Part 1

The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki

by Joel R. Moore and Harry H. Mead and Lewis E. Jahns

[Transcriber’s Notes]

Here are the definitions of several unfamiliar (to me) words.

batmen: Soldier assigned to an officer as a servant.

batushka: Village priest.

drosky: Cart

felcher: Second-rate medical student or anyone with some medical knowledge.

hors de combat: Out of the fight; disabled; not able to fight.

junker: Aristocratic Prussian landholder devoted to militarism and authoritarianism, providing the German military forces with many of its officers.

knout: Whip with a lash of leather thongs, formerly used in Russia for flogging criminals. To flog with the knout.

mashie nib: Mashie-Niblick (mah-she nib-lik)—Wood shafted golf club with about the same loft and length as today’s seven iron.

poilus: French common soldier, especially in World War I.

verst: Russian measure of distance; 3500 feet, 0.6629 mile, 1.067 km.

viand: Choice or delicate food.

volplane: Glide in an airplane without power.

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 in the book. {sources: “M” Company 339th records and Golden C. Bahr papers, 1918–1919.}

Fort Snelling, Minnesota The following text is copied from a newspaper clipping in the book. The Declaration of War is on one side and an incomplete local news item is on the other side.

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, April 9, 1917

U. S. Declaration of War

Sixty-fifth Congress of the United States of America At the First Session Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the second day of April, one thousand nine hundred and seventeen

JOINT RESOLUTION

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial German Government and the Government of the people of the United States and making provision to the same.

Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America, Therefore be it

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_ _of America in Congress assembled_, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

?? Speaker of the House of Representatives

Thomas R. Marshall Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate

Approved 6 April, 1917 Woodrow Wilson

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, April 9, 1917

COUNTY PLEDGES AID FOR FOOD MOVEMENT

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED, AT COURTHOUSE MEETING.

APPEAL MADE TO PEOPLE

The movement to make the state of Indiana economically and agriculturally prepared for war, as recommended by Governor James P, Goodrich, had its beginning in Marion county at a meeting of farmers and those interested in soil cultivation held Saturday afternoon in the criminal courtroom.

The necessity for the efficient utilization of all the soil resources of Indiana were emphasized in addresses at the meeting, which was the beginning of a plan to create a county-wide interest in the movement.

Another Meeting Monday.

The general idea of the need for greater food production, as outlined at the meeting, will be crystallized into definite plans for meeting the situation at a meeting called for Monday night, to be held in the criminal court room. Representatives of commercial, labor and civic bodies and organizations of all kinds are invited and requested to attend the meeting Monday night and assist in the work.

Stirring appeals to the people of Indianapolis and the county to respond to the agricultural need which this country faces in the present war period were made by speakers, including: Charles V. Fairbanks, formerly Vice-president of the United States; the Rev. Frank L. Loveland, pastor of the Meridian Street M. E. Church; H. Orme, president of the Better Farming Association, and Ralph M. Gilbert, county agricultural agent.

Resolutions Adopted.

Resolutions were adopted at the meeting pledging the support of the citizens of Marion county in all measures taken for the defense of the nation and urging the people to respond to the resolutions prepared for greater and efficient food production. The resolutions prepared by a committee composed of Mord Gardner, Ralph C. Avery, Fred L., Smock, John E. Shearer, C. C. Osborn, Grace May Stutsman, Charles P. Wright and Leo Fesler were as follows:

“Whereas, By joint resolution of congress and the proclamation of the President, war has been declared on Germany, and

“‘Whereas, The President has earnestly appealed to all citizens to support the government in every possible way, and our Governor has called, for meetings in each county to plan preparedness in every occupation. “Resolved, That we, the citizens of Marion county, assembled in meetings at the courthouse do loyally pledge the support... [torn]

The following map was provide by Mike Grobbel (http://grobbel.org) who photographed it from the Frederick C. O’Dell Map Collection, Folder Number 9, Map Number 1, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Mr. Grobbel is the grandson of “CORP. C. A. GROBBELL, “I” Co.” mentioned on page 284 as a recipient of the French _Croix de Guerre._ The correct spelling is “Grobbel”.

