On November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m. the fighting of World War I finally ended as had been decided in an armistice signed by the Allies and Germany earlier that morning at 5 a.m.
Although Germany still held some Allied territory, its army and people were exhausted, starving, and losing hope. While Germany struggled to replace its fallen and deserting soldiers, the Allies were receiving American reinforcements at the rate of 10,000 a day. At home, unrest had broken out, and the Kaiser lost the confidence of the army, forcing him to abdicate on November 9. Added to that, Germany’s allies—Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria—had already signed armistices between the end of September and early November.
German representatives met with the commander in chief of the Allied armies, Ferdinand Foch, in a railcar about 40 miles northeast of Paris and signed the armistice on November 11. However, fighting between the two sides continued in some places between 5 a.m., when the armistice was signed, and 11 a.m., when the fighting was scheduled to stop.
While the armistice ended the fighting, the war technically wouldn’t be over until Germany and its allies signed peace treaties. Representatives from dozens of countries (excluding Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bolshevik Russia) met beginning in January 1919 in Paris to formulate the treaties, though discussions were dominated by Britain, France, and the United States.
The Treaty of Versailles between the Allies and the Germans, signed June 28, required Germany to accept responsibility for the war and to pay reparations to the Allies. Germany also lost some of its territory and all of its overseas colonies and had to reduce the size of its navy and army. The German representatives had little choice but to sign the treaty, as the Allies were blockading German ports until a treaty was signed. Today, historians commonly agree that the terms and effects of the Treaty of Versailles sowed the seeds for World War II.
Did you have ancestors who fought in World War I? Tell us about it! To learn more about the conflict, you can also explore Fold3’s WWI titles, including newly added international titles from the United Kingdom and Australia.
Most Americans beleve that fighting did end on November 11, 1918. However, American soldiers of the 339th Infantry Regiment, the 31st Infantry Regiment and the 27th Infantry Regiment were heavily engaged in the Russian Civil War in both North Russia and Siberia.
Hundreds of Americans would die in these futile efforts which continued until 1920.
My Grandfather, Francis Barron, was a member of the 339th.
Among those who forgot that fact was Ronald Reagan, who at one point said we had never fought the Soviets. Considering he was 12 or 13 at the time, he should have known that.
J.G. Horn, what makes you think a 12 or 13 year old should remember such things? Do you remember the details of events going on in far off countries from when you were 12/13? And remember, when Ronald Reagan was that age, there were only radios, no televisions, and who, at that age, reads the newspapers? Did you? That was a very thoughtless remark.
My paternal great-grandmother served as a Red Cross nurse. I just got 82 pages of a file on her from Ancestry. I saw stuff that said she was stationed in Siberia, at least part of the time. It must have been for this Russian Civil War.
I wanted to thank Robert Willett so much for information about a 31st Infantry roster. You were correct that it was located in the Longuevan folder at the Hoover Institute. After a few weeks of restoration work, the Institute’s archivists emailed me a scan of the fragile newspaper document. I found an extra 6 veterans from Cochise County, AZ. A soldier from Douglas, AZ, Herbert Naylor, was killed at the massacre at Romanovka, Suchan district. He was the only fatality who was not in “A” Company. Pvt. Naylor had been with the Medical Dept., and died in WW I, June 26, 1919 (the day after the battle).
Pfc. Ernest Escapule of Tombstone was interviewed many decades ago and said that men from [western] New Mexico had gone with the Cochise County group to boot camp in CA. Thus the roster provided 6 more names of men from towns along the New Mexico border with Cochise County. One soldier, Edgar Cureton (Lordsburg, NM), was also hit at Romanovka.
Most surprisingly, I found 3 veterans of Siberia from my hometown of Appleton City, MO (current pop. about 1,200). One of the 3 men was my cousin, Louis Ditty! Again, your help enriched my upcoming published article immensely!
Sylvia, it is not so far fetched to expect that Ronald Reagan should have known what was going on in the world at age 12 or 13. After all, 15 year olds were serving in the armies of the world. I was reading newspapers at age 6 or 7 during World War II, and keeping a scrapbook of Richard Ira Bong, the World War Hero of my area, Douglas County, Wisconsin. Children were not so protected from world events back then, and I was well aware of our enemies, the Nazis and the Japanese.
