Posted on 05/21/2009 1:29:10 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
In September 1918, though told they were headed to France, the soldiers in company M 339th Infantry were shipped from Camp Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, to the bitter cold Archangel, Russia. The R.E.F (Russian Expeditionary Force), later referred to as “The Polar Bears,” went to battle in a desolate, frozen land. They were left to fight eight months after World War I had ended, and became one of the most highly decorated regiments in all the war.
These men will be remembered in a documentary film, “Voices of a Never Ending Dawn,” which premieres this Memorial weekend in southern Michigan. Among the men honored in the movie is local Cross Village WWI veteran John G. Keller.
“It is 5:10 a.m., dark and foggy. The rainy night has been interminable. Trying to lie on a log or recline against the side of a tree has been weary business. No smokes. No eats,” Captain Joel Moore of the 339 Infantry, wrote in his log on Oct. 14 1918. This was the day Private Keller was shot in the leg. The passage reads
…“Pvt. Merrick falls with a ball through the head. Cpl. Steinhauer is badly wounded. Pvt. Jondro is bad hit in the arm. Pvt. Keller smiles still with a shattered knee. Pvt. Lawrence is wounded in the wrist and side by a bomb thrown by a Bolo machine gun.”
These particular writings and other war stories are found in the book Quartered in Hell, by Dennis Gordon. The book was published in 1982, but in 1989 it fell into the hands of one of Pvt. Keller’s daughters, area resident Kathy Mendoza.
Mendoza, (a past columnist for the Harbor Light), was overwhelmed by her find and by details of the day her father was wounded.
“In the midst of battle, my father’s knee was shattered by the shelling from the Bolshevik enemy. He sat propped up against a tree for several days before he was able to receive medical attention. In fact, according to his service record, he wasn’t admitted to the hospital in Archangel until Nov. 27, nearly six weeks after his injury,” Mendoza said in an interview this week.
“In the midst of battle, my father’s knee was shattered by the shelling from the Bolshevik enemy. He sat propped up against a tree for several days before he was able to receive medical attention. In fact, according to his service record, he wasn’t admitted to the hospital in Archangel until Nov. 27, nearly six weeks after his injury,” Mendoza said in an interview this week.
After mmore than a year in N.R.E.F Hospital, Keller was shipped to France where he served as an army file clerk. This proved useful later in life, having served several terms in Cross Village on the township board, school board and Holy Cross Church board.
Before going to war, Keller was a lumberjack. He entered the service at age 25 in March of 1918 and was discharged in March 13, 1920. After the service, he became a jack of all trades, upholstering furniture and working as a finished carpenter. He also helped to remodel and paint “the stars in heaven” inside Holy Cross Church in the mid 1930’s. At age 30 he met his bride and together they raised 13 children. All six of his boys enlisted in the military.
“I remember my sister telling me that when they took my oldest brother to the train station to say goodbye, my father had a tear in his eye as he walked away. But I never saw my dad cry,” Mendoza said.
Though, Keller’s injury left him crippled for the rest of his life, Mendoza has many found memories of her father and his active lifestyle: planting the garden, playing with all the kids, and entertaining with his fiddle.
“The medics wanted to amputate his leg, telling him he would never be able to use it. Not only could he walk on that leg, but he could run when he needed to,” she said.
She remembers moments of him playfully chasing her and her siblings, and another story of him running to the neighbors to put out a chimney fire.
“We use to kneel and say prayers as a family every night. Though my dad could only kneel on one leg, one of the prayers we said was to St. Michael the Arch Angel to defend us in battle. My dad would cringe his teeth at the very thought of Archangel.”
During the making of the documentary, Kathy and her sister Mary kept in contact with director Pamela Peak. Though portions of the film were shot in the East Jordan area, this weekend will be the first time that family and director meet as Mendoza will travel to Troy for the special premiere event.
Diary entries from soldiers told stories similar to Keller’s, about the conditions in Russia. Keller explained to his children that it would get so cold, even before the snow came, that at night they would latch on to a tree and walk circles around it to keep warm and stay awake.
“It’s when I started reading the diaries of the young men, their voices came alive to me,” director Peak said.
A photo of Keller in uniform will be shown at the end of the film premier. The family is told he will be included in another portion of the film and his name will be also be included in the credits.
The premiere is May 23 at 6:30 p.m. at White Chapel Park Cemetery in Troy MI. Within the 200 acre park are the WWI Polar Bear Memorial, WWII Four Freedoms Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Persian Gulf War memorial and the POW/ MIA Memorial.
Mendoza and her two sisters will attend the black tie event Sunday in memory of their beloved father and in honor of all who serve our country.
A generation later the Polar Bears were the American regiment in the Philippine Division on Bataan that made up a large number of the Americans who suffered the infamous Bataan Death March.
Pretty poorly written article as it fails to point out what the mission was and who they were fighting.
Im not much better but grabbed this from WIKI:
The Polar Bear Expedition...was a contingent of about 5,000 U.S. troops that landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and fought the Red Army in the surrounding region during the period of September 1918 through July 1919.
Goals:
1. preventing Allied war material stockpiles in Archangelsk (originally intended for the recently collapsed Eastern Front) from falling into German or Bolshevik hands,
2. mounting an offensive to rescue the Czech Legion, which was stranded along the Trans-Siberian Railroad and
3. resurrecting the Eastern Front by defeating the Red Army with the assistance of the Czech Legion and an expanded anti-Bolshevik force drawn from the local citizenry - and in the process stopping the spread of communism and the Bolshevik cause in Russia.
Imagine if they had only succeded in crushing the communists back then - no WW2, no Nam, no Iron Curtain, no gazillions wasted on mutual assured destruction - this would have saved 100 million.
Imagine if they had only succeded in crushing the communists back then - no WW2, no Nam, no Iron Curtain, no gazillions wasted on mutual assured destruction - this would have saved 180 million.
Try this: AEF Siberia
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Thanks Tailgunner Joe.In September 1918, though told they were headed to France, the soldiers in company M 339th Infantry were shipped from Camp Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, to the bitter cold Archangel, Russia. The R.E.F (Russian Expeditionary Force), later referred to as "The Polar Bears," went to battle in a desolate, frozen land. They were left to fight eight months after World War I had ended, and became one of the most highly decorated regiments in all the war. These men will be remembered in a documentary film, "Voices of a Never Ending Dawn," which premieres this Memorial weekend in southern Michigan. Among the men honored in the movie is local Cross Village WWI veteran John G. Keller.Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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whoops, missed ya.
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“The expedition was nonsense from the beginning and always seemed to me one of those sideshows born of desperation.” An insufficient number of troops, political misconceptions, a lack of military strategy all contributed to the failed intervention.
100 years later and we still haven’t learned.
You do have to wonder. Looks like the troops distinguished themselves but to no purpose.
And we and the Japanese were nominal allies. That didn't last.
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