The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919
By: James Carl Nelson / Narrated By: Johnny Heller
Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
Has its flaws but is still a very interesting bit of forgotten history
Last I checked, over on Audible The Polar Bear Expedition is rated at about 3.6 stars out of five. Well, yes, it does have its flaws, but this is such a very interesting part of our history, the story so unbelievable and sad, that gosh! I’d rate it at least 4. I mean, especially with all the current tension with Russia, all I can think is: You better believe Putin remembers a time when American boots were on Russian soil, fighting Russian men.
The audiobook is about a regiment of men, mostly from the northern part of the U.S. as they’d be better equipped to tolerate the cold, that was sent to Russia with very scanty reasoning. WWI had just ended, and there they were, still fighting and dying, even as troops were going home. They suffered extremely cold temperatures, and their equipment was so bad (winter boots designed by the heroic Shackleton) they’d discard it rather than deal with how badly it worked in the frozen wasteland. Even if it meant suffering frostbite and, ultimately, gangrene.
Y’all know I loooooove military history, so I’ve gotta admit I’m giving The Polar Bear Expedition a pass on certain things. It really would’ve been more emotionally evocative, would’ve meant more, if a few soldiers were followed more thoroughly. As it was, there are several men named, but their stories are so scant, so scattered, that it was a tad difficult to really feel for them. But it’s a war book, so huzzah!
And it jumps around in time, like, A LOT. September of 1918 jumps to November 1918 jumps to January 1919 then falls back to October 1918 jumps to February 1919 then falls back to November 1918… puff puff puff!
See what I mean? It kinda gets hard to follow at times. But it’s a war book, so huzzah!
As a narrator, Johnny Heller does quite well. He has warm and soothing tones that add what emotion there can be found; but said tones aren’t so warm and soothing that I nodded off. Generally, I listen to a history book once, get caught up in it, then listen to it a second time with the sleep timer on cuz it’s a newly familiar story that’ll knock me out. Not so with Johnny Heller at the helm. I TRIED falling asleep to it, I promise you, but I kept getting caught up with each battle. Even with the timer set for 3 hrs. and 20 mins. (plenty of time to nod off, huh?), I could not fall asleep but kept listening to something I’d already experienced once before.
If you’re looking for some history that’ll have you flabbergasted, settle down right here and listen to the story of the self-proclaimed Polar Bears. They did a lot, questioned a lot, suffered a lot, and many of them did the dying also.
And it’s a war book, so huzzah!!!
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