From a letter written by my grandfather (Corp. Clement A. Grobbel, Co. I, 339 Infantry Regiment, 85th Division, American North Russia Expeditionary Force) to his parents on Feb. 14, 1919:
“The war may be over in France, but it is not over here in the wilds of Russia. This is not the Western Front, it is hardly no front at all.”
My father, William L. Pete aka Peterson, aka Donovan fought in WW 1 with the 318th Engineers in France, he was there when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, and stayed in France and Germany until he mustered out October 14 1919. The 318th Engineers were disbanded on June 18, 1919 in Illinois. I wrote a book on his timeline and can be found in the above mentioned website; I devoted about 17 pages to the WW 1 conflict. The original book on the 318th Engineers was written by Charles M. Osborn. The book is available at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, US Army Military History Institute, 22 Ashborn Drive, Carlisle, PA 17013-5008. There is only one copy of said book.
Thank you for writing that book and for making it available online. What a treasure the single copy is–and how wonderful that now technology allows the important story to remain available for all of us and future generation. Well done!
Hi! you refered to a website the book can be found, I don’t see any website listed. Can you please share? I would Love to look/read it.
Hi: I wrote a book about my father, of which the first part was devoted to the WW1 fight in France; the rest was on my father’s life. https://www.lulu.com/content/806156.
The actual book on the 318th Engineers was written by Charles M. Osborn. It is not available except a request for a copy of it at US Army Heritage and Education, US Army Military History Institute as 22 Ashborn Drive, Carlisle, PA 17013-5008, there are pictures of all the troops of the 318th as well as their names. You would have to purchase my book, it is cheap as an ebook.
The link to his book’s web site is
http://www.lulu.com/content/806156
My father and two uncles served in WWI, My father and one uncle were in the 305th Field Artillery of the 77th Division, a mostly all NYC metropolitan area unit in which my father was a replacement from Grand Rapids, MI, where we had cousins. We have my uncle’s letters home and my grandfather’s letters to his two sons. On the NYC Municiple Archives site I found the photos of the ships loaded with troops and of them marching up Fifth Ave. on their return. I knew the date because that is the day my parents met! There is a book on the “305th Field Artillery in the Great War” containing the story by Charles Wadsworth Camp and Ben Jacobson. As an aside, the fathers of two of my college classmates also served in that outfit, and I discovered one associate later on.
I had 2 Great Uncles in WWI; 1 in the Navy and 1 in the Army. My Great Uncle in the Army related how he and his outfit would come across very young teenagers chained and dead slumped over their machine guns. It was impossible for them to leave their machine guns.
My grandfather was with the 327th Remount Squadron in St Nazairre, France. I have copies of papers from the National Archives, pictures and his personal letters to his girlfriend, my grandmother after he returned.
He was originally a conscientious objector, and that’s why a college educated man was a private at a remount squadron. He arrived in October 1918 and, of course the Armistice, was begun a month later. His best friend was killed fighting Bolsheviks the next spring.
My father, William B. Purdee, was born in Platte, Charles Mix County, South Dakota in 1899. He served in the Army, PFC, as a cook. He never talked much about his time in France. However, from I have learned it was a living hell as all wars are. He is now at peace in a national cemetery.
Not mentioned, Ludendorff, the Chief of Staff lost his confidence in a near total breakdown several days before. He claimed later to have been optimistic of a victory the whole time, but the record suggests that for at least a day, he was basically ineffective due to depression. His later statements were part of the origin of the Nazi myth of the Stab in the Back, the powerful German Army betrayed by the Jews and Communists back home. In fact the German army was almost as bad shape as the home front, having been pushed out of its prepared defenses, built-up over several years of occupation.
J.G. Horn, thank you for putting a more accurate perspective on the reality. the Germans suffered horribly for many decades over WWI, and Austria-Hungary got off without paying any reparations, because their economy crashed. Germany ended up paying the full price, and then France was like a drooling wolf trying to take over the Ruhr district, and even invaded the district in their ravenous appetite for what didn’t belong to them. Britain wasn’t a whole lot better. They claimed every German ship they could get their hands on.
