Public Domain

The History Of The American Expedition Fighting The Bolsheviki

I (Don Kostuch) am the son of John Kostuch, then from Detroit, who was a Mechanic in the 339th, Company M. He saw some action in the fall of 1918 but due to flu, exposure and a dislocated joint, was evacuated to England on December 1, 1918 before the gruesome winter described...

Chapters

15. Chapter 15

After the usual delay with sleigh drivers, with shoutings and “brrs” and shoving and pullings, the convoy was off at 11:55 a. m. December 18. The trail was an improved governmen...

9. Chapter 9

The province of Archangel is in the far north or forest region of Russia. It is a land of forest and morass, plentifully supplied with water in the form of rivers, lakes and mar...

36. Chapter 36

Here and there in the Economia embarkation camp those days and nightless nights in early June many a secret conclave of doughboys was held to devise ways and means of getting th...

22. Chapter 22

Or on officers’ entertainment night they and their guests chosen from charming Russian families, joyfully danced or watched the antics of Douglas Fairbanks, Fatty Arbuckle, Char...

32. Chapter 32

“This is written purely from memory. I haven’t a scrap of material at hand and I have hurried in order that you might have the stuff promptly. Please indicate, in case you use t...

17. Chapter 17

It will be recalled that the main positions of our troops was in Netsvetiafskaya, on a high bluff overlooking Ust Padenga and Nijni Gora—the former about a thousand yards to our...

34. Chapter 34

With the assistance of the Red Cross _The American Sentinel_, a weekly newspaper, was printed and distributed among the troops and did much to keep up their morale. One of the l...

29. Chapter 29

How now, Paul, my _poilu_ comrade, _bon ami_, why don’t you add the house itself to the pack on your back? Sure, you’ll scramble along somehow to the rest of the camp in the rea...

21. Chapter 21

On December 20th one squad of “H” men were in a patrol fight with the enemy which drove the Reds from the village of Kleshevo. On the following day Lt. Ketcham with twenty Ameri...

3. Chapter 3

Our Allied force of Cossacks proved unreliable and officer’s patrols of Americans served better but owing to lack of maps or guides were able to gain but little information of t...

7. Chapter 7

It will be remembered that the third battalion was hurried from troopship to troop train and steamed south as fast as the rickety Russki locomotives of the 1880 type could wobbl...

13. Chapter 13

Oh, Armistice Day in Archangel made peace in our strange war no nearer. It was dark foreboding of the winter campaign that filled the thoughts of the doughboy on duty or lying i...

27. Chapter 27

During the time American soldiers were in Russia they were paid in checks drawn on London. During the war, this was at the pegged rate ($4.76-1/4) which had been fixed by agreem...

14. Chapter 14

Some of the prisoners were mere boys seventeen and eighteen years old. Others men of advanced years. Nearly all of them were hopelessly ignorant, likely material for a fiery ton...

20. Chapter 20

Another reason for the non-development of the north country in the past is the lack of available labor-supply. People are widely scattered. The majority of the industrious ones...

5. Chapter 5

It was during the shelling incidental to this that Edvinson, the Viking, did his stunt. He was in a machine gun emplacement which was hit by a small H. E. shell. The others were...

18. Chapter 18

At 9:00 a. m. we arrived at Yemska Gora on the main road from Shenkursk, where an hour’s halt was made. All the samovars in the village were at once put into commission and soon...

26. Chapter 26

At Yemetskoe in February, one night just after the terrible retreat from Shenkursk, forty wounded American, British, and Russian soldiers lay on stretchers on the floor in Briti...

16. Chapter 16

To be sure the great rank and file of American soldiers like their people back home could not be fooled by propaganda. They could see through Red propaganda as well as they coul...

23. Chapter 23

In the narrative telling of the fighting on the Vaga and Dvina, we have already seen that the Red Guards had disillusioned us in regard to the quiet winter campaign we hoped and...

30. Chapter 30

These Slavo-Brits as they were called never distinguished themselves except in the slow goose step—much admired by Colonel Stewart, who pointed them out to one of his captains a...

11. Chapter 11

Its people had held a great celebration when they renounced allegiance to the Czar, but they had very sensibly retained some of his old trained local representatives to help car...

31. Chapter 31

The writers have an idea that the veterans of the North Russian Expedition would like a short, up-to-date chapter on Bolshevism. We used to wonder why it was that John Bolo was...

4. Chapter 4

On the fourth of November “I” Company supported by the French machine gunners sustained a terrific attack by the Reds in powerful force, repulsed them finally after several hour...

24. Chapter 24

He did. At day-break, 3:30 a. m., April 1st, he threw his weight into three waves of assault on the front line and attacked later in the rear. The stoutly fortified men did not...

6. Chapter 6

But we offer this straightforward story confidently to our late comrades. They have entrusted us with the duty of writing the history of what they did in North Russia as their b...

8. Chapter 8

Both sides began digging in. American Engineers came up to build block houses. And the fagged warriors of machine gun and “K” infantry men now retired a short distance to the re...

12. Chapter 12

Upon arrival at Toulgas I received word from Major Whittaker that sixteen wounded and six sick Royal Scots were located in the hospital at Seltso, but that Seltso had been under...

25. Chapter 25

General Richardson, veteran of many years of service in Alaska, immediately made his way to the various fronts. At Verst 455 on the railroad he said in part to the soldiers asse...

2. Chapter 2

At Stoney Castle camp in England, inquiry by the Americans had elicited statement from the British authorities that each ship would be well supplied with medicines and hospital...

28. Chapter 28

Not only did the screeching press articles and the roars of certain congressmen keep the homefolks in perpetual agony over the soldiers in Russia, but the reports of the same th...

10. Chapter 10

We were to bivouac for the night some ten miles or so above the town and at early dawn we would steam down the river on our gunboat. If there were any signs of hostility we were...

1. Chapter 1

I (Don Kostuch) am the son of John Kostuch, then from Detroit, who was a Mechanic in the 339th, Company M. He saw some action in the fall of 1918 but due to flu, exposure and a...

35. Chapter 35

The American boys gained the confidence of the Russians in Moscow just as they had always done in North Russia. They were finally given permission to participate in the privileg...

19. Chapter 19

The rout of the White Guards at Visakagorka had not been as bad as appeared at first. The White Guards had fought up their ammunition and then under the instructions of their fi...

33. Chapter 33

The American Convalescent Hospital at Archangel, Russia (American Expeditionary Forces, North Russia), was opened October 1, 1918, in a building formerly used as a Naval School...

37. Chapter 37