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Title: The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki

Subtitle: Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919

Author: Lewis E. Jahns et al.

Release Date: September 5, 2007 [EBook #22523]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Don Kostuch

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ***

[Transcriber's Notes]

Here are the definitions of several unfamiliar (to me) words.

batmen

Soldier assigned to an officer as a servant.

batushka

Village priest.

drosky

Cart

felcher

Second-rate medical student or anyone with some medical knowledge.

hors de combat

Out of the fight; disabled; not able to fight.

junker

Aristocratic Prussian landholder devoted to militarism and

authoritarianism, providing the German military forces with many of

its officers.

knout

Whip with a lash of leather thongs, formerly used in Russia for

flogging criminals. To flog with the knout.

mashie nib

Mashie-Niblick (mah-she nib-lik)--Wood shafted golf club with about

the same loft and length as today's seven iron.

poilus

French common soldier, especially in World War I.

verst

Russian measure of distance; 3500 feet, 0.6629 mile, 1.067 km.

viand

Choice or delicate food.

volplane

Glide in an airplane without power.

I (Don Kostuch) am the son of John Kostuch, then from Detroit,  who was

a Mechanic in the 339th, Company M.  He saw some action in the fall of

1918 but due to flu, exposure and a dislocated joint, was evacuated to

England on December 1, 1918 before the gruesome winter described in the

book. {sources: "M" Company 339th records and Golden C. Bahr papers,

1918-1919.}

Fort Snelling, Minnesota

The following text is copied from a newspaper clipping in the book. The

Declaration of War is on one side and an incomplete local news item is

on the other side.

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, April 9, 1917

U. S. Declaration of War

Sixty-fifth Congress of the United States of America

At the First Session

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the second day of

April, one thousand nine hundred and seventeen

JOINT RESOLUTION

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial German

Government and the Government of the people of the United States and

making provision to the same.

Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of

war against the Government and the people of the United States of

America, Therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States

of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the

United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been

thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the

President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the

entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources

of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German

Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all of

the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the

United States.

??

Speaker of the House of Representatives

Thomas R. Marshall

Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate

Approved 6 April, 1917

Woodrow Wilson

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, April 9, 1917

COUNTY PLEDGES AID FOR FOOD MOVEMENT

RESOLUTIONS   ADOPTED, AT COURTHOUSE MEETING.

APPEAL MADE TO PEOPLE

The movement to make the state of Indiana economically and

agriculturally prepared for war, as recommended by Governor James P,

Goodrich, had its beginning in Marion county at a meeting of farmers and

those interested in soil cultivation held Saturday afternoon in the

criminal courtroom.

The necessity for the efficient utilization of all the soil resources of

Indiana were emphasized in addresses at the meeting, which was the

beginning of a plan to create a county-wide interest in the movement.

Another Meeting Monday.

The general idea of the need for greater food production, as outlined at

the meeting, will be crystallized into definite plans for meeting the

situation at a meeting called for Monday night, to be held in the

criminal court room. Representatives of commercial, labor and civic

bodies and organizations of all kinds are invited and requested to

attend the meeting Monday night and assist in the work.

Stirring appeals to the people of Indianapolis and the county to respond

to the agricultural need which this country faces in the present war

period were made by speakers, including:  Charles V. Fairbanks, formerly

Vice-president of the United States; the Rev. Frank L. Loveland, pastor

of the Meridian Street M. E. Church; H. Orme, president of the Better

Farming Association, and Ralph M. Gilbert, county agricultural agent.

Resolutions Adopted.

Resolutions were adopted at the meeting pledging the support of the

citizens of Marion county in all measures taken for the defense of the

nation and urging the people to respond to the resolutions prepared for

greater and efficient food production. The resolutions prepared by a

committee composed of Mord Gardner, Ralph C. Avery, Fred L., Smock, John

E. Shearer, C. C. Osborn, Grace May Stutsman, Charles P. Wright and Leo

Fesler were as follows:

"Whereas, By joint resolution of congress and the proclamation of the

President, war has been declared on Germany, and

"'Whereas, The President has earnestly appealed to all citizens to

support the government in every possible way, and our Governor has

called, for meetings in each county to plan preparedness in every

occupation. "Resolved, That we, the citizens of Marion county, assembled

in meetings at the courthouse do loyally pledge the support... [torn]

The following map was provide by Mike Grobbel (http://grobbel.org) who

photographed it from the Frederick C. O'Dell Map Collection, Folder

Number 9, Map Number 1, Bentley Historical Library, University of

Michigan. Mr. Grobbel is the grandson of  "CORP. C. A. GROBBELL, "I"

Co." mentioned on page 284 as a recipient of the French Croix de Guerre.

The correct spelling is "Grobbel".

Corp. Grobbel received the Distinguished Service Cross, not mentioned in

this book.

[End of Transcriber's notes]

Hundreds of Miles Through Solid Forests of Pine and Spruce.

The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki

Campaigning in North Russia

1918-1919

Compiled and Edited by

CAPT. JOEL R. MOORE, 339th U. S. Infantry

LIEUT. HARRY H. MEAD, 339th U. S. Infantry

LIEUT. LEWIS E. JAHNS, 339th U. S. Infantry

Published by

The Polar Bear Publishing Co.

Detroit, Mich.

COPYRIGHT 1920

BY

JOEL R. MOORE

PRESS OF

TOPPING-SANDERS COMPANY

DETROIT

To the men who in North Russia

died in battle and of wounds, or

of sickness due directly to hardship

and exposure, this book is

reverently dedicated.

To Our Comrades and Friends

To our comrades and friends we address these prefatory words. The book

is about to go to the printers and binders. Constantly while writing the

historical account of the American expedition, which fought the

Bolsheviki in North Russia, we have had our comrades in mind. You are

the ones most interested in getting a complete historical account. It is

a wonderful story of your own fighting and hardships, of your own

fortitude and valor. It is a story that will make the eyes of the home

folks shine with pride.

Probably you never could have known how remarkably good is the record of

your outfits in that strange campaign if you had not commissioned three

of your comrades to write the book for you. In the national army, we

happened to be officers; in civil life we are respectively, college

professor, lawyer, and public accountant, in the order in which our

names appear on the title page. But we prefer to come to you now with

the finished product merely as comrades who request you to take the book

at its actual value to you--a faithful description of our part in the

great world war. We are proud of the record the Americans made in the

expedition.

We think that nothing of importance has been omitted. Some sources of

information were not open to us--will be to no one for years. But from

some copies of official reports, from company and individual diaries,

and from special contributions written for us, we have been able to

write a complete narrative of the expedition. In all cases except a few

where the modesty of the writer impelled him to ask us not to mention

his name, we have referred to individuals who have contributed to the

book. To these contributors all, we here make acknowledgment of our debt

to them for their cordial co-operation. For the wealth of

photo-engravures which the book carries, we have given acknowledgment

along with each individual engraving, for furnishing us with the

photographic views of the war scenes and folk scenes of North Russia.

Most of them are, of course, from the official United States Signal

Corps war pictures.

When we started the book, we had no idea that it would develop into the

big book it is, a de luxe edition, of fine materials and fine

workmanship. We have not been able to risk a large edition. Only two

thousand copies are being printed. They are made especially for the boys

who were up there under the Arctic Circle, made as nice as we could get

them made. Of many of the comrades we have lost track, but we trust that

somehow they will hear of this book and become one of the proud

possessors of a copy. To our comrades and friends, we offer this volume

with the expectation that you will be pleased with it and that after you

have read it, you will glow with pride when you pass it over to a

relative or friend to read.