People need to dig deeper into history. The truth is never put in front of the public, just half truths and lies.
The stab in the back was a direct reference to the Versailles Treaty signatories stab in the back of Germany. The direct result of WW2. It was no myth.
The German Army and the home front were in rough shape, but the German Army up to that point hadn’t suffered a defeat on the battlefield, hence the stab in the back phrase. They were suffering from the war of attrition though and wouldnt have been able to carry on much longer.
Good points Sylvia. The direct result being WW2.
My Maternal Grandfather, Roy N. Stringer, served in WWI as a Medic I believe. I have been told that he came down with the 1918 Flu and was in a hospital somewhere “up north” for many months. I don’t believe he ever left the States. When he came home in the Fall of 1918, he had a new baby girl (my mother born October 1918). While recuperating at home, he helped take care of his baby girl because he was still not strong enough to take care of his farm. I would like to have more information about his military service but have no idea where to look.
I’m so glad your grandfather survived the Spanish flu in WW I and lived on to take care of his family. My husband’s grandfather was in military service and their personnel was sent to one of the outbreaks to help/handle the sick…I think in Georgia, his home state. Unfortunately, in saving others, he contracted the flu and died of it shortly afterward. He left a young wife and two tiny sons to grow up without him. She moved in with her in-laws as she had no other means of support so the children survived to grow up, and one became my husband’s father.
My great uncle James Stech was killed in Belgium 31 Oct 1918. He is buried in Flanders Field. Sad to think that his family was probably celebrating the end of the war and his return home long before notification of his death.
My father, Arthur Zaccheus Corley, served in WW I, in Company I, 125th Infantry, 32nd Division (Red Arrow Division). His unit was moving up to the front on 11/11/1918 when the fighting ended where they were. He was stationed at St. Florette, France and was in the Army of Occupation, and was discharged May 29, 1919. His unit saw action in Meuse-Argonne.
My grand uncle Percy Walter Phillips left from NJ where he was living to serve in Battery F, 92nd infantry, 350th Field Artillery in France. His excitement that the war was over was quickly dashed as he learned that his sister Elinora Phillips Lee had died on Armistice Day in the Flu pandemic at home in North Carolina. His own return would also be marred by what was then called “Shell Shock” but we now know as PTSD resulting in divorce and estrangement from his children. He died in 1948 at the VA Hospital in Columbia SC of cancer potentially from the mustard gas he was exposed to. He was buried in Asheboro NC, his birthplace.
Sorry — Percy Walter Phillips died in December 1949 not. 1948.
My grandfather served in WWI and was also a victim of the mustard gas. After returning home in 1918 he began experiencing seizures, which he had never had before. His health deteriorated and he died in 1934 in a VA hospital in Oklahoma following surgery for a brain tumor. We have a letter from the Army denying any relationship between the mustard gas and the brain tumor.
It might be somewhat easier today but getting the VA to acknowledge the effects of military strategies in war on its own service men and women is still an uphill fight. As a National Veterans Service Officer for 8 years I saw all too often how the government sidestepped its responsibility using the guise of law.
My father, Barney Stacy, was in France when Armistice was declared. He was in the Headquarters Co., 36th Division, 142nd Infantry in France during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. They had been given a few days R&R after being at the front and were due to go back to the front when they got word that it was over. He spoke very little about the war to either myself or my mother–mainly choosing to tell humorous stories. However, I have a box of his letters written from the front that reveal much about his life on the front, but no more horror than in one letter where he said it “was hell”–no details like you hear now.
This is not an accurate picture of WWI. Austria started WWI, NOT Germany. Both Franz Joseph and Wilhelm II were duped into the war on Serbia by their respective aides. I can’t find the links that give the detailed inside story on what really happened quick. The best I can find is this one, and it’s very biased.
http://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I
Wilhelm II was asked by Franz Joseph’s aide, name given in the link, if he would back Austria if they decided to take action against Serbia – no mention was made of declaring war on them. Then, Wilhelm’s aides rushed him off to his usual trip on the North Sea, despite his own desire not to go because of the seriousness of the situation. Wilhelm and the arch duke were also close friends.
