There are tons of documents of World War I and especially World War II. However, such complex conflicts with many fronts, many soldiers and interests have many unknown stories. Some of them were tried to be covered up, and some of them could not be understood by those concerned. This is exactly the case with the ‘Polar Bear Expedition’ operation, in which the USA sent 5,000 soldiers to fight in Russia as the First World War was about to end.

It did not go well and was an important first contact between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Peace of Brest-Litovsk. After years of fighting in World War I, Russia agreed to withdraw from the war. The reason was that they had their own problems on their borders due to the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution. In the agreement, Russia gave up certain territories (such as Finland, Poland, or Ukraine, among others) that would now remain under the control of the Central Empires (Germany and Austria-Hungary, with the addition of the Ottomans and Bulgarians). The Allies feared that Russia’s departure would allow the Central Empires to strengthen their positions in the east.

And not only would Germany not have to worry about the front against the Russians, it would also allow them to concentrate on an offensive against Paris.

Allied intervention. The Allies did not like this situation at all. If the Central Empires did not have to worry about the front against the Russians, they could reorganize and consolidate their forces to concentrate on an offensive against Paris. Therefore, in the summer of 1918, France and the United Kingdom (and other Allied countries) decided to send troops to Russia and Siberia in an attempt to influence the civil war.

His intention was for the revolution to end as soon as possible so that he could return to a state of instability from which the eastern front would be rebuilt and from there he could fight the Germans again. This would weaken the Central Empire’s forces and it would have to pay attention on many fronts, but things did not go as expected.

Are we going to Russia? Interestingly, the United States was not about to join the ‘Great War’. Even when Germany sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915 and 128 Americans died in the incident, President Woodrow Wilson remained fairly cool and intent on negotiating. The public liked being kept out of a war thousands of kilometers away, but Germany once again intensified its actions in submarine warfare and, after some provocations, the United States stepped in as an active party in the conflict.

Thus, the country was sending tens of thousands of soldiers to France every day; The 339th Regiment of the 85th Division was also part of the participants in the European conflict. But a surprise awaited these soldiers: The change of plan meant that their destination was Russia, not France. And they would fight against the Bolsheviks, not in the ‘Great War’. So the Allies brought 8,000 North American army forces to Siberia to support the White Army against the Red Army.

Monument at White Chapel in Troy, Michigan

bad camouflage. There were no members of the 339th Regiment among them, because these 5,000 men had another destination: the port of Arkhangelsk. They were known as the ‘Polar Bears’ and were ordered to launch a counter-attack against the Reds and drive them out as it was a strategic point, but they miscalculated. Fatal. First, by some accounts, there was no food because the Bolsheviks had already destroyed everything of value. This included jewelery for trade, as well as boats, hospital equipment, ammunition, weapons and food.

Moreover, these soldiers did not have any equipment. The allies in the area wore uniforms similar to the Russians, winter boots that were not suitable for the terrain, and worst of all, the rifles that mimicked the Russians but jammed were faulty and… broken. These were toy weapons used to fight against a larger enemy, and most importantly, an enemy on their own territory.

Napoleon already knew this. James Carl Nelson is an American author who published works about the First World War, and he recently spoke to the BBC and said that the Allied forces in the region numbered around 11,000 against 60,000 Bolsheviks. 45,000 of them were in the Arkhangelsk region. If the situation wasn’t bad enough, Allied generals thought it would ease with winter. And as happened to Napoleon in his day, they were wrong.

The Russians were better organised, knew the terrain better, had better overcoats, more adequate boots and useful weapons, so with the arrival of cold weather they intensified their attacks. Nelson confirms that Americans have done a good job coming out of very complex situations, but disasters have also happened. More than 230 American soldiers are estimated to have died in the mission; these include military casualties and 70 people who died from influenza that struck the ship while traveling to the region.

And for what? The operation lasted from September 1918 to June 1919, and voices began to arise wondering why American troops were still in Europe when the war had ended months earlier. This was a question the troops asked themselves, and according to University of Louisiana history professor Carl Richard, “the reason for staying in Russia after the armistice was to overthrow the Soviets.”

They were not successful and retreated when it became clear that they could not defeat the Bolsheviks. They did so, leaving behind the bodies of some of those killed in the conflict, and ten years later, in 1929, a rescue party returned to Russia to recover 88 bodies of their comrades. Later in 1934, 14 more bodies were found, but 27 are still missing. Writer Phillip Knightley commented that this was not reported in the press and that Americans were unaware that their own citizens were fighting in Russia.

almost forgotten history. There is such a lack of knowledge on this subject that when Nikita Khrushchev, who headed the Soviet Union for part of the Cold War, mentioned it at a meeting in the United States, few in attendance knew what he was talking about. Moreover, both Nixon and Reagan stated that the United States had never fought on Russian soil, which was false, and it is not known whether they stated this out of ignorance or strategic reasons.

What is known is that it is an event remembered in Russia just as members of the Detroit Polar Bear Memorial Association remember it. You can see an excerpt from the book’s introduction covering this story on their website. It says:

The American expedition to northern Russia has been strangely ignored by professional historians. Most American citizens are unaware of its existence. This is partly because it began in the final weeks of the Great War and attracted little attention as a sideshow in a circus where the tent was being erected.

There was confusion and uncertainty about its purpose, especially in Washington and among the American troops involved. They literally had no idea what they were sent for. Even President Woodrow doubted whether he should authorize the expedition.

Without further information, five thousand American soldiers found themselves disembarking in the Russian port of Archangel in early September 1918, after a long voyage from England across the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. To their surprise, more than half headed to the “front” to fight against the “Bolos,” that is, Soviet Red Army units. It turned out that the operation was an invasion of Soviet territory, whether it was intended from the beginning or not.

And interestingly, this is not the first time that data on North American defeats have been erased from the history books.

Pictures | from Bolandera

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