The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the 339th Infantry Regiment at Toulgas (11/11/1918)

Shortly afterward, the British brought up their own gunboat--a river monitor--to control the Dvina, and with Seltso in the hands of White Russian and Royal Scottish troops from Poole's force, the 1st Battalion was pulled out to a resort town for other duties. In early October, however, the Reds counterattacked at Seltso, prompting a call for reinforcements. Boyd's B Company was detached from the battalion and sent back on a relatively speedy tugboat to the disputed hamlet. The American troops did not fancy the prospect of returning to Seltso, but what irritated them the most was the requirement that they submit to direct control by British officers.

The Wharf at Archangel, Russia

The Bolsheviks had dug trenches (very soggy ones, since the water table was 18 inches deep) on the southern outskirts of Seltso. On the afternoon of October 10, three of B Company's platoons engaged the trenches at their front, while the fourth platoon worked its way through the woods to try a flank attack. This time the assault was managed better. Forming a skirmish line with men at six-pace intervals, the platoon charged out of the woods screaming. The Reds panicked and ran, losing about 30 men compared to two wounded Americans.

Gaining confidence, Boyd decided on the following morning to attack the small town of Lipovit a few miles farther south. The Americans were advancing unimpeded through woods when they suddenly came under rifle fire from both sides. About 1,000 Bolsheviks had allowed Boyd's column to walk deep into the jaws of a trap before snapping it shut. Two platoons managed to take cover in a nearby ravine and retreat to safety, but the other two platoons, including Boyd, were cut off and had to run and hide in thick undergrowth along the Dvina. For several tense minutes, the Americans watched as the enemy troops swarmed through the woods looking for them. Then, without bothering to search next to the river, the Bolsheviks withdrew, allowing Boyd and his men to rejoin the company with just one man wounded.

An American guard ladling out rice to Bolshevik prisoners during October, 1918. M1891 Rifle with bayonet shown

Chastened by that close call, B Company withdrew to Seltso while the Bolsheviks quietly reoccupied the trenches on the southern outskirts of the town. An uneasy standoff continued until the captain of the British monitor, concerned that ice might form on the Dvina, steamed back 40 miles and left the garrison unprotected from the river flank. The Soviet gunboat captains, on the other hand, knew better how to gauge the weather, and they swiftly moved in to recommence the bombardment, out of range of the American field guns in Seltso.

By then, there was little point in the Allied troops staying to take that abuse, since the drive for Kotlas had been postponed indefinitely. At midnight on October 14, B Company and the rest of the Allied troops retreated 10 miles to the little town of Toulgas (or Tulgas).

Building Barracks at Camp Michigan
Many of the Polar Bears were from the northern midwest

The drive on Kotlas had been postponed because in late October command of the Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force passed from Poole to his chief of staff, Brig. Gen. William Edmund Ironside, who was given a temporary promotion to major general. Wishing to steer the expedition back toward its original mission, Ironside placed top priority on holding Archangel and the Allied supplies that remained there. He therefore approved a plan to garrison a number of widely separated outposts in the area surrounding the port.

One of those outposts was Toulgas, which consisted of a narrow strip of 200 log houses on a muddy slope, with the Dvina on one side and an immense wooded swamp on the other. The Allied garrison, about 600 men, was composed of B Company; a platoon of D Company; one company from the 2nd Battalion, 10th Royal Scots; and 57 Canadians of the 67th Battery, 16th Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, in charge of two 18-pounder (3.3-inch) field guns.

The famed 339th Infantry at HQ in Archangel, Russia. Note the fellows are equipped with standard Army gear and the M1891 rifle and bayonet. Winter had not started yet!

The troops busily set about fortifying the town by digging trenches, stringing barbed wire and building log blockhouses. Toulgas was naturally divided into three parts, with the southern end, closest to the approaching main Bolshevik force of 2,000 men, separated from the middle part of town by a deep stream spanned by an 80-foot-long wooden bridge. The northern end of town was separated from the middle by a ravine, where the Canadians emplaced their 18-pounders pointing south. The Allies considered the north end the safest part and put their hospital there.

