History of the World War An Authentic Narrative of the World\'s Greatest War
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
first they ran fast; then they slackened somewhat. She was surely slowing
now; they must be reversing engines and trying to stop her. They would
put out a boat. But what hope, what chance of rescue by night, in such a
wild waste of waves as that? And Muriel Ellis was clinging to him for
dear life all the while, with the despairing clutch of a half-drowned
woman!
The people on the Australasian, for their part, knew better what had
occurred. There was bustle and confusion enough on deck and on the
captain's bridge, to be sure: "Man overboard!"--three sharp rings at the
engine bell:--"Stop her short!--reverse engines!--lower the gig!--look
sharp, there, all of you!" Passengers hurried up breathless at the first
alarm to know what was the matter. Sailors loosened and lowered the boat
from the davits with extraordinary quickness. Officers stood by, giving
orders in monosyllables with practised calm. All was hurry and turmoil,
yet with a marvellous sense of order and prompt obedience as well. But,
at any rate, the people on deck hadn't the swift swirl of the boisterous
water, the hampering wet clothes, the pervading consciousness of personal
danger, to make their brains reel, like Felix Thurstan's. They could ask
one another with comparative composure what had happened on board; they
could listen without terror to the story of the accident.
It was the thirteenth day out from Sydney, and the Australasian was
rapidly nearing the equator. Toward evening the wind had freshened, and
the sea was running high against her weather side. But it was a fine
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