Corp. Grobbel received the Distinguished Service Cross, not mentioned in this book.

[End of Transcriber’s notes]

The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki

_Campaigning in North Russia 1918–1919_

_Compiled and Edited by_

CAPT. JOEL R. MOORE, 339th U. S. Infantry LIEUT. HARRY H. MEAD, 339th U. S. Infantry LIEUT. LEWIS E. JAHNS, 339th U. S. Infantry

_Published by_

The Polar Bear Publishing Co. Detroit, Mich.

COPYRIGHT 1920 BY JOEL R. MOORE

PRESS OF TOPPING-SANDERS COMPANY DETROIT

To the men who in North Russia died in battle and of wounds, or of sickness due directly to hardship and exposure, this book is reverently dedicated.

To Our Comrades and Friends

To our comrades and friends we address these prefatory words. The book is about to go to the printers and binders. Constantly while writing the historical account of the American expedition, which fought the Bolsheviki in North Russia, we have had our comrades in mind. You are the ones most interested in getting a complete historical account. It is a wonderful story of your own fighting and hardships, of your own fortitude and valor. It is a story that will make the eyes of the home folks shine with pride.

Probably you never could have known how remarkably good is the record of your outfits in that strange campaign if you had not commissioned three of your comrades to write the book for you. In the national army, we happened to be officers; in civil life we are respectively, college professor, lawyer, and public accountant, in the order in which our names appear on the title page. But we prefer to come to you now with the finished product merely as comrades who request you to take the book at its actual value to you—a faithful description of our part in the great world war. We are proud of the record the Americans made in the expedition.

We think that nothing of importance has been omitted. Some sources of information were not open to us—will be to no one for years. But from some copies of official reports, from company and individual diaries, and from special contributions written for us, we have been able to write a complete narrative of the expedition. In all cases except a few where the modesty of the writer impelled him to ask us not to mention his name, we have referred to individuals who have contributed to the book. To these contributors all, we here make acknowledgment of our debt to them for their cordial co-operation. For the wealth of photo-engravures which the book carries, we have given acknowledgment along with each individual engraving, for furnishing us with the photographic views of the war scenes and folk scenes of North Russia. Most of them are, of course, from the official United States Signal Corps war pictures.

When we started the book, we had no idea that it would develop into the big book it is, a _de luxe_ edition, of fine materials and fine workmanship. We have not been able to risk a large edition. Only two thousand copies are being printed. They are made especially for the boys who were up there under the Arctic Circle, made as nice as we could get them made. Of many of the comrades we have lost track, but we trust that somehow they will hear of this book and become one of the proud possessors of a copy. To our comrades and friends, we offer this volume with the expectation that you will be pleased with it and that after you have read it, you will glow with pride when you pass it over to a relative or friend to read.

Detroit, Michigan, September, 1920

JOEL R. MOORE HARRY H. MEAD LEWIS E. JAHNS

Table of Contents

Index to Photo-Engravures Introduction U. S. A. Medical Units on the Arctic Ocean Fall Offensive on the Railroad River Push for Kotlas Doughboys on Guard in Archangel Why American Troops Were Sent to Russia On the Famous Kodish Front in the Fall Penetrating to Ust Padenga Peasantry of the Archangel Province “H” Company Pushes Up the Onega Valley “G” Company Far Up the Pinega River With Wounded and Sick Armistice Day with Americans in North Russia Winter Defense of Toulgas Great White Reaches Mournful Kodish Ust Padenga The Retreat from Shenkursk Defense of Pinega The Land and the People Holding the Onega Valley Ice-Bound Archangel Winter on the Railroad Bolsheozerki Letting Go the Tail-Holt The 310th Engineers “Come Get Your Pills” Signal Platoon Wins Commendation The Doughboy’s Money in Archangel Propaganda and Propaganda and— Real Facts about Alleged Mutiny Our Allies, French, British and Russian Felchers, Priests and Icons Bolshevism Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. with Troops “Dobra” Convalescent Hospital American Red Cross in North Russia Captive Doughboys in Bolshevikdom Military Decorations Homeward Bound In Russia’s Fields (Poem) Our Roll of Honored Dead Map of the Archangel Fighting Area