As far as weaponry was concerned, the Americans had long since learned that their Mosin-Nagant rifles were nearly worthless--fortunately for them, the Bolsheviks were using the same rifles. Instead, the Allied troops depended on Vickers and Lewis machine guns sited at various points around the town. The Lewis gun was particularly valued for its ruggedness under adverse conditions, and that was amply demonstrated on October 23, when Soviet gunboats came down the Dvina and started shelling Toulgas.

Private Joseph Edvinson of B Company was part of a crew at a machine-gun post when a shell hit. The rest of the crewmen then went back to report Edvinson's death. "He had gone up in the air one way, and the Lewis gun the other," wrote Boyd. "We established the post a little farther back and went out at dusk to get Edvinson's body. Much was the surprise of the party when he hailed them with, 'Well, I think she's all right.' He had collected himself, retrieved the Lewis gun, taken it apart and cleaned it, and stuck to his post."

Blockhouses Used by the 339th Infantry

Shelling continued over the next several days, with the 18-pounders being unable to effectively engage the Bolshevik gunboats, whose weapons outranged them. Brief but sharp firefights also broke out when Red infantry patrols tested the town's defenses. To strengthen the garrison, Lieutenant John Cudahy and 40 men of the 337th Infantry arrived from France at the end of October to provide reinforcements. Cudahy was so shocked by the dismal living conditions of the Americans in Toulgas that he bought extra food for them with his own money on the black market. The lieutenant must have wondered what he had gotten himself into.

The Germans on the Western Front had not been able to defeat the Allies, even with the divisions they had transferred from the East. In fact, the Germans had been rolled back and were at the point of collapse. The situation in Russia was a different story. Everyone in Toulgas knew that a major attack was coming soon. Although there were many "Bolo" (the Americans' slang for Bolshevik) sympathizers among the townsfolk, most of them genuinely liked the Americans and warned that the attack would come sometime near the anniversary of the 1917 revolution.

At 8 a.m. on November 11, 1918, Bolshevik troops stormed out of the woods at the south end of Toulgas, and B Company's second platoon stampeded over the wooden bridge to take up defensive positions on the other side. Everything ran according to plan; the Allies never wanted to hold the south end, intending to fall back and wait for the Bolos to try to cross the bridge. Then Sergeant Parrish did his deadly work with the Vickers machine gun in the log blockhouse facing the bridge.

Back in the ravine, the Canadians were about to add to the defensive fire with their field guns when one of the men happened to look to his side. Utterly flabbergasted, he saw a horde of Bolsheviks preparing to charge from the west right up the ravine.

a U.S. soldier of the 339th Infantry standing guard while oatmeal is being unloaded into one of the huge warehouses storing U.S. supplies

All along, the Allied officers had assumed that the swampy western flank of Toulgas was impassable for a large force. But the Bolsheviks proved them wrong. For three days before the attack, 500 Red troops had worked their way undetected to a position near the ravine, where they waited until the diversionary attack was launched at the south end of town.

The surprise strike almost certainly would have worked had it not been for a B Company squad with a Lewis gun that happened to be in the ravine near the 18-pounders at that time. The squad poured out such a fusillade that the Bolsheviks thought they were facing a much larger force. The Soviet troops then pulled back and moved around to attempt another attack from the north end of town.

That gave the gunners just enough time to shift position and turn one 18-pounder 180 degrees toward the north. Expert as well as brave, the Canadians fused their shrapnel shells to burst right after leaving the muzzle, like old-fashioned grapeshot. The Reds never got within 50 yards before being cut down by murderous blasts of fire; about 100 were killed outright. The Americans and Canadians had started to congratulate each other after stopping the last attack when they suddenly had a chilling thought: The Bolsheviks had also taken over the undefended hospital in the north end of town, and the Allies had already learned that the Bolsheviks treated wounded prisoners with pistol shots.

