home, but others could not be located.

Woodrow Wilson: the guy who founded the League of Nations (“to stop wars”) and wanted us all to “just get along”. Well, we’re still having wars, and we’ve nearly been turned into the world’s policemen, so that naivete of Wilson’s did more harm than good. Look at what we have today.

There is more information on the Russian civil war and World War I here:  https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/warfare_1914-1918_russian_empire

Category: Army, Historical, Russia