This program was part of the 2019 National World war i museum and memorial symposium. Lora next, talking a little bit about stuff going on in russia. Again, i feel like everything is relevant in the world today that connects back to world war i. Our next speaker is james carl nelson. He is the author of four books about the American Experience in world war i. The remains of company d, five lieutenants, i will hold. He is the winner of the colonel Joseph Alexander award for biography from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and the polar bear expedition the heroes of americas forgotten invasion of russia, 1918 to 1919, which you will be learning more about in his lecture today. A graduate in journalism from the university of minnesota, nelson has worked as a staff writer for the miami herald and has covered some of the last three decades major stories, so he can expand even further on that concept. He is an active member of the western Front Association and currently lives in eden prairie, minnesota, where he is working on his fifth book of world war i nonfiction. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please please join me in giving a round of applause for james carl nelson. [applause] james wow. What a warm up. Is this thing on . Oh, good. I have my swag here. Thank you for coming. Im going to talk about the polar bears. Thats a lonely photo, isnt it . In theme with the 1919 piece, i am going to start off with a story of a guy named kerry mead. He was a lieutenant, commander of the fourth platoon, company a, 339th infantry regiment. On the morning of january 19, 1919, he and his men were stationed on a river 250 miles south of arkhangelsk, guarding the American Allied outpost in that little conflict, which i will be explaining. He was awakened that morning at 6 00 a. M. By shells screaming up up north from the river. Got out of bed, joined his men. There were only 45 men out there. Manning the lines, commanding the fire. Meanwhile, these ghostly forms were heading for them. Hundreds of ghostly forms on skis wearing white tunics headed straight for them. Within minutes, they were upon the forlorn americans manning this forlorn post. They were overwhelmed quickly, had to fight for their lives singly to try to escape north to their companys headquarters about a mile and a half north of where they were stationed. They were put to flight. Just a handful of them got back to their Company Headquarters. That is just to lead into the question of what americans were doing in russia in 1919. And thank you, im glad you asked that. [laughter] james basically we all know there is a western front, but there was also an Eastern Front that the russians had been Holding Since the outset of the war in august of 1914. They had tried to invade east prussia. But like on the western front, a sort of semistatic front had developed. They were faced off against germans and forces of the austrohungarian empire. In late 1917, of course, along came Vladimir Lenin who promised to take russia out of the war. And he did. He signed a treaty with the germans in early march 1918. Russia left the war. That freed germany to transfer some 80 divisions to the western front. Many of those divisions took part in a massive offensive that began on march 21, 1918, that was aimed at splitting the french and British Forces in northern france and rolling the british up into the sea. And it very nearly succeeded. A series of subsequent offenses were also launched. And one on may 27, 1918, south across the river, and by early june, the german vanguard is within 35 air miles of paris. The allies were quite nervous, of course. The extra German Forces were putting them in peril. About as soon as russia took itself out of the war, the allied command began casting about ways to relieve the pressure on the western front. They settled with this idea of an intervention, that they would send a handful of allied soldiers into northern russia, where they would of course be greeted as liberators by the antibolshevik forces. They would form an army of these men and basically reconstitute the Eastern Front and force germany to bring troops back or at least not take any more from where they were. Oh, there. That is a map. What we are talking about, oh, that works good. There is the arkhangelsk. I will talk generally. They land in arkhangelsk and head southeast up the river to a place out here about 300 miles. Down a railway line to here, down here another 300 miles. The idea was they have this army reach out to this strange conglomerate of soldiers, about 40,000, 80,000 czech soldiers known as the czech legion. They had been prisoners of war in russia. They were allowed to leave and go to france to help the cause on the western front. They will reach out to this army of some thousands of men. In their most fervent aspirations, they envisioned moving, linking up with forces, moving to petrograd, and ultimately moving on moscow and undoing the russian revolution. Great aspirations. The british were very gung ho as usual. In fact, by april, the brits had landed some thousands of men at murmansk, which is up here, and they were joined by 1400 french troops and the u. S. Ship, the olympia, which Woodrow Wilson had agreed to send at the request of the allies. Meanwhile, the allies tried to get Woodrow Wilson to send troops of his own into this interesting little fray. He refused. He felt every resource should be used on the western front, so he refused for months. The allied Supreme War Council actually okayed the idea in early june of sending american troops there. Finally in midjuly of 1918, Woodrow Wilson spent a long night agonizing over the question. He wrote this famous document called the aid du memoir, in which he first argued all of the reasons he was not going to send troops to russia and spent the last half saying why he was going to send troops to russia. The chief reason being to guard millions of dollars of war material and other stores that had been sent to the russians to help the war cause throughout the war. Secondly, he insisted american troops not get involved in the internal politics or do any fighting but to aid the russians in any way they could. