The Project Gutenberg ebook of History of the World War, by

Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

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Title: History of the World War

An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War

Produced by Don Kostuch

[Transcriber's Notes]
My father's part in WWI attracted me to this book. I recall him talking briefly about fighting the Bolsheviki in Archangel. "The machine gun bullets trimmed the leaves off the trees, as if it were fall." Like most veterans, he had little else to say.

This book mentions his campaign on page 736; "August 3, 1918.--President Wilson announces new policy regarding Russia and agrees to co­operate with Great Britain, France and Japan in sending forces to Murmansk, Archangel and Vladivostok."

My father's experience seems to be described in the following excerpt from the University of Michigan "The University Record", April 5, 1999. "Bentley showcases items from World War I 'Polar Bears' "; by Joanne Nesbit.
"During the summer of 1918, the U.S. Army's 85th Division, made up primarily of men from Michigan and Wisconsin, completed training at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Mich., and proceeded to England. The 5,000 troops of the division's 339th Infantry and support units realized that they were not being sent to France to join the great battles on the Western Front when they were issued Russian weapons and equipment and lectured on life in the Arctic regions.

When they reached their destination in early September, 600 miles north of Moscow, the men of the 339th joined an international force commanded by the British that had been sent to northern Russia for purposes that were never made clear. The Americans were soon spread in small fighting units across hundreds of miles of the Russian forest fighting the Bolsheviks who had taken power in Petrograd and Moscow.

The day of the Armistice (Nov. 11) when fighting ceased for other American armies, the allied soldiers were fighting the Bolsheviks said to be led by Trotsky himself. After three days, the allies finally were able to drive off the Bolsheviks. While this fight was a victory for the Americans, the battle led to the realization that the war was not over for these men. As the weeks and months passed and more battles were fought, the men began to wonder if they would ever get home.

The men of the 339th generally were well equipped with winter clothing during the winter of 1918-19 while stationed near the Arctic Circle, where temperatures reached minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

There was little daylight for months at a time. Knowing that the war was over for other American soldiers, the morale of the troops declined throughout the winter.

Families and friends of the men began to clamor for their return. Politicians unwilling to support an undeclared war against the Russian government joined in their demand. A petition to Congress was circulated. Several of the British and French units mutinied and refused to continue fighting. In early April, the American troops learned that they would be withdrawn as soon as the harbor at Archangel was cleared of ice.

It was not until June of 1919 that the men of the 339th sailed from Russia and adopted the polar bear as their regimental symbol. After a stop in New York, the troops went on to Detroit where they took part in a gala July 4 homecoming parade at Belle Isle."

The converted text for several chapters is copied from Project Gutenberg's eBook 16282, History of the World War, Vol. 3, prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Jennifer Zickerman, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This edition has minor differences, mostly additional passages and images.

Western France; Southern England

Dieppe

Paris

Western Front Battle Zone--Eastern France; Southern Belgium; Western Germany

Meuse River

W

WI Locales

Lens; Cinde; Mons

Douai; Valenciennes

Cambri

St. Quentin

Sedan

Argonne Forest*

Soissons; Rheims

Verdun; Metz
Chateau-Thierry

St. Mihiel

Paris; Sezanne

*The Argonne Forest lies between Sedan and Verdun.

Europe, 1898

This is a glossary of unfamiliar (to me) terms and places.
Boche

Disparaging term for a German.

Truck or bus. [French]

Repository for the dead.

Coal miner

Accumulation, aggregation, collection, gathering

Relationship by blood or common ancestor. Close affinity.

Displacement of a ship at any loaded condition minus the lightship weight (weight of the ship with no fuel, passengers, cargo). It includes the crew, passengers, cargo, fuel, water, and stores.

March from a confined area into the open; to emerge

Volume of all ship's enclosed spaces (from keel to funnel) measured to the outside of the hull framing (1 ton / 100 cu.ft.).

The current month: your letter of the 15th instant.

Surround with troops or ships; besiege.

Region culturally or historically related to one nation, but subject to a foreign government.

Member of the Prussian landed aristocracy, formerly associated with political reaction and militarism.

Kiao-chau

German protectorate from 1898 to 1915, on the Yellow Sea coast of China. It was on 200 square miles of the Shantung Peninsula around the city of Tsingtao, leased to Germany for one hundred years by the imperial Chinese government. In 1898 Tsingtao was an obscure fishing village of 83,000 inhabitants. When Germany withdrew in 1915, Tsingtao was an important trading port with a population of 275,000.

Plural of cow.

German culture and civilization as idealized by the exponents of German imperialism during the Hohenzollern and Nazi regimes.

Transportation of goods on a lighter (large flatbottom barge used to deliver or unload goods to or from a cargo ship or transport goods over short distances.)

An explosive consisting chiefly of picric acid, a poisonous, explosive yellow crystalline solid, C6H2(NO2)3OH.

Machine gun.

Marriage between a person of royal birth and a partner of lower rank, where no titles or estates of the royal partner are to be shared by the partner of inferior rank nor by any of the offspring.

Of little or no importance; trifling; invalid.

Small medicated or flavored tablet; tablet containing aromatic substances burned to fumigate or deodorize the air; pastel paste or crayon.

French soldier, especially in World War I.

Discussion preliminary to negotiation.

Discontinue a session of parliament; postpone; defer.

punctilio

Fine point of etiquette; precise observance of formalities.

Contagious viral disease, chiefly of cattle, causing ulceration of the alimentary tract and diarrhea.

[French. Porte: a gate] Ottoman court; government of the Turkish empire; from the gate of the sultan's palace.

City in eastern China on the Yellow Sea, north-northwest of Shanghai. The city was leased in 1898 to the Germans, who established a famous brewery.

Horse cavalry of the Polish, German, Austrian, and Russian armies.

Order or decree; an edict; proclamation of a czar having the force of law in imperial Russia.

[German] Interconnection.

British soldiers' pronunciation of "Ypres".

An elective council for the administration of a provincial district in czarist Russia.

General Foch, Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces. General Pershing, Com­mander-in-Chief of the American armies. Field Marshal Haig, head of the British armies. General d'Esperey (French) to whom Bulgaria surrendered. General Diaz, Commander-in-Chief of the Italian armies. General Marshall (British), head of the Mesopotamian expedition. General Allenby (British), who redeemed Palestine from the Turks.