Index of Photo-Engravures

Hundreds of Miles Through Solid Forests Surgical Operation, Receiving Hospital, Archangel Old Glory Protects Our Hospital Used as 53rd Stationary Hospital “Olympia” Sailors Fought Reds After 17-Hour March in Forest Loading a Drosky at Obozerskaya Wireless Operators-Signal Platoon A Shell Screeched Over This Burial Scene Vickers Machine Gun Helping Hold Lines Our Armored Train First Battalion Hurries Up River Lonely Post in Dense Forest Statue of Peter the Great and Public Buildings, Archangel Drawing Rations, Verst 455 List Honors to a Soldier Olga Barracks Street Car Strike in Archangel American Hospitals “Supply” Co. Canteen “Accommodates” Boys Red Cross Ambulances, Archangel “Cootie Mill” Operating at Smolny Annex Single Flat Strip of Iron on Plow Point Thankful for What at Home We Feed Pigs Artillery “O. P.” Kodish Mill for Grinding Grain Pioneer Platoon Clearing Fire Lane Testing Vickers Machine Gun Doughboy Observing Bolo in Pagosta, near Ust Padenga Cossack Receiving First Aid Ready for Day’s Work Flax Hung Up to Dry 310th Engineers at Beresnik Joe Chinzi and Russian Bride Watching Her Weave Cloth Doughboy Attends Spinning Bee Doughboy in Best Bed—On Stove Defiance to Bolo Advance 337th Hospital at Beresnik Onega Y. M. C. A., Obozerskaya Trench Mortar Crew, Chekuevo—Hand Artillery Wounded and Sick—Over a Thousand in All Bolo Killed in Action—For Russia or Trotsky? Monastery at Pinega Russian 75’s Bound for Pinega “G” Men near Pinega Lewis Gun Protects Mess Hall Something Like Selective Draft Canadian Artillery, Kurgomin Watch Tower, Verst 455 Toulgas Outpost One of a Bolo Patrol Patrolling By Reindeer Jitney to Bakaritza Russian Eskimos at Home near Pinega Fortified House, Toulgas To Bolsheozerki Colonel Morris, at Right Russian Eskimo Idol Ambulance Men Practising Rifle and Pistol Fire, on Onega Front French Machine Gun Men at Kodish Allied Plane Carrying Bombs Dance at Convalescent Hospital—Nurses and “Y” Girls Subornya Cathedral Building a Blockhouse Market Scene, Yemetskoe Old Russian Prison—Annex to British Hospital Wash Day—Rinsing in River Archangel Cab-Men Minstrels of “I” Company Repeat Program in Y. M. C. A Archangel Girls Filling Christmas Stockings Y. M. C. A. Rest Room, Archangel Russian Masonry Stove—American Convalescent Hospital Comrade Allikas Finds His Mother in Archangel Printing “The American Sentinel” Flashlight of a Doughboy Outpost at Verst 455 Bolo Commander’s Sword Taken in Battle of Bolsheozerki Eight Days without a Shave, near Bolsheozerki Woodpile Strong-Point, Verst 445 Verst 455—“Fort Nichols” Back from Patrol Our Shell Bursts near the Bolo Skirmish Line Blockhouse at Shred Makrenga Hot Summer Day at Pinega before the World War Dvina River Ice Jam in April Bare Mejinovsky—Near Kodish Bolo General under Flag Truce at 445, April, 1919 After Prisoner Exchange Parley Pioneer Platoon Has Fire 310th Engineers Under Canvas near Bolsheozerki with “M” Co Hospital “K. P.’s” Red Cross Nurses Bartering Mascots Colonel Dupont (French) at 455 Bestows Many _Croix de Guerre_ Medals on Americans Polish Artillery and Mascot Russian Artillery, Verst 18 Canadian Artillery—Americans Were Strong for Them Making _Khleba_—Black Bread Stout Defense of Kitsa Christmas Dinner, Convalescent Hospital, Archangel “Come and Get It” at 455 Doughboys Drubbed Sailors Yank and Scot Guarding Bolo Prisoners, Beresnik View of Archangel in Summer General Ironside Inspecting Doughboys Burial of Lt. Clifford Phillips, American Cemetery, Archangel Major J. Brooks Nichols in his Railway Detachment Field Hq Ready to Head Memorial Day Parade, Archangel, 1919 American Cemetery, Archangel Soldiers and Sailors of Six Nations Reverence Dead Graves of First Three Americans Killed, Obozerskaya, Russia Sailors Parade on Memorial Day Through Ice Floes in Arctic Homeward Bound Out of White Sea into Arctic, under Midnight Sun