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, general Frederick Poole is in command of the allied invasion, whatever you want to call it, moved his troops down to arkhangelsk to try to stop the gauntlet up the dvina river. The mouth. Landed in arkhangelsk. Meanwhile, the local bolshevik government fled, but they looted all the stories that were in arkhangelsk, moving them by rail or up the river by ship, therefore, pretty much negating the entire reason for the americans to go to north russia. What is interesting, there was a contingent of 50 sailors from the olympia. Wild guys. They look like a fun bunch. [laughter] james they commandeered a locomotive. They started chasing the bolsheviks down the railway line. Trying to get the stores back. They wound up getting beaten back by the bolsheviks and eventually headed back to arkhangelsk. But then they were split in two again and joined there were three forces that the british led. One down the dvina, another one down to the railway line. Down the railway line. Sailorn part of the force wound up in this area trying to get to the main red base. Among them was an ensign named donald hicks. They wound up fighting in this area. Very muddled fighting. Then they finally tried to attack from here, but another force moved on them from behind. So they were caught in the middle. They finally escaped and got back on the railway line. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, a regiment for the intervention had been selected, it was the 339th infantry regiment. Mostly men from wisconsin and michigan. They had trained at fort custer in michigan. They had been trained for hoboken in england. They were in england shortly after wilson okd the use of American Forces in the north russian region. They all thought they were going to france. They had been issued american rifles and they were just waiting to cross the channel. But they started to get rumors that they were instead headed for russia. Harry mead, he grew up in indiana where his family ran a boarding house. Lowell thomas had been a student there. He had had adventures with te lawrence in arabia. Harry and lowell crossed paths on a london street one day and harry said, we are getting ready to go to france, and lowell said, that is not what i heard. He had just been at british headquarters and said youre going to russia. Sure enough, soon enough they were getting lectured by ernest shackleton, the famed arctic explorer [laughter] and they were being issued shackleton boots. They traded in their springfields for americanmade, russiandesign guns that the soldiers complained had such poor aim, it could shoot around corners. [laughter] james they were equipped with this because there were millions of rounds of ammunition for these guns, supposedly sitting in arkhangelsk, but it had been had probably been probably carried off by the bolsheviks by that time. Anyway, they left england in late august, 1918, sailed around oh, shoot, wrong way. I hit the wrong button. Sailed around here. Their destination was actually murmansk. There came an urgent call that they needed to go to arkhangelsk to rescue these sailors who had disappeared in the russian wilderness. So they indeed diverted their path and landed in arkhangelsk on september 5, 1918. The next day, ensign donald hicks and his men appeared on the railway line. The urgency was no longer there. Anyway, it was a series of mistakes, as we will see. But, they were quickly taken from their transports. And the third battalion was put on a train on september 6 and immediately ran into opposition from the local bolshevik fighters in that area. The idea to push down all the way through, which Frederick Poole thought they should be able to do by november to reach 300 miles further south. The next day, the First Battalion of the 339th was put on barges and sent up the dvina. Of course, we are going to go to kotlass and be there by november, right . There would be no opposition. Pieinthesky stuff. They immediately ran into bolsheviks and fought here. Just a little south. That is as far as they got. That was midseptember of 1918. They did an assault, they lost five or six men killed in action there. Then russian gunboats came up and scared them off. So they retreated back to shenkursk. Then in early october, some royal scouts have relieved them. They were sent back in midoctober. Russian gunboats appeared again and blew apart the blockhouses they created, so they then retreated to a more permanent base, which is where they were going to spend the winter. And then, ironically, i guess very ironically, on