Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast - Episode 198 - The Polar Bear Expedition Part 1: Detroit's Own

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

Part 1/4 Joe is joined by Francis Horton, co-host of HOAWTD, to talk about a forgotten chapter of American history. The time the US invaded Russia in the middle of WWI and during the Russian Revolution. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys Sources for all related episodes: James Carl Nelson. The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919 EM Holiday. When Hell Froze Over https://books.google.com/books?id=UZPhAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Company+A+339th+Infantry&ei=TWg1S_T4KYLEMbmezcIE&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.polarbeardocumentary.com/ http://pbma.grobbel.org/

Hey everybody, Joe here from the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast. If you enjoy what we do here on the show and you think it's worth your hard-earned money, you can support the show via Patreon. Just a $1 donation gets you access to bonus episodes, our Discord, and regular episodes before everybody else. If you donate at an elevated level, you get even more bonus content. A digital copy of my book, The Hooligans of Kandahar, and a sticker from our Teespring store. Our show will always be ad-free and is totally supporter-driven. We use that money to pay our bills, buy research materials that make this show possible, and support charities

like the Kurdish Red Crescent, the Flint Water Fund, and the Halo Trust. Consider joining the Legion of the Old Crow today. And now, back to the show. I wanted to do everything as best I could, and I only had one chance. And it's not like that. It just seems to me that something should happen now. Hello, and welcome to yet another lovely episode of the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast. I'm Joe, and with me today is Francis Horton, one half of the Hell of a Way to Die, and first time victim of a Lines Led by Donkeys series.

Hello, Francis. Multi-part. I'm excited. You know, I was thinking about this earlier. You don't need a co-host. What we can do is just go back to all of some of your older episodes and like cut a bunch of Nick reactions and then put them into the soundboard. And then all you just got to do

is program it so that like every 45 to 50 seconds, one of them just fires randomly and you just get a Nick going, damn, or that's fucked up. I believe this has been a long running joke that Nick actually isn't real. Unfortunately, I poured coffee

onto the Nick soundboard, which is his version of being in korea which i don't know how many times i have to say he's in korea stop asking me where he is he's still there yeah i i have a co-host he's canadian you've probably never he goes to school he goes to a different podcast yeah yeah he's got a different army that he's a part of i'm running out of dumb ways to say that like nick is gone so i've started telling people he's broke his different army that he's a part of. I'm running out of dumb ways to say that Nick is gone. So I've started telling people he's broke his leg and I've had to put him down. He's in a farm up north. There's plenty of room for him to run.

And he has lost an oil painting. I've seen pictures of Nick and I'm just imagining him frolicking in a field. He loves to frolic. He needs to do his exercise. Who doesn't? Have you ever had a good frolic uh he does he does his exercise who doesn't have you ever had a good frolic it changes your life the thing is is that you gotta stop caring what people think and just go into a field and then just like do like the kermit arms where you're just waving them above your head and then just kind of run around or skip or something make some weird noises a good frolic will like really is good for the soul.

It's like, you know, it's like a philosophical nut busting in a way. Anyway, what are we talking about? It's like busting a nut for your soul. Exactly. Francis, we have talked about a subject for probably, I'm going to give, I'm going to spot us here about year and a half, two years. And I said I would promptly write that script. And then I did a year and a half to two years later.

That's prompt. That's good enough. Yeah. I work with the same efficiency as the government, specifically the Armenian government, which means half the script was lost. The American government, too. I mean, let's be honest. Except half the script was lost the american government too i mean let's be honest except half the script wasn't lost half the script was like this isn't about america so we're gonna have to put this behind a foyer good news this is about america and it's about podcast favorite and

something i don't talk about very often that that's a lie russia um i didn't plan this or or nazis let's be honest russia and naz Nazis are like the the well that this podcast springs forth from from like, you know, Japanese officers like dining on delicatessen pilots to Willie Horton. You know, everything comes from something here. We've always there's always something. I'm very excited. When are you going to cover the Russian Revolution? Not that one, but the other one. excited when are you going to cover the russian revolution not that one but the other one now i do have to say here i'm actually not going to be talking about russia all that much it's more of the setting here uh we're going to be talking specifically about the united states allied expeditionary force north russia normally known as the polar bear expedition for reasons we will get into i need to head this off

and say there's actually a completely different and other allied expeditionary force in siberia out of vladivostok during the same time we will not be talking about that i've learned that is in my best interest to try to make things uh more focused which is why this is still going to take four weeks sorry you do entire wars in four weeks is why this is still going to take four weeks. Sorry. You do entire wars in four weeks, and now we're just going to do just one expedition. It must have been dynamite. It must have been a great time.

Good friends, good vibe checks all around. I'm very excited. I once attempted to do both of them at the same time, and it was just too much. So obviously we will have to visit our good friends in Siberia later on. It's all series worthy. time and it was just too much uh so obviously we will have to visit our good friends in siberia later on it's all series worthy it just it deserves its own to truly understand how stupid things got i do admire your dedication to making sure that like we don't gloss over how dumb

somebody is we really dive into it a man like luigi cordona cordona you can just be like ah he's dumb he did he made some. He made some bad choices and decisions. But it isn't until you listen to an hour of somebody being like, and then this dumb motherfucker did this, that you're just really like, wow, this person was in charge of people. And then you look at our own leadership and representation, and you're just like, huh, doesn't really change, does it? Right. We have something of a trend here and that is talking about dumb american war efforts most of them i'll say most with an asterisk i know this isn't the case for some people someone's like how have how haven't

you heard of this but most of them people are aware of the war in afghanistan people know about the vietnam war people know most of our interventions. This one is the least known and probably one of the dumbest, but not the most destructive. Those two are not chained together on this one. And that is the time the US, along with France, Britain, and Japan all invaded Russia in the middle of the Russian Revolution during and after World War I. Yeah, that sounds as dumb and crazy as the title leads on. Now, when you say that they all like a coordinated effort, or did everybody do this like inadvertently on their own at some point? The United States, Britain and France were all coordinated and Japan was kind of yellowing it all on their own. The biggest effort was Japan,

which we will not be talking about. As Japan was wont to do up until they got a couple of nukes dropped on them to tell them to quiet that shit down a little bit. Right. Japan had their own expansionists. This wasn't an expansionist effort by the Western allies,

though that is kind of up in the air, since it really seemed like Britain and France had their own pie-in-the-sky ideas. Both of them were coordinating, but also were actively working against one another for very stupid reasons. Japan was 100% expansionary.