Detroit, Michigan,

September, 1920

JOEL R. MOORE

HARRY H. MEAD

LEWIS E. JAHNS

Table of Contents

Index to Photo-Engravures

Introduction

U. S. A. Medical Units on the Arctic Ocean

Fall Offensive on the Railroad

River Push for Kotlas

Doughboys on Guard in Archangel

Why American Troops Were Sent to Russia

On the Famous Kodish Front in the Fall

Penetrating to Ust Padenga

Peasantry of the Archangel Province

"H" Company Pushes Up the Onega Valley

"G" Company Far Up the Pinega River

With Wounded and Sick

Armistice Day with Americans in North Russia

Winter Defense of Toulgas

Great White Reaches

Mournful Kodish

Ust Padenga

The Retreat from Shenkursk

Defense of Pinega

The Land and the People

Holding the Onega Valley

Ice-Bound Archangel

Winter on the Railroad

Bolsheozerki

Letting Go the Tail-Holt

The 310th Engineers

"Come Get Your Pills"

Signal Platoon Wins Commendation

The Doughboy's Money in Archangel

Propaganda and Propaganda and--

Real Facts about Alleged Mutiny

Our Allies, French, British and Russian

Felchers, Priests and Icons

Bolshevism

Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. with Troops

"Dobra" Convalescent Hospital

American Red Cross in North Russia

Captive Doughboys in Bolshevikdom

Military Decorations

Homeward Bound

In Russia's Fields (Poem)

Our Roll of Honored Dead

Map of the Archangel Fighting Area

Index of Photo-Engravures

Hundreds of Miles Through Solid Forests

Surgical Operation, Receiving Hospital, Archangel

Old Glory Protects Our Hospital

Used as 53rd Stationary Hospital

"Olympia" Sailors Fought Reds

After 17-Hour March in Forest

Loading a Drosky at Obozerskaya

Wireless Operators-Signal Platoon

A Shell Screeched Over This Burial Scene

Vickers Machine Gun Helping Hold Lines

Our Armored Train

First Battalion Hurries Up River

Lonely Post in Dense Forest

Statue of Peter the Great and Public Buildings, Archangel

Drawing Rations, Verst 455

List Honors to a Soldier

Olga Barracks

Street Car Strike in Archangel

American Hospitals

"Supply" Co. Canteen "Accommodates" Boys

Red Cross Ambulances, Archangel

"Cootie Mill" Operating at Smolny Annex

Single Flat Strip of Iron on Plow Point

Thankful for What at Home We Feed Pigs

Artillery "O. P." Kodish

Mill for Grinding Grain

Pioneer Platoon Clearing Fire Lane

Testing Vickers Machine Gun

Doughboy Observing Bolo in Pagosta, near Ust Padenga

Cossack Receiving First Aid

Ready for Day's Work

Flax Hung Up to Dry

310th Engineers at Beresnik

Joe Chinzi and Russian Bride

Watching Her Weave Cloth

Doughboy Attends Spinning Bee

Doughboy in Best Bed--On Stove

Defiance to Bolo Advance

337th Hospital at Beresnik

Onega

Y. M. C. A., Obozerskaya

Trench Mortar Crew, Chekuevo--Hand Artillery

Wounded and Sick--Over a Thousand in All

Bolo Killed in Action--For Russia or Trotsky?

Monastery at Pinega

Russian 75's Bound for Pinega

"G" Men near Pinega

Lewis Gun Protects Mess Hall

Something Like Selective Draft

Canadian Artillery, Kurgomin

Watch Tower, Verst 455

Toulgas Outpost

One of a Bolo Patrol

Patrolling

By Reindeer Jitney to Bakaritza

Russian Eskimos at Home near Pinega

Fortified House, Toulgas

To Bolsheozerki

Colonel Morris, at Right

Russian Eskimo Idol

Ambulance Men

Practising Rifle and Pistol Fire, on Onega Front

French Machine Gun Men at Kodish

Allied Plane Carrying Bombs

Dance at Convalescent Hospital--Nurses and "Y" Girls

Subornya Cathedral

Building a Blockhouse

Market Scene, Yemetskoe

Old Russian Prison--Annex to British Hospital

Wash Day--Rinsing in River

Archangel Cab-Men

Minstrels of "I" Company Repeat Program in Y. M. C. A

Archangel Girls Filling Christmas Stockings

Y. M. C. A. Rest Room, Archangel

Russian Masonry Stove--American Convalescent Hospital

Comrade Allikas Finds His Mother in Archangel

Printing "The American Sentinel"

Flashlight of a Doughboy Outpost at Verst 455

Bolo Commander's Sword Taken in Battle of Bolsheozerki

Eight Days without a Shave, near Bolsheozerki

Woodpile Strong-Point, Verst 445

Verst 455--"Fort Nichols"

Back from Patrol

Our Shell Bursts near the Bolo Skirmish Line

Blockhouse at Shred Makrenga

Hot Summer Day at Pinega before the World War

Dvina River Ice Jam in April

Bare Mejinovsky--Near Kodish

Bolo General under Flag Truce at 445, April, 1919

After Prisoner Exchange Parley

Pioneer Platoon Has Fire

310th Engineers Under Canvas near Bolsheozerki with "M" Co

Hospital "K. P.'s"

Red Cross Nurses

Bartering

Mascots

Colonel Dupont (French) at 455 Bestows Many Croix de Guerre Medals on

Americans

Polish Artillery and Mascot

Russian Artillery, Verst 18

Canadian Artillery--Americans Were Strong for Them

Making Khleba--Black Bread

Stout Defense of Kitsa

Christmas Dinner, Convalescent Hospital, Archangel

"Come and Get It" at 455

Orderly Room, Convalescent Hospital, Archangel

American Hospital Scene

Doughboys Entertained by "Y" Girls in Hostess House

Doughboys Drubbed Sailors

Yank and Scot Guarding Bolo Prisoners, Beresnik

View of Archangel in Summer

General Ironside Inspecting Doughboys

Burial of Lt. Clifford Phillips, American Cemetery, Archangel

Major J. Brooks Nichols in his Railway Detachment Field Hq

Ready to Head Memorial Day Parade, Archangel, 1919

American Cemetery, Archangel

Soldiers and Sailors of Six Nations Reverence Dead

Graves of First Three Americans Killed, Obozerskaya, Russia

Sailors Parade on Memorial Day

Through Ice Floes in Arctic Homeward Bound

Out of White Sea into Arctic, under Midnight Sun

INTRODUCTION

The troopships "Somali," "Tydeus," and "Nagoya" rubbed the Bakaritza and

Smolny quays sullenly and listed heavily to port. The American doughboys

grimly marched down the gangplanks and set their feet on the soil of

Russia, September 5th, 1918. The dark waters of the Dvina River were

beaten into fury by the opposing north wind and ocean tide. And the

lowering clouds of the Arctic sky added their dismal bit to this

introduction to the dreadful conflict which these American sons of

liberty were to wage with the Bolsheviki during the year's campaign.

In the rainy fall season by their dash and valor they were to expel the

Red Guards from the cities and villages of the state of Archangel,

pursuing the enemy vigorously up the Dvina, the Vaga, the Onega and the

Pinega Rivers, and up the Archangel-Vologda Railway and the

Kodish-Plesetskaya-Petrograd state highway. They were to plant their

entrenched outposts in a great irregular horseshoe line, one cork at

Chekuevo, the toe at Ust-Padenga, the other cork of the shoe at

Karpagorskaya. They were to run out from the city of Archangel long,

long lines of communication, spread wide like the fingers of a great

hand that sought seemingly to cover as much of North Russia as possible

with Allied military protection.

In the winter, in the long, long nights and black, howling forests and

frozen trenches, with ever-deepening snows and sinking thermometer, with

the rivers and the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean solid ice fifteen feet

thick, these same soldiers now seen disembarking from the troopships,

were to find their enemy greatly increasing his forces every month at

all points on the Allied line. Stern defense everywhere on that

far-flung trench and blockhouse and fortified-village battle line. They

were to feel the overwhelming pressure of superior artillery and

superior equipment and transportation controlled by the enemy and

especially the crushing odds of four to ten times the number of men on

the battle lines. And with it they were to feel the dogged sense of the

grim necessity of fighting for every verst of frozen ground. Their very

lives were to depend upon the stubbornness of their holding retreat.

There could be no retreating beyond Archangel, for the ships were frozen

in the harbor. Indeed a retreat to the city of Archangel itself was

dangerous. It might lead to revulsion of temper among the populace and

enable the Red Guards to secure aid from within the lines so as to carry

out Trotsky's threat of pushing the foreign bayonets all under the ice

of the White Sea. And in that remarkable winter defense these American

soldiers were to make history for American arms, exhibiting courage and

fortitude and heroism, the stories of which are to embellish the annals

of American martial exploits. They were destined, a handful of them

here, a handful there, to successfully baffle the Bolshevik hordes in

their savage drives.

In the spring the great ice crunching up in the rivers and the sea was

to behold those same veteran Yanks still fighting the Red Guard armies

and doing their bit to keep the state of Archangel, the North Russian

Republic, safe, and their own skins whole. The warming sun and bursting

green were to see the olive-drab uniform, tattered and torn as it was,

covering a wearied and hungry and homesick but nevertheless fearless and

valiant American soldier. With deadly effect they were to meet the

onrushing swarms of Bolos on all fronts and slaughter them on their wire

with rifle and machine gun fire and smash up their reserves with

artillery fire. With desperation they were to dispute the overwhelming

columns of infantry who were hurled by no less a renowned old Russian

General than Kuropatkin, and at Malo Bereznik and Bolsheozerki, in

particular, to send them reeling back in bloody disaster. They were to

fight the Bolshevik to a standstill so that they could make their

guarded getaway.

Summer was to see these Americans at last handing over the defenses to

Russian Northern Republic soldiers who had been trained during the

winter at Archangel and gradually during the spring broken in for duty

alongside the American and British troops and later were to hold the

lines in some places by themselves and in others to share the lines with

the new British troops coming in twenty thousand strong "to finish the

bloody show." Gaily decorated Archangel was to bid the Americanski

dasvedanhnia and God-speed in June. Blue rippling waters were to meet

the ocean-bound prows. Music from the Cruiser "Des Moines" (come to see

us out) was to blow fainter and fainter in the distance as they cheered

us out of the Dvina River for home.

