Russian Sideshow

by Robert L Willett

  3. Dorothea York, The Romance of Company A (Detroit: McIntyre Printing Co., 1923), 20.

  4. University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library (UMBHL), Charles Simpson, Diary.

  5. Joel R. Moore, Harry H. Meade, and Lewis Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki: Campaigning in North Russia (Detroit: Polar Bear Publishing Co., 1920), 43.

  6. UMBHL, James R. Longley, “Report on the Work of the Medical Department,” April 1, 1919, RG 120.

  7. The same report shows that in September 1918 a total of 378 cases of flu were admitted to hospitals in the Archangel area; 60 of them died in that month. Also listed were three deaths from pneumonia, which were probably flu-related. The October report showed another 43 cases of flu admitted to the hospital in October, but no deaths.

  8. UMBHL, Charles Lewis Papers.

  9. A Chronicler (John Cudahy), Archangel: The American War with Russia (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Co., 1924), 78.

  10. Dennis Gordon, Quartered in Hell (Missoula, Mont.: Doughboy Historical Society, 1982), 64.

  11. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 299–302.

  12. Joint Archives, Hope College, Holland, Michigan, John Oudemuller, Diary.

  13. Author’s collection, Golden Bahr Papers, Surgeon General’s Report on Patient Evacuation, November 26, 1918.

  14. U.S. Military Academy Museum (USMAM), George Stewart Papers, Cable, Biddle to Stewart, September 17, 1918.

  15. Harry J. Costello, Why Did We Go to Russia? (Detroit: Harry J. Costello, 1920), 60.

  16. E. M. Halliday, The Ignorant Armies (New York: Harper, 1960), 56.

  17. Edmund Ironside, Archangel: 1918–1919 (London: Constable and Co., 1953), 14.

  Chapter 5

  1. Joel R. Moore, ‘M’ Company: 339th Infantry in North Russia (Jackson, Mich.: Central City Book Bindery, 1920), n.p.

  2. Joel R. Moore, Harry H. Meade, and Lewis Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki: Campaigning in North Russia (Detroit: Polar Bear Publishing Co., 1920), 21.

  3. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 21.

  4. U.S. Military Academy Museum (USMAM), George Stewart Papers, “Report of Expedition to the Murman Coast,” 2.

  5. A verst is a Russian measurement equaling roughly two thirds of a mile.

  6. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 2.

  7. Dennis Gordon, Quartered in Hell (Missoula, Mont.: Doughboy Historical Society, 1982), 170.

  8. E. M. Halliday, The Ignorant Armies (New York: Harper, 1960), 62.

  9. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 3.

  10. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 246.

  11. Halliday, Armies, 64; and Harry J. Costello, Why Did We Go to Russia? (Detroit: Harry J. Costello, 1920), 84.

  12. In Major Young’s report dated October 12, 1918, after he had been relieved of command, he mentioned, “The half of ‘I’ Company attacking at Verst 458 was to be accompanied by a trench mortar section, three guns and 19 enlisted men, the trench mortar section had been given a special mission by the O.C. ‘A’ Force, with which I was not made acquainted.”

  13. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p.

  14. Gordon, Quartered, 176.

  15. National Archives, College Park, Maryland (NACP), Lt. Laurence P. Keith, “Report of Engagement,” October 1, 1918, AEFNR RG 120.

  16. Gordon, Quartered, 176.

  17. In ‘M’ Company, Moore remarks, “But where is the cutting? Have we missed it? Then we are done for! Where is ‘I’ Company again? Lost? Here, Corp. Grahek, Sgt. Getzloff, you old woodsmen, scout around for that rear party of ours and see if you can spot the cutting.”

  18. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p.

  19. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 26.

  20. University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library (UMBHL), Cleo Co-burn, Diary.

  21. Michigan’s Own Museum, Frankenmuth, Michigan, Godfrey Anderson Manuscript.

  22. UMBHL, Godfrey Collection, Detroit News clipping, n.d.

  23. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p.

  24. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p.

  25. UMBHL, Cleo Coburn, Diary.

  26. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 9.

  27. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 28.

  28. NACP, Capt. Horatio G. Winslow, “Report of Engagement,” AEFNR, RG 120.

  29. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p.

  30. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 30.

