![]() ![]() World War I was not yet over for the 5,000 members of the 339th U.S. Of Mead’s 47-man platoon, 25 died that day, and another 15 were injured.įor the 13,000 American troops serving in remote parts of Russia 100 years ago, the attack on Mead’s men was the worst day in one of the United States’ least-remembered military conflicts. At last, Mead made it to the next village, filled with American soldiers. ![]() They ran through the village, from house to house, “each new dash leaving more of our comrades lying in the cold and snow, never to be seen again,” Mead said. BuyĪs the Red Army neared, with bayonets fixed on their guns, Mead and his soldiers retreated. The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919Īward-winning historian James Carl Nelson's The Polar Bear Expedition draws on an untapped trove of firsthand accounts to deliver a vivid, soldier's-eye view of an extraordinary lost chapter of American history. As soon as one wave of the enemy was halted on one flank another was pressing in on us from the other side.” “We were sweeping the enemy line with machine gun and rifle fire. “I at once realized that our position was hopeless,” Mead recalled, as quoted in James Carl Nelson’s forthcoming book, The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America’s Forgotten Invasion of Russia. They advanced, firing automatic rifles and muskets at the outnumbered Americans. ![]() Soldiers from the Bolshevik Red Army, clad in winter-white uniforms, rose up from the snow and ravines on three sides. Mead, 29, of Detroit, awoke, dressed, and ran to his 47-man platoon’s forward position. The first artillery shell flew at the Americans at dawn. Beyond the platoon’s position, flares and rockets flashed, and shadowy figures moved through tiny villages-Bolshevik soldiers from Russia’s Red Army, hoping to push the American invaders 200 miles north, all the way back to the frozen White Sea. Through their field glasses, lookouts gazed south into the darkness. Just outside the Russian village of Ust Padenga, 500 miles north of Moscow, the American soldiers crouched inside two blockhouses and trenches cut into permafrost. It was 45 degrees below zero, and Lieutenant Harry Mead’s platoon was much too far from home. ![]()
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