Now the troops are hurrying off the transport. They are just facing the

strange, terrible campaign faintly outlined. It is now our duty to

faithfully tell the detailed story of it--"The History of the American

North Russian Expedition," to try to do justice in this short volume to

the gripping story of the American soldiers "Campaigning in North

Russia, 1918-1919."

The American North Russian Expeditionary Force consisted of the 339th

Infantry, which had been known at Camp Custer as "Detroit's Own," one

battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Ambulance Company, and the

337th Field Hospital Company. The force was under the command of Col.

George E. Stewart, 339th Infantry, who was a veteran of the Philippines

and of Alaska. The force numbered in all, with the replacements who came

later, about five thousand five hundred men.

These units had been detached from the 85th Division, the Custer

Division, while it was enroute to France, and had been assembled in

southern England, there re-outfitted for the climate and warfare of the

North of Russia. On August the 25th, the American forces embarked at

Newcastle-on-Tyne in three British troopships, the "Somali," the

"Tydeus" and the "Nagoya" and set sail for Archangel, Russia. A fourth

transport, the "Czar," carried Italian troops who travelled as far as

the Murmansk with our convoy.

The voyage up the North Sea and across the Arctic Ocean, zig-zagging day

and night for fear of the submarines, rounding the North Cape far toward

the pole where the summer sun at midnight scarcely set below the

northwestern horizon, was uneventful save for the occasional alarm of a

floating mine and for the dreadful outbreak of Spanish "flu" on board

the ships. On board one of the ships the supply of yeast ran out and

breadless days stared the soldiers in the face till a resourceful army

cook cudgelled up recollections of seeing his mother use drainings from

the potato kettle in making her bread. Then he put the lightening once

more into the dough. And the boys will remember also the frigid breezes

of the Arctic that made them wish for their overcoats which by order had

been packed in their barrack bags, stowed deep down in the hold of the

ships. And this suffering from the cold as they crossed the Arctic

circle was a foretaste of what they were to be up against in the long

months to come in North Russia.

We had thought to touch the Murmansk coast on our way to Archangel, but

as we zig-zagged through the white-capped Arctic waves we picked up a

wireless from the authorities in command at Archangel which ordered the

American troopships to hasten on at full speed. The handful of American

sailors from the "Olympia," the crippled category men from England and

the little battalion of French troops, which had boldly driven the Red

Guards from Archangel and pursued them up the Dvina and up the

Archangel-Vologda Railway, were threatened with extermination. The Reds

had gathered forces and turned savagely upon them.

So we sped up into the White Sea and into the winding channels of the

broad Dvina. For miles and miles we passed along the shores dotted with

fishing villages and with great lumber camps. The distant domes of the

cathedrals in Archangel came nearer and nearer. At last the water front

of that great lumber port of old Peter the Great lay before us strange

and picturesque. We dropped anchor at 10:00 a. m. on the fourth day of

September, 1918. The anchor chains ran out with a cautious rattle. We

swung on the swift current of the Dvina, studied the shoreline and the

skyline of the city of Archangel, saw the Allied cruisers, bulldogs of

the sea, and turned our eyes southward toward the boundless pine forest

where our American and Allied forces were somewhere beset by the

Bolsheviki, or we turned our eyes northward and westward whence we had

come and wondered what the folks back home would say to hear of our

fighting in North Russia.

I

U. S. A. MEDICAL UNITS ON THE ARCTIC OCEAN

Someone Blunders About Medicine Stores--Spanish Influenza At Sea And No

Medicine--Improvised Hospitals At Time Of Landing--Getting Results In

Spite Of Red Tape--Raising Stars And Stripes To Hold The Hospital--Aid

Of American Red Cross--Doughboys Dislike British Hospital--Starting

American Receiving Hospital--Blessings On The Medical Men.

At Stoney Castle camp in England, inquiry by the Americans had elicited

statement from the British authorities that each ship would be well

supplied with medicines and hospital equipment for the long voyage into

the frigid Arctic. But it happened that none were put on the boat and

all that the medical officers had to use were three or four boxes of

medical supplies that they had clung to all the way from Camp Custer.

Before half the perilous and tedious voyage was completed, the dreaded

Spanish influenza broke out on three of the ships. On the "Somali,"

which is typical of the three ships, every available bed was full on the

fifth day out at sea. Congestion was so bad that men with a temperature

of only 101 or 102 degrees were not put into the hospital but lay in

their hammocks or on the decks. To make matters worse, on the eighth day

out all the "flu" medicines were exhausted.

It was a frantic medical detachment that paced the decks of those three

ships for two days and nights after the ships arrived in the harbor of

Archangel while preparations were being made for the improvisation of

hospitals.

On the 6th of September they debarked in the rain at Bakaritza. About

thirty men could be accommodated in the old Russian Red Cross Hospital,

such as it was, dirt and all. The remainder were temporarily put into

old barracks. What "flu"-weakened soldier will ever forget those double

decked pine board beds, sans mattress, sans linen, sans pillows? If

lucky, a man had two blankets. He could not take off his clothes. Death

stalked gauntly through and many a man died with his boots on in bed.

The glory of dying in France to lie under a field of poppies had come to

this drear mystery of dying in Russia under a dread disease in a strange

and unlovely place. Nearly a hundred of them died and the wonder is that

more men did not die. What stamina and courage the American soldier

showed, to recover in those first dreadful weeks!

No attempt is made to fasten blame for this upon the American medical

officers, nor upon the British for that matter. Many a soldier, though,

was wont to wish that Major Longley had not himself been nearly dead of

the disease when the ships arrived. To the credit of Adjutant Kiley,

Captains Hall, Kinyon, Martin and Greenleaf and Lieutenants Lowenstein

and Danzinger and the enlisted medical men, let it be said that they

performed prodigies of labor trying to serve the sick men who were

crowded into the five hastily improvised hospitals.

The big American Red Cross Hospital, receiving hospital at the base, was

started at Archangel November 22nd by Captain Pyle under orders of Major

Longley. The latter had been striving for quite a while to start a

separate receiving hospital for American wounded, but had been blocked

by the British medical authorities in Archangel. They declared that it

was not feasible as the Americans had no equipment, supplies or medical

personnel.

However, the officer in charge of the American Red Cross force in

Archangel offered to supply the needed things, either by purchasing them

from the stores of British medical supplies in Archangel or by sending

back to England for them. It is said that the repeated letters of Major

Longley to SOS in England somehow were always tangled in the British and

American red tape, in going through military channels.

At last Major Longley took the bull by the horns and accepted the aid of

the Red Cross and selected and trained a personnel to run the hospital

from among the officers and men who had been wounded and were recovered

or partially recovered and were not fit for further heavy duty on the

fighting line. He had the valuable assistance also of the two American

Red Cross nurses, Miss Foerster and Miss Gosling, the former later being

one of five American women who, for services in the World War, were

awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal.

On September 10th, we opened the first Red Cross Hospital which was also

used in connection with the Russian Red Cross Hospital and was served by

Russian Red Cross nurses. Captain Hall and Lieutenant Kiley were in

charge of the hospital.

A few days later an infirmary was opened for the machine gunners and

Company "C" of the engineers at Solombola.

A good story goes in connection with this piece of history of the little

Red Cross hospital on Troitsky near Olga barracks. There had been rumor

and more or less open declaration of the British medical authorities

that the Americans would not be permitted to start a hospital of their

own in Archangel. The Russian sisters who owned the building were

interested observers as to the outcome of this clash in authority. It

was settled one morning about ten o'clock in a spectacular manner much

to the satisfaction of the Americans and Russians. Captain Wynn of the

American Red Cross came to the assistance of Captain Hall, supplying the

American flag and helping raise it over the building and dared the

British to take it down. Then he supplied the hospital with beds and

linen and other supplies and comfort bags for the men, dishes, etc. This

little hospital is a haven of rest that appears in the dreams today of

many a doughboy who went through those dismal days of the first month in

Archangel. There they got American treatment and as far as possible food

cooked in American style.

In October the number of sick and wounded men was so large that another

hospital for the exclusive use of convalescents was opened in an old

Russian sailor's home in the near vicinity of American Headquarters.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Surgical Operation American Receiving Hospital, Archangel, 1918.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Old Glory Protects Our Hospital.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Used as 53rd Stationary Hospital.

U. S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Sailors from "Olympia" Fought Reds.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

After 17-Hour March in Forest.

U.S. Official Photo

Loading a Drosky at Obozerskaya

U.S. Official Photo

Wireless operators--Signal Platoon

During this controversy with the British medical authorities, the head

American medical officer was always handicapped, as indeed was many a

fighting line officer, by the fact that the British medical officer

outranked him. Let it be understood right here that many a British

officer was decorated with insignia of high rank but drew pay of low

rank. It was actually done over and over again to give the British

officer ranking authority over the American officers.