INTRODUCTION

The troopships “Somali,” “Tydeus,” and “Nagoya” rubbed the Bakaritza and Smolny quays sullenly and listed heavily to port. The American doughboys grimly marched down the gangplanks and set their feet on the soil of Russia, September 5th, 1918. The dark waters of the Dvina River were beaten into fury by the opposing north wind and ocean tide. And the lowering clouds of the Arctic sky added their dismal bit to this introduction to the dreadful conflict which these American sons of liberty were to wage with the Bolsheviki during the year’s campaign.

In the rainy fall season by their dash and valor they were to expel the Red Guards from the cities and villages of the state of Archangel, pursuing the enemy vigorously up the Dvina, the Vaga, the Onega and the Pinega Rivers, and up the Archangel-Vologda Railway and the Kodish-Plesetskaya-Petrograd state highway. They were to plant their entrenched outposts in a great irregular horseshoe line, one cork at Chekuevo, the toe at Ust-Padenga, the other cork of the shoe at Karpagorskaya. They were to run out from the city of Archangel long, long lines of communication, spread wide like the fingers of a great hand that sought seemingly to cover as much of North Russia as possible with Allied military protection.

In the winter, in the long, long nights and black, howling forests and frozen trenches, with ever-deepening snows and sinking thermometer, with the rivers and the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean solid ice fifteen feet thick, these same soldiers now seen disembarking from the troopships, were to find their enemy greatly increasing his forces every month at all points on the Allied line. Stern defense everywhere on that far-flung trench and blockhouse and fortified-village battle line. They were to feel the overwhelming pressure of superior artillery and superior equipment and transportation controlled by the enemy and especially the crushing odds of four to ten times the number of men on the battle lines. And with it they were to feel the dogged sense of the grim necessity of fighting for every verst of frozen ground. Their very lives were to depend upon the stubbornness of their holding retreat. There could be no retreating beyond Archangel, for the ships were frozen in the harbor. Indeed a retreat to the city of Archangel itself was dangerous. It might lead to revulsion of temper among the populace and enable the Red Guards to secure aid from within the lines so as to carry out Trotsky’s threat of pushing the foreign bayonets all under the ice of the White Sea. And in that remarkable winter defense these American soldiers were to make history for American arms, exhibiting courage and fortitude and heroism, the stories of which are to embellish the annals of American martial exploits. They were destined, a handful of them here, a handful there, to successfully baffle the Bolshevik hordes in their savage drives.

In the spring the great ice crunching up in the rivers and the sea was to behold those same veteran Yanks still fighting the Red Guard armies and doing their bit to keep the state of Archangel, the North Russian Republic, safe, and their own skins whole. The warming sun and bursting green were to see the olive-drab uniform, tattered and torn as it was, covering a wearied and hungry and homesick but nevertheless fearless and valiant American soldier. With deadly effect they were to meet the onrushing swarms of Bolos on all fronts and slaughter them on their wire with rifle and machine gun fire and smash up their reserves with artillery fire. With desperation they were to dispute the overwhelming columns of infantry who were hurled by no less a renowned old Russian General than Kuropatkin, and at Malo Bereznik and Bolsheozerki, in particular, to send them reeling back in bloody disaster. They were to fight the Bolshevik to a standstill so that they could make their guarded getaway.