Co. B, 339th Infantry on snowshoe patrol, Dvina River, Dec. 31, 1918

For the rest of the morning and afternoon, five Bolshevik gunboats continued to stay just out of the range of the 18-pounders and drop shells all around the blockhouse and ravine, hoping to hit a weak spot. They did not succeed, and the day ended with the Allies wondering what the Reds' next move would be.

Early morning on November 12, the Bolsheviks' plan was revealed plain as the day. The gunboats concentrated fire on the bridge blockhouse. Hour after hour, Allied soldiers watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as shells struck all around the blockhouse without scoring a direct hit. Finally at noon, one did, completely demolishing the structure. On cue, Bolshevik soldiers began to move across the bridge. Then the barrel jacket of a Lewis gun poked out from the heap of broken and smoldering logs of what had once been the blockhouse.

Co. C, 310th Engineers, Bolshie Ozerki Front, Russia, Apr. 8, 1919

The direct hit had killed or seriously wounded everyone inside and had knocked out the Vickers, but Private Charles Bell of B Company also had a Lewis gun. Despite a severe facial wound, Bell stuck to his post as Edvinson had done and kept the Soviets from crossing the bridge, while the Americans outside hurriedly set up another of their Lewises in a trench to form a cross-fire. The Bolsheviks tried again and again to cross the bridge during the rest of the afternoon, but at every attempt machine-gun fire created an impregnable barrier.

Additional Sources:

pages.prodigy.net/mvgrobbel
www.umich.edu
www.worldwar1.com
www.usmilitaryknives.com

Not content merely to watch, the Royal Scots made a swift attack on the north end of town during the afternoon, dislodging the Bolsheviks and recapturing the hospital. What they then discovered would probably be dismissed as fiction if it were not so well-documented.

When the Bolsheviks took the hospital without resistance on the morning of the 11th, their commander, true to form, had immediately ordered that all the Allied patients be shot. A high-pitched voice then interrupted, declaring that the first man who pulled a trigger would be shot himself. All eyes turned to see a beautiful woman step forward wearing the standard male Red Army uniform. She turned out to be a fellow officer--and the commander's lover. The Bolshevik commander grudgingly rescinded his order and then led his men in an attack on the 18-pounders in the ravine. Shortly afterward, he was mortally wounded and was brought back to the hospital to die in the presence of "Lady Olga," as the Allies called the woman officer. She stayed to help tend the wounded soldiers of both sides, even after the Scots had taken back the hospital.

In spite of that good fortune at the hospital, the situation in Toulgas worsened on the morning of November 13. Infantry attacks against the bridge and ravine had proved fruitless for the Bolsheviks, so they again switched tactics. They started an almost continuous area bombardment of Toulgas, endangering soldiers and civilians alike. On average, a heavy shell hit the town every 15 seconds throughout the day. When the Allied soldiers looked at some of the shell fragments, they saw to their disgust and dismay that the shells had been manufactured in the United States--a portion of the supplies sent to Archangel that they had been assigned to guard.

As darkness closed in, the situation turned critical. Ammunition was low, and since the one telegraph line to the rear had been cut, neither supplies nor reinforcements were on the way. The temperature had plunged as well, bringing on the first heavy snowfall of winter.

One advantage, at least for the Americans, was that no communications meant no outside British control. Captain Boyd of B Company was in charge of the garrison as ranking Allied officer. Deciding to use his powers to the fullest, Boyd proposed a daring gamble to break the siege.

Boyd had been impressed by the way young Lieutenant Cudahy kept a cool head under fire. Since he had to stay in town as commander, Boyd put Cudahy in charge of B Company with orders to do what the Reds had failed to do on the 11th--mount a surprise flank attack from the western swamp.