What American doughboy who ever went through the old 53rd Stationary

hospital will ever forget his homesickness and feeling of outrage at the

treatment by the perhaps well-meaning but nevertheless callous and

coarse British personnel. Think of tea, jam and bread for sick and

wounded men. An American medical sergeant who has often eaten with the

British sergeants at that hospital, Sergeant Glenn Winslow, who made out

the medical record for every wounded and sick man of the Americans who

went through the various hospitals at Archangel, and who was frequently

present at the British sergeant's mess at the hospital, relates that

there were plenty of fine foods and delicacies and drink for the

sergeant's messes, corroborated by Mess Sgt. Vincent of. "F" Company.

And a similar story was told by an American medical officer who was

invalided home in charge of over fifty wounded Americans. He had often

heard that the comforts and delicacies among the British hospital

supplies went to the British officers' messes. Captain Pyle was in

command on the icebreaker "Canada" and saw to it that the limited supply

of delicacies went to the wounded men most in need of it. There were

several British officers on the icebreaker enroute to Murmansk who set

up a pitiful cry that they had seen none of the extras to which they

were accustomed, thinking doubtless that the American officer was

holding back on them. Captain Pyle on the big ship out of Murmansk took

occasion to request of the British skipper that the American wounded on

board the ship be given more food and more palatable food. He was asked

if he expected more for the doughboy than was given to the Tommie. The

American officer's reply was characteristic of the difference between

the attitude of British and American officers toward the enlisted man:

"No, sir, it is not a question of different treatment as between Tommie

and doughboy. It is difference in the feeding of the wounded and sick

American officers and the feeding of wounded and sick American enlisted

men. My government makes no such great difference. I demand that my

American wounded men be fed more like the way in which the officers on

this ship are fed."

Lest we forget, this same medical officer in charge at one time of a

temporary hospital at a key point in the field, was over-ranked and put

under a British medical officer who brought about the American officer's

recall to the base because he refused to put the limited American

medical personnel of enlisted men to digging latrines for the British

officers' quarters.

Many a man discharged from the British 53rd Stationary Hospital as fit

for duty, was examined by American medical officers and put either into

our own Red Cross Hospital or into the American Convalescent Hospital

for proper treatment and nourishment back to fighting condition. It was

openly charged by the Americans that several Americans in the British

hospital were neglected till they were bedsore and their lives

endangered. Sick and wounded men were required to do orderly work. When

a sturdy American corporal refused to do work or to supervise work of

that nature in the hospital, he was court-martialed by order of the

American colonel commanding the American forces in North Russia. Of

course it must needs be said that there were many fine men among the

British medical officers and enlisted personnel. But what they did to

serve the American doughboys was overborne by the mistreatment of the

others.

Finally no more wounded Americans were sent to the British hospital and

no sick except those sick under G. O. 45. These latter found themselves

cooped up in an old Russian prison, partially cleaned up for a hospital

ward. This was a real chamber of horrors to many an unfortunate soldier

who was buffetted from hospital to Major Young's summary court to

hospital or back to the guardhouse, all the while worrying about the

ineffectiveness of his treatment.

So the American soldiers at last got their own receiving hospital and

their own convalescent hospital. Of course at the fighting fronts they

were nearly always in the hands of their own American medical officers

and enlisted men. The bright story of the Convalescent Hospital appears

in another place. This receiving hospital was a fine old building which

one time had been a meteorological institute, a Russian imperial

educational institution. Its great stone exterior had gathered a

venerable look in its two hundred years. The Americans were to give its

interior a sanitary improvement by way of a set of modern plumbing. But

the thing that pleased the wounded doughboy most was to find himself,

when in dreadful need of the probe or knife, under the familiar and

understanding and sympathetic eyes of Majors Henry or Longley or some

other American officer, to find his wants answered by an enlisted man

who knew the slang of Broadway and Hamtramck and the small town slang of

"back home in Michigan, down on the farm," and to find his food cooked

and served as near as possible like it was "back home" to a sick man.

Blessings on the medical men!

II

FALL OFFENSIVE ON THE RAILROAD

Third Battalion Hurries From Troopship To Troop-Train Bound For

Obozerskaya--We Relieve Wearied French Battalion--"We Are Fighting An

Offensive War"--First Engagement--Memorable Night March Ends At Edge Of

Lake--Our Enemy Compels Respect At Verst 458--American Major Hangs

On--Successful Flank March Takes Verst 455--Front Line Is Set At 445 By

Dashing Attack--We Hold It Despite Severe Bombardments And Heavy

Assaults.

On the afternoon of September the fifth the 3rd Battalion of the 339th

Infantry debarked hurriedly at Bakaritza. Doughboys marched down the

gangplank with their full field equipment ready for movement to the

fighting front. Somewhere deep in the forest beyond that skyline of pine

tree tops a handful of French and Scots and American sailors were

battling the Bolos for their lives. The anxiety of the British staff

officer--we know it was one of General Poole's staff, for we remember

the red band on his cap, was evidenced by his impatience to get the

Americans aboard the string of tiny freight cars.

Doughboys stretched their sea legs comfortably and formed in column of

squads under the empty supply shed on the quay, to escape the cold

drizzle of rain, while Major Young explained in detail how Captain

Donoghue was to conduct the second train.

All night long the two troop trains rattled along the Russki railway or

stood interminably at strange-looking stations. The bare box cars were

corded deep with sitting and curled up soldiers fitfully sleeping and

starting to consciousness at the jerking and swaying of the train. Once

at a weird log station by the flaring torchlights they had stood for a

few minutes beside a northbound train loaded with Bolshevik prisoners

and deserters gathered in that day after the successful Allied

engagement. Morning found them at a big bridge that had been destroyed

by artillery fire of the Red Guards the afternoon before, not far from

the important village of Obozerskaya, a vital keypoint which just now we

were to endeavor to organize the defense of, and use as a depot and

junction point for other forces.

No one who was there will forget the initial scene at Obozerskaya when

two companies of Americans, "I" and "L", proceeded' up the railroad

track in column of twos and halted in ranks before the tall station

building, with their battalion commander holding officers call at

command of the bugle. An excited little French officer popped out of his

dugout and pointed at the shell holes in the ground and in the station

and spoke a terse phrase in French to the British field staff officer

who was gnawing his mustache. The latter overcame his embarrassment

enough to tell Major Young that the French officer feared the Bolo any

minute would reopen artillery fire. Then we realized we were in the

fighting zone. The major shouted orders out and shooed the platoons off

into the woods.

Later into the woods the French officers led the Americans who relieved

them of their circle of fortified outposts. Some few in the vicinity of

the scattered village made use of buildings, but most of the men stood

guard in the drizzly rain in water up to their knees and between

listening post tricks labored to cut branches enough to build up a dry

platform for rest. The veteran French soldier had built him a fire at

each post to dry his socks and breeches legs, but "the strict old

disciplinarian," Major Young, ordered "No fires on the outpost."

And this was war. Far up the railroad track "at the military crest" an

outpost trench was dug in strict accordance with army book plans. The

first night we had a casualty, a painful wound in a doughboy's leg from

the rifle of a sentry who cried halt and fired at the same time. An

officer and party on a handcar had been rattling in from a visit to the

front outguard. All the surrounding roads and trails were patrolled.

Armed escorts went with British intelligence officers to outlying

villages to assemble the peasants and tell them why the soldiers were

coming into North Russia and enlist their civil co-operation and inspire

them to enlist their young men in the Slavo-British Allied Legion, that

is to put on brass buttoned khaki, eat British army rations, and drill

for the day when they should go with the Allies to clear the country of

the detested Bolsheviki. To the American doughboys it did not seem as

though the peasants' wearied-of-war countenances showed much elation

nor much inclination to join up.

The inhabitants of Obozerskaya had fled for the most part before the

Reds. Some of the men and women had been forced to go with the Red

Guards. They now crept back into their villages, stolidly accepted the

occupancy of their homes by the Americans, hunted up their horses which

they had driven into the wilderness to save them from the plundering

Bolo, greased up their funny looking little droskies, or carts, and

began hauling supplies for the Allied command and begging tobacco from

the American soldiers.

Captain Donoghue with two platoons of "K" Company, the other two having

been dropped temporarily at Issaka Gorka to guard that railroad repair

shop and wireless station, now moved right out by order of Colonel

Guard, on September seventh, on a trail leading off toward Tiogra and

Seletskoe. Somewhere in the wilds he would find traces of or might

succor the handful of American sailors and Scots who, under Col.

Hazelden, a British officer, had been cornered by the Red Guards.

"Reece, reece," said the excited drosky driver as he greedily accepted

his handful of driver's rations. He had not seen rice for three years.

