While Ironside as supreme commander was an improvement, the men in the field were still saddled with a large number of incompetent field commanders.48 When Poole arrived, he brought a large pool of officers, many of whom simply wanted an assignment and had been unsuccessful in finding suitable commands at home.
The day after Ironside was permanently assigned to the North Russian campaign, Ambassador Francis was evacuated on the Olympia, suffering from prostate cancer. He and Seaman Perschke, of Force B fame, both left Archangel on the Olympia headed for England and further medical treatment.49 He was replaced at the embassy by Dewitt Poole (no relation to the British general), who had previously been in Moscow. Poole was placed under house arrest in Moscow when the Americans intervened and had only recently made his way from Moscow through Finland to Murmansk and then Archangel.
Then, on a return trip, the Olympia brought Rear Adm. Newton McCulley, a new commander for U.S. Naval Forces in North Russia. He had been recommended by the Navy Department and wholeheartedly approved by Francis. He was, according to Francis, “a first class man, having known Russia under Empire and Provisional Government and would comprehend quickly if not acquainted with conditions at present. He is very acceptable.”50 According to naval records, he arrived in Archangel on October 26, after Francis had left. While the navy played only a small role in the North Russian campaign, McCulley’s presence was helpful in dealings with Admiral Kemp, the British naval commander of all Allied naval vessels, and with Major General Ironside, McCulley’s flag rank was important.51
The White Russians, too, were changing their leadership. Under General Poole, Colonel Douroff was the Russian governor-general in charge of military matters, of which Chaikovsky knew, and cared, little. Ironside found him incompetent and eventually replaced him with General Vladimir Marousheffsky. Marousheffsky was a tiny man who had difficulty inspiring his men and was later replaced by Gen. E. Miller, a Russian in whom Ironside had confidence. Miller would stay until the bitter end.
In January 1919, Chaikovsky himself was gone, sent to Paris as a representative to the peace conference; from then on, General Miller would be the nominal head of the Russian forces. Ironside himself was replaced as commander in chief by Lord Rawlinson in August 1919, but the complex plan for evacuation of all Allied troops, civilians, and friendly Russians was left to the capable General Ironside.
An American, Brig. Gen. Wilds P. Richardson, was sent to Archangel to supervise the withdrawal of American troops, arriving from England on April 17. He brought with him a rather complete staff consisting of an acting general staff officer, chief of staff, adjutant, and inspector, his aide, and staff officers assigned to operations, intelligence, personnel, and supply.52 Had Colonel Stewart enjoyed such a staff, his performance might well have been much different. Stewart had tried, in his own way, to protect his men. Shortly after the Armistice, on November 14, he cabled Washington: “Original object of expedition no longer exists. Allies have not been received with hospitality. My inference is plain. Immediate consideration requested.”53 Stewart was asking that the vast machinery in Washington come to a rapid decision to pull out the doughboys, which did not happen. By the time any serious discussion of removing American troops took place, the frozen White Sea ruled out any winter evacuation plans.