When Franz Joseph was presented with the ultimatum his aides had drawn up, he didn’t want to sign it, but he was old and tired, and convinced by the aide to go ahead, against his better judgement.
WWI was a typical example of the power government aides hold over their rulers, and their manipulative methods.
fold3, you need to present the unbiased, and complete story, instead of supporting the popular propaganda. Such bias makes for more strife, not peace in this world.
You are absolutely right about responsibility. Austria precipitated the war by attacking Serbia on the pretext of avenging the assassination of its Archduke. The assassin was an ethnic Serb from Bosnia, but he was acting as a member of a Bosnian radical group that included Croats and Muslims, i.e., not as a Serbian nationalist. When Serbia successfully resisted the Austrian assault, the two sides called on their allies–Germany and Russia. The War followed.
Someone needs a nap!!
The assassin was a member of a radical group known as The Black Hand which indeed had Serbian Nationalist as members as well. He botched a first attempt but was successful upon his second which indeed was the catalyst for the horrible first WW.
Sylvia, history is written by the victors, and the causes and motivations of WWI went back through decades of European conflicts between all the parties and cannot be encompassed in a couple of paragraphs of blame on any one group or the “aides”, certainly.
And Ronald Reagan as an adolescent might not be expected to know history, but the president and his speechwriters is certainly expected to!
Bravo; you speak the real truth! But that is the way of Politicians They say whatever sounds right at the moment, in order to get their own way with the public; which does not seem to become smarter, judging from what is very evident. .
My mum’s father and mother were involved in WW1. My grandfather was in the British Army as a dispatch rider based in Abbeville France. That is where he met my grandmother. She was in the Queen Mary’s Auxiliary, also based in Abbeville France. My grandfather was blown off his motorcycle and gassed on 31 October 1918. He did survive but the poison affected his lungs and died in London in 1927.
Came across a book titled THE FORGOTTEN ARMY-THE EXPERIENCES OF PRIVATE SAM. Fascinating memoirs of a private from Texas who was stationed in Vladivostok after November, 1918 through late 1919. A unique, first hand account of this chapter of American Military history. Lots of photos.
Re the comment about Ronald Reagan:
There was very little radio broadcasting as we know it in 1920. The U.S. wartime ban on non-government radio communications had only been lifted in October 1919.
J. G. Horn has taken this opportunity to attempt a politically motivated smear against Reagan. Where do we get such d__ks?
Why a duck?
!A 13 year old boy, back then, was much smarter about things than they are today. I am sure that Mr Regan had to have overheard, and even been a part of the family discussing what was going at the time of WW1. Perhaps his Mental Condition later, which includes forgetfulness, lead to him making such a remark.
Re: the Ronald Reagan discussion
Several points are incorrect:
1. Ronald Reagan was born February 6, 1911,so he would have been only six years old when the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, and age seven when it was over in 1918.
2. Commercial radio did not even begin until 1920.
3. The Soviet Union existed from 1922 to 1991. So, if Ronald Reagan said the U.S. had never fought the “Soviets”, he was precisely correct. Any conflict with the Russians prior to 1922 would have been with “Russians”.
I hope this helps.
Reagan should not even be part of this discussion; it’s non sequitur.
My ethnically German grandfather was born in Chicago and served in the Marine Corps on shore duty on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. He was based at the Charlestown Navy yard in Boston. He met my grandmother and my mother was born in 1918. A generation later, my mother met my father under nearly identical circumstances. He too was on shore duty around 1942 and met Mom by fixing her flat tire.
My grandfather Floyd Egbert Evans was drafted Sept 1918 and honarable discharged at Camp Pike, AR on Dec 1918. Where could I find out why he was only enlisted 3 months. He rec’d treatment , later died in 1945 at NLR veterans hospital.