Thankfully he took the food. His family left at home would also learn

how to barter with the generous doughboy for his tobacco and bully beef

and crackers, which at times, very rarely of course, in the advanced

sectors, he was lucky enough to exchange for handfuls of vegetables that

the old women plucked out of their caches in the rich black mould of the

small garden, or from a cellar-like hole under a loose board in the log

house.

"Guard duty at Archangel" was aiming now to be a real war, on a small

scale but intensive. Obozerskaya, about one hundred miles south of

Archangel, in a few days took on the appearance of an active field base

for aggressive advance on the enemy. Here were the rapid assembling of

fighting units; of transport and supply units; of railroad repairing

crews, Russian, under British officers; of signals; of armored

automobile, our nearest approach to a tank, which stuck in the mud and

broke through the frail Russki bridges and was useless; of the feverish

clearing and smoothing of a landing field near the station for our

supply of spavined air-planes that had already done their bit on the

Western Front; of the improvement of our ferocious-looking armored

train, with its coal-car mounted naval guns, buttressed with sand bags

and preceded by a similar car bristling with machine guns and Lewis

automatics in the hands of a motley crew of Polish gunners and Russki

gunners and a British sergeant or two. This armored train was under the

command of the blue-coated, one-armed old commander Young, hero of the

Zeebrugge Raid, who parked his train every night on the switch track

next to the British Headquarters car, the Blue Car with the Union Jack

flying over it and the whole Allied force. Secretly, he itched to get

his armored train into point-blank engagement with the Bolshevik armored

train.

"All patrols must be aggressive," directed a secret order of Col. Guard,

the British officer commanding this "A" Force on the railroad, "and it

must be impressed on all ranks that we are fighting an offensive war,

and not a defensive one, although for the time being it is the duty of

everybody to get the present area in a sound state of defense. All posts

must be held to the last as we do not intend to give up any ground which

we have made good."

And within a week after landing in Russia the American soldier was

indeed making head on an offensive campaign, for on September 11th two

platoons of "M" Company reconnoitering in force met a heavy force of

Bolos on similar mission and fought the first engagement with the Red

Guards, driving the Reds from the station at Verst 466 and taking

possession of the bridge at Verst 464.

We had ridden out past the outguard on the armored train, left it and

proceeded along the railway. Remember that first Bolo shell? Well, yes.

That thing far down the straight track three miles away Col. Guard,

before going to the rear, derisively told Lieut. Danley could not be a

Bolo armored train but was a sawmill smoke stack. Suddenly it flashed.

Then came the distant boom. Came then the whining, twist-whistling shell

that passed over us and showered shrapnel near the trenches where lay

our reserves. He shortened his range but we hurried on and closed with

his infantry with the decision in the American doughboy's favor in his

first fight. He had learned that it takes many shrapnel shells and

bullets to hit one man, that to be hit is not necessarily to be killed.

A few days later "L" Company supported in the nick of time by two

platoons of "I" Company repulsed a savage counter-attack staged by the

Red Guards, September 16th, on a morning that followed the capture of a

crashing Red bombing plane in the evening and the midnight conflagration

in "L" Company's fortified camp that might have been misinterpreted as

an evacuation by the Bolo. In this engagement Lieut. Gordon B. Reese and

his platoon of "I" Company marked themselves with distinction by

charging the Reds as a last resort when ammunition had been exhausted in

a vain attempt to gain fire superiority against the overwhelming and

enveloping Red line, and gave the Bolshevik soldiers a sample of the

fighting spirit of the Americans. And the Reds broke and ran. Also our

little graveyard of brave American soldiers at Obozerskaya began to

grow.

It was the evening before when the Bolo airman, who had dropped two

small bombs at the Americans at Obozerskaya, was obliged to volplane to

earth on the railroad near the 464 outguard. Major Young was there at

the time. He declared the approaching bomb-plane by its markings was

certainly an Allied plane, ordered the men not to discharge their Lewis

gun which they had trained upon it, and as the Bolos hit the dirt two

hundred yards away, he rushed out shouting his command, which afterwards

became famous, "Don't fire! We are Americans." But the Bolo did not

pahneemahya and answered with his own Lewis gun sending the impetuous

American officer to cover where he lay even after the Bolo had darted

into the woods and the doughboys ran up and pulled the moss off their

battalion commander whom they thought had been killed by the short burst

of the Bolo's automatic fire, as the major had not arisen to reply with

his trusty six shooter.

Meanwhile "K" Company had met the enemy on the Seletskoe-Kodish front as

will be related later, and plans were being laid for a converging attack

by the Kodish, Onega and Railroad columns upon Plesetskaya. "L" Company

was sent to support "K" Company and the Railroad Force marked time till

the other two columns could get into position for the joint drive.

Machine gun men and medical men coming to us from Archangel brought

unverified stories of fighting far up the Dvina and Onega Rivers where

the Bolshevik was gathering forces for a determined stand and had caused

the digging of American graves and the sending back to Archangel of

wounded men. This is told elsewhere. Our patrols daily kept in contact

with Red Guard outposts on the railroad, occasionally bringing in

wounded Bolos or deserters, who informed us of intrenchments and armored

trains and augmenting Bolshevik regiments.

Our Allied force of Cossacks proved unreliable and officer's patrols of

Americans served better but owing to lack of maps or guides were able to

gain but little information of the forest trails of the area. British

intelligence officers depending on old forester's maps and on deserters

and prisoners and neutral natives allowed the time for "Pat Rooney's

work," personal reconnaissance, to go by till one day, September 28th,

General Finlayson arrived at Obozerskaya in person at noon and

peremptorily ordered an advance to be started that afternoon on the

enemy's works at Versts 458 and 455. Col. Sutherland was caught

unprepared but had to obey.

Calling up one company of the resting French troops under the veteran

African fighter, Captain Alliez, for support, Col. Sutherland asked

Major Young to divide his two American companies into two detachments

for making the flank marches and attacks upon the Red positions. The

marches to be made to position in the afternoon and night and the

attacks to were be put on at dawn. The armored train and other guns

manned by the Poles were to give a barrage on the frontal positions as

soon as the American soldiers had opened their surprise flank and rear

attacks. Then the Bolos were supposed to run away and a French company

supported by a section of American machine guns and a "Hq." section that

had been trained hastily into a Stokes mortar section, were to rush in

and assist in consolidating the positions gained.

But this hurriedly contrived advance was doomed to failure before it

started. There had not been proper preparations. The main force

consisting of "M" Company and two platoons of "I" Company and a small

detachment of Engineers to blow the track in rear of the Bolo position

at 455 was to march many miles by the flank in the afternoon and night

but were not provided with even a map that showed anything but the

merest outlines. The other detachment consisting of two remaining

platoons of "I" Company were little better off only they had no such

great distance to go. Both detachments after long hours were unable to

reach the objective.

This was so memorable a night march and so typical of the fall

operations everywhere that space has been allowed to describe it. No one

had been over the proposed route of march ordered by Col. Sutherland. No

Russian guide could be provided. We must follow the blazed trail of an

east-and-west forest line till we came to a certain broad

north-and-south cutting laid out in the days of Peter the Great. Down

this cutting we were to march so many versts, told by the decaying old

notched posts, till we passed the enemy's flank at 455, then turn in

toward the railroad, camp for the night in the woods and attack him in

the rear at 6:00 a. m.

At five o'clock in the afternoon the detachment struck into the woods.

Lieut. Chantrill, the pleasant British intelligence officer who acted as

interpreter, volunteered to go as guide although he had no familiarity

with the swamp-infested forest area. It was dark long before we reached

the broad cutting. No one will forget the ordeal of that night march.

Could not see the man ahead of you. Ears told you he was tripping over

fallen timber or sloshing in knee-deep bog hole. Hard breathing told the

story of exertion. Only above and forward was there a faint streak of

starlight that uncertainly led us on and on south toward the vicinity of

the Bolo positions.

Hours later we emerge from the woods cutting into a great marsh. Far in

the dark on the other side we must hit the cutting in the heavy pine

woods. For two hours we struggle on. We lose our direction. The marsh is

a bog. To the right, to the left, in front the tantalizing optical

illusion lures us on toward an apparently firmer footing. But ever the

same, or worse, treacherous mire. We cannot stand a moment in a spot. We

must flounder on. The column has to spread. Distress comes from every

side. Men are down and groggy. Some one who is responsible for that body

of men sweats blood and swears hatred to the muddler who is to blame.

How clearly sounds the exhaust of the locomotives in the Bolo camp on

the nearby railroad. Will their outguards hear us? Courage, men, we must

get on.

