About this item

An extraordinary lost chapter in the history of World War I: the story of America's year-long invasion of Russia, in which a contingency of brave soldiers fought the Red Army and brutal conditions during the fall and winter of 1918-1919.In August 1918, the 339th regiment of the U.S. Army - roughly 5,000 soldiers, most hailing from Michigan - sailed for Europe to fight in World War I. But instead of the Western Front, these troops were headed to Archangel, Russia, a vital port city 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow. There, in the frozen subarctic, amid the chaos of the Russian Civil War, one of the most extraordinary episodes of American history unfolded.The American North Russia Expeditionary Force - self-dubbed "The Polar Bear Expedition" - was sent to fight the Red Army and aid anti-Bolshevik forces in hopes of re-opening the Eastern Front against Germany.