This story of WWI is frequently mentioned in discussing the First World War. However, it is seldom if ever reported in depth. This book gives well written version of the events and experiences of the doughboys of the Polar Bears. A fast read; very interesting. ( )

In 1918, Woodrow Wilson, in an act of profoundly poor judgement, decided to cooperate in a military mission to Murmansk and Archangel Russia in conjunction with the British, Canadian, and French Armed Forces. This book concerns itself with the American Expeditionary Force North Russia, which was composed of 3500 men of the 339th U.S. Infantry Regiment 85th Division (the Polar Bears) and were sent to Archangel. Ostensibly sent to prevent military material sent to Tsarist Russia to aid its remaining in WWI from falling into the hands of the Bolsheviks who were currently engaged in a civil war against the Whites, the mission also had another purpose, to aid the Slavo-British Allied Legion to meet up with the Czech Legion and the White Army to push south to re-establish the eastern front. The American Military Mission (and the Allied intervention) failed in these three points: lack of manpower, lack of clear aims for the intervention, friction between Americans and the French and their British overseers. Even after WWI ended, the American Expeditionary Force North Russia was still fighting in Russia and it took public agitation to bring the regiment home in May and June 1919. Most Americans have forgotten this military intervention in Russia but Russia didn’t, so in 1959 Khrushchev reminded everyone. ‘We remember the grim days when American soldiers went to our soil headed by their generals. Never have any of our soldiers been on American soil, but your soldiers were on Russian soil. These are the facts.” ( )