This is a fine end. D--- that unverified old map the Colonel has. It did

not show this lake that baffles our further struggles to advance. Detour

of the unknown lake without a guide, especially in our present exhausted

condition, is impossible. (Two weeks later with two Russian guides and

American officers who had explored the way, we thought it a wonderful

feat to thread our way around with a column). Judgment now dictates that

it is best to retrace our steps and cut in at 461 to be in position to

be of use in the reserve or in the consolidation. We have failed to

reach our objective but it is not our fault. We followed orders and

directions but they were faulty. It is a story that was to be duplicated

over and over by one American force after another on the various fronts

in the rainy fall season, operating under British officers who took

desperate chances and acted on the theory that "You Americans," as Col.

Sutherland said, "can do it somehow, you know." And as to numbers, why,

"Ten Americans are as good as a hundred Bolos, aren't they?"

But how shall we extricate ourselves? Who knows where the cutting may be

found? Can staggering men again survive the treacherous morass? It is

lighter now. We will pick our way better. But where is the cutting?

Chantrill and the Captain despair. Have we missed it in, the dark? Then

we are done for. Where is the "I" Co. detachment again? Lost? Here

Corporal Grahek, and you, Sgt. Getzloff, you old woodsmen from north

Michigan pines, scout around here and find the cutting and that rear

party. Who is it that you men are carrying?

No trace of the rear part of the column nor of the cutting! One thing

remains to do. We must risk a shout, though the Reds may hear.

"Danley! eeyohoh!"

"Yes, h-e-e-e-r-r-e on the c-u-t-t-i-n-g!"

Did ever the straight and narrow way seem so good. The column is soon

united again and the back trail despondingly begun. Daylight of a Sunday

morning aids our footsteps. We cross again the stream we had waded waist

deep in the pitch dark and wondered that no one had been drowned.

Zero hour arrives and we listen to the artillery of both sides and for

the rat-tat-tat of the Bolo machine guns when our forces move on the

bridgehead. We hurry on. The battle is joined. Pine woods roar and

reverberate with roar. By taking a nearer blazed trail we may come out

to the railway somewhere near the battle line.

At 8:40 a. m. we emerge from the woods near our armored train. At field

headquarters, Major Nichols, who in the thick of the battle has arrived

to relieve Major Young, orders every man at once to be made as

comfortable as possible. Men build fires and warm and dry their clammy

water-soaked feet, picture of which is shown in this volume. Bully and

tea and hard tack revive a good many. It is well they do, for the fight

is going against us and two detachments of volunteers from these men are

soon, to be asked for to go forward to the battle line.

Considerable detail has been given about this march of "I" and "M"

because writer was familiar with it, but a similar story might be told

of "H" in the swamps on the Onega, or of "K" or "L" and "M. G." at

Kodish, or of "A," "B," "C" or "D" on the River Fronts, and with equal

praise for the hardihood of the American doughboy hopelessly mired in

swamps and lost in the dense forests, baffled in his attempts because of

no fault of his own, but ready after an hour's rest to go at it again,

as in this case when a volunteer platoon went forward to support the

badly suffering line. The Red Guards composed of the Letts and sailors

were fiercely counter-attacking and threatening to sweep back the line

and capture field-headquarters.

During the preceding hours the French company had pressed in gallantly

after the artillery and machine gun barrage and captured the bridgehead,

and, supported by the American machine gun men and the trench mortar

men, had taken the Bolo's first trench line, seeking to consolidate the

position.

Lieut. Keith of "Hq." Company with twenty-one men and three Stokes

mortars had gone through the woods and taking a lucky direction, avoided

the swamp and cut in to the railroad, arriving in the morning just after

the barrage and the French infantry attack had driven the Reds from

their first line. They took possession of three Bolshevik shacks and a

German machine gun, using hand grenades in driving the Reds out. Then

they placed their trench mortars in position to meet the Bolo

counter-attack.

The Bolos came in on the left flank under cover of the woods, the French

infantry at that time being on the right flank in the woods, and two

platoons of Americans being lost somewhere on the left in the swamp.

This counterattack of the Reds was repulsed by the trench mortar boys

who, however, found themselves at the end of the attack with no more

ammunition for their mortars, Col. Sutherland not having provided for

the sending of reserve ammunition to the mortars from Obozerskaya.

Consequently the second attack of the Reds was waited with anxiety. The

Reds were in great force and well led. They came in at a new angle and

divided the Americans and French, completely overwhelming the trench

mortar men's rifle fire and putting Costello's valiant machine guns out

of action, too. Lieut Keith was severely wounded, one man was killed,

four wounded and three missing. Sgt. Kolbe and Pvt. Driscoll after

prodigies of valor with their machine guns were obliged to fall back

with the French. Kolbe was severely wounded. So the Bolo yells that day

sounded in triumph as they won back their positions from the Americans

and French.

The writer knows, for he heard those hellish yells. Under cover of the

single "M" Company platoon rushed up to the bridge, the Americans and

French whose gallant efforts had gone for naught because Col.

Sutherland's battle plan was a "dud," retired to field headquarters at

461. A half platoon of "I" men hurried up to support. The veteran Alliez

encouraged the American officer Captain Moore, to hang on to the bridge.

Lieut. Spitler came on with a machine gun and the position was

consolidated and held in spite of heavy shelling by the Bolo armored

trains and his desperate raids at night and in the morning, for the

purpose of destroying the bridge. His high explosive tore up the track

but did no damage to the bridge. His infantry recoiled from the Lewis

gun and machine gun fire of the Americans that covered the bridge and

its approaches.

The day's operations had been costly. The French had lost eight, killed

and wounded and missing. The Americans had lost four killed, fourteen

wounded, among whom were Lieuts. Lawrence Keith and James R. Donovan,

and five missing. Many of these casualties were suffered by the resolute

platoon at the bridge. There Lieut. Donovan was caught by machine gun

fire and a private by shrapnel from a searching barrage of the Bolos, as

was also a sergeant of "F" Company who was attached for observation. But

the eight others who were wounded, two of them mortally, owed their

unfortunate condition to the altogether unnecessary and ill-advised

attempt by Col. Sutherland to shell the bridge which was being held by

his own troops. He had the panicky idea that the Red Guards were coming

or going to come across that bridge and ordered the shrapnel which cut

up the platoon of "M" Company with its hail of lead instead of the Reds

who had halted 700 yards away and themselves were shelling the bridge

but to no effect. Not only that but when Col. Sutherland was informed

that his artillery was getting his own troops, he first asked on one

telephone for another quart of whisky and later called up his artillery

officer and ordered the deadly fire to lengthen range. This was observed

by an American soldier, Ernest Roleau, at Verst 466, who acted as

interpreter and orderly in Sutherland's headquarters that day.

The British officer sadly retired to his Blue Car headquarters at Verst

466, thinking the Reds would surely recapture the bridge. But Major

Nichols in command at field headquarters at Verst 461 thought

differently. When the order came over the wire for him to withdraw his

Americans from the bridge, this infantry reserve officer whose

previously most desperate battle, outside of a melee between the Bulls

and Bears on Wall Street, had been to mashie nib out of a double

bunkered trap on the Detroit Country Club golf course, as usual with

him, took "plenty of sand." He shoved the order to one side till he

heard from the officer at the front and then requested a countermanding

order. He made use of the veteran Alliez's counsel. And for two dubious

nights and days with "M" and "I" Companies he held on to the scant three

miles of advance which had been paid for so dearly. And the Reds never

did get back the important bridge.

Now it was evident that the Bolshevik rear-guard action was not to be

scared out. It was bent on regaining its ground. During these last

September days of supposed converging drive in three columns on

Plesetskaya our widely separated forces had all met with stiff

resistance and been worsted in action. The Bolshevik had earned our

respect as a fighter. More fighting units were hurried up. Our "A" Force

Command began careful reconnaissance and plans of advance. American

officers and doughboys had their first experiences, of the many

experiences to follow, of taking out Russian guides and from their own

observations and the crude old maps and from doubtful hearsay to piece

together a workable military sketch of the densely forested area.

Artillery actions and patrol actions were almost daily diet till, with

the advance two weeks later on October thirteenth, the offensive

movement started again. This time French and Americans closely

co-operated. The Reds evidently had some inkling of it, for on the

morning when the amalgamated "M"-"Boyer" force entered the woods, inside

fifteen minutes the long, thin column of horizon blue and olive drab was

under shrapnel fire of the Bolo. With careful march this force gained

the flank and rear of the enemy at Verst 455, and camped in a hollow

square, munched on hardtack and slept on their arms in the cold rain.

Lieut. Stoner, Capt. Boyer, the irrepressible French fun-maker, Capt.

Moore and Lieut. Giffels slept on the same patch of wet moss with the

same log for a pillow, unregardful of the TNT in the Engineer officer's

pocket, which was for use the next morning in blowing the enemy's

armored train.

At last 5:00 a. m. comes but it is still dark and foggy. Men stretch

their cold and cramped limbs after the interminable night. No smokes. No

eats. In ten minutes of whispering the columns are under way. The

leading platoon gets out of our reach. Delay while we get a new guide

lets them get on ahead of the other platoons. Too bad. It spoils the

plan. The main part of the attacking forces can not press forward fast

enough to catch up. The engineers will be too late to blow the track in

rear of the Bolo train.