november 11, 1918, we all know what that day was, right . Company b was attacked by hundreds and hundreds of bolshevik warriors that spent four days fighting for their lives, just barely escaped. They beat them off. They wound up burning part of the village that was harboring snipers. And spend the river patrolling river, the area constantly under attack. As the days wore on, some of them became disaffected, especially after word got back that the world war had ended. There were people coming and going from arkhangelsk that could bring word that the world war is over. So the question, as we will see, became a burning one. The war is over, why are we still here . What are we doing in russia . They never really got a good answer to that. Meanwhile, on the railway line, companies m and l kept trying to batter their way through. They ended up about down here by november, meanwhile company k was trying to force their way. They took it, lost, took it, lost it, took it again and a nervous lieutenant ordered it be burned to the ground. That was pretty much the end of the operation there. Widespreadt casualties, but there was enough. It was basically kind of an insane idea, the whole operation, that to lose one life for this was a travesty. Also, they also had sent company h to guard the western play western flight. They fought here, lost several men, and larger battles here. Company g was reinforced by company f in december and january. Im going to show a few photos here. If i can. Thats arkhangelsk itself. They had about a residents at hundred thousand that time, half of them refugees from the fighting, the civil war between the whites and the reds. Thats a look at the railway front. This is the third battalion commander, jay brooks nichols. He was a very wealthy businessman who did officer training at Fort Sheridan and was originally commander of the second battalion. Is the over, and that office in his railway car, where he spent the fall and winter. Winter that is part of 1918. On a snow patrol in the middle of the winter on the dvina. He wrote a scathing book about the whole operation afterwards. This is a sample of a block out they were constructing. Eventually they reined the whole village with blockhouses and wires. Like i say, the bolsheviks kept trying to sneak in, but they stayed there until march, when they turned the village over to russians, and they were soon enough blackmailed basically by bolsheviks, cajoled into letting them in. So everything they fought for through the winter was lost. With not a shot fired. Also, basically, moving on to company a once again, this is harry mead, he was the Company Commander. They won some skirmishes on the volga river, and eventually were sent, id go back to the map, they were sent here. This is where the Company Headquarters were. The farthest flung American Forces, they had some reinforcements, with what they called the slavicbritish allied league, local russians. Some people said they basically emptied the jails and got convicts out. There were no more than 500 men. Meanwhile, the bolsheviks under leon trotsky, the war minister, were building their forces. They had a very illequipped and ill trained army to begin with when the revolution occurred, but over the winter they filled it out, they trained. Eventually, in the northern sector here they had 45,000 men facing off against no more than at any time 11,000 allied soldiers, so the odds were ridiculous, four to one. By june of the red army was 1919, 600,000 men strong. So it was quite a movement. Company a was stationed here, and it was a placid place. It was winter. As winter descended, everybody thought like in the civil war , you would suspend operations until the spring, but thats not what happened in northern russia. When the ground froze the russians strapped on skis and put on their white parkas. Thats when, ironically, that is really when the war began in earnest. Whats interesting is they had sent a new commander, Frederick Poole for some reason decided he wanted to go on vacation in october 1918, so he left in the left for england in the middle of the whole operation he had planned, and they sent another general, ironside, out of the trenches in france. He arrived, and decided this is hopeless, but it is too late now to take them out because they would be vulnerable if they tried to withdraw. To a said, we will just sit in our fortifications here, and just hope nothing bad happens. Actually visited this frontline on january 18, 1919. He wrote about it in a book later. He easily imagined how a force could come right up the river and overwhelm this small force here. Then he left, he went back to shenkursk. Lucky for him. Because the next morning, like i mentioned, the platoon, 46 men of company a were attacked and put to flight and ultimately 25 men from company a would be killed or die of wounds. The handful of men made it back to the log cabins that served as company as headquarters. That turned out to be no haven, either, as they soon came under artillery fire from the bolsheviks, and had to flee that area. And they are trying to get back to shenkursk, which is about where did shenkursk go . It is up here. There was a larger town, but as soon as they arrived there, they were fighting rearguard actions in four feet of snow, temperatures 60 below. The town was invested too. All the inhabitants, including many civilians, took to