  31. NACP, “Notes from War Diary of British HQ Archangel,” November 3, 1918, AEFNR, RG 120.

  32. Edmund Ironside, Archangel: 1918–1919 (London: Constable and Co., 1953), 33–34.

  33. NACP, “Notes from War Diary of British HQ Archangel,” November 3, 1918, AEFNR, RG 120.

  34. Ironside, Archangel, 31–32.

  35. NACP, “Operation Order” HQ, Vologda Force, December 18, 1918 (translated from French), AEFNR, RG 120.

  36. NACP, Capt. E. Prince, “Allied Offensive on Vologda Force Front,” January 2, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  37. Ironside, Archangel, 90.

  38. Ironside, Archangel, 90.

  39. Ironside, Archangel, 90.

  40. NACP, Capt. E. Prince, “Allied Offensive on Vologda Force Front,” January 2, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  41. NACP, Capt. E. Prince, “Report on Trip to Vologda Force Front,” February 20, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  42. NACP, Capt. H. S. Martin, “Report on Mutinies,” July 1, 1919, AEFNR, 5, RG 120.

  43. NACP, Capt. E. Prince, “Report.”

  44. Gordon, Quartered, 174.

  45. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (HIWRP), Lt. Forest J. Funk Papers.

  46. In At War with the Bolsheviks (London: Tom Stacey, Ltd, 1972), Robert Jackson refers to the units as the Green Howards.

  47. Ironside, Archangel, 112–113. The sergeants were court-martialed, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. Ironside commuted the sentences to life imprisonment under orders from King George that no British subject be executed after the Armistice, although other records indicate the execution was carried out.

  48. Ironside, Archangel, 114.

  49. Gordon, Quartered, 177–178; USMAM, George Stewart Papers, “Conduct Company ‘I’,” June 14, 1919.

  50. The “mutiny” made headlines in U.S. newspapers, particularly in Detroit, and led to a congressional investigation.

  51. UMBHL, Cleo Coburn, Diary.

  52. One of the three was twenty-four-year-old Semeon Timoshenko, who would later be a field marshall and hero of World War II.

  53. Gordon, Quartered, 296.

  54. Gordon, Quartered, 296. In History, Moore et al. reported that only one American, Private Fulcher, was released, but a French soldier was the other lucky prisoner, and that the Allies gave up only four Bolshevik officers.

  55. NACP, Secretary of War to Acting Secretary of State Frank Polk, May 12, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  Chapter 6

  1. Richard Goldhurst, The Midnight War: The American Intervention in Russia, 1918–1920 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), 92.

  2. National Archives, College Park, Maryland (NACP), Capt. A. G. Martin, “Summary of Principal Military Events in the Archangel District,” March 26, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  3. Christopher Dobson and John Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow (New York: Atheneum, 1986), 66.

  4. University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library (UMBHL), Edward Flaherty Collection, Richard W. Ballensinger, Company H Field Diary, 2.

  5. UMBHL, Roy Rasmussen, Diary.

  6. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 1.

  7. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 2.

  8. U.S. Military Academy Museum (USMAM), George Stewart Papers, “Report of Expedition to the Murman Coast,” Stewart Papers, 8.

  9. UMBHL, Roy Rasmussen, Diary.

  10. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 3.

  11. UMBHL, Roy Rasmussen, Diary.

  12. UMBHL, Ro
y Rasmussen, Diary.

  13. In his “Report,” Col. George Stewart reports one American killed January 1, 1919, but neither Ballensinger’s Field Diary, nor the compiled list of American dead shows that death.

  14. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 4.

  15. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 4; Dennis Gordon, Quartered in Hell (Missoula, Mont.: Doughboy Historical Society, 1982), 201.

  16. Goldhurst, War, 180.

  17. NACP, Colonel Thornhill, “G.H.Q. Intelligence Report,” February 27, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  18. Edmund Ironside, Archangel: 1918–1919 (London: Constable and Co., 1953), 114.

