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Title: The Polar Bear Expedition: US/Allied Forces ordered into Russian Revolution/Civil War at close of WWI
Source:
YouTube and criticalpast.com
URL Source: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL04666C08BF8CC024
Published: Dec 1, 2011
Author: Various
Post Date: 2011-12-01 07:37:10 by GreyLmist
Keywords: WWI, Russian Revolution, Civil War Interventionism, Wilson
Views: 4371
Comments: 25
12 videos. 27 minutes total. Click the white box on the toolbar to scroll through the list of titles or view selections individually. Poster Comment: Two videos from right sidebar list of historical footage at criticalpast.com: Location: Arkhangelsk Russia Footage from the arrival of United States Army 85th Division, 339th Infantry, American Expeditionary Force North Russia, participating as part of the Triple Entente forces, in the so-called "Polar Bear Expedition." Two thirds of the soldiers were from Michigan. City officials greet the arriving forces. Officials from all of the Entente forces are seen (British, French, Russia) along with Colonel George E. Stewart, the commander of all US Forces. The procession of civilian and military officials emerge from a doorway and are greeted by local officials. Children and townspeople look on. This historic stock footage available in SD and HD video. Location: Arkhangelsk Russia Footage from the United States Army 85th Division, 339th Infantry, American Expeditionary Force North Russia, participating as part of the Triple Entente forces, in the so-called "Polar Bear Expedition." Two thirds of the soldiers were from Michigan. Arrival of US Army troops aboard the Gorfe Castle steamship docked at Arkhangelsk (also known as Archangel) in northern Russia. Military band disembarking with their instruments in hand. Soldiers disembarking down plank with their equipment. Soldiers and civilians on the dock beside the ship. Troops also included the 1st Battalion of 310th Engineers, the 337th Field Hospital, and the 337th Ambulance Company. This historic stock footage available in SD and HD video.
Date: 1918, September
Duration: 1 min 50 sec
Sound: NO SOUND
Date: 1918, September
Duration: 1 min 50 sec
Sound: NO SOUND
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#1. To: All (#0)
Forgot to check the links and info for the two criticalpast.com videos before posting to make sure they were both working properly with the accurate details for each. Apologies for the path glitches and data duplication error. For clarification, am just going to repost them as they should have been listed above: 1. Local officials in Arkhangelsk Russia greet Entente forces on arrival of US Army Forces, under British command Location: Arkhangelsk Russia Footage from the arrival of United States Army 85th Division, 339th Infantry, American Expeditionary Force North Russia, participating as part of the Triple Entente forces, in the so-called "Polar Bear Expedition." Two thirds of the soldiers were from Michigan. City officials greet the arriving forces. Officials from all of the Entente forces are seen (British, French, Russia) along with Colonel George E. Stewart, the commander of all US Forces. The procession of civilian and military officials emerge from a doorway and are greeted by local officials. Children and townspeople look on. This historic stock footage available in SD and HD video. 2. 339th Infantry troops disembark from the Gorfe Castle steamship in Northern Russia, beginning the Polar Bear Expedition Location: Arkhangelsk Russia Footage from the United States Army 85th Division, 339th Infantry, American Expeditionary Force North Russia, participating as part of the Triple Entente forces, in the so-called "Polar Bear Expedition." Two thirds of the soldiers were from Michigan. Arrival of US Army troops aboard the Gorfe Castle steamship docked at Arkhangelsk (also known as Archangel) in northern Russia. Military band disembarking with their instruments in hand. Soldiers disembarking down plank with their equipment. Soldiers and civilians on the dock beside the ship. Troops also included the 1st Battalion of 310th Engineers, the 337th Field Hospital, and the 337th Ambulance Company. This historic stock footage available in SD and HD video. Can click the "More" button at Related Clips on the site's right sidebar to see the full list of vintage films there on the subject of our troops in Russia.
iirc, the entry for Wilson was supposed to read: Wilson's Undeclared War in Russia and Globalization of Our Troops under Foreign Command. Guess there wasn't enough room in that boxed-section for all of that. There was a PBS documentary on TV in the last few days about the Polar Bear Expedition in Russia's Civil War. Some of the place names involved are spookish. Was the first time I saw it, and didn't see all of it, but it was reportedly scheduled to be televised at least once before, on July 4th, 2010 -- probably to commemorate the date that the surviving Polar Bears came home, who were on the verge of mutiny in Russia because their mission was a mystery to them, other than to be heldover there to be attacked. The U.S. Ambassador to Russia said something to them to the effect that they were there to help the emerging government, which shortly emerged from the Red Bolshevik forces that were were attacking them. Carl Levin (Dem-Senator, Michigan) appeared as a speaker in the documentary a number of times and so I figured that it could be somewhat insightful as to his current manuevers against the Constitution to make America into a Battlefield legislatively. Found a review of the documentary to post next that notes his political views of Wilson's Foreign Civil War Intervention then as comparative politically with the movement of our troops into Iraq and that political landscape. I suppose he thought at the time he was being interviewed for the show that all battlefields are alike for the purpose of outsourcing our troops and allies around the world for furthering the interests of empire designers. I dunno but maybe he's expecting the outsourcing of some Allied forces here to assist ours in turning America into a battlefield for global-empire expansion. For now, am posting this very lengthy source that has intrigues galore going on in that Russian era, 250 footnotes, 45 Bibliography references, but only one short, obscure sentence that I noticed by scanning through it on our Polar Bears and the allied expeditionary forces deployed there by underhanded, ignoble, dictatorial-empire types: "Three Men in Russia: Marye, Robins, and Francis, 1914-18"