flight , trying to find some refuge further upriver. Finally, after several days they were able toe they circle the wagons a little bit and company ay spent from late january to early march living in snow trenches , fighting off constant bolshevik attacks, until they were believed in early march by company f. Their ordeal was pretty much over. Back on the railway line, the fighting continued into february and they kept trying to hammer down, hammer down and could hardly get any further than about here. Meanwhile, like i said, the bolsheviks were Gathering Forces and a large army approached from here. Aiming for this, trying to cut the supply lines. Were massed for ,n attack against company m part of company i and some russian soldiers and the canadian battery. They sent several canadian batteries artillery over. This is a small force of 500 men, managed to fight off this large force of 7000 men. This is a bolshevik soldier who tried to infiltrate the lines of company a in early january, and they shot him down. That was that shot. Loan forlorn outpost century sentry there. It was held by the bolsheviks at the time. So basically, with some canadian artillery, machine guns, they were able to fend off this large force of 7000 bolsheviks, with few losses. That really was the end of the major engagements in the war. It was in late march, early april 1919, things were beginning to wind down a little bit. The men were all looking forward to going home, but they had no idea when they would go home. I will show you a picture, this is a picture of the commander of company m, the men called him bolo. He got shot from his horse. So things are winding down. But mutiny was beginning to spread, it erupted among the french at first. After they learned the armistice was signed, the question became, what were we doing here . They didnt get a good answer. Obviously, the original design, they wanted to hammer away with the original design of fomenting this counterrevolution. Company i, there is a small revolution, a few men who were going to be sent down and refused to pack the sleds. War were read the acts of by the commanding general and one man was thrown in the blockhouse briefly and it settled down. B, there was a corporal who created this document, this petition that said, we are not going to fight anymore, we are not going to patrol until you tell us why we are here. He said they were bolo sympathizers and called his patrol the bolo patrol. It was quite funny, really. But tragic at the same time. The french mutiny. Overall, there was a terrible feeling of having been stranded, for no good reason. They knew the boys were leaving france for home, the war was over for months and months, and still, even when Woodrow Wilson in mid february said, ok, enough is enough, decided to cut bait on the operation, it made the newspapers in the u. S. They wanted to pull the troops out. But it was a moot point by then, because the white sea at arkhangelsk was frozen, so there was no way to get out anyway , unless they went all the way to murmansk, and there was that theylike i said, would be attacked overfield. All they could really do was wait and freeze. Another instance of how illplanned the operation was. Vickershad been issued machine guns, which are watercooled. [laughter] james they dont operate very well when it is 50 degrees below. They we keep them in the sleeping bags to try to keep them warm and it didnt do any good. The clothing was not bad, except for the shackleton boots. They had a very slick sole, so the men escaping, a few of them, they were just flailing around in the snow, 46 feet of snow. They threw them away, put on eight pairs of wool socks and trudged through the snow in those. The casualties were not huge. Were 70 men, roughly, who died of the flu in arkhangelsk before the end of september. Otherwise there was another 235 casualties total, including the flu, killed in action, died of wounds, accidents. There was an accident, i think, in which four engineers drowned in the dvina river. Finally word came that they were going to get out by stages. There was an instance where the company that took over from company a, the local british commander there had insisted that the company across the banks of the west side of the volga until a certain date, you have to hold on this long. But they were concerned the ice would go out, leaving them stranded to russian gunboats. So, the Company Commander says, the hell with this, takes them across, and actually ordered the canadian batteries in the west bank to fire on the americans and the canadians refused. The canadians were pretty much on our side. They were battle hardened veterans of the western front, sort of like souvenir takers, cutting ears off of dead bolos, things like this, they work an interesting bunch. [laughter] james so, basically, they started withdrawing. Once the river starts thawing further south, theyre able to finally board ships and head back from the riverfront toward arkhangelsk. The forces gathered here, and once that melted, they were able to get back. Luckily, or maybe, i dont really know what the word is, the bolsheviks did not try to attack them as they are were withdrawing. I think the word probably came down from leon trotsky himself, we are seeing their backs, just let them go. There were also involved in negotiations in versailles, the versailles treaty, they wanted recognition