My grandfather, Haws McCamish, fought in WWI in the 105th Regiment, Engineers, Co. D, 30th Division nicknamed “Old Hickory. ” I have his regimental book, which is very interesting, especially since his regiment served on the Hindenburg line and were often in harms way. He survived a Boche phosgene gas attack in which several of his fellows perished nearby, but at the time of his death in January of 1943, the examining physician remarked to my grandmother that, ” He likely died of the gas.” It’s quite gratifying to hear that other soldiers also were negatively affected long after their time in the trenches. I never met my grandfather, as he died 6 years before I was born. I have, however, been a bit obsessive about finding out who he was through photos, journals, and descriptions of his voice and personality from those who knew him. Thanks to all who have posted about their ancestors who served in WWI. Very informative and illuminating.
My uncle was unloading tanks at Brest when the war ended. His letter home is a classic of a good American soldier ready to do his duty but very pleased that the war had ended.
The fault lies not in the Treaty of Versailles but in the failure of the allied powers to enforce it. That failure was not repeated at the end of WWII when allied powers partitioned Germany, governed it, and eliminated its Army and Navy. The results of that victory and the occupation might have been reaped at the end of WWI if the WWI allies had the courage to do the same in 1918.
i see you do not give the 18 choctaw men credit for being the first code talkers in germany,after they were used germany sign a treaty,they were first code talkers ever used,alone world war 11,koren and vietnam
i am choctaw
My father, Myron E. (Al) Reynolds, was badly wounded during WWI on a night patrol, but fortunately survived and lived a full life including serving as a civilian engineer in Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, 1940 to 1956. He entered service in Montana and was sent via train to the then-Camp Lewis, Washington for basic training before shipping out for France. Sadly I somehow have lost his discharge papers which listed the location in France and date of his wounding as well as unit number. Gregg Reynolds, Olympia, WA
Hi: He probably was in the same unit my father was in the 318th Engineers; as my father also trained at Vancouver Barracks in Washington State, they were organized on January 10th 1918, and shipped out of New York harbor on May 8, 1918. There is a book on the 318th Engineers, written by Charles M. Osborn and it goes through the entire life of the 318th. The book is not available, but copies can be gotten from the US Army Heritage and Education Center, US Army Military History Institute, 22 Ashborn Drive, Carlisle, PA 17013-5008. The names are listed and pictures are also shown of the entire Engineer Group.
I had several relatives who fought in ww1 but two did not return. My two great uncles were sent to the front in France both contracted the flu and died within 3 days of each other a month before the end of the war. They are both buried in the Meuse-Argonne American cemetery. A lovely Belgian woman contacted me two years ago and sent me pics of both their markers.
My great aunt Henrietta Drummond was a Red Cross nurse from RI. She arrived in France aboard the SS Balmoral Castle in October 1918. Assigned to a hospital in Nevers she died six days later, possibly of the flu.
My father, and his 4 brothers, all served in military services of USA in WWI, sons
of Benjamin Washington and Hixie Adella (Meadows) Richardson, from Hasima,
tiny town on border of Brazoria and Matagorda Counties, Texas. All 5 returned
safely, with my parent viewing his first child, baby daughter, 11 months of age, for the first time! Don’t you know, he was excited? He was in France or Germany for the
Armistice and remarked about the joyous celebration that day for end of war.
My dad, Fay Wilson Barkley, was living in Okfuskee County, OK during WW I. He received his draft notice to bring a change of clothes and some bedding, and report to the train depot on November 10, 1918. He and a group of others reported, were sworn in, and put on a train. They sat on the train all day, then were told to go home and come back the next day. After they had been there several hours the next day they were sent home – the war was over. His discharge was dated November 12, 1918 from Fort Rucker, Alabama. I have both his induction notice and discharge papers.
My great uncle, Albert Sanger was in Co. A 6th US Engineers, Marne, St. Michiel, Argonne.
All he ever told me was that he built bridges.
My uncle Leon Wiedenheft was a pilot and he told me that he and his gunner would take turns, they shot down three planes and then they were shot down. My uncle and his gunner bailed out. Leon survived, his gunner landed in enemy territory and was shot.