Oh, yeah. Japan wanted everything. They wanted a little taste of everything. and not to mention if you if you rewind only about a decade they just got done fucking up the russian empire so they wanted some more of that sweet sweet dirt now um i think it's safe to say that by the time we're recording this this will come out in several weeks so i have no idea what's coming but even right now relations between between Russia and the West have always been strained. Despite the fact that for a lot of period of those times, there's

imperial relationships, even familiar relationships. Now, most people assume that this is based on the Cold War. And that's not entirely correct. If you remember back during the Russo-Japanese War, a lot of nations threw their lot in with the Japanese. I mean, racism aside, they were hoping to keep Russia's expansionist ideas and kick them squarely in the nuts. You said that's like World War I-ish? Because, I mean, also, they were very correct. Because what did Russia do but turn into the USSR and then just start expanding all over the fucking place so whoops yep they kind of had it right i'm not gonna say we gotta hand it to the japanese but one point to the japanese on that one um i will say that a lot of the expansion that the ussr did was reacquiring russian imperial land um which i know a lot of people don't like considering imperialism but

you know it is we sold this land fair and square you know yeah i got you it's like we already stole that and you stole it back from us so we're gonna steal it again one of those arguments we're just like man there's just nothing it's just dudes that want dirt for some reason and they're just gonna you know a lot of 18 year olds have to die so that a dude can have some more dirt. It doubles back to our through line of inbred people beefing over turf. And of course, there was the Crimean War where a bunch of people from around the world huddled together to die of cholera for a few years. Now, the opposition to Russia has always kind of been there, though it's kind of newer to actively be involved in it for the United States. We got

involved in the Russo-Japanese War logistically and resource-wise. We were landing Marines in Vladivostok, mostly because our army was six guys all from the same suburb of Nebraska at that period of time. But of course, this opposition to Russia would be put aside occasionally, like when Napoleon was turned away in 1812, which turned into a European white effort, or when a shitty bad emperor with a deformed hand decided to set half the world on fire in World War One. Sorry, which one was that with the deformed hand? Oh, there's Wilhelm. Yeah, he had a baby hand. Yeah, it's a birth defect.

Yes, I'm making fun of his birth defect. I don't care. He was the kaiser of germany he got like like just like 50 million people killed so him and his baby hand can go fuck themselves yeah now uh in case you did not uh know world war one ended up changing a lot more than people intended as you know russia collapsed into revolution. Not to mention the collapse of the German throne, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

That's my one for the episode. Fuck them Turks. This has to do with a lot of reasons, which we'll not be getting into at length here, as I have a personal policy of not getting into the Russian revolution. It's a chaos rune, and that would be 30 episodes long minimum but i will say it turns out having a terrible czar who like to dissolve the government at will while occasionally murdering a ton of people in the street on top of feeding an entire generation to the wood chipper of the eastern

front is kind of bad for business if your business is government. Now, by 1917, the Russian Imperial Army collapsed mostly entirely along with the monarchy, dissolving and technically forming into the Russian Army, part of the provisional government, which was also not long for this world, as many governments of the time were not. It's one of those transitionary periods where it just feels like there's going to be like a coup every week until something like really kind of takes hold. I will say there's a really fun part of the Russian Revolution that is all of the random little statelets that popped up and attempted to form their own countries. We will talk about some of the more dumb ones. Now, Russian soldiers sick of war and the hardships that came with it simply refused to fight, even as the military command structure was turned into a weird democratic institute that failed to function. I'm not

going to say that the democratization of things is not good, but it doesn't necessarily work when you're running a military. Other soldiers killed their officers and deserted. You know what? I'll do that. Oh, sounds like it melted. That one was for me. We can say that one was for me. Look, sometimes you gotta

frag a motherfucker, you know? We've all thought about it. No comment. It's okay if you don't act on it, but we've all thought about it. Maybe not on it but we've all thought about it maybe not seriously but we've all thought about it with at least one person the non-murderous soldiers simply said you know war kind of sucks and they went home now uh this is the part where i i getting into talking about russia and i'm very close to russia as record this. I decided to go find something Russian to drink while recording this, assuming it would be some kind of weird energy drink,

because weird energy drinks are very good to me. Even when they're bad, they're kind of funny. And I found one. It's called Tesla. Yeah, that one. Because this is the land that intellectual property law simply doesn't exist in. First off, Tesla was a person. It's not like Tesla owns the name and Tesla coils exist.

But also, you can get some knockoff Adidas up there too, I'm sure. I would say normally, yes, but I'm pretty sure this is about two years old. Okay. They know what they're doing. The Tesla is in English while most everything else is in Russian with a couple sentences of Armenian on here. It's badly translated and says, energy drink, Tesla, your magic tonus. I'm pretty sure tonus is supposed to be tonic. You know, we've typed tonus so many times in the chat making fun of it and i'd never actually

said it out loud and it's just even better like now it's just like i'm it's like i'm my tone is hurt it's it's like i'm reading tonus all over again and getting to experience it but now i get to let it roll off the tongue of tonus look i'm gonna be honest with you this doesn't taste so hot i'm sure it's spicy but in all the bad reasons it kind of tastes like a grape drink but if i spit it into your mouth now would it be improved with some goat fuel oh i don't know so now that i've had a nice sip of my magical tonus. Now that your tonus is strong. Now that my tonus is rigid and flowing. Robbing.

I'm going to be honest. I'm feeling that most people are going to get sick of the word tonus by the end of the series. By the end of this podcast. Period. I mean, like in 10 years from now. We're just going to be tonus all day. Now, I need to be completely. years from now. We're just going to be telling us all day. Now, I need to be completely...

Most people didn't give a shit about this collapse of Russia on the Allied side of World War I. Now, this is because the Western powers are not anti-communist yet. So they don't really give a shit about if there's a czar or there's not a czar.

They have their own political opinions. Obviously, most of them favor a monarchy at some point, especially the British. But they didn't really give a shit. For example, Alexander Kerensky, the guy who'd end up in charge of the provisional government, was just as good for them because he favored keeping Russia in World War I, which ties up, of course, millions of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. So they didn't really give a shit. He plans on keeping Russia in the war. Therefore, he's immediately granted recognition as the rightful government of Russia and gets a ton of supplies.

Now, of course, this is thrown out the window as the Bolsheviks came to power in November of 1917, and their leader, Vladimir Lenin, had the exact opposite take on the war, wanting Russia to have their own peace with Germany to end it. Because, of course, you know, they have a whole civil war that's kicking off that they need to worry about. Not to mention, you know, the war is bad for Russia. Can we stop killing you guys for a bit so we can kill each other for a little bit? We just really like we want to do some some domestic policy now. We're going to murder each other for a while.