PBS TV American Russian Civil War Intervention: 1918-1919 documentary A documentary about the American Russian Civil War Intervention: 1918-1919 has been made. 'Voices of a Never Ending Dawn': In the summer of 1918 President Woodrow Wilson, at the urging of our allies in Britain and France, sent an infantry regiment to north Russia to fight the Bolsheviks (the first Communists) in hopes of persuading Russia to rejoin the war against Germany. The 339th Infantry with the first battalion of the 310th Engineers and the 337th Ambulance and Hospital Companies were chosen from the Detroit and Michigan areas. Additional units and soldiers were chosen from all 50 states, and from the battlefronts of France. These men were called to brave the cold arctic snows and fight long battles in temperatures of sixty-degrees below zero, under the midnight sun of arctic Russia. Those that survived called themselves The Polar Bears. When WWI ended, these men expected to be immediately called home, like all other regiments around the world. That call, for these men, never came. They were left to fight a savage enemy in Northern Russia eight long months after WWI had ended. There has never been a regiment more tested. They became one of the most highly decorated regiments in all of WWI. This documentary will be shown are various PBS stations throughout the United States through July 4th, 2010: PBS TV stations, dates, and times (seems to be mainly on at odd hours of the day and night): http://www.polarbeardocume nt ary.com/index.html I was only able to catch the last hour on TV when it was shown a few months back. It wasn't that good IMO; it has (IMO) low budget / second rate production standards but it is the only documentary film on the American Intervention in the Russian Civil War that I know about. There are a lot of scenes with reenactors. The woman who made the documentary (a relative of hers fought on the American side in the conflict) interviews Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) who makes frequent appearances to comment on the political aspects of the American Intervention and makes connections between the Russian Civil War Intervention and Iraq, so it is that type of documentary. [My note: extra emphasis mine] However, I would recommend watching it on TV and if you miss seeing it on TV, I would say ordering a copy of the documentary for $29.00 would be worth your time and money. It is not a great documentary, but if you're interested in the Russian Civil War, or WWI, or if you've never heard of the Polar Bears and would like to learn more through a video format, it would be worth the price.
#4. To: All (#3)
"Detroit's Own" Polar Bear Memorial Association The "Detroit's Own" Polar Bear Memorial Association is dedicated to honoring and maintaining the memory of the 339th Infantry Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Ambulance Co. and the 337th Field Hospital of the U.S. Army's 85th Division. These men, officially designated the American North Russia Expeditionary Force and also known as "Detroit's Own" and "Polar Bears", were sent by President Wilson to North Russia where they fought the Bolshevik Red Army from September 1918 through June 1919. [sic] "The American Expedition to North Russia in 1918-1919 has been oddly neglected by professional historians, with the result that most US citizens, including even the best educated and well-read, have been unaware of its existence. Partly, this has been because it got underway in the closing weeks of the Great War (now officially called World War I), and like a side show at a circus where they are already striking the tent, it drew little attention. "Besides that, there was the confusion and obscurity surrounding it with regard to its purpose, especially in Washington and among the American troops who were involved: they literally had no idea what they were being sent to do. Even President Woodrow Wilson, as will be seen, was in a spin of uncertainty as to whether he should or should not authorize the expedition, and the British leadership (for it was to be an Allied operation, including British and French soldiers, but with the British officers in all the top command positions) offered little clarification. "Without further enlightenment, five thousand American doughboys found themselves, early in September of 1918, after a long, slow trip from England through the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean, disembarking at the Russian port of Archangel - and more than half of them no sooner ashore than they were, with astonishment, packed off to "the front" to fight "the Bolos" - which was to say units of the Soviet Red Army. The operation thus turned out to be, willy-nilly and right from the start, an invasion of Soviet territory." Ernest M. Halliday - from the Introduction to his book When Hell Froze Over [My note: Korea is similarly described at times as a Forgotten War, "When Hell Froze Over".] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For a concise overview of the American North Russian Expeditionary Forces, read "The Polar Bear Expedition - American Intervention in Northern Russia, 1918-1919", by the Michigan Historical Collections of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My note: Haven't researched either of those links much but there they are. Technically, the full title of the first one -- in all caps at amazon.com -- is "The Secrect War Between the U.S. and Russia at the Top of the World!: When Hell Froze Over". The second site is styled like a Military history textbook, with maps, links, a search engine, and is short-titled: "Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections". It says:
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http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675029273_Polar-Bear-Expedition- officials_Archangel_city-officials_Entente-forces_AEFNR [American Expeditionary Force North Russia]
Date: 1918, September
Duration: 1 min 50 sec
Sound: NO SOUND
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675029274_US-Army-339th- Infantry_archangel_Gorfe-Castle_C-6_Army-band_Polar-Bear-Expedition
Date: 1918, September 4
Duration: 1 min 39 sec
Sound: NO SOUND
#2. To: All (#1)
Keywords: WWI, Russian Revolution, Civil War Interventionism, Wilson
http://history.eserver.org/russia-1914-17.txt Throughout April, the question of intervention loomed large in the considerations of all parties, a debate that went on after Robins left in May, and was acted on from the summer of 1918 to the summer of 1920. (241) That debate resulted in a limited intervention later on [My note: a few weeks later on, in September of that year - 1918] by US and other Allied forces.
#3. To: All (#2)
http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=42782 Quote:
Replies to Comment # 3.
http://pbma.grobbel.org/ 
A winter of fighting Bolsheviks and wondering why they were still in combat when the war with Germany had ended led to severe morale problems among the American troops, including an alleged mutiny in March 1919 by members of one company in Archangel, and the presentation of an antiwar petition by members of another company in the same month. The troops were ready for the new American commander who arrived at Archangel in April 1919 with orders to withdraw. As soon as navigation opened in June, the American forces left northern Russia. British troops withdrew a few months later,
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