My English family fought on 2 fronts. One uncle was in France and was shell shocked which affected him the rest of is life. My Grandfather and his brother were with the Artillery based in India. Bon had journals and photos of the area. They are on MyHeritage website for some of his time there. Also on my fb photos under the May Family album.
My grandfather, who was an Italian national, was drafted into the US army. He was living in Hoboken NJ. He was with the 127th engineers from Sept 1918 to July 1919.
J Horn: Reagan was technically correct. We didn’t fight the Soviets in 1920, rather we fought Russians. The Soviet Union didn’t form until 1922.
I’d go further. We weren’t fighting “Russians”. We were taking sides in a Civil War, fighting for some Russians and against others.
My father in law enlisted in the infantry in 1917. Landed in France and fought in all the major battles . He was sixteen years old and was an English citizen. He lived in Wathenstaw England. Ran away from home at the age of Fourteen. Joined the mercant marine. When he landed in NY he enlisted 66th Artilllaey . He was 97 years old when passed away He told me that out of his unit only a couple soldiers survived. He still cried about their loss
My great grandfather Heinrich Hinderks Weets (pronounced Vates) was shot by a sniper at age 39 on 18 March 1915 across the Dollart River from the Netherlands side. My grandfather Heinrich “Henry” Weets had already emigrated to America in 1912. The rest came in 1922. My great grandfather was a member of the “Home Guard”.
My dad fought in WWI, first in France where he was discharged when the war ended, then in Russia. He also was exposed to mustard gas and eventually died of lung cancer. Later he “re-upped for a hitch in Siberia” as he put it and was in Vladivostok. During WWII he tried to enlist but he eyesight was too bad so he and his son shipped in the Merchant Marines. He also worked construction during WWII, the two most interesting places being China Lake and Oak Ridge TN. His cancer was first treated in Charity Hospital in New Orleans and then the VA hospital in Albany NY. As a kid growing up I never realized how much history he had been part of but I do remember all the stories that were told about his various escapades. I think that was mom’s way to keep his memory alive for the 3 children. Obviously it worked as I still remember and think of him at my age of 68. Through those stories I was influenced by him even though I was 5 years old when he died.
My grandfather Julian Palin (no relation to Sarah!) fought in WWI in the Alsace-Lorraine area. I was only six when he passed. My grandmother told me his war story about when he was in the trenches, it got gassed in the night while the troops were sleeping and only he survived because he wore a gas mask and the others had them off.
My grandmother had a first cousin, James O. Jones who was one of the first African Americans trained as an officer specifically for a war. College graduates were allowed to join black noncommissioned officers in this training in Des Moines, Iowa. They served as captains and lieutenants at Meuse-Argonne in the autumn of 1918.
My Father Ed Browne, from Brooklyn was trained in chemical warfare and arrived just as the war ended. He was part of the division that was sent to a former German prison camp to de- louse Russian soldiers and send them home. They soon discovered that they were being executed as soon as the trains crossed into Russia. Their senior officer intervened and they stopped sending them. He came home and started an extermination business in Newburgh,NY.
My grandfather, Oliver Francis Crispin’s records, where lost in the Nat’l Archives fire, but I have very faint photocopies of his records given to me by my father at my grandfather’s death. QUESTION: how do I get these military records lodged and reinstated at National Archives? He was part of the AEF and the First Am. Army sent to Normandy, France.
When I asked my Grandfather how his day was going, he would often reply, “All’s quite on the Western Front,” which, of course, was the battle line between France and Germany. I was a kid thought he was talking about our American West! As an adult I learned he was in the Battle of the Argonne Forest, Battle of Chateau-Thierry, Battle of Aiese-Meuse, and Army of Occupation. He would always tell us, “We were with Gen. Pershing.”
After WW I, he re-upped in the Army abt 1924-25, sent to Hawaii and was involved in building the first defenses at Pearl Harbor.
In 1942 after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, he was too old the fight, so he volunteered and went to work on the US Army road project, the ALCAN Highway. He was a camp cook and survived severe weather and rugged conditions.
Oliver served our country in 3 major events, and he is an American Hero.