  19. Goldhurst, War, 183.

  20. Joel R. Moore, “The North Russian Expedition,” Infantry Journal Vol. 29, No. 1 (July 1926).

  21. The unlucky six men, Cpl. Earl Collins, Pvt. Augustus Peterson, Pvt. Earl Fulcher, Pvt. William Scheulke, Pvt. John Frucce, and Pvt. Josef Ramatowski, met a variety of fates. Collins was apparently killed and is buried in Brook-wood, England; Peterson died in a Bolshevik hospital, Fulcher and Scheulke were exchanged with a few others through Stockholm on April 25, 1919; Frucce was reported to have died in a Bolshevik hospital, but his body was never found; Ramatowski was killed before the others were captured and his body never recovered. In History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki: Campaigning in North Russia (Detroit: Polar Bear Publishing Co., 1920), Moore et al. state that Frucce was exchanged through Finland, but gives no reference; however, the Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle on November 11, 1934 reported the twenty-four-year-old Italian killed in action March 22, 1919.

  22. NACP, Statement of Earl Fulcher, May 7, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  23. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 5.

  24. Ironside, Archangel, 121. There is some confusion about what happened to Colonel Lucas. Ballensinger’s report indicated Lucas suffered a frostbitten hand, but returned eventually to Chekuevo. Stewart’s report indicated Collins retired to Chenova, assuming Lucas was still with them. However, both E. M. Halliday’s The Ignorant Armies (New York: Harper, 1960) and Goldhurst’s War indicate that Lucas was separated from the patrol and wandered all night, finally being picked up with badly frostbitten hands by a later patrol.

  25. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Lt. Col. W. Morrison, “Operation Order #1,” April 1, 1919, Company H Field Diary. A report from Captain Ballensinger, commanding Company H, however, said Lieutenant Collins was in command of the Americans in that attack.

  26. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 52.

  27. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 5.

  28. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 5.

  29. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 6; USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 50.

  30. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 49.

  31. Donald E. Carey, Fighting the Bolsheviks (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1997), 148,

  32. Carey, Fighting, 150.

  33. Carey, Fighting, 152.

  34. NACP, Report of 2d Lt. Howard Pellegrom, March 26, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120; and UMBHL, Roy Rasmussen, Diary.

  35. Joel R. Moore, ‘M’ Company: 339th Infantry in North Russia (Jackson, Mich.: Central City Book Bindery, 1920), n.p.

  36. Sergeant Leitzel, Hogan, and Laursen were released to go to Finland after a trip to Moscow.

  37. Moore, ‘M’ Company, n.p. Ryal was released at the same time as Leitzel, Hogan, and Laursen.

  38. UMBHL, Edward Flaherty Collection, Ballensinger, Field Diary, 8.

  39. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 299–302.

  40. There are a number of references to the use of gas, particularly from airplanes, but it seemed to play no significant role in the North Russian campaign

  41. UMBHL, Roy Rasmussen, Diary.

  Chapter 7

  1. Joel R. Moore, Harry H. Meade, and Lewis Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki: Campaigning in North Russia (Detroit: Polar Bear Publishing Co., 1920), 55, reports that only half of Company K went to Seletskoye on droskies, pony-driven carts.

  2. U.S. Military Academy Museum (USMAM), George Stewart Papers, “Report of Expedition to the Murman Coast,” 2.

  3. National Archives, Washington, D.C. (NADC), Lt. Henry F. Floyd, Weekly Report, September 7, 1918, Naval Records, RG 45.

  4. U.S. Army Military History Institute (USAMHI), Harold Weimeister, World War I Survey.

  5. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 3.

  6. The battle had exhausted both sides, and one report indicated that the Bolsheviks assassinated their commander in order to break off the fight; Richard Goldhurst, The Midnight War: The American Intervention in Russia, 1918–1920 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), 103.

  7. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 3.

  8. Goldhurst, War, 103.

  9. Henderson was reportedly relieved because he refused to send the Americans across the river (Ryan diary). USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 5.

  10. University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library (UMBHL) Charles Brady Ryan, Diary.

  11. Michigan’s Own Museum, Frankenmuth, Michigan, Roster of K, Percy Walker Papers. Walker was evacuated to the Seletskoye Medical Station, then sent to the Archangel Hospital.

  12. Dennis Gordon, Quartered in Hell (Missoula, Mont.: Doughboy Historical Society, 1982), 318–319; USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 6.

  13. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 10.

  14. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 10.

  15. UMBHL, Charles Brady Ryan, Diary, October 13, 1918.

  16. Joint Archives, Hope College, Holland, Michigan, Gerrit Knoll Papers, Journal.

  17. UMBHL, Charles Brady Ryan, Diary, October 18, 1918.

  18. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 59; USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 17.

