Beschreibung:

enlisted OD green wool with both collar disks, one an engineer's disk, the other disk marked U.S. and 310. Siberian campaign ribbon and the distinctive Polar Bear patch on the left sleeve. The 1st Battalion, 310th Engineers was part of the famous North Russia Expedition comprising 5,000 American troops among an international force that landed at Archangel in September 1918 as part of an anti-Bolshevik campaign instigated by the British. The Americans, mostly Michiganer's of the 85th Division, were immediately committed to successful combat operations but became overextended with the onset of the Arctic winter and thereafter assumed defensive positions in the inhospitable frozen north. News of the Armistice in November coupled with persistent supply problems caused moral to plummet and the American contingent was withdrawn in June 1919. Over 200 Americans became casualties with most of the dead not repatriated until 1934. Many were re interred beneath the Polar Bear Monument in White Chapel Cemetery, Troy, Michigan. The self-styled "Polar Bears" bonded by their unique Russian service identified themselves with distinctive insignia forming a comradeship that lasted well into the 1960s, the last "Polar Bear" having died in 2003. The "Polar Bear" moniker and insignia were not officially authorized until the summer of 1919 shortly before the men were demobilized and mustered out. The earliest 'unofficial' insignia may have been made-up in France while the "Polar Bears" were waiting to ship back to the United States. Several variations of the typically rough-cut cloth blue and white "Polar Bear" are known including a post-war (reunion?) version probably from the later 1920s found applied to WWI era uniforms. Condition: Coat is excellent. Trousers have a couple minute red stains and some minor mothing.