"The Polar Bears" or the American North Russia Expeditionary Force

[2xvetran]

I was travelling to the Detroit area yesterday and thought I would stop by the White Chapel Cemetary in Troy MI. There is a monument to the men of the 339th Infantry Regiment, the 310th Engineers, and the 337th Field Hospital also known in the U.S. as "The Polar Bears" or the American North Russia Expeditionary Force A.N.R.E.F. These men were drawn from the 85th "Custer" Division and were sent to Archangel Russia to combat the Bolsheviks and to urge the Russians to re-join the war against Germany. Most were from Michigan and Wisconsin and they trained at Ft.Custer near Battle Creek Michigan. They remain the only American force to directly engage Russians in war.

The monument was placed in 1930 to memorialize those that did not return. There are 56 Polar Bears interred here whose remains were recovered after the cessation of hostilities. It was an effort led by 5 former Polar Bears and the Veterans of Foriegn Wars. So many times these men are forgotten that perhaps the dates of the wars end should be 1920... But that is an entirely different topic.

Sorry for the low quality pics, as you can see the ground is completely covered and I had to shoot from a distance. I didn't want to walk through the graves. Scott.

[2xvetran]

Historic marker about the mission.

[2xvetran]

Historic marker about the monument and graves located here.

Edited February 7, 2011 by 2xvetran

[2xvetran]

Opposite side of monument. Thanks for looking and remembering that wars don't always end with a calendar date. Scott.

[Lee Enfield]

Australians were also sent to fight at Archangel in 1919 and did not return home until mid 1920.

Popular history has the war as 1914-1918 because that is when the major powers engaged , however Greeks, Macedonians and Turks were mixing it up in the Balkans in 1912 until 1913 and there were still hostilities as you have shown into 1920 which is largely either forgotten or ignored.

What is even more disappointing is that the major wars are largely being ignored by our education systems and these wars are fast fading from our high schools knowledge stream.