and some benefits to come from that and didnt want to be known for slaughtering allied soldiers at that time. It is also interesting, there were about 10 men taken prisoner over the course of this winter, one of whom disappeared forever. He was with company b. Herbert schroeder. He wound up being taken to kotlass. He is the only allied soldier who ever made it to kotlass. Another allied soldier died in a hospital. Otherwise, they were welltreated. A handful of them were taken to moscow and where given free rein in the streets. They actually lived better than a lot of people in moscow at the time. They stated a place where they could get library books. Where theyt a place could get library books. One soldier made it back to michigan in 1920, but it was an ordeal he had to go through. So they started coming back to arkhangelsk, and gathered at places here. Meanwhile, the british had made plans to send more troops in to cover the retreat, so they raised several regiments of veterans from france who were unemployed or just couldnt adjust to civilian life. As the americans were leaving, the british were coming in, and in june they did sort of a cleaning up. They mopped up, pushed down the, river, just to create a buffer zone. The americans boarded ships in early june and were taken to france. The british stayed behind mopping up, and left in september. That was the end of that little war. So, the americans went to france for a very short time, then came back. The First Companies arrived in july 3, 1919. Which is handy, because the next day they had a big fourth of july parade. They quickly formed a thing called the polar bear association, to commemorate their ordeal and the loss of their 235 comrades. Over time, they gathered funds, and in 1929 they sent a small contingent back to russia, they were allowed in by the russians, to look for the graves of buddies who had fallen. When they left russia, they took about 100 bodies with them, in the transports, and ultimately on the various fronts they located 86 bodies, disinterred them, and ship them shipped them back to the united states. Where 40 of them were claimed by relatives for private burial, and 46 of them were buried around this magnificent statue in detroit, michigan at the whitechapel cemetery. I was there last september. It is about eight feet tall, the polar bear, a specially commissioned statue. Walking around there, wow, i know this guy, i wrote about this guy, it was an interesting experience there. In sum, what was the impact, what does this all amount to . For americans, not much. It was a stage that was kind of swept under the carpet. I dont think a lot of people know about this invasion, except in detroit, greater michigan, they are more aware of the polar bears and what they went through. In russia, though, its much more commemorated. The bolsheviks were able to use this invasion to create propaganda, to say, we were invaded, the bolsheviks fought these guys off, gaining sympathy of the locals. The civil war between the bolsheviks and the whites did end in 1922 with the bolsheviks winning. The intervention is still taught in russian schools today. They have a much longer memory, having been invaded so many times over the years, this one also sticks in their ministry their memory, the capitalistic western, whatever, and they were able to use this for propaganda. I believe thats about all i have inside my little brain. [laughter] [applause] lora we are opening up the floor to questions. If you are able, head down to either mic, and if you are not, i will come to you. You are more than happy to start. Hi my name is alaina holland. James sorry. Im a doctoral student at the university of kansas. A few weeks ago, i found a really interesting picture of, a photo in the library of Congress Called playing the National Game on a railroad in russia. James oh, yeah. Mikes but it is actually american soldiers in pennsylvania, but they were coming from the red cross, to from moscow to arkhangelsk. I was trying to figure out what was going on, and i found that there were two, there was a dual use of the American Red Cross in arkhangelsk. You mentioned it. I am not a military historian, so i dont know how units relate, but the 339th infantry from the american, the detroit infantry from the American Expeditionary forces was sent to arkhangelsk specifically to aid the white question soldiers. Russian soldiers. So, the American Red Cross sent aid to arkhangelsk for two reasons, to aid the starving russian peasants but also to aid the american soldiers. James i didnt know that. Interesting. How was wondering if you in your research have encountered any other american aid societies aiding both civilians and americans . James not really. You know, maybe the ymca. They seemed to be everywhere. I did not find any mention of not medical or anything. The 339th had its own medical detachment, and one of them, his name was gordon anderson, said they were basically taught a little anatomy, how to find a bind a wounded little bit. Wound a little bit. Thats about all the training they had. Whats interesting, these men had the flu, sent to the interior, some of them still sick with the flu, so the flu became rampant in these areas they occupied. Because of tradition and because it was so cold, the local russians sealed all their windows, so they couldnt get any fresh air in. The medics kept telling them