Yeah, we were losing the war against Germany, so maybe we can win one against ourselves. That's the best thing about a civil war. You always win. You always have the home team advantage. You're always the winner. Of course, Germany was more than happy to make this peace agreement. And now at this point, America had joined World War I. peace agreement. And now at this point, America had joined World War I and Germany knew that they needed to end the war in the east, flex all of those troops over to the west before a bunch of

farmers from the Dakotas or whatever could get to Europe in large numbers. In order to do that, they need to get the fuck out of the war with Russia. Lenin was more concerned with this whole civil war thing that was brewing in Russia as as monarchists anti-communists and various other groups slapped themselves together to form the white army uh to undo his you know proletariat party in the streets so the two sides signed an armistice in december of that year and germany began to transform into the west over a million by mid-december eventually Eventually, Russia and Germany would send the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which was incredibly bad for Russia as one quarter of its population

in farmable land was then transferred over to the German authorities, but it did end the war. So, you know, check that block. I mean, that seems... I don't know. Look, I'm not in charge. I wasn't there. Maybe there's information that I wasn't getting.

But I'm pretty sure that if it's between, I can ally with the other strongest powers in Europe to fucking dick stamp you guys, or I can give up my land so we can go fight our own war. You know what? It's Russia. I'm not going to try to breathe logic into this. My bad.

Sorry for interrupting. It was more of an emergency effort. They didn't think they were ceding this land permanently. They figured at some point they'd be strong enough to get it back. Don't worry. We'll come invade our lands again. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I get it.

If it's kind of like, look, just whatever you want to just fuck off, I'll give you a hundred bucks to fuck off. But it's a quarter of our arable land. I'll give you a whole bunch of slobs if you fuck off. I'll give you a bunch of bucks to fuck off. But it's a quarter of our arable land. I'll give you a whole bunch of slobs if you fuck off. Of course, this treaty was a disaster for the rest of the Allies as Germany eventually

launched their major offensive in March, which put the entire war at a breaking point. But Germany itself was also at that stage. They were holding themselves together at threads at this point. They are desperately short of every kind of war material including human bodies um as they fed generation after generation to a meat grinder all over literally nothing at this point germany is fighting over nothing like it's very easy i think that's why america really loves talking about

world war ii because it's very it's like obviously germany nazi's bad pearl harbor done we have the reasons why we went to war and it's like world war one it's just like why don't we go to war and this is like a heavy size somebody like starts up a 50 slide power point and it's just like no i don't i don't care anymore i don't care what they were fighting over or why they were fighting just everybody was fighting because fuck that guy over there the universal language of fuck those guys yeah that's why i've come up with inbred people beefing over turf, because it's the only thing I can think of to adequately explain World War One without like having to talk about various different nationalities and the birth of nationalism. It's all very stupid. That describes the American Civil War. That describes the American Civil War.

That describes pretty much every war pre-World War. Well, every war of beef like that is just a bunch of inbreds. Well, the US Civil War was a slaver's rebellion. Like, that's easier to understand than someone fucking clapped an Archduke and now 50 million people have to die. clapped an archduke and now 50 million people have to die now uh that was when in april of 1915 that the allies had discovered that the germans had set around 55 000 soldiers to finland now i remember 55 000 soldiers sounds like a lot like in the modern day it's not a whole lot for the era of world war one now at this point finland itself was locked in a civil war between the conservative anti-communist white elements and the Russian backed red elements. We talk a little bit more about this in our Winter War series, but still not a ton. It's a microcosm of the Russian civil war that was effectively exported to Finland.

Strangely, it keeps happening. Now, the Germans backed the whites because the whites are more agreeable to them as, you know, conservative anti-communist elements. And they wanted to give some weapons and stuff to them. Now, granted, nobody gave a shit about Finland. But the allies were worried about how it was. Murmansk is a German port city just 150 miles away from the Finnish border. miles away from the Finnish border. And that also happened to be the main depot for

Allied delivery of war supplies to the former now kind of sort of Republic of Russia. So now sitting there, they believed anyway, was hundreds of millions of dollars and pounds worth of war material that Germany, short on all

of these things, could simply storm over the border. Russia's falling apart at the seams could hardly defend itself and they could seize it and they could hypothetically transfer this war material around because it was truly quite a lot. Just kind of sitting out in the open, huh? Just going for it. It's ballsy. Yeah. And especially as like the state institutions of Russia failed, nobody's really like worrying about keeping track of it or guarding it. It's very reminiscent of after the fall of Kabul and then seeing a bunch of Taliban guys with M249s.

You're like, oh, that's what happened. If we didn't get the guns out, that's fine. That's theirs now. It's cool. That is more accurate than you think. I'm going to need you to hold on to that for about an episode and a half. So not too long after this discovery, some British Marines landed at Murmansk and around 370 had been deployed there by the end of May 1918. 370.

That's not exactly a ton. Despite no German plans of any invasion ever being uncovered, this was a force that the British government deemed necessary. Though the new Soviet government was also worried about German plans in the area. And yeah, I know, it's not technically the Soviet Union at the time. Shut up. We're just going to call it. It's just a pre and post-Russian revolution. It's fucking easier.

I call them Soviets, Russians, and Bolsheviks. Also the fun American nickname, the Bolos throughout this. So I use that. I use them all interchangeably. The Soviet government was also worried about German plans for the area, mostly because it's an important port and they don't exactly have the manpower to flex all over the place. Russia's fucking huge. They have a civil war going on. So like if the British want to sit there, they can fucking sit there. So when the British showed up, Leon Trotsky, the minister of war, didn't complain, didn't tell him to fuck off and was happy to let somebody else deal with the Germans on the Kola Peninsula at the time. This ended up being something of an accidental welcome

mat that Trotsky would end up kind of regretting. And that is where that ended, at least for now. America made its first big splash in the West and the German offensive continued. And soon Paris itself was threatened until they were stopped at the Belleau Wood. This stopped kind of the big German advance, but instead of being celebrated, the Allies were instead a bit worried. The constant idea of going through Allied command, especially noted dickhead Winston Churchill, was that they were simply never going to win the war in the West if the Eastern Front did not reopen somehow. I mean, that's that's a fair assessment. I mean, it would have made things easier.