In the faint light just before dawn on November 14, the American company carefully moved past Allied sentries into the wooded swamp. Although the Bolsheviks had surrounded Toulgas, Allied sharpshooters had taken care of many of the Bolshevik pickets on the perimeter the previous afternoon, so it was easy enough to get through their lines. Cudahy's specific objective was a group of huts near the south end that was being used as a supply depot. But more than a simple raid was intended. Boyd hoped that a sharp attack would convince the enemy that large reinforcements had arrived and that it would be wise to pull back.

The thick layer of slush under several inches of powdery snow made the going agonizingly slow, as Cudahy led his men in a wide arc and then formed them into a skirmish line at the edge of a meadow. Across the meadow were the huts, along with some Bolsheviks milling about preparing breakfast. With his force still undetected, the lieutenant gave the order to open fire.

By a lucky chance the Red detachment's commissar, or political officer, was killed by one of the first American bullets. When the Bolshevik soldiers witnessed this, and then saw the Americans charge out of the woods, they panicked and began running in wild disorder back toward their larger force overlooking the bridge.

Cudahy was deciding how best to follow up on this success when one of the B Company men peered into a hut and found it was crammed with rifle ammunition. Seeing an opportunity, Cudahy told the men to clear the area around the hut. Then he gave the order to set it on fire.

Like a shooting gallery gone mad, the uproar of the exploding rifle rounds filled the air for miles. When the Bolshevik commander near the bridge heard the commotion, he assumed that a rescue force had broken through from the rear and was trying to trap his force. Consequently, he ordered his men to pull back from the south end of town.

By another lucky chance, the captains of the gunboats had decided at about the same time that the increased cold posed too great a danger of ice forming on the river, and they withdrew their vessels up the Dvina toward Seltso. With their superiority in artillery gone, the Bolshevik ground troops felt they, too, had no choice but to begin a general withdrawal.

The siege of Toulgas was over. It had cost the Allies 28 killed and 70 wounded. A conservative estimate put the Bolshevik dead at 500. When the men of the garrison finally heard the news of the armistice days after the rest of the world, they thought that their prayers had been answered and that their own withdrawal orders were forthcoming. But the Allies were too heavily engaged in the continuing Russian civil war to withdraw so soon. Also, thick ice had formed in the sea around Archangel just as it did on the Dvina and prevented the use of transports, even those with powerful icebreaker bows.

During the rest of 1918 and the first two months of 1919, the Allied garrison had several more sharp encounters, though the Bolsheviks never made as great an effort to take Toulgas while the Americans were there. Bolshevik prisoners later told their captors that the Soviet enlisted men had threatened to shoot their officers if another siege was ordered. The Americans were pleased with their reputation of toughness, but they were positively ecstatic when word came in the spring that they were set to leave Russia. On June 3, 1919, B Company and the rest of the 339th boarded transports at Archangel and steamed away.

Funeral for the fallen of the 339th Infantry Regiment, White Chapel Cemetery, 1930.
Though the Great War had been over for nearly 12 years, some families did not receive their sons home until 1930 with the return of Infantry Regiment #339. Fondly known as the “Polar Bears”, the unit spent the duration of the war in Siberia, fighting the Bolshevik forces that had overthrown the Czar the year prior. Above, Mr. And Mrs. Frank Skocelas are reunited with their son, Private Andrew Skocelas, one final time.

The veterans of the 339th did not feel that they had done much good for Russia. They called themselves "The Polar Bears" at reunions in the years afterward and worked to keep alive the memory of their remarkable exploits. One man did so in a very personal way. When Cudahy's wife gave birth to a daughter, he made "Toulgas" her middle name.

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004

The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

LINK TO FOXHOLE THREADS INDEXED by PAR35

White Russian Bump on Monday AM for the Freeper Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!

Good Monday Morning Everyone

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Morning alfa6.

Is it soap yet?

Interesting!

Before Patten..
To bad they couldn’t keep on heading east!
No USSR wonder what kind of timeline that would be?

With control of the Dvina the Reds perhaps could have moved some of their numerically superior force by boat to the north of Dolgas. One hopes the 339th could have coped with an all around defense.