Summer was to see these Americans at last handing over the defenses to Russian Northern Republic soldiers who had been trained during the winter at Archangel and gradually during the spring broken in for duty alongside the American and British troops and later were to hold the lines in some places by themselves and in others to share the lines with the new British troops coming in twenty thousand strong “to finish the bloody show.” Gaily decorated Archangel was to bid the Americanski _dasvedanhnia_ and God-speed in June. Blue rippling waters were to meet the ocean-bound prows. Music from the Cruiser “Des Moines” (come to see us out) was to blow fainter and fainter in the distance as they cheered us out of the Dvina River for home.

Now the troops are hurrying off the transport. They are just facing the strange, terrible campaign faintly outlined. It is now our duty to faithfully tell the detailed story of it—“The History of the American North Russian Expedition,” to try to do justice in this short volume to the gripping story of the American soldiers “Campaigning in North Russia, 1918–1919.”

The American North Russian Expeditionary Force consisted of the 339th Infantry, which had been known at Camp Custer as “Detroit’s Own,” one battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Ambulance Company, and the 337th Field Hospital Company. The force was under the command of Col. George E. Stewart, 339th Infantry, who was a veteran of the Philippines and of Alaska. The force numbered in all, with the replacements who came later, about five thousand five hundred men.

These units had been detached from the 85th Division, the Custer Division, while it was enroute to France, and had been assembled in southern England, there re-outfitted for the climate and warfare of the North of Russia. On August the 25th, the American forces embarked at Newcastle-on-Tyne in three British troopships, the “Somali,” the “Tydeus” and the “Nagoya” and set sail for Archangel, Russia. A fourth transport, the “Czar,” carried Italian troops who travelled as far as the Murmansk with our convoy.

The voyage up the North Sea and across the Arctic Ocean, zig-zagging day and night for fear of the submarines, rounding the North Cape far toward the pole where the summer sun at midnight scarcely set below the northwestern horizon, was uneventful save for the occasional alarm of a floating mine and for the dreadful outbreak of Spanish “flu” on board the ships. On board one of the ships the supply of yeast ran out and breadless days stared the soldiers in the face till a resourceful army cook cudgelled up recollections of seeing his mother use drainings from the potato kettle in making her bread. Then he put the lightening once more into the dough. And the boys will remember also the frigid breezes of the Arctic that made them wish for their overcoats which by order had been packed in their barrack bags, stowed deep down in the hold of the ships. And this suffering from the cold as they crossed the Arctic circle was a foretaste of what they were to be up against in the long months to come in North Russia.

We had thought to touch the Murmansk coast on our way to Archangel, but as we zig-zagged through the white-capped Arctic waves we picked up a wireless from the authorities in command at Archangel which ordered the American troopships to hasten on at full speed. The handful of American sailors from the “Olympia,” the crippled category men from England and the little battalion of French troops, which had boldly driven the Red Guards from Archangel and pursued them up the Dvina and up the Archangel-Vologda Railway, were threatened with extermination. The Reds had gathered forces and turned savagely upon them.

So we sped up into the White Sea and into the winding channels of the broad Dvina. For miles and miles we passed along the shores dotted with fishing villages and with great lumber camps. The distant domes of the cathedrals in Archangel came nearer and nearer. At last the water front of that great lumber port of old Peter the Great lay before us strange and picturesque. We dropped anchor at 10:00 a. m. on the fourth day of September, 1918. The anchor chains ran out with a cautious rattle. We swung on the swift current of the Dvina, studied the shoreline and the skyline of the city of Archangel, saw the Allied cruisers, bulldogs of the sea, and turned our eyes southward toward the boundless pine forest where our American and Allied forces were somewhere beset by the Bolsheviki, or we turned our eyes northward and westward whence we had come and wondered what the folks back home would say to hear of our fighting in North Russia.

I U. S. A. MEDICAL UNITS ON THE ARCTIC OCEAN

Someone Blunders About Medicine Stores—Spanish Influenza At Sea And No Medicine—Improvised Hospitals At Time Of Landing—Getting Results In Spite Of Red Tape—Raising Stars And Stripes To Hold The Hospital—Aid Of American Red Cross—Doughboys Dislike British Hospital—Starting American Receiving Hospital—Blessings On The Medical Men.