Our large family is from Albert Lea, Minnesota, where nearly every able-bodied man served in WW I (and WW II.) Nov. 11 is celebrated and honored. Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers served in WW I, and in Minnesota, snow storms are known to hit on that day! November 11 is symbolic here for moving from war to peace, and fall to winter!
It is important that our history get passed down through the generations in community celebrations. We must never forget that our ancestors fought and paid high prices for our freedoms. The need to fight for freedom is as relevant today as it was then.
Ronald Reagan had access to advisors and historians and thus his comment was “thoughtless”. Please Sylvia….do not turn this website into a political bubble. Let’s keep it straight and to the point. I come to it for information, not politicizing
President Ronald Reagan may have read the autobiography of General William Sidney Graves, the commander of the AEF in Siberia. He states in his book, America’s Siberian Adventure: 1918-1920, that his force never fought the Red Army. Graves may simply have considered pro-Bolshevik partisans as not the “Red Army.” The articles I’ve read would dispute Graves and Reagan, but the misinterpretations can be understandable in relation to the chaos of the Maritime Province (Vladivostok). The North Russian AEF did fight the Red Army.
The USA was not officially at war with Russia after WWI. Reagan omitted nothing. We were nation building and starting the Cold War by fighting against the Commies in Russia. Reagan won Cold War with his dogged determination and greatness.
My husbands Grandfather Lawrence Joe Melton from KY fought in WW1 and the story was he was gassed in the war which left him spending alot of time in the VA hospital until his early death in 1957. However he have tried to find his records and all they would ever tell us is that they were burned in a fire in 1970’s, so we are still left wondering what really happened to him in WW1
My father served in the US Marine air detachment that shipped to France in October 1918. Anyone have any info about what happened to that group?
My uncle Louis Gilbert Van Wyck was a step brother to my father who
served in WWI He was drafted in Columbus Ohio and served as a guard
on the Panama Canal He saw no action in France or Russia
My grandfather Edwin Victor Johnson fought and served in WWI in France in the battle of the Argonne forest. He was starving and went out to pick some berries to eat where he was exposed to mustard gas. He was hospitalized and returned home to North Dakota with a Purple Heart medal. Worked for Great Northern railroad in Minot, ND until he Passed away in 1966 from natural causes.
Can anyone enlighten me as to where I might find records for a man from Ireland who lost his life fighting with the American Army in WW1? I have tried ancestry but can’t find any lit of casualties from American Forces.
Hi yea I have a lot of ancestor who fought in war war 1 and 2 and the revaluation war.Richard Kissee fought in the revolution war .Samuel martin Burton caught in war war 1 .who is my grand farther.Ollie Burton who my uncle fought war war 2..Benson Davis who caught also in war war 1.who my great uncle.and Elijah Kissee who I think was was in war .
Looking for a picture of my grandpa Samuel Martin Burton who serve in war 1.
My grandfather, Franz Obermayr, was an Austrian soldier in WWI, fought on the Russian front, was captured and sent to a Siberian work camp, and died of a heart attack on the day he was released “at the end of the war.” After reading comments about the war continuing in Russia until 1920, I’m now wondering what year he probably died in and also where in Siberia. He was 38 years old in 1914 and had been a successful architect before being forced into the army.
Mary Lou – here is a link to the “Testimony before the 102nd US Congress, November 1991, concerning the AEF experience in Russia” at the end of the Great War and the possible abandonment of American POWs:
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Testimony_before_the_102nd_US_Congress,_November_1991,_concerning_the_AEF_experience_in_Russia
My grandfather James Nelson Platt Sr was wounded in WWI and wrote a journal during his experiences. You can find his book by searching in the Library of Congress as they asked us to provide them a copy for the Veterans project.
I’ve been searching in vain trying to find info on my great-grandfather James Bruce who lost a leg fighting in WWI for the British army.
Not enough information. DOB and location would help. I found several James Bruce thru MyHeritage but info is limited.
Thank you, Mike. The website you directed me to was very enlightening. It helped me to better understand what was going on in Russia after WWI. It’s no wonder that my grandfather’s family knew so little about what happened to him.