Rotten that so many Russians believed in Lenin's lies. Of course, the Kerensky government was a ship of fools.

Speaking of hardware, the Vickers gun was very efficient and reliable in skilled hands. Internal inspection shows much hand fitting, making the design hard to mass produce until this age of computer numerical control machining.

I have had a close look at a Lewis, and found the magazine drive very complicated. The machine looks vulnerable to mud and hard to clean, with many very small parts.

The now archaic Lewis was an efficient killer and the best light machine gun of it's day by far. These days they have a high collector's value.

Good morning Snippy.

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper foxhole.

On This Day in History

Birthdates which occurred on March 14:
1681 Georg Philipp Telemann Magdeburg Germany, late baroque composer
1692 Peter Musschenbroek Dutch physician/physicist (Leyden jar)
1782 Thomas Hart Benton (Representative), "Old Bullion"
1800 James Bogardus US inventor/builder (made cast-iron buildings)
1804 Johann Strauss the Elder Viennese violinist/composer (Radetzky March)
1808 Catharinus Putnam Buckingham Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1816 Montgomery Dent Corse Alexandria VA, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1895
1820 Victor Emmanuel II King of Sardinia (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78)
1823 Roswell Sabine Ripley Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1887
1833 John Sappington Marmaduke Major General (Confederate Army)
1835 Giovanni V Schiaparelli Italian astronomer (Mars)
1844 King Umberto I of Italy (1878-1900)
1854 Thomas Riley Marshall (D) 28th Vice President (1913-21)
1864 [John] Casey Jones RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones)
1879 Albert Einstein Ulm Germany, (E=mc²/Theory of Relativity, Nobel 1921)
1903 Molla Mustafa Barzani Iran, Kurd leader (KDP)
1912 Les Brown Reinerton PA, orchestra leader (& his band of renown)
1919 Max Shulman novelist (Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap)
1920 Hank Ketcham cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
1923 Diane Arbus photographer
1928 Frank Borman Gary IN, astronaut (Gemini 7, Apollo 8)/CEO-Eastern Airlines
1933 Michael Caine [Maurice J Micklewhite] Bermondsey London England, actor (Blame it on Rio, Alfie, Educating Rita, The Man Who Would Be King)
1933 Quincy Jones Jr Chicago IL, jazz & R&B producer/composer/singer (We Are The World)
1934 Eugene A Cernan Chicago IL, Captain USN/astronaut (Gemini 9, Apollo 10 17)
1934 Shirley Scott swing/blues organist (with Stanley Turrentine)
1942 Jerry Jeff Walker Oneonta NY, country singer (Mr Bojangles)
1945 Walter Parazaider Chicago IL, rock saxophonist (Chicago-If You Leave Me Now)
1947 Billy Crystal Long Beach NY, comedian (Soap, Saturday Night Live, City Slickers)
1952 David Byrne guitarist/vocalist (Talking Heads-Burning Down the House)
1952 J Fred Muggs chimp (Today show)
1956 Natalya Dmitriyevna Kuleshova Russia, cosmonaut
1962 Kirby Puckett centerfielder (Minnesota Twins)

Deaths which occurred on March 14:
1490 Charles I Duke of Savoy, dies at 21
1573 Claude II of Lotharingen, duke of Aumale/murdered Admiral Coligny, dies
1682 Jacob I van Ruysdael physician/landscape painter, dies at about 53
1883 Karl Marx German philosopher (Communist Manifesto), dies at 64
1932 George Eastman US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide at 77
1973 Murat B "Chic" Young US comic strip artist (Blondie), dies at 72
1975 Susan Hayward actress (Young & Willing), dies at 56
1976 Busby Berkeley US choreographer/director (Strike Up the Band), dies at 80
1986 Marlin Perkins TV host (Wild Kingdom) at 80
1991 Jerome "Doc" Pomus lyricist (Save Last Dance for Me), dies at 65
1992 Ralph James actor (Orson-Mork & Mindy), dies at 67
1992 Steven Brian Pennell 1st execution in Delaware in 45 years, at 34
1995 William A Fowler US nuclear/astro-physicist (Nobel 1983), dies at 83