The Red Guard listening posts and his big tower on the flank now stand

him in good stead. He sees the little platoon of Franco-Americans

approaching in line, and sends out a superior force to meet the attack.

Ten minutes of stiff fire fight ensues during which the other attacking

platoons strive to get up to their positions in rear and rear flank. But

our comrades are evidently out-numbered and being worsted. We must

spring our attack to save them.

Oh, those bugles! Who ever heard of a half mile charge? And such a

melee. Firing and yelling and tooting like ten thousand the main party

goes in. What would the first "old man" of the 339th, our beloved

Colonel John W. Craig, have said at sight of that confused swarm of

soldiers heading straight for the Bolo positions. Lucky for us the Bolo

does not hold his fire till we swarm out of the woods. As it is in his

panic he blazes away into the woods pointblank with his artillery

mounted on the trains and with his machine guns, two of which only are

on ground positions. And his excited aim is characteristically high,

Slavo Bogga. We surge in. He jumps to his troop trains, tries to cover

his withdrawal by the two machine guns, and gets away, but with hundreds

of casualties from our fire that we pour into the moving trains.

Marvellous luck, we have monkeyed with a buzz saw and suffered only

slight casualties, one American killed and four wounded. Two French

wounded.

The surprise at 455 threw "the wind" up the Bolo's back at his forward

positions, 457 and 457-1/2, and Lieuts. Primm and Soyer's amalgamated

French-American attacking party won a quick victory. The armored train

came on through over the precious bridge at Verst 458, the track was

repaired and our artillery came up to 455 and answered the Red armored

train that was shelling us while we consolidated the position. Lieut.

Anselmi's resolute American signal men unmindful of the straggling Bolos

who were working south in the woods along the railroad, "ran" the

railway telephone lines back to field headquarters at 458 and

established communications with Major Nichols.

As soon as transportation was open "I" Company and Apsche's company of

French moved up and went on through to battle the Reds in the same

afternoon out of their position at Verst 450 where they had rallied and

to advance on the fifteenth to a position at 448, where the Americans

dug in. Trouble with the French battalion was brewing for the British

Command. The poilus had heard of the proposed armistice on the Western

Front. "La guerre finis," they declared, and refused to remain with "I"

Company on the line.

So on October sixteenth this company found itself single-handed holding

the advanced position against the counter-attack of the reinforced Reds.

After a severe artillery barrage of the Reds, Captain Winslow pushed

forward to meet the attack of the Bolos and fought a drawn battle with

them in the woods in the afternoon. Both sides dug in. "I" Company lost

one killed and four wounded.

Meanwhile "M" Company, after one day to reorganize and rest, hurried up

during the afternoon fight and prepared to relieve "I" Company. Sleeping

on their arms around the dull-burning fires at 448 between noisy periods

of night exchanges of fire by the Americans and Red Guards, this company

next morning at 6:00 a. m. went through under a rolling barrage of Major

Lee's artillery, which had been able to improve its position during the

night, thanks to the resolute work of Lieut. Giffels and his American

Engineers on the railroad track. Stoner's platoon destroyed the heavy

outpost of Bolos with a sharp fire fight and a charge and swept on, only

halting when he reached a large stream. Beyond this was a half-mile

square clearing with characteristic woodpiles and station and woodmen's

houses, occupied by a heavy force of six hundred Red Guards, themselves

preparing for attack on the Americans. Here Captain Moore timed his

three platoons and Lieut. Spitler's machine guns for a rush on three

sides with intent to gain a foothold at least within the clearing. The

very impetuosity of the doughboy's noisy attack struck panic into the

poorly led Bolsheviks and they won an easy victory, having possession of

the position inside half an hour. The Reds were routed and pursued

beyond the objectives set by Col. Sutherland. And the old company horse

shoe again worked. Though many men had their clothes riddled not a man

was scratched.

The position was consolidated. An hour after the engagement two sections

of the French Company that had sulked the preceding day came smilingly

up and helped fortify the flanks. Their beloved old battalion commander,

Major Alabernarde, had shamed them out of their mutinous conduct and

they were satisfied again to help their much admired American comrades

in this strange, faraway side show of the great world war.

One or two interesting reminiscences here crowd in. It was during the

charge on 445 that Lieut. Stoner missed a dugout door by a foot with his

hand grenade and his tender heart near froze with horror an hour

afterward when he came back from pursuit of the Reds to find that with

the one Bolo soldier in the dugout were cowering twenty-seven women and

children, one eight days old. The red-whiskered old Bolo soldier had a

hand grenade in his pocket and Sergeant Dundon nearly shook his yellow

teeth loose trying to make him reply to questions in English. And the

poor varlet nearly expired with terror later in the day when Lieut. Riis

of the American Embassy stood him up with his back against a shack.

"Comrades, have mercy on me! My wife and my children," he begged as he

fell on his knees before the click of the camera.

Another good story was often told about the alleged "Bolo Spy Dog

Patrols" first discovered when the British officer led his Royal Scots,

most of them raw Russian recruits, to the front posts at 445 to

reinforce "M" Co. "Old Ruble" had been a familiar sight to the

Americans. At this time he had picked up a couple of cur buddies, and

was staying with the Americans at the front, having perpetual pass good

at any part of the four-square outpost. But the British officer reported

him to the American officer as a sure-enough trained Bolshevik patrol

dog and threatened to shoot him. And at four o'clock the next morning

they did fire at the dogs and started up the nervous Red Guards into

machine gun fire from their not distant trench line and brought everyone

out to man our lines for defense. And the heavy enemy shelling cut up

Scots (Russians) as well as Americans.

Here the fall advance on the Archangel-Vologda Railway ended. We were a

few versts north of Emtsa, but "mnoga, mnoga versts," many versts,

distant from Vologda, the objective picked by General Poole for this

handful of men. Emtsa was a railroad repair shop village. We wanted it.

General Ironside who relieved Poole, however, had issued a general order

to hold up further advances on all the fronts. So we dug in. Winter

would soon be on, anyway.

The Red Guards, however, meant to punish us for the capture of this

position. He thoroughly and savagely shelled the position repeatedly and

the British artillery moved up as the Yankee engineers restored the

destroyed railroad track and duelled daily with the very efficient Red

artillery. We have to admit that with his knowledge of the area the Red

artillery officer had the best of the strategy and the shooting. He had

the most guns too.

Major Nichols was heard to remark the day after he had been through the

severe six gun barrage of the Reds who poured their wrath on the

Americans at 445 before they could but more than get slight shrapnel

shelters made, and had suffered four casualties, and the Royal Scots had

lost a fine Scotch lieutenant and two Russian soldiers. "This shelling

of course would be small peanuts to the French and British soldiers who

were on the Western Front, but to us Americans fresh from the fields and

city offices and shops of Michigan it is a little hell." And so the

digging was good at 445 during the last of October and the first of

November while Major Nichols with "M" and "I" and French and American

machine gun sections held this front.

On the fourth of November "I" Company supported by the French machine

gunners sustained a terrific attack by the Reds in powerful force,

repulsed them finally after several hours, with great losses, and gained

from General Ironside a telegram of congratulations. "I" Co. lost one

killed, one missing, two wounded, one of which was Lieut. Reese. After

that big attack the enemy left us in possession and we began to fear

winter as much as we did the enemy. The only event that broke the

routine of patrols and artillery duels was the accidental bombing by our

Allied airplane of our position instead of the half-mile distant enemy

trenches, one of the two 112-lb. bombs taking the life of Floyd Sickles,

"M" Company's barber and wounding another soldier.

Amusing things also are recalled. The American medical officer at the

front line one morning looked at a French soldier who seemed to be

coming down with a heavy cold and generously doped him up with hot water

and whiskey. Next morning the whole machine gun section of French were

on sick call. But Collins was wise, and perhaps his bottle was empty.

One day a big, husky Yank in "I" Company was brokenly "parlevooing" with

a little French gunner, who was seen to leap excitedly into the air and

drape himself about the doughboy's neck exclaiming with joy, "My son, my

son, my dear sister's son." This is the truth. And he took the Yank over

to his dugout for a celebration of this strange family meeting, filled

him up with sour wine, and his pockets with pictures of dancing girls.

Of course we were to learn to our discomfort and peril that winter was

the time chosen by Trotsky for his counter-offensive against the Allied

forces in the North. Of that winter campaign we shall tell in later

chapters. We leave the Americans now on the railroad associated with

their French comrades and 310th Engineers building blockhouses for

defense and quarters to keep warm.