World War Two also made much easier by, you know, just just stacks and stacks of Russian bodies. Much easier by, you know, just just stacks and stacks of Russian bodies. It turns out your enemy is, in fact, easier to defeat if they have to fight a three or two front war. If they're dumb enough or you can get them in that position, which Germany seems to just love. Now, Churchill pointed to the fact that the British already had troops in Murmansk. So clearly, it wasn't that big of a deal to this whole Bolshevik thing, which to be clear, Churchill already hated the Bolsheviks, and he will continue being a madman as he does throughout this entire series. Now, at a Supreme Allied War Council in April, the British appealed to the Americans for help,

not just in Murmansk, but in Vladivostok and Archangel as well. All places where Allied war material had been dropped off. Woodrow Wilson, the president at the time, agreed that, yes, this was a concern, but thought the idea of sending American soldiers to random bits of the Arctic Circle was pretty dumb. Now, I'm not going to defend Woodrow Wilson here, but even he noticed that this was stupid. Yeah, Wilson noted racist, but got he noticed that this was stupid. Yeah, Wilson noted racist but got this one right. Instead, he agreed to send a single

ship, the USS Olympia, I assume to deliver the Russians' grunge music or something. There was a reason for this. Wilson's famous 14 points include the evacuation of, quote, alien forces from Russian territory. That being obviously foreign troops.

So the idea that he would suddenly be totally on message to send more of them into it seemed very dumb. Not to mention not a single member of the American cabinet, which remembers already at war in Europe, thought this was a good idea. Everybody was like, Churchill's fucking stupid, which is fair. Yes, it is more of a universal statement at this point of history than probably any other. I don't need to know anything else.

You're correct. What did he do? It doesn't matter. Churchill's stupid. This drunk asshole really, really, really has bad war plans. What happened in Turkey, by the way? So the British and French decided, fuck the Americans, we'll simply send our own.

And soon a whopping 1,000 men landed at Murmansk, with a full 600 of these meant to cross from Murmansk to Archangel in the summer, which I need to point out is a distance of nearly 1,000 miles. That's not easy going in your foot wraps there, man. in the summer, which I need to point out is a distance of nearly 1,000 miles. Woohoo. That's not easy going in your foot wraps there, man. Yeah. Now this is also when the mission decidedly changed from protecting allied war supplies to being anti-Bolshevik. This force's goal was to link

up with parts of the White Army that had formed in northern Russia in order to train them. A side goal was to maybe link up with the so-called Czech Legion, which is a unit with a weird history that we will eventually get in their own episode or series for. There's really not enough time or space to give them the respect they deserve because they're truly amazing. See, when you say amazing, I don't know if that means that they're good or they're bad. I'll say they were entertaining. That's all I need. As it turns turns out that's the only explanation i need rarely uh can we say good or bad on this show for instance one of my favorite series of all time talked about uh the bloody white baron who was legitimately one of the most psychopathic people to ever walk

the earth but he's incredible that's fair enough there's a there's a reason why uh but wait it gets worse is your catchphrase that's right but the part that was important for this story is that they end up enemies of the bolshevik government by this point previously fighting for the provisional government this is this being the czech legion mind you the czech legion had previously fought for the provisional government specifically against the Germans in hope of establishing an independent state for themselves. You know, Czech Republic, Czechia, whatever the fuck you want to call it, Czechoslovakia. They found themselves out of the war when Russia did, for instance, because they were using Russia to fight Germany. But now Russia isn't fighting Germany. They're like, well, I guess we need to

leave, right? So they cut a deal with the new communist bosses to let them head back into Europe and keep fighting the Germans. At first, the Bolsheviks agreed, but Germany knew about the Czech Legion and said, hey, we just had a peace treaty. It's kind of a fucked up part of that peace treaty if you let elements of your army

leave and fight us in a different front. You need to stop them from rejoining the war effort that doesn't it doesn't count you can't just be like uh we said that we wouldn't fight you over here we did not say that we wouldn't fight you over there it's called the cat in the hat clause technically they're not russian soldiers uh checkmate germany get it check mate boo i really need to get a boo sound effect. Yeah, that's right.

Everybody just sighed and rubbed their temples after I said that. Now, at this point, the Czech Legion was around 70,000 men. So it's not like they're small. They could make a serious dent. So this, along with local Bolshevik units demanding a toll as the Czech Legion passed through their part of town, eventually led to a bit of an incident in Chelyabinsk where a gunfight broke out. And the Legion decided the Bolsheviks are no longer our friends, or at least we don't have this tense handshake agreement with them anymore. And they seized the local train station and armory,

which now means they're fighting three sides of a war. Because they're not friends with the White Army necessarily. They're not friends with the Bolsheviks necessarily, but they're enemies with the Germans. Nobody's doing the enemy of my enemy is my friend thing. They're just like, no, we all just fucking hate each other. The Allies are. The Allies took one look at the Czech Legion,

but like those, those are our boys right there. Now the Czech Legion was ordered to disarm and they refused so they split their forces with one marching towards vladivostok and the other heading towards ekaterinburg where the its advance would eventually trigger the assassination of the romanovs when their captors are worried that they might actually try to liberate them so the czech legion was seriously punching above its weight class during the russian civil war all simply because they wanted to go fight a different war. Dudes rock. You know, the thing is, the thing is, is that I want to kill people,

but I just don't want to kill people here. I want to go kill other people elsewhere. Can we do that? It's like, why? Yes, there's always a war on a border that we're touching somewhere. This is Europe in 1920. There's a war everywhere. If the Bolsheviks simply let them fuck off out of russia literally none of this would have happened though it probably would

have ended with like germany invading russia again but you know what this is a no-win situation for everybody let's hear the czech legion they see they're seeing dubs all around it sounds like the only winners are the czech legions can we hand it to them? I mean, as much as you can hand anybody in this theater of war, they're all fucking assholes. But at least these are the entertaining assholes. Yeah, there's not a single faction of the Civil War to include the Allies and the Czech Legion, the Bolsheviks or the Whites. It didn't like massacre several villages worth of people. So, you know, take your praise with what you can. Yeah, fair enough.

