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World War One - Siberian Expedition
| American Soldiers Remember Siberia (American Legion Weekly, 1919) The Doughboys of the the U.S. Twenty-Seventh Infantry remember the bad old days in Vladivostok guarding the trans-Siberian railway line:
"The Czar's old government used to send its enemies to Siberia, to exile; Uncle Sam's government sent its own men there to guard a railroad. Whose railroad it was and what it was there for and why Americans should be taken away from a perfectly good war in France and stationed up there to take care of it -- surely you can answer all these questions. If you can't, don't go to any of the veterans of the Siberian Expeditionary Force, because they won't give you very coherent answers. They think the whole trip was a post-season special, staged especially for their benefit."
*Watch Harold Lloyd in 'A Sammie in Siberia'* The A.E.F. in North Russia 1918 -1919 (American Legion Monthly, 1934)Illustrated by a photograph depicting the cold weather uniforms worn by each of the six Allied armies that served time in Siberia(North Russia), this article is a reminiscence told by one of the American veterans of that cold, uncomfortable and forgotten campaign: "That far-off group of Americans, consisting of the 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments, Ambulance Company No. 4, Field Hospital Company No. 4, a telegraph company and several supply units, became known as the 'Wolfhounds' or 'Snowdogs'..." Supplying the A.E.F. of Siberia (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)"Special woolen coats and breeches and underwear, long mufflers, worsted socks and long stockings, gloves and gauntlets are other things which are being issued to the Doughboys in Russia. Alaska Yanks are said to be right at home in their new surroundings, although they complain sometimes of the heat." An additional article is attached concerning the supply of medals that had to shipped North; reading between the lines, you will get a sense that much gallantry was expected... When the Doughboys complained, they complained heavily about their uniforms; read about it here. | | |
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