It’s a pretty slow day, if you avoided FOX News and anyone who muttered the word “anthem”.

NFL News:

• Reuben Foster has had his felony domestic violence charges dismissed, in part because his girlfriend recanted her accusations.
  • In addition, his felony weapons charge was reduced to a misdemeanour.
    • Because it was legally purchased in Alabama.
  • Once everything is concluded, he would be free to rejoin the 49ers.

• Intrasquad beef!
  • Antonio Brown has apparently said Le’Veon Bell should not hold out & instead come to camp and “get better”.
    • Specifically, “the first rule of getting better is showing up.”

• In what has to help his collusion case, it’s been revealed that the NFL polled fans about their reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s protest & whether he should be signed to a new team.
  • through that poll — which “singled out” Kaepernick — commissioner Roger Goodell and others with the NFL learned of “a deep racial, political and generational division when it came to player protests.”

Oh man, do I not want to talk about the MAGA crowd & the anthem, so…

World War One Centenary:

May 24, 1918 – the North Russia Expeditionary Force lands at Murmansk.

In March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk formally withdrew Russia from participation in the war against Germany, freeing the Germans to devote more resources to the western front in France & Belgium. This was concerning to the British & French, because the American Expeditionary Force had not yet fully arrived; due to be 1.0 million troops by the end of April 1918, the fear among British & French leaders was that German offensives like Operation Michael might advance far enough to render arriving US troops moot. Further, the Allied powers were worried that Germany, which had recently sent 55,000 men to a newly independent Finland, would attempt to take the vital Russian ports of Archangel and Murmansk. It didn’t help that available British intelligence showed the Bolsheviks abandoning towns along the treaty lines, ostensibly to reduce the threat of German invasion at a time when the Reds were trying to shore up their defensive positions in and around major cities.

The decision was reached to send an Allied Expeditionary Force to Murmansk to try and shore up Russian defences against Germany. This force was led by British Major General F.C. (Frederick Cuthbert) Poole. Prior to World War One, Poole had served in India, fought in the Boer War (1899-1902) and the Dervish War (1902-04) in Africa, and served with British colonial forces in Nigeria. He retired as a Major on the eve of World War One. He was recalled to service soon after the war started, given promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 1915 and given field advancement all the way up to temporary promotion to Major General in 1917. Poole was chosen for this mission because he had on-hand knowledge of the Russian situation, having been the officer in charge of the British military equipment section in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). He specifically had asked if he could be sent to Archangel to help retrieve British materiel there, and in response was put in charge of the whole mission. He left Britain on May 17th and arrived May 24th.

Once on the ground, Poole had specific orders. First, his small British force would ally with approximately 20,000 Czechoslovak & 3,000 Serb soldiers supposedly making their way to Archangel & Murmansk, having been promised safe passage through Russia by Lenin for the dual purpose of defending northern Russian ports and their evacuation to their third countries, notably France, which would create the 22nd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment in the French Legion to support & organize these men.

[These Czechoslovak soldiers had been fighting as part of the “Czechoslovak Legion“, a 60,000 man volunteer unit (supplemented by Austro-Hungarian POWs or defectors) within the Imperial Russian Army, against the Austro-Hungarians in attempt to free Czechoslovakia from Austro-Hungarian rule. They fought alongside Russian forces between 1915-17, until the Bolsheviks came to power in November 1917 and declared a ceasefire. At that point, the majority opted to join western forces in Flanders by retreating from the Ukraine & travelling to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. This majority would eventually become the fighting force that allied with the Whites in the Russian Civil War. Others were believed to be taking the shorter route between the Ukraine and the Barents Sea, where Archangel & Murmansk lay. It is these men that Poole was anticipating.]

Second, Poole was instructed to determine how far inland he could advance with the forces at his disposal, once he had secured Archangel. However, soon after his landing, it was determined that no Czechoslovak forces were headed towards Archangel and Murmansk; instead, the entire Czechoslovak force was headed to Vladisvostok, and due to German demands that they be halted from evacuating (eventually) to the western front, they were stopped by Bolshevik forces. [The skirmish that broke out on May 14 became known as “The Revolt of The Legion“, resulting in the Czechoslovak seizure of the Trans-Siberian railway, rumours of the liberation of one boxcar of the Tsar’s gold, and the rushed execution of the Romanov family at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks on July 23rd, 1918, to prevent their liberation by the Czechoslovak forces.]

With no other troops at his disposal, Poole was forced to request Allied reinforcements for his position. Some 30,000 men, almost half of them British, were eventually stationed at the Arctic ports of Murmansk and Archangel under General Edmund Ironside. The majority of the troops arrived in July, and established base. Included in this number were 1200 Canadian troops, 2000 French & colonial troops, and 8000 men from the 85th Division at Camp Custer, Michigan – who were known as the “Polar Bears“.

^{The Polar Bear Memorial, White Chapel Cemetery – Troy, MI}

In August 1918, anti-Bolshevik forces led by Tsarist Captain Georgi Chaplin, coordinated and supported by Poole, staged a coup against the Bolshevik government in Archangel, setting the stage for Western participation in the Russian Civil War (1918-1920). At its greatest, Poole’s forces managed to advance over 100 miles inland, but never made meaningful progress towards the capital at Moscow. (The Civil War did, however, have the effect of reinforcing the Bolsheviks decision to keep the Russian capital in Moscow, after its move inland by Lenin in March 1918 because he feared foreign invasion.) After stalemating, a slow retreat was undertaken in early 1919, as a war-weary public in both the US and Britain demanded all troops be brought home after the November 1918 armistice. Allied troops would stay in Archangel until withdrawal in August 1919 and Murmansk until September 1919.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • no games until Game 1 of the Final May 28
• NBA:
  • Warriors at Rockets – 9:00PM | TNT / TSN
    • Game 5; series tied 2-2
• MLB:
  • no national broadcasts in USA
  • Red Sox at Rays – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
• Auto racing:
  • Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Coca Cola 600 Qualifying – 7:00PM | FS1 / TSN2
  • ARCA Series in Charlotte – 9:00PM | FS1

I assume the sexy ladies of auto racing will take you into the holiday weekend. ENJOY YOUR THREE DAYS, AMERICA!