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 HILTON ROBERT L.---BALTIMORE MD.
1966 KLUTE KARL EDWIN--RICHMOND IN.
1966 PLEIMAN JAMES E.---RUSSIA OH.
[REMAINS RETURNED 03/23/89]
1968 HAMM JAMES E.---LONGMONT CO.
1972 HARDY ARTHUR HANS---ISPWICH MA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 09/20/83]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1558 Ferdinand I appointed Holy Roman emperor
1590 Battle at Ivry: French King Henri IV beats Catholic League
1629 England granted a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony
1644 England grants patent for Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island)
1689 Scotland dismisses Willem III & Mary Stuart as king & queen
1734 Prince Willem KHF van Orange marries George II's daughter Mary Anne
1743 1st American town meeting (Boston's Faneuil Hall)
1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin
1800 Luigi Chiaramonti crowned Pope Pius VII
1812 Congress authorizes war bonds to finance War of 1812
1821 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church founded (New York)
1862 Battle of New Bern NC: General Burnside conquers New Bern
1864 Union troops occupy Fort de Russy, Louisiana
1885 Gilbert & Sullivan's opera "Mikado" premieres in London
1888 2nd largest snowfall in New York NY history (21")
1900 Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of genetics
1900 US currency goes on gold standard
1903 1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian FL
1912 King Vittorio Emanuel III of Rome injured during assassination attempt
1913 John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
1914 Serbia & Turkey sign peace treaty
1915 German cruiser Dresden blows itself up near coast of Chile
1916 Battle of Verdun: German attack on Mort-Homme ridge, West of Verdun
1918 1st concrete ship to cross the Atlantic (Faith) is launched, San Francisco
1923 German Supreme Court prohibits NSDAP
1923 President Warren G Harding became 1st President filing income tax report and pay taxes
1933 Civilian Conservation Corp, begins tree conservation
1933 Winston Churchill wants to boost air defense
1936 Federal Register, 1st magazine of the US government, publishes 1st issue
1937 Battle of the Century: Fred Allen & Jack Benny meet on radio
1937 Pope Pius XI publishes anti-Nazi-encyclical Mit brennender Sorge
1939 Nazi Germany dissolves Republic of Czechoslovakia
1940 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen TX
1941 Nazi occupiers of Holland forbid Jewish owned companies
1941 Xavier Cugat & his Orchestraestra record "Babalu"
1950 FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins
1951 During Korean War, US/UN forces recapture Seoul
1953 Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as Secretary of Communist Party
1954 Braves Henry Aaron homers in his 1st exhibition game
1954 KDAL (now KDLH) TV channel 3 in Duluth-Superior MN (CBS) begins
1958 RIAA (Recording Industry Association of American)is created and certifies 1st gold record (Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star)
1958 South Africa government disallows ANC
1958 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1958 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1962 Disarmament conference opens in Geneva without France
1962 Gordie Howe (Detroit Red Wings) is 2nd NHLer to score 500 goals
1964 Dallas jury sentences Jack Ruby to death for Lee Harvey Oswald murder
1965 Israeli cabinet approves diplomatic relations with West Germany
1967 JFK's body moved from temporary grave to a permanent memorial
1968 CBS TV suspends Radio Free Europe free advertising because RFE doesn't make it clear it is sponsored by the CIA
1971 The Rolling Stones leave England for France to escape taxes
1976 Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 7,000th race
1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 Polish airliner crash kills all 87 aboard (22 are US amateur boxers)
1983 OPEC cut oil prices for 1st time in 23 years
1990 Mikhail S Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress
1991 Emir of Kuwait returns to Kuwait City, after the Iraqis leave
1992 Researchers said a substance occurring naturally in broccoli helps the body fight off cancer-causing chemicals.
(Me and George Bush still don't eat it)
1992 Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication
1994 Mexican banker/billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu kidnapped
1994 Soyuz TM-21 launches with V Dezyurov, G Strekalov & N Thagard
1994 Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, a longtime friend of President and Mrs. Clinton, resigned. (Whitewater)
2000 Defending champion Doug Swingley drove his dog team to victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
2001 Doug Swingley won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the third straight year
2002 A New Jersey federal grand jury indicted Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for the kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.
2003 Christopher Boyce, whose Cold War spying was immortalized on film in "The Falcon and the Snowman," was released from a halfway house in San Francisco after about a quarter-century in prison