As the armistice was being signed in Versailles, Russia was initiating a new government in Siberia. A coup took place in mid-November, and Adm. Alexander V. Kolchak was installed as Supreme Ruler of all Russia, a rather arrogant and misleading title since his main support came from Siberia. Throughout the Archangel expedition, there were countless references to a linking of the Siberian and Archangel Allied forces, even as the British began their final days in Archangel. There never was any linkage of the two forces reported in the official records, although several sources mentioned that lead forces had joined up.54
While the senior officers went about their duties, life for the doughboys in Archangel was improving. There were the usual entertainment opportunities at the Red Cross and YMCA, but they also made up their own activities. During the winter of 1918–1919, there was a large toboggan slide, which was so popular that the authorities put guards on the base of the slide to control, not only troops, but youngsters from the city. Unfortunately, the first guard was a Russian whom the authorities viewed as too young and too stupid. He was replaced. Eugenie Fraser and other local youngsters were fascinated by the structure:
A soldier, standing at the foot of the steps, kept a steady watch. Yet it drew us like a magnet and often, succeeding in distracting the guard’s attention, we dodged past him and, racing down, were followed by a volley of strange words which we later learned described us all as being born out of wedlock.55
Another slide in Solombola drew the attention of the British authorities as well. They were critical of that one for its construction and were concerned for the welfare of the troops. One soldier went down on skates, which prompted an official to remark: “The man who used skates for the descent must have been suffering from a sort of ‘tedium vitae’, the thing was suicidal.”56 It was all in good fun, but it was risky for the youngsters, as well as the soldiers. The America Sentinel newspaper in Archangel reported that five sledders wound up in the hospital after the slide’s first day in operation.57
For young Eugenie Fraser, life was good that winter, as the wealthy Russian families entertained the Allied officers and men. Flirtations and romances sprang up between locals and the troops, some successful, some not. One member of Eugenie’s family, Marga, became engaged to an American officer named Frank; they planned to marry and live in the United States. Frank left with the 339th in June, and, sad to say, was heard from only briefly, then disappeared from Marga’s life.58
Love sometimes took a more commercial turn; young women of Archangel, forced to cope with the changing economic times, occasionally turned to other pursuits. Eugenie Fraser’s young mind absorbed the unusual actions involving a house with a green roof. “Although I had some knowledge of the facts of life, I didn’t know the purpose of that house and imagined it was some kind of club where there was dancing and perhaps a special entertainment. Enlightenment as to how entertaining it was came some time later.”59
With the blossoming of commercial romances came a blossoming rate of venereal disease. Medical reports showed that in March 1919 cases remaining in the Archangel Hospital were for gunshot wounds (40), influenza (17), gonorrhea (20), syphilis (13).60 To maintain some control over the potential problem, the British closed down one of the most popular spots in Archangel, the Café de Paris, because, the proclamation said, “Women of easy virtue habitually visit the café for purposes of their profession.”61 For health reasons, as well as to protect security, the British declared the café off-limits and suggested the Americans do the same.
Troops also were chided by wives and sweethearts about the possibility of a Russian love interest. John Crissman’s wife wrote him in October, “Dearie, don’t fall in love with a Russian girl now for that would never do.” Then two weeks later wrote again, “I suppose you are ‘dating’ with a Russian this evening. Sweetie, be careful—Everything is not fair in love and war!”62 As the Yanks left, there were eight Russian brides accompanying their new husbands.
The local newspaper kept up to date on the various activities; an article published on February 15, 1919, titled, “Who Said That Life Was Dull in Archangel?” mentioned various forms of available entertainment. “Aside from the fascinating past-time of learning the Russian language from a rosy-cheeked Barishna, there are a number of other activities which claim the spare time of the Poilu, the doughboy and the Tommie.”63 They went on to mention the risky toboggan, boxing tournaments, movies, lectures, concerts by the 339th band and other bands, plus some other unspecified “special entertainments.”
One puzzling procedure adopted by the military was that of censorship of mail. There may have been some logic for it in the two months while the war still raged in France, but the practice
continued for months after the armistice, keeping the true facts of the expedition from even the families of those in Russia. On October 21, a Lt. R. C. Johnson of the 310th Engineers wrote home complaining about his British superiors: “The thing that makes us all so mad, is to have rotten British officers in charge of our troops. No matter how inexperienced our own officers may be, they couldn’t be worse than these English. It makes us sick.” His letter was returned by the censor to Colonel Stewart with an endorsement stating, “Enclosed find original letter from Lt. R.C. Johnson H.Q. 1st Bn 310 Engs. Archangel, who criticizes the British in violation of Censorship regulations.” The letter was returned to Lieutenant Johnson with several forwarding endorsements ending with the lieutenant’s apology saying, “Conditions at the time of the writing were very regrettable but have improved. . . . Am very sorry I was so indiscreet as to place the conditions on paper. This will not occur again.”64
Several of the engineers and doughboys tried to give their letters to sailors to take without the censor’s review, and probably many were successful, but there was still little notice in the United States of the beleaguered troops up close to the Arctic Circle. As the various troops were sent home, sick or wounded, the returnees usually carried a large batch of letters to mail when they finally arrived in the United States. Censorship of mail was another thorn in the side of the AEFNR, especially after the armistice, when the only reason for the process seemed to be to prevent home folks from hearing the sordid facts.
