Polar Bears

From September 4, 1918, to June 15, 1919, fifty-five hundred American soldiers of the 339th Infantry regiment, with elements of the 310th Engineers and the 337th Ambulance and Hospital Companies, fought Bolshevic Russian forces under harsh Arctic conditions near Archangel, Russia, as the American North Russian Expeditionary Forces known as the Polar Bears. Because most of these soldiers came from Michigan, and most of those were from Detroit, they were known as Detroit's Own - Polar Bears. Of the Polar Bear soldiers, 232 died and 307 were wounded. In 1929, five former Polar Bears returned to North Russia to recover the remains of those left behind, recovering 86 bodies, of which 56 were buried around a white marble Polar Bear sculpture at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.

Huntington Woods, Michigan · United States