From the Snows of Siberia to Belle Isle: Detroit’s Own Polar Bears

The Story of Detroit’s Role in the U.S. Intervention in the Russian Revolution

From the Snows of Russia to Belle Isle

U.S. soldiers return from the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.

On November 11, 1918, the citizens of Detroit flooded downtown to celebrate the end of WWI. For thousands of U.S. Army soldiers from Detroit and southeast Michigan and their families, however, it would be another 235 days before there would be any semblance of peace.

The U.S. Army’s 85th Division had left Camp Custer near Battle Creek, MI on July 14, 1918, to join other US Army Divisions who were already fighting on the Western Front in France. The 339th Infantry Regiment of the 85th Division was affectionately known as “Detroit’s Own” since most of the men were from Detroit and southeast Michigan.

On July 23, 1918, President Wilson ordered 5,000 U.S. Army soldiers be sent to Russia, whose Bolshevik government had signed a peace treaty with the Germans ending the fighting on the Eastern Front. U.S. Army General John Pershing selected the 339th Infantry Regiment and several other supporting companies from the 85th Division for this assignment, creating the American North Russia Expeditionary Force (ANREF).

ANREF arrived in Archangel, Russia on Sept. 4, 1918, and was placed under British command. Together with British, Canadian, French and White Russian forces, they fought the Bolshevik Red Army in what became known as the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War.

After many battles (and casualties) in some of the worst Arctic weather imaginable, the U.S. troops were finally withdrawn from Russia in June of 1919, seven months after the official end of WWI.

On the way back to the US, the soldiers decided to call themselves “Polar Bears” and adopted it for their shoulder patch insignia. On July 3, 1919, approximately half of the 339th Infantry Regiment arrived at Detroit’s Michigan Central Railroad Station.

On July 4th, the citizens of Detroit gave them an elaborate welcome on Belle Isle. When the troops approached on the ferry, the island was already teeming with thousands of people and 100 rockets were launched. The Welcoming Committee distributed white “Polar Bear” armbands to every soldier, which they wore proudly. Girls dressed in white Red Cross uniforms lined the pier and tossed flowers as the men disembarked and marched to the athletic field, where friends and family were waiting for them, then paraded down Central Avenue.

The parade ended at the Belle Isle Casino, where their commanding officer, Major Brooks Nichols, was given an award. The men were then dismissed so they could join their families and partake in the lunch that had been prepared by the ladies of the American Red Cross.

At 2 p.m., the soldiers regrouped at the Casino for an address by US Senator Hiram Johnson of California. A vocal critic of President Wilson’s decision to send US troops to Russia, in February 1919, he had made several highly publicized speeches in the Senate calling for their speedy return.

Following the speech, Maj. Nichols told the men they could return to their Company Tents and enjoy themselves, as long as they were back at the Michigan Central Station by 8:00 a.m. the next day to board trains for Camp Custer, where they would be discharged from military service.

In 1920, the ANREF veterans organized the Polar Bear Association, and on Memorial Day 1930, they dedicated the Polar Bear Monument at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, where the remains of many of the Polar Bears who fell in Russia are buried. Today, the Polar Bear Memorial Association conducts a service, open to the public, every Memorial Day at 11:00 a.m. at the monument.

Bibliography

  • Grobbel, Mike. (October 13, 2013). Detroit’s Own Polar Bear Memorial Association. Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://pbma.grobbel.org
  • The Polar Bear Monument at White Chapel Cemetery, Troy, MI [photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved
    January 28, 2014, from http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/6790/119110.html
  • [Untitled photograph of Polar Bear 2013 Memorial Day celebration]. (2013). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://pbma.grobbel.org
  • Virtual Motor City. Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears [photograph (#
    77754_2)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image
    -idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears [photograph (# 77754_3)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Belle Isle [photograph (#77146_1)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Belle Isle [photograph (#77746)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Belle Isle [photograph (#77746_2)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Belle Isle [photograph (#77746_4)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Michigan Central
    Station [photograph (#77747)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/ image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Michigan Central Station [photograph (#77747_2)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/ image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: At Michigan Central Station [photograph (#77747_3)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/ image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: Crowds – Return of the Polar Bears [photograph (#77748_1)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: Homecoming [photograph (#77753)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: Homecoming [photograph (#77753_3)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • Wars: World: # 1: Parades: 339th Infantry: Polar Bears: Officers Second Half of Panorama [photograph (# 77758_1)]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index
  • The White “Polar Bear” Armband Worn by the Men of the 339th [photograph]. (1919). Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/6790/119110.html
Viewing Message: 1 of 1.
 Notice
©2018-2024 Wayne State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Privacy and University Policies.
This site content is not screened, approved, reviewed or endorsed by Wayne State University, its administration, faculty, staff or students. The contents on this site are those of the page author and are not necessarily statements of advice, opinion or information of Wayne State University.