The enforcement of the code was purely arbitrary; Pvt. Golden Bahr’s seemingly innocuous letter home on November 18, 1918, was literally cut to pieces, whole sentences being cut out, leaving little content. It may have been that he was reporting his physical condition, which was poor. He was admitted to the hospital that same day, sent to England in December, then to New York, and discharged in Michigan in February 1919. He died March 12, 1919, at his home in Marilla, Michigan.65
Cpl. Fred Krooyers also had some trouble with the censors. On October 22, his diary noted that he received extra fatigue duty and was told he could write no more letters for a month for “writing the truth home.”66 Officers, on the other hand, sometimes censored their own mail, allowing for considerably more leeway in their communications.
Movies were plentiful in Archangel and even in the forward bases of Obozerskaya and Bereznik. Mary Pickford was a favorite in “The Little American,” along with “Up There” and “The Reward of Love,” and many other current favorites whose names are lost in time. Dances at the YMCA, the YWCA, and the Red Cross, as well as local events, made Archangel a welcome haven for front-line troops given a breather in town and a good duty station for those who were based there. On all fronts, there still was the Arctic cold, the lack of daylight, and the puzzle over the reason for their presence, but life in Archangel was vastly better than the primitive conditions at the front.
There was a dark side to Archangel, which haunted those who lived in the city. Executions, individual and wholesale, went on in the city. Ralph Albertson was one of the secretaries sent out to provide YMCA services to the troops. He soon became bewildered at the brutality shown by both the Russians and British.
The execution of suspects made Bolsheviki right and left. The inquisitorial processes of the Russian puppets of the Military Intervention were necessarily so much like that of the old regime that they went far to dispel all illusions about the Military Intervention that remained in the peasant mind.
When night after night the firing squad took out its batches of victims, it mattered not that no civilians were permitted on the streets. There were thousands of ears to hear the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns.67
Despite the imminence of the AEFNR’s withdrawal, another development was taking place that would put more Americans into the North Russian fighting.
12
The Murmansk Railroad Companies
They stopped at Siding 15 and with their bayonets and a broken shovel, dug a grave in the frozen ground for their comrades fallen in the fight of the day before.
—Chaplain John Wilson, North Russian Transportation Corps Expeditionary Force
DESPITE the War Department’s strong opposition to the Intervention and President Wilson’s assurance that no more troops would be sent, late in the expedition another contingent of U.S. troops was deployed to the Russian north. In response to a request from the British, two companies of American railroad troops, the 167th and 168th Railroad Companies, were sent to help maintain and operate the existing portions of the Murmansk-to-Petrograd line.
There had been much discussion in Washington concerning withdrawal of American troops from Russia. Secretary of War Baker wrote:
Of course the correct solution to the matter was to withdraw our forces, and the President, not having the War Department at hand to consult [Wilson was at the Paris Peace Conference], finally called on General [Tasker] Bliss, who was a member of the Peace Conference, for a memorandum on the proposition to send in the two railroad companies.1
General Bliss agreed to the British proposal with the understanding that it would be “to assist in the withdrawal of troops in Northern Russia at the earliest opportunity.”2
In February 1919 General Pershing was authorized by President Wilson to organize two railroad transportation companies to be transferred from France. They would assist in the running of the troubled railroad, which Bolshevik and Allied forces were fighting over. General Bliss reasoned that improving the railroad would contribute to the ease of evacuating American troops. Bliss revealed some confusion as to the geography involved, since the new railroad troops were headed for Murmansk, almost completely cut off from Archangel. The railroaders never came near Archangel, and no U.S. troops were evacuated through Murmansk, except as a quick stopover on the way to England or Scotland.