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

US : Daffodil Days Begins
US : Straw Hat Week Begins
US : National Pi Day (3.14...get it?)
National Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Month

Religious Observances
RC : Third Sunday of Lent

Religious History
1559 French-born Swiss reformer John Calvin wrote in a letter: 'If your labors, where you now are, are sterile, and if here an abundant harvest awaits them, which is the most forcible tie? the one by which God draws you hither, or the one that detains you there?'
1908 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was chartered in Waco, Texas. Originally named Baylor Theological Seminary, the school campus relocated in 1910 to Fort Worth.
1912 Death of Albert L. Peace, 68. One of the noted Scottish organists of his day, Peace composed many cantatas, organ pieces and hymn tunes __ including the enduring ST. MARGARET, to which the Church today sings George Matheson's "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go."
1937 English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink wrote in a letter: 'Neither the nearness nor the remoteness of Christ's return is a rule to regulate us in the ordering of our temporal affairs. Spiritual preparedness is the great matter.'
1961 The New Testament of the New English Bible was simultaneously published by both the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses. (The complete Old & New Testament of the NEB was published in 1970.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The whole point of Christianity is that everyone in the world, from Charles Manson to Mother Teresa, deserves to go to hell."

Good morning

1952 J Fred Muggs chimp (Today show)

I have used J Fred Muggs as a nomme de guerre many times, he has also filled out many an inane questionare at my kids high school. An offense for which, fortunately, I have not had to get said kids out of the office.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

March 14, 2005

Change The World?

Read:
Matthew 25:34-40

I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. -Matthew 25:35

Bible In One Year: Joshua 10-12

cover When my son Steve came home from a concert recently, he had with him a free T-shirt and a brochure for an organization that helps needy children in a far-off continent. Apparently, one of the singers had issued a challenge.

"We wanted to change the world with our music," he said, "but often all we do is sing. We decided that we were going to take action to change some lives, so we started supporting some needy kids." Then he set forth the challenge, which Steve accepted. He then talked with his Bible-study group at church about supporting a child each month.

Most of us want to change the world for the better, but the job seems too big. So what if we decided to do at least one thing to change just one person's life? In the name of Jesus, who said that providing physical help would be the same as helping our Savior Himself (Matthew 25:35-36), what if we reached out to one person with food, or clothing, or transportation? And what if that person, wondering about our motive, asks why we helped? We could then help change that person's life for eternity by introducing him or her to the Savior.

Change the world? Let's start with changing one person in Jesus' name. -Dave Branon

Do a deed of simple kindness,
Though its end you may not see;
It may reach, like widening ripples,
Down a long eternity. -Norris

Wherever a human being exists, there is an opportunity to do a kindness. -Seneca

FOR FURTHER STUDY
How Can I Share My Faith Without An Argument?

'ow about a nice airplane pic now that I 'ave 'ade it home this fine 'orning.

BTW this pic has been reduced to 15% of the original size, aye carumba!!!

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Dan, I know J Fred Muggs. J Fred Muggs was a friend of mine, and Mr. Rather you're no J Fred Muggs.

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

Morning Snippy.

No USSR wonder what kind of timeline that would be?

Interesting topic for an "alternate history"

Change The World?

Read:Matthew 25:34-40

I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. -Matthew 25:35

Bible In One Year: Joshua 10-12

Read:
Matthew 25:34-40