you had to let fresh air in. Fairly primitive People Living in that area. So, it was, but i didnt find out any other civilian activities. I forgot to show you the most important photo, by the way. Oh, how did that get in there . [laughter] lora our next question is going to come from the back. I was just wondering, with the propaganda that was coming out of russia, and with our invasion, how much did that effect our getting out . Because i heard we were told to get out during, becoming involved in our politics and in our government. James i dont think it had a huge effect. Bolsheviks, the they did try to sway the prisoners they took to accept communism, bolshevism. And they kind of feigned like they were going along with it. The family members were aware friends,r loved ones, were in northern russia. And there was a groundswell, especially in detroit, to get these people out. They started pressuring local congressmen. There was one senator, Hiram Johnson of california introduced a resolution to bring the troops home, and it failed by one vote in the senate. That was the vote of the Vice President of the united states. That was early on, january 1919. But there was a groundswell here that i think had some effect. I think what happened with wilson was, he finally got hip to the idea that these troops were being misused. The british basically grabbed them out from under the nose of their commander, george stewart, and just used them as they would. And george stewart, he felt he was caught in a bind. He was told the british were running the show, so he had to do what they said. So, it shouldve just turned out they stayed in arkhangelsk, but it turned out they were used for offensive purposes right away. Our left . Gentleman on thank you. Im still trying to understand what the official mission was. You had mentioned something about reconstituting the Eastern Front, but it seems they were also supposed to be aiding the white russians in the civil war. James it kind of became a jumbled mess, really. I think originally the idea was , we will just gather forces and try to get this czech legion and then go to where the Eastern Front was. But i think general poole had this big idea of cap the revolution, and i think that idea kind of ran away from him. They never got near to the czech legion, and didnt get anything like the local support they thought they would. The russians were saying, here is another invader, lets just wait long enough and they will go away. You are right. The original idea of rebuilding the Eastern Front got lost in translation. And i thought the british, especially Winston Churchill at the time, was definitely very interested in combating the bolsheviks. James yeah. On, even ass going they are trying to get them out of there, hes arguing we should send a million men there. The world war had just ended. Millions of people, including a million brits had just died and now he starts talking about starting a new war with a million men . He got no takers. But he was very much antired. Thank you. Lora next question, from the left . [laughter] my left. Our left. Yes. All the best plans for expeditions like this are always executed perfectly until the first shot is fired, and then it kind of falls apart. It looks like there were three different areas they sent these different groups into. How in the world did they communicate with each other . Did they use radio . Are there telegraphs . How would you even know what is going on in another sector . James i dont think they did know, really. They would have runners, like on the western front. Probably had telegraphs. I dont know how far radio come along. Theres one soldier who was sent out every day to repair the telegraph lines, so there was telegraph lines, but were not enough engineers to keep them very interesting talk. Thanks. A couple things to add to what you said. Interestingly, in arkhangelsk there are all kinds of, not all kinds of but at least a few commemorations of the american and british invasion, in 1918 and 1919, whereas there no mention whatsoever of the efforts in the second world war, they do remember this very clearly, to the exclusion of almost Everything Else about american assistance or hindrance in either war. Also, i was an exhibit guide for the soviet union in 1987, and i can vouch for the fact they teach that in schools, the invasion or the intervention. I was asked about it several times each day, why did your forces come to snuff out our revolution . James interesting. But people here dont really know. It is not taught here. But they remember every day there. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please join me in thanking james. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv, covering history cspan style with eyewitness accounts and films, lectures and College Classrooms and museums and historic places. A weekend every weekend on cspan3. America the on real documentary to the shores of where 7000 marines were killed. Here is a preview. We hit ships from the air. [gunfire] after 70 two hours of continuous pounding, the patrols moved forward. The barrage searches out hidden machine guns. To keep a sharp lookout for snipers. Admiral turner gives the order to ceasefire. The guns are quiet as they make the climb. We wait for a sign. It is ours, but to hold on the southern tip of the island. 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