III

RIVER PUSH FOR KOTLAS

First Battalion Hurries Up The River--We Take Chamova--The Lay Of The

River Land--Battling For Seltso--Retire To Yakovlevskoe--That Most

Wonderful Smoke--Incidents Of The March--Sudden Shift To Shenkursk

Area--The Battalion Splits--Again At Seltso--Bolos Attack--Edvyinson A

Hero.

That dismal, gloomy day--September 6, 1915--the first battalion, under

Lt.-Col. James Corbley, spent on board transport, watching the third

battalion disembark and getting on board the freight cars that were to

carry them down to the Railroad Front. Each man on board was aching to

set foot on dry land once more and would gladly have marched to any

front in order to avoid the dull monotony aboard ship, with nothing of

interest to view but the gleaming spires of the cathedrals or the cold,

gray northern sky, but there is an end to all such trials, and late that

evening we received word that our battalion was to embark on several

river barges to proceed up the Dvina River.

The following day all hands turned to bright and early and from early

dawn until late that afternoon every man that was able to stand, and

some that were not, were busily engaged in making up packs, issuing

ammunition and loading up the barges. By six o'clock that evening they

had marched on board the barges--some of the men in the first stages of

"flu" had to be assisted on board with their packs. These barges, as we

afterward learned, were a good example of the Russian idea of sanitation

and cleanliness. They had been previously used for hauling coal, cattle,

produce, flax, and a thousand-and-one other things, and in their years

of usage had accumulated an unbelievable amount of filth and dirt. In

addition to all this, they were leaky, and the lower holds, where

hundreds of men had to sleep that week, were cold, dismal and damp.

Small wonder that our little force was daily decreased by sickness and

death. After five days of this slow, monotonous means of travel, we

finally arrived at the town of Beresnik, which afterward became the base

for the river column troops.

The following day "A" Company, 339th Infantry, under Capt. Otto Odjard,

took over the defense of the village in order to relieve a detachment of

Royal Scots who were occupying the town. All that day we saw and heard

the dull roar of the artillery further up the river, where the Royal

Scots, accompanied by a gunboat, were attempting to drive the enemy

before them. Meeting with considerable opposition in the vicinity of

Chamova, a village about fifty versts from Beresnik, a rush call was

sent in for American reinforcements.

The first battalion of the 339th Infantry left Beresnik about September

15th under command of Major Corbley, and started up the Dvina. The first

incident worthy of record occurred at Chamova. As advance company we

arrived about 1:00 a. m. at Chamova, which was garrisoned by a small

force of Scots. We put out our outposts in the brush which surrounded

the town, and shortly afterward, about 5:00 a. m., we were alarmed by

the sound of musketry near the river bank. We deployed and advanced to

what seemed to be a small party from a gunboat. They had killed two

Scots who had mistaken them for a supply boat from Beresnik and gone to

meet them empty-handed. The Bolo had regained his boat after a little

firing between him and the second platoon which was at the upper end of

the village. We were trying to locate oars for the clumsy Russian

barzhaks on the bank, intending to cross to the island where the gunboat

was moored and do a little navy work, when the British monitor hove into

sight around a bend about three miles down stream, and opened fire on

the gunboat. The first shot was a little long, the second a little

short, and the third was a clean hit amid ship which set the gunboat on

fire. John Bolo in the meantime took a hasty departure by way of the

island. We were immensely disappointed by the advent of the monitor, as

the gunboat would have been very handy in navigating the Russian roads.

This Monitor, by the way, was much feared by the Russians, but was very

temperamental, and if it was sadly needed, as it was later at Toulgas

when we were badly outranged, it reposed calmly at Beresnik. When the

Monitor first made its advent on the Dvina she steamed into Beresnik,

and her commander inquired loftily, "Where are the bloody Bolsheviks,

and which is the way to Kotlas?" Upon being informed she steamed boldly

up the Dvina on the road to Kotlas, found the Bolo, who promptly slapped

a shell into their internal workings, killing several men and putting

the Monitor temporarily hors de combat. After that the Monitor was very

prudent and displayed no especial longing to visit Kotlas.

In order to better comprehend the situation and terrain of the river

forces, a few words regarding the two rivers and their surroundings will

not be without interest. This region is composed of vast tundras or

marshes and the balance of the entire province is covered with almost

impenetrable forests of pine and evergreen of different varieties. The

tundras or marshes are very treacherous, for the traveler marching along

on what appears to be a rough strip of solid ground, suddenly may feel

the same give way and he is precipitated into a bath of ice cold muddy

water. Great areas of these tundras are nothing more than a thickly

woven matting of grasses and weeds overgrowing creeks or ponds and many

a lonely traveler has been known to disappear in one of these marshes

never to be seen again.

This condition is especially typical of the Dvina River. The Dvina is a

much larger river than the Vaga and compares favorably to the lower

Mississippi in our own country. It meanders and spreads about over the

surrounding country by a thousand different routes, inasmuch as there

are practically no banks and nothing to hold it within its course. The

Vaga, on the other hand, is a narrower and swifter river and much more

attractive and interesting. It has very few islands and is lined on

either side by comparatively steep bluffs, varying from fifty to one

hundred feet in height. The villages which line the banks are larger and

comparatively more prosperous, but regarding the villages more will be

said later.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

A Shell Screeched Over This Burial Scene.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Vickers Machine Gun Helping Hold Lines.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Our Armored Train.

RENICKE

First Battalion Hurries Up River.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Lonely Post in Dense Forest.

MORRIS

Statue of Peter the Great and State Buildings in Archangel.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Drawing Rations, Verst 455.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Last Honors to a Soldier.

We continued our march up the Dvina, about two days behind the fleeing

Bolo, hoping that he would decide to make a stand. This he did at

Seltso. On the morning of September 19th, through mud and water, at

times waist deep and too precarious for hauling artillery, the advance

began on Seltso. At 1:00 p. m. the advance party, "D" Company, under

Captain Coleman, reached Yakovlevskaya, a village just north of Seltso

and separated from it by a mile of wide open marsh which is crossed by a

meandering arm of the nearby Dvina. A single road and bridge lead across

to Seltso. "D" Company gallantly deployed and wading the swamp

approached within one thousand five hundred yards of the enemy, who

suddenly opened up with machine guns, rifles, and Russian pom pom. This

latter gun is a rapid fire artillery piece, firing a clip of five shells

weighing about one pound apiece, in rapid succession. We later

discovered that they, as well as most of the flimsy rifles, were made by

several of the prominent gun manufacturers of the United States.

"D" Company found further advance impossible without support and dug in.

"C" Company under Capt. Fitz Simmons hurried up and took position in a

tongue of woods at the right of "D" and were joined after dark by "B"

Company. None of the officers in command of this movement knew anything

of the geography nor much of anything else regarding this position, so

the men were compelled to dig in as best they could in the mud and water

to await orders from Colonel Corbley, who had not come up. At eleven

o'clock that night a drizzling rain set in, and huddled and crouched

together in this vile morass, unprotected by even an overcoat, without

rations, tired and exhausted from the day's march and fighting, the

battalion bivouacked. All night the enemy kept searching the woods and

marshes with his artillery, but with little effect. During the night we

learned that the Bolo had a land battery of three-inch guns and five

gunboats in the river at their flank with six and nine-inch guns aboard

rafts. This was none too pleasing a situation for an infantry attack

with no artillery preparation, coupled with the miserable condition of

the troops.

As daylight approached the shelling became more and more violent. The

Bolo was sending over everything at his command and it was decided to

continue the attack lest we be exterminated by the enemy artillery. At

daybreak Lt. Dressing of "B" Company took out a reconnaissance patrol to

feel out the enemy lines of defense, but owing to the nature of the

ground he had little success. His patrol ran into a Bolo outpost and was

scattered by machine gun fire. It was here that Corporal Shroeder was

lost, no trace ever being found of his body or equipment.

About noon two platoons of Company "B" went out to occupy a certain

objective. This they found was a well constructed trench system filled

with Bolos, and flanked by machine gun positions. In the ensuing action

we had three men killed and eight men wounded, including Lt. A. M.

Smith, who received a severe wound in the side, but continued handling

his platoon effectively, showing exceptional fortitude. The battle

continued during the afternoon all along the line. "C" and "D" were

supporting "B" with as much fire as possible. But troops could not stay

where they were under the enemy fire, and Col. Corbley, who had at last

arrived, ordered a frontal attack to come off after a preparatory

barrage by our Russian artillery which had at last toiled up to a

position.

Here fortune favored the Americans. The Russian artillery officer placed

a beautiful barrage upon the village and the enemy gunboats, which

continued from 4:45 to 5:00 p.m. At 5:00 o'clock, the zero hour, the

infantry made the attack and in less than an hour's time they had gained

the village.

The Bolsheviks had been preparing to evacuate anyway, as the persistence

of our attack and effectiveness of our rifle fire had nearly broken

their morale. Americans with white, strained faces, in contrast with

their muck-daubed uniforms, shook hands prayerfully as they discussed

how a determined defense could have murