Armistice Day on the Western Front and in Russia
World War I ended in Russia on March 3, 1918, with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The signatories included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Lenin’s Bolshevik regime. Lenin traded land for peace so that he could focus on consolidating power in Russia and defeating the White armies in Russia’s civil war. Lenin was able to seize power in Russia largely because the Provisional Government that succeeded Czarist rule continued to fight the war at the urgings of Allied powers, including the United States. Lenin believed that bringing peace to Russia would allow him to deal with the regime’s enemies at home while the world’s “capitalist” powers weakened each other and became ripe for takeover by the worldwide communist revolution.
The Allied powers were rightly concerned that Russia’s exit from the war would mean that Germany could focus its military effort in the West, where stalemate and trench warfare were bleeding both sides. In March 1918, Germany launched its spring offensive, which petered out in July 1918. The Allied armies counterattacked and pushed toward Germany’s borders until an agreement was reached to sign the armistice, which would take effect on November 11 at 11:00 am — the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour.
Tragically, on November 11, the generals on both sides, who knew two days previously that the armistice would take effect that morning, continued to sacrifice soldiers for nothing.
Tragically, on November 11, the generals on both sides, who knew two days previously that the armistice would take effect that morning, continued to sacrifice soldiers for nothing. In fact, one minute before 11:00 am that morning, the last American war casualty on the Western Front, Private Henry Gunther, age 23, was killed by German machine gun fire. (RELATED: On Its Anniversary, Remember the Lessons of World War I)
More than 300 U.S. soldiers were killed and more than 3,200 seriously wounded on November 11. Casualties for the other warring powers that day included more than 1,100 for France, more than 4,100 for Germany, and more than 2,400 for Britain. You can read about this needless waste of lives in Joseph Persico’s book Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and its Violent Climax.
On that same day, there were more American casualties because of the Wilson administration’s decision to join other Allied powers in sending military forces to Russia. That decision, which George Kennan meticulously explored in his book The Decision to Intervene, meant that American troops would likely clash with the Red Army as they sought to guard and recover military supplies that the U.S. had sent to the Provisional Government.
American troops were sent to Archangel and Murmansk in northern Russia, and to Vladivostok in eastern Russia — a total of 13,000 American servicemen. Britain, France, Japan, Czechoslovakia, and other countries also sent troops. The motives for intervention were mixed. Our troops were sent to guard and retake supplies. Britain and other powers wanted to help the White armies defeat the Bolshevik regime. Japan sought territorial gains. (RELATED: The ‘Guns of August’: Ideology Triumphed Over Interests)
In north Russia, the American 339th Infantry, the 310th Engineer Battalion, and the 337th Field Hospital and Ambulance Company bivouacked in Archangel, while the 167th and 168th Transportation Corps were sent to Murmansk. On Armistice Day, American and other allied troops came under attack from Red Army forces near the village of Toulgas. The Allies suffered about 130 casualties, including seven American dead and 23 wounded. American forces remained in north Russia until late August 1919, and engaged in more fighting against the Red Army, suffering total casualties of 109 killed and 305 wounded.
The tragic and needless loss of life on Armistice Day morning was a fitting metaphor for a war that wasted millions of lives at the Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele, Verdun, St, Mihiel, Vimy Ridge, Meuse-Argonne, Caporetto, Gallipoli, Masurian Lakes, Tannenberg, Galicia, and other battlefields — a war George Kennan rightly characterized as the “seminal catastrophe” of the 20th century.
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