Now, for the Allies solidly balls deep in Russia, this so-called Lost Legion, that Czech Legion, looked like the backbone of where the Western Allies could rebuild the Eastern Front. Not to mention, it became one hell of a newspaper story as the Legion totally disconnected from any power and self-sufficient like a weird locust on the Russian countryside, seemingly just wandered around in the middle of a civil war fucking up everyone they came across. Phenomenal. I love it. I love just like dudes who are just spoiling for a rumble anywhere, anytime. It's like I will make they like bring

their own fucking thunderdome god bless them um and speaking of thunderdome um if you want to hear a little bit more about the the czech legion's armored train uh go listen to the well there's your problem episode that i was on we talked about them some more now even though news traveled much slower than it does today back then they quickly became the talk of the newspaper sphere back in the United States, especially the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press. This story began to change Woodrow Wilson's mind, not in joining the British or the French efforts, mind you. He still solidly believed those were stupid, but he still thought that he could use this

effort to rescue the Legion, bring it back into the war. Because again, that's again that's what they wanted of course anti-communists in siberia go back and listen to our series in the bloody baron again for more about this and american officials in that region told the americans that if you showed up here you'd be a hero for the cause you'd be welcomed as liberating heroes like we haven't fallen for that one before uh but american diplomats were pretty split on the issue at no point was a majority of the american government like yes we should do this at best it was like three dudes the american ambassador to russia

was incredibly anti-communist and saw the british French idea of reopening the Eastern Front as the only way to stop communism as well as win World War I. Whereas the vice consul to Archangel point out, doing war in Russia is hard as hell and we probably should not fucking do that for any reason, especially now. You know, Russia expands over 11 time zones. Yeah, even when it's fractured in a civil war it's not your friend right i it's it's just always you know mind-boggling to me to be like we're gonna attack russia it's like that is like russia is literally like a third of the land mass of the world what do you how does this work yet somehow people do it all the time. Not to mention, this is the American Army in 1918. We're not exactly a military powerhouse here.

It was one year before that we were training with sticks. We didn't even have guns yet. Obviously, we've had our imperial experiments. We've done series on those during this time. But there's certainly not like, let's fight a peer nation in Europe strong. There's a reason why we joined up with the allies of World War One to fight Germany. We weren't going to do that shit on our own. Now, the vice counsel of Russia pointed out that there was a reason why the German intervention in Russia stayed where it did.

Not to mention the Bolsheviks were broadly popular in Russia and the white delegation was obviously lying to your stupid fucking face. Wow, I can't believe that the radical conservative warmongers were lying. You know what?

They were all lying, it sounds like, really. Oh, yeah. I mean, like I said, I'm not picking a good or a bad guy here, but there's certainly a worse one and it's the white army.

There's one team you don't want the White Army. They were fucking insane. There's one team you don't want to be on. Let's start there. Let's start with who I definitely don't want to be around. Right. However, the vice council's boss was very pro-military intervention.

So he made sure when the vice council sent out his message, he sent them via mail to DC rather than cabling them, whereas the ambassador, who was pro-war, had a direct link via telegram. So, the vice consul's letters wouldn't get to Washington until July 19th,

where the meeting to decide what happens next was held on July 13th. In that meeting, it was decided that the occupation of Murmansk and Archangel were needed to counter any possible german threats which remember there were none uh and the british and french were careful not to bring up any comments about the re-establishment of the eastern front

or this whole toppling of the bolsheviks in front of wilson not that wilson was pro-communism anything i need to be sure you guys like obviously woodrow wilson noted phd in american president was not pro-communism in case you need that pointed out to you uh he just didn't think it was all that important in the grand scheme of things remember there's millions of people murdering each other in the trenches of france and germany like there's no point to go like kicking fucking sand over in russia to fight an ideology like i understand like why there's a big push against it up against communism now because you know it's a culture war nonsense thing but like back there it is just feel like i don't give a shit what the russians are doing let them have

let them be communist what is that like the the idea of being opposed to that i guess i mean you would want like if you're you know super right-wing fascist or fashy adjacent as you know america always has been you always you don't necessarily want a communist in charge but like communists can be a bunch of corrupt motherfuckers too like you can you can still make money off of this i couldn't i couldn't possibly be be sitting in the middle of that right now. Yeah. Well, to be fair, Wilson was not a fan of the communists. In the grand scheme of things at the moment, the idea of splitting even more resources off to fight Russia seemed very, very stupid. He's got other shit to worry about.

I get it. Yeah, there's a whole world war still going on. got other shit to worry about i get it yeah there's a whole world war still going on like so they they came to the agreement that any occupation force was going to be strictly under the command of the british mistake number what five at this point uh now british foreign secretary alfred balfour pressed wilson to send a brigade of soldiers and artillery to mermansk it was just a token for it's not meant for combat, according to Balfour. He was so convinced of this, he told Wilson, quote, it is not necessary that the troops should be completely trained because he believed any combat would come from shooting possibly local bandits who try to steal the military supplies. Remember, the whole point is to go there and

secure these supplies. The American soldiers are not to go there and fight anybody. They're not prosecuting a war. U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing convinced Wilson's own goals, said, quote, furnishing protection and assistance to the Czechoslovaks, which is what they call the Czech Legion, who are so loyal to our cause would differ from sending an army into siberia to restore order and save the russians from themselves which weird imperial overtones there aside it's pretty obvious that nobody in the government's like yeah let's tear down the bolsheviks because remember they're sending like a thousand dudes right they have

a job they're not there to do anything with the bolsheviks just make sure nobody steals this shit and possibly link up with the the czech legion and evacuate them that that's it yeah yeah wilson finally caved writing a very long and incredibly confusing memo authorizing such a mission the memo pointed out that the american forces being sent there were simply to guard material but also helping rescue the c Czech Legion, who remember was now fighting everyone around them who was not them. In this same memo, he also noted adding any other military forces in Russia would just add to the confusion while simultaneously doing just that and refusing to call for a wider military intervention, but instead a quote, modest and experimental mission. If I was a soldier, I know I'd like my mission to be called experimental.

Now, the memo also ignored the openly stated goals of the British and French of reestablishing the Eastern Front, which could only be done by toppling the Bolshevik government, while also placing American forces under British command. Now, the memo, as you can guess, has been called, quote, rambling and misguided by historians. I can't believe they made it worse. Like, if you read this memo,

you would honestly not be sure of what the fuck Woodrow Wilson is getting on about. It's very strange. Another small problem is reading this memo. You can actually not gather what the fuck the American mission in Russia was, that being the real mission. And this will become not a small problem as this memo is handed to American military

leaders, generals and such, whose job it would be to carry it out. That would mean that the American military leaders were being sent into Russia without having any idea what the fuck they were supposed to be doing when they got there. You know, this is this is very reminiscent of the DOD for four years attempting to translate every Trump tweet to like, we'd just be like, I don't know this thing now. And they're just like, I guess this is a thing we have to do now. And just fuck, we have a Space Force now. And, you know, was Woodrow Wilson, like, I don't know much about him.