Wilson was pressured by the Paris Peace Conference and the Allied War Council, plus the various Allied nations, who had proclaimed the urgent need for railroad troops. One of the railroaders wrote:
The North Russia Transportation Corps Expedition was the response of the Transportation Corps of France to a most urgent radio request received the latter part of 1918, from Archangel, to send special railway troops to open the railroad south from Murmansk far enough to permit overland evacuation of Allied troops.3
Wilson’s decision on February 12, 1919, committed 720 more men to North Russia, just four days before his decision to withdraw all forces from the region.4 Some of the railroaders later declared that they had been tricked into volunteering. Charles Tyner claimed he went to rescue the doughboys of the 339th, not to fight Bolsheviks. He told of a recruiting talk given by Brig. Gen. W. W. Atterbury, who maintained the group would be going to rescue a group of marooned soldiers trapped by the ice in the White Sea. “It was a total fabrication, what he wanted was to get U. S. soldiers involved in the war against Bolsheviks, a group of people he had no love for at all.”5
The men were selected from a number of transportation companies in France with full knowledge of their destination, unlike the men of the 339th who had been mystified as to their real assignment from the time they got to England. On March 5, 1919, American major Edward E. MacMorland was appointed commander of the North Russia Transportation Corps Expeditionary Forces, made up of the 167th (Operations) and the 168th (Maintenance) Companies Transportation Corps, consisting of 32 officers and 688 enlisted men.6 The volunteers were sent to St. Pierre-des-Corps, France; there they were organized and outfitted, then shipped to Park Royal Camp near London, where they were reviewed by Gen. John J. Pershing himself.
Their stay in London was brief, but they received their Arctic equipment at Park Royal, complete with the hated Russian Moisin Nagant rifle. Considered fully outfitted, on March 17, the 168th Company sailed for Murmansk from Hull, England, on the HMT Stephen. They arrived at Murmansk on March 25, the first American soldiers to be assigned to that port. One man wrote, “If war was hell for Sherman, marching through a southern State in time of abundant h
arvest, then it was hell frozen over for this battalion marching through the tundras and snows of Russia.”7
Geographically, Murmansk sits well above the Arctic Circle. It was an unimpressive boomtown, built only three years before. “We saw an unsightly collection of unpainted warehouses and dwellings, sprawled in the snow on the sides of the hills. We saw wharves, railroad yards crowded with decrepit rolling stock, and piles of supplies.”8
The 168th was already hard at work in Murmansk before the 167th Company left England. MacMorland noted on his arrival, “The British have received us very well and seem glad to have our aid.”9 Unlike their antagonism against Americans in Archangel, the British seemed to appreciate the American help in Murmansk. Another advantage for these men was that they would receive American, instead of British, rations, and supplementary rations would be issued regularly. The English supply forces kept their word; a constant stream of additional rations, cigarettes, candy, and other articles arrived on almost every boat.
Major MacMorland, the commanding officer in Russia, reported to Maj. Gen. C. M. Maynard, the British officer in charge of the Murmansk Allied operation. In addition, for administrative purposes MacMorland reported to American brigadier general Richardson after his arrival.10 MacMorland believed he would be in Murmansk only briefly, then would be sent back to France. In a letter home on March 6, he wrote, “Although I shall go with this expedition it is probable that I shall return to France by reason of the non-desire of the British to have any American field officers with the unit.”11 However, he stayed with the units until they were withdrawn. While their primary duties were in maintaining and operating the Murmansk-Petrograd Railroad, their eagerness to join in the fighting led them into skirmishes with the Bolsheviks, sometimes with fatal results.
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