The first Armistice Day in Detroit

[Mikeg]

On this 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, I invite you to click here and read the Discuss Detroit thread I wrote 11 years ago to recognize the 89th anniversary of Armistice Day in Detroit, and which also highlighted the exploits of "Detroit's Own" 339th Infantry Regiment who were still fighting six months later North Russia.

My grandfather was a Corporal in Company I of the 339th, which was assigned to the Railroad Front. During the winter of 1918-1919, their front lines were located about 100 miles south of Archangel [[Arkhangelsk), Russia. The Allied and Bolshevik forces were basically stalemated at this location for almost a year. Despite numerous artillery barrages and flank attacks, neither side could gain an advantage.

In early August of 2018, I traveled to Arkhangelsk and was able to visit the military ruins at the railroad front lines. This photo shows me standing in one of the trenches that my grandfather occupied at Verst 444 on the Allied side of the no-man's land.

[Zacha341]

My father served in Korea [[US Army). Thank you for this information Mikeg. Love the archives! Google is even honoring this day [[smile) with a really cool graphic and information link:

https://goo.gl/7wKpJJ

[Ray1936]

Sometimes I wish DetroitYes had a "like" button as in a different social media we all know.

[Jimaz]

Here's another brief thread from last year.
DetroitYES Forums » Discuss Detroit » Remembrance Day

It looks like I deleted those postcard images so here they are again, respectively:

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Those cards are 100 years old this year. It's hard to believe anyone would embroider a post card by hand.

[douglasm]

One thing I miss is Andrew Foote's annual posting of In Flanders Field on his International Metropolis website. To that end, and in honor of Remembrance Day.....

[EastsideAl]

Mikeg - Thanks for that fascinating threat on the Polar Bear Expedition and your grandfather's role in it. It's an episode of WWI [[or really the aftermath of WWI) that very people seem aware of anymore, even in this area that contributed so many of the troops involved. I believe the monument in White Chapel is the only public monument in the U.S. to this campaign. Amazing and wonderful that you were able to go there and retrace some of your grandfather's steps.

My grandfather's WWI era service was much more prosaic. He was a little old for service when the U.S. entered the war [[about 30), partially blind in one eye, and had asthma, but he enlisted anyway. He was living in San Francisco at the time [[he was a conductor on the SF - San Mateo streetcar), and since he wasn't really suitable to be a soldier, they assigned him to the closest post to home. That was how he became a guard at Alcatraz, which was then a military prison. He worked there, and lived on the island, for the duration of the war and into 1920. When I was in S.F. a couple of years ago, I visited Alcatraz where they have now opened to the public one of the cellblocks that is still in the same state it was in back during those years. It was a moving, and rather eerie, experience standing there trying to imagine what it was like back then and remembering the man I knew many years later during my childhood.

Speaking of Armistice Day, my other grandfather, who was a teenager at the time, often told the story of how he and a friend managed to get into the bell tower of the old Van Dyke School at Van Dyke and Kercheval that night and tie the end of a very long rope to the bell. They then ran the other end of the rope through the attic window of the house grandpa's family was living in on Vernor. And they rang that bell all night, and the cops never could figure out who was doing it.

[archfan]

I'm sure Mike knows, but I didn't, so I'll share. UM's Bentley Historical Library has some of the Polar Bear documents online, including a searchable roster.

[Mikeg]

EastsideAl - that's a terrific story about the bell ringing!

As far as I know, there are no other public monuments or markers that commemorate the American North Russia Expeditionary Force. In addition to the Polar Bear Monument at White Chapel, there is also a State of Michigan historical marker that tells their story.

Back in 2006, the late Christopher Hitchens mentioned the Polar Bear Monument in in op-ed written for the Wall Street Journal:

"The soil of the United States is almost spoiled for choice when it comes to commemorative sites. They range from Gettysburg itself -- still one of the most staggering places of memory in the world -- to the Confederate statue of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest,.......... and extend from the Polar Bear monument in Detroit [[honoring those Michiganders who helped invade Russia in 1919: a forgotten war if ever there was one) to Maya Lin's masterpiece of Vietnam understatement on the National Mall."

Speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they published this 5,000 word article about the Polar Bears last Friday [[unfortunately it is behind their paywall):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-one...st-1541772001?

The author came to Ann arbor last March and made extensive use of the Bentley's collection of Polar Bear documents and photos.

For last Thursday's "Stateside" program, Cynthia Canty interviewed myself and Eric Perkins of the Michigan History Center on the subject of the "Polar Bears". You can listen to the segment here [[includes 7 photos): http://www.michiganradio.org/post/mi...fter-armistice

[Bigb23]

Hey, Mikeg -

Thanks again for getting my few photos into that documentary. And, you also were able to stand on hallowed ground in Russia! I hope you picked up at least one souvenir.

Following your links, I found this program for the 1945 reunion of "Da Bears"
Very interesting historical document. It will jog some memory's.


https://bit.ly/2DiMzGH

[Bigb23]

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I guess I still love poetry.

[Bigb23]

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100 years and still we mourn our loss.