Was he like kind of not all there? Is he like suffering from something here? He's a very intelligent man. Then why is he sending this rambling thing that nobody can parse out? I guess the best way to explain Woodrow Wilson is he had, while he was a smart guy, he was also a fucking dumbass. He's one of the most racist presidents that we've ever had that did not actively own slaves. He was full of ideas that were all half-baked. He was a pie-in-the-sky guy where none of his ideas were fully cooked.

So he just flew off at the handle like this. Hey, it's a good idea. Fairy. I get it. Yeah. That's why whenever anybody's like, we need more PhDs being present. Woodrow Wilson is a great example of why sometimes they also can be dumb asses. Now this brings us to the poor bastards who'd have to carry out this

American mission. Who is who we will be focusing on organized on August of 1917, the 339th regiment, one of four comprised of the 85th Division, were dumped into Camp Custer outside of Battle Creek, Michigan for training. Solid name for good fortunes, Camp Custer. A good winning name right there. Yeah. This unit was like a lot that the U.S. formed during World War I.

The draft infrastructure sucked, so you end up with units made up of mostly people from the same area as you, like the National Guard, but worse. The 339th was made up of so many draftees from Detroit, they came to call themselves the Detroit's Own. At the same time, Detroit was a landing spot for a lot of Eastern European, namely Polish immigrants, who had been in the U.S. for maybe a month and could hardly speak English.

And then got drafted? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Welcome to America. See, and again, we're worried about staffing issues in the military. It's just let anybody who wants to come in, boom, you're in. And now you can, in a month, you're getting drafted into the military. This is also common during the Civil War.

That's why a lot of Irish people end up in uniform. A lot of just press ganging. It was like, you, wiggle your finger. Can you pull the trigger? Guess what? Guess what you're doing? Do you have all your fingers and toes? You don't?

Well, close enough. Do you have enough of them? Do you have plus or minus five? Do you have at least one thumb? If you have one thumb, we can work with that. Now, this wasn't only people from Detroit. There was also a spattering of farm kids from rural areas of Ohio and Kentucky and the surrounding states, many of whom are functionally illiterate. So this is a unit of real winners here.

Some of them can't talk to one another. Let's not be mean. No, I'm going to be mean. They can't read or write. let's not be mean no i'm gonna be mean they can't read right let's not denigrate detroit's detroit's own it's not their fault they're from that's why i'm denigrating them no i i always said some of them are from detroit and the ones who are from detroit many of them can't speak english which is honestly part of the detroit experience as i as i could attest to currently it's getting screamed at by somebody in a language you don't understand. Yeah, I mean, Detroit's not exactly,

people don't think it was a cosmopolitan city, which is it's not, but it has long been the landing spot for immigrants. Like for instance, after the Polish guys, Arab immigrants came in mostly to the same areas. I don't know why everybody picks Detroit and Dearborn, but they do. Mostly auto jobs that really don't exist anymore.

But yeah, it's a very strange dynamic. But I have to say, honestly, my favorite member of this entire unit is a guy named Donald Eugene Carey, who is from Eaton County, Michigan, a place I am not familiar with at all. But Carey was older than most draftees. He was 25 and had gone to college when he has a college degree,

which, as you know, is the only thing you need to become an officer at the time. They don't even need to go to ROTC or anything. The Army was drafting so many people. I pretty much like you want to be an officer. Then they made you an officer. I guess if most of your privates are functionally illiterate, if you can just find one guy who's like, if you can read or write, man, we'll put you in charge of stuff.

We just need a guy that can do paperwork, honestly. If you had a college degree, they have an accelerated course that's a couple weeks long to teach you rudimentary leadership skills. The education bar is much lower. It's 1917. Sure. Sure. And when Kerry showed up with being several years older than most of his peers and with a college degree, the army asked him if he wanted to be an officer. And Kerry responded, quote, I didn't even want to be a corporal. Which is the story of Joe. Now, at this point, nobody knew anything about their mission. Everybody just knew they were going to France to fight the Western Front like everybody else in the war at that time. As far as anybody to include their own division commander knew, they're all heading for the same place as everybody else who had the misfortune of being wrapped in khaki and given a rifle at this period of time.

July, the division was packed into trains and set up through Detroit to Canada and then around to Hoboken, New Jersey, before being stuffed in the boats and ferried into Manhattan. Which, for one, that sounds like a miserable experience, but really probably blew a lot of these farm kids' mind in 1918, like seeing Manhattan. Just being on this bustling Canadian wilderness and then opening up. I don't know what cities looked like back then, but I imagine they're just like, gosh, the buildings are so tall and you can just piss in the streets here. Don't let us do that back at home. I love that.

That still hasn't changed. Now, eventually through an even more roundabout way, they were loading a transport ships and sent across the Atlantic towards England. Though all of them know that the food given to them by the English shipping crews was spoiled, smelled like shit, and made them all sick. So, you know, traditional English food.

Yeah. Once in England, the Detroit's own was taken away from the rest of the division and on the command of... Jesus Christ, why do we keep having to bring this guy up, General John Pershing? They were chosen for the american expeditionary force in northern russia and they were chosen for quite honestly the dumbest reason possible uh let me guess first guys that pershing saw honestly dumber than that that would make more sense uh is it because

michigan's also very cold that's it you've honestly. Yes. It's got to be one or the other. It's either going to be you shits over there or it's like, well, I've been to Detroit in the winter. It's pretty cold. So obviously, northern Russia is right up your guys's alley. Honestly, more specifically, it boils down to their commander. But for one, Pershing knew the new commander of the unit, a colonel named George Evans Stewart. And Stewart had a Medal of Honor for service in the Philippines, which... All Medals of Honor before World War I are sus.

Let's just say that. He, I forget exactly what he did, but at least it wasn't like, I don't know, shooting Native Americans at Wounded Knee, which gave like a dozen Medals of Honor. They weren't being kind to him in the Philippines either. There was a lot of imperialism going on there. If only we had a series you could listen to to learn more. But previous to this he had spent a two whole years in

garrison in Alaska one time, so bam, he's ready for Arctic service. In this kind of case, if Nate showed up, they would be like, you spent a year at Wainwright. You're good with polar bears, right? You're in charge now. Actually, I think Nate was there for longer than two years, so he is more qualified than

Colonel George Evan Stewart. I would say that most people are probably more qualified than this guy. Than most colonels in World War I, quite honestly. Also because the unit draftees are, like you said, from Michigan and the northern states, so they should be able to handle the cold. That how pershing came to this conclusion and like i i don't know if i need to tell anybody this yes michigan is cold it's not fucking russia i don't know

i should i mean i should have to point that i've never been to russia and i know it's like it's significant it's the arctic circle it's a little bit worse than lake effect snow. There's a reason why when you think of like traditional Russian garb, a giant fuzzy hat is part of it. Because it's fucking cold there. Yeah, bitchin' style mostly. Yeah, I mean, you can hide your bottle of vodka up there. The Michigan version of a ushanka is literally just a Michigan State hat with a hoodie. It's a balaclava that's been rolled up.