  19. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 17.

  20. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 17.

  21. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 61.

  22. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 19.

  23. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 19.

  24. Donald E. Carey, Fighting the Bolsheviks (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1997), 80.

  25. UMBHL, George Albers Papers, Fred Krooyer, Diary, 6.

  26. UMBHL, George Albers Papers, Fred Krooyer, Diary, 6.

  27. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 22, 24, 26, 27.

  28. UMBHL, George Albers Papers, Fred Krooyer, Diary.

  29. Carey, Fighting, 103.

  30. Carey, Fighting, 84.

  31. Leon Trotsky was a former journalist whose real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Trotsky was reported to be commanding Red forces at that time, and it is possible that he was the journalist mentioned.

  32. NACP, M. J. Donoghue, “Report of Engagement on December 30–31, 1918,” 2, AEFNR, RG 120. On November 3, Pvt. George Albers of Company I was captured while he was on a remote observation post. His saga finally ended when he was released, in good condition, in Stockholm on April 25, 1919.

  33. George Stewart’s papers list these elements of the Right Wing; however, they fail to mention the presence of Company E.

  34. Just when Donoghue became a major is not certain. Stewart refers to him as a captain on December 27 and as major on January 2. Donoghue’s engagement report of December 30–31 is signed as a major.

  35. NACP, M. J. Donoghue, “Report,” 4–5, AEFNR, RG 120.

  36. National Archives, College Park, Maryland (NACP), 1st Lt. John Baker, “Report of Engagement,” March 5, 1919, AEFNR, RG 120.

  37. There is some confusion about casualties; Stewart’s papers indicate seven killed in the two days. Three honor rolls listing individuals killed in action show nine killed: Sgt. Floyd Austin, Pvt. Frank Mueller, and Pvt. Harold Wagner of Company E, killed on December 30; Sgt. Bernard Crowe, Sgt. Michael Kenney, and Pfc. Alfred Fuller, all of Company K ki
lled on December 30; Lt. Carl Berger, Pvt. Walter Franklin, and Pvt. James J. Mylon, all of Company E, died of wounds on December 31.

  38. Manistee Historical Museum, Manistee, Michigan, Manistee News Advocate, June 2, 1919.

  39. NACP, M. J. Donoghue, “Report,” 5.

  40. Gordon, Quartered, 194.

  41. Harry J. Costello, Why Did We Go to Russia? (Detroit: Harry J. Costello, 1920), 108.

  42. It is not known if this was told about Haselden or one of the many other British commanders of that front.

  43. NACP, M. J. Donoghue, “Report,” 7, AEFNR, RG 120.

  44. NACP, M. J. Donoghue, “Report,” 8, AEFNR, RG 120.

  45. Edmund Ironside, Archangel: 1918–1919 (London: Constable and Co., 1953), 91.

  46. UMBHL, George Albers Papers, Fred Krooyer, Diary.

  47. NACP, British Headquarters War Diary, 7, AEFNR, RG 120.

  48. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 33.

  49. Carey, Fighting, 120–121.

  50. UMBHL, Charles Brady Ryan, Diary.

  51. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 132.

  52. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 132.

  53. Moore, Meade, and Jahns, History, 133.

  54. USMAM, Stewart Papers, “Report,” 45.

  Chapter 8

  1. Edmund Ironside, Archangel: 1918–1919 (London: Constable and Co., 1953), 203.

  2. Benjamin D. Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia: 1918–1919 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988), 39–40.

  3. University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library (UMBHL), Sgt. Silver Parrish, Diary.

  4. Michigan’s Own Museum, Frankenmuth, Michigan, Sgt. Robert Roy, Diary.

  5. UMBHL, Edwin Arkins, Journal, 3.

  6. UMBHL, Sgt. Silver Parrish, Diary.

  7. UMBHL, Pvt. Joseph Noonan, Diary.

  8. Joel R. Moore, Harry H. Meade, and Lewis Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki: Campaigning in North Russia (Detroit: Polar Bear Publishing Co., 1920), 33–34.

  9. National Archives, College Park, Maryland (NACP), Chief Surgeon’s Correspondence, “Deaths, AEFNR,” AEFNR, RG 120.