Because you never know when you might need to rob somebody. That's right. And if you're thinking that the soldiers are told about this little change, woo boy. I was not thinking that at all, Joe. Now, there were some hints, subtle ones, that these guys aren't going to go to France like the rest of their division. For one, Ernest Shackleton.

Yeah, that Ernest Shackleton was brought in to give him a lecture about how to survive in the Arctic Circle. Mind you, the soldiers weren't told ahead of time why Ernest Shackleton was speaking to them like, what the fuck is this guy talking about snow and shit? We're going to France. Another hint was Harry Meadead an officer in the unit had run into a kind of journalist uh named uh lowell thomas who told him that his unit was going to go to russia which of course mead blew off saying why the fuck would we go to russia

good fucking question harry yeah then the soldiers were told to turn the standard issue lee infield rifle and instead were issued mosin Nagants, which this is going to upset a lot of weird gun nerds out there is a bad rifle. Just let me tell you guys, if you have a Mosin and you just like to shoot it, that's fine. You can get them. You used to be able to get like a crate of Mosins for like, you know, 500 bucks. I think I bought one for $200 one time. I just want to say that shouldn't be the rifle that you're leaning on. That should be a thing that you've bought when you've already bought the guns that you actually can use for real things.

Don't get a Mosin. The last time I shot a Mosin, the guy who owned it had to, had to bring like a wood block because like after you shot, like like and the mosin's a bolt action rifle so it's not like you're shooting a lot to heat up the barrel and the action and everything but it's like yeah once you shoot like five or six times you can't like manually you can't with your hand you know uh pull the bolt back you can't like put it up and then pull the bolt back so you had to take this wooden block and smack it up and then pull it back, then push forward and then take the wooden bolt and block and smack it back down. So imagine you're doing that, but it's also a war and you're not at a gun range.

I mean, there's a reason why it's nicknamed the garbage rod. It's cheap. It's easy produce. It's not good. Now, more specifically, every soldier in the Detroit zone wrote about how much they hated their new rifle. And there's also another reason why, besides the Lee-Enfield being a better rifle, is that these guns were manufactured, these Mosin-Nagants were manufactured in the United States to be given to Russian Imperial soldiers, which, as we know, no longer exist

anymore. But because of this, their sights were not in yards which is what american rifles were in at the time they're in russian paces which is what russians measured with what that measurement is i don't know but it's different so it's not even it's not even the difference between you know the u.s not being on the metric system it's just nobody was on the fucking metric system nobody was on the russian system. Nobody was on the Russian system. So all of these American soldiers who have been trained to fire, again, Lee-Enfield rifles measured in yards, were now given Mosin-Nagants measured in fucking paces. And they were not taught how to compensate for this or how to aim with them at all. Like the common joke was it could shoot around corners.

I understand you say that they're going to give them to Russian Imperial soldiers, but like I imagine these are they also took away like, hey, this is your issued rifle. If you get into shit, this is what you're shooting with. Why take away the Lee Enfields for a Mosin? Like the Lee Enfield is is obviously the better choice. Like why swap that out? That's what they're supplying the Russian Imperial soldiers with. So they're like, you guys got to take the shitty rifles, too?

Well, there's already a ton of ammo there, they think. Fair enough. We'll get to the point of why that is not true. But they believe that while you're going to go guard this Murmansermansk supply depot there's already gonna be a ton of mozen ammo laying around we might as well give you a mozen um now they're also told to turn in their browning machine guns and instead we're given vickers water-cooled machine guns this is a mistake uh in case you're wondering where this mistake lines up, remember the U.S. military already knows that it's going to be very, very cold.

So we're going to send all these dudes from fucking Detroit because they're good at cold. However, they're also to give them water-cooled machine guns, which freeze. I don't know how water cooling fits. You just like jam a bunch of snow around it or something. Oh, the problem is that the water that cools the machine gun will freeze. We just shoot the machine gun and then it warms up the water right the water is frozen you can't shoot the machine gun so literally if water is frozen a bullet will not come out of i have no

idea how a water cool machine gun works i'll have to look this up later on it will not work uh which later on uh ends with soldiers having to boil their machine guns yeah just hey that is that is nothing but like uh if you're in russia you're cooking something weird that's just how it is you gotta boil up some machine gun gotta cook my gun up so it works gotta have a boot polished sandwich and some machine gun over here it's a traditional detroit food to boil up a large caliber world war one era machine gun now thankfully they were given new winter clothing from the british because the americans did not give it to them uh which included something called a shackleton boot uh now this is an arctic specifically designed muck luck type boot that

was unfortunately while very very warm for arctic conditions completely and totally useless for military operations uh the reason for this is because the soul is smooth oh yeah it's meant for like overland marches and exploration not like war whoops yeah if you're if you're taking a leisurely walk somewhere it's great if you're earnest shackleton in the arctic you're good to go if you're like private whoever who's having to advance across an ice field you're just gonna be whoa now after this they were given over to the british officers who would lead them and only then were they were told that in fact you're going to russia uh they're like you know i probably should have figured this out when you gave me a Russian gun and shit.

I know that these guys probably weren't, you know, the brightest crayons in the box. But I feel like somebody was just like, yeah, no shit, guy. Like, I get it. Yeah, we're going to Russia. Or we're going to Russia with a Russian gun. If France isn't in the Arctic Circle, man, I know I'm not that smart, but I can look at a map. More importantly, I think you're underestimating the level of guy we're talking about here. There is that too.

Not insulting the fine men and women of the Detroit zone. I don't know why I say men and women. It's been. That revolution hadn't quite happened yet. That revolution hadn't quite happened yet. But they wouldn't be able to conceptualize going to the Arctic Circle, if you would have told them. A lot of these guys could tell you that, yes, Russia exists, but they've probably never even seen it on a map before. Yeah, fair enough.

A lot of these guys did not go to school. Mostly the rural farmers and stuff had some tertiary education or whatever. But they're not exactly... Beyond beyond farming there's really not there they're not worldly folk they're not incredibly online like i am i would hope not now more importantly than finding out that they're going to russia they are now told by their British officers that they would be reestablishing the great Russian army and placing the Tsar back on the throne, who I need to point out here had been dead for months at this point. Look, if the cadaver synod taught me anything, it's just because a motherfucker is dead doesn't mean you can't put a motherfucker on a throne. All right. I do need to say that the Romanov deaths are not known at this point.

Like the Bolsheviks, you know, shot their family and buried them. But they are certainly missing and nobody's heard from them for a very long time. Most people believe that they're dead. So in Newcastle, the men are packed into the transports named the Somali, the Nagoya and the the Tadius, and set off through the north. Now, these ships were badly overcrowded and not meant for this many people. Conditions quickly turned hellish as the rats began eating food and clothing as well as spreading disease. The ships lacked any kind of ventilation,

and the men described the air as fetid and thick. Mmm, look at the thick air. We love a good thick mouthful of air. And did you notice the time frame we're talking about here, Francis? Late World War I. So that means we're talking about the Spanish flu.

And then the flu broke out on the ships. Fucking COVID 1.0 happened. Because, like, remember, the Spanish flu did not start in Spain. It actually started in a camp in Kansas, I think. Yeah, a pig farm in Kansas, I think, is what it was traced back to. Either way, it was spread mostly by starting in America and going outward.

And then Spain got blamed on it because they didn't have any wartime censorship. But the inaccurately described Spanish flu began spreading wildly throughout the ships. While dying of the Spanish flu, men began freezing to death because for some reason, all of their winter clothes that had just been given to them were ordered to be packed up

and placed deep into the ship's stores where nobody could access it. None of these soldiers knew the entire reason of them going and it was rapidly changing as they were stuck aboard a plague ship. British General Frederick Poole was designated the commanding general for all of this mess, the expeditionary force in northern Russia. And he was planning on landing and invading and taking control of the city of Arkangel, which was under the command of Bolshevik forces when they had taken off. However, after they planned the mission, the communist

forces that controlled the city were overthrown and around the same time that the Allied invasion was planned to hit. So by August 2nd, a local revolution kicked out the Bolsheviks, declaring the government of northern Russia, that being like their own government.

But on their way out, the Bolsheviks looted the Allied war material stores in the port they made out like kings stealing literally tons of weapons ammo and medical supplies load them all into local trains and took off taking the entire rolling stock of trains as well that's one hell of an exit like if you're gonna get kicked out of a place that's how you do it just like fine i'll take and fucking take everything with me too yeah uh so just in case we're nobody's keeping track at home the whole reason that the americans are being deployed there is now gone can't nobody like radio them on plague ship to be like uh you guys could go home i guess oh don't worry they knew this was eventually sent to pool general pool.

And remember that wasn't pools, nor the British's goal. The British are in command and their plan was to openly go to war at the Bolsheviks anyway, but for the Americans, their entire war effort was gone. There was no supplies to guard. And to be completely clear pools,

war efforts, which were greenlighted by the British government, he's not having these independently, were not made by someone with a firm grasp on reality. His idea was to seize the town of Oberskaia, move and capture a nearby railway, which would allow them to link up with the Czech Legion over train. which would allow them to link up with the Czech Legion over like train. Along the way, he simply assumed they'd be able to recruit around 100,000 locals to their side. Hey, you want to go die in a war? Oh, don't worry. They're already dying in a war. They're just not active participants.

From there, he would take Volgda and Petrograd. And what I assume is a wild fever dream because I cannot stress enough just how far away all of this is from one another. And honestly, it's kind of unknown if pool even knew this himself. Yeah. It's not like Russia was like, had a whole lot of like great roads to be walking around through too. You're just going over land.

Yeah. And it's thousands of miles of advance with only like a couple thousand people in 1918 where you need thousands of people to move 20 feet somehow all of this would also remember would rebuild the eastern front it's like that it's the underpants gnome bit from south park like invade russia uh advance a thousand miles question mark question mark question mark profit of course when pool attempted to do this with his so-called white allies, they all pretty much abandoned him and the small force he had on hand, which was a mix of around 1,600, mostly British, French, a couple locals,

and immediately got bogged down outside of Oberskaia. This is all happening before the Americans get there. Though there were some some americans i mean remember the ship the olympia that was sent forever ago it seems the sailors had been dismounted from their boat given guns and ran off into the frozen tundra as infantry because remember the british are in complete control and they were given complete control by wilson so it's not like these uh the odd the american officers could just like pick up a phone and call DC and be

like, yo, these people are being fucking weird. Like they're, they have to stay there. Uh, so these sailors were ordered to fill out as infantrymen despite having no training whatsoever.

And, uh, so that's, that's good. What is the infantry, but you know, just sailing on land. It's tankers, right? What is the infantry, but dudes with guns? land it's tankers right what is the infantry

but dudes with guns there's nothing there's no there's nothing else you need i saw the marine said that everybody's a rifleman so you know get a rifle bitch thankfully nothing bad could come from this it is with that that the three transport ships carrying the detroit zone get a distress message instead of landing at mance, they would instead land at Archangel, which would require them to float into the nearby Divina River and be pulled along by tugboats. This is not the fastest rescue on Earth. But finally, that is where the men of the 3rd Battalion of the Detroit's Own would disembark on September 5th, 1918, expecting a winter wonderland that they had been warned about. They are instead greeted by endless swamps and clouds of mosquitoes.

The soldiers who were told that they would not be fighting anybody were then ordered immediately to march south into war. They weren't allowed to take anything but the clothes on their backs, not even more than a single blanket. And that is where we will pick up next time because we're off to such a good start now i just want to ask how many started this i want to get a running total of how many people from the detroit zone uh don't come back so like we've got these three plague ships how many died on the plague ship we'll talk more about the plague ships next episode. Okay. Quite a few died along the way, but more than that, the ones that didn't die brought Spanish flu with them to the Arctic Circle, where it previously had not been yet. And just spread it all over the place.

That's right, baby. So, yeah, it's not only are they going to nuke themselves with the plague plague but they they pretty much I mean it was already in parts of Russia but it wasn't quite in like Archangel yet it's not going to be good but Francis that is part

one I hope I gave you enough plague ships and dead bodies to entertain you for an hour you always give me enough plague ships and dead bodies everybody thank you for listening to the show. If you like what we do here, throw us some money, get some bonus stuff. Francis, plug your show. Yeah, if you have money after throwing it at Joe, you can throw it at mine too.

What a hell of a way to die. It's me and Nate who edits this show. And everybody, we will talk to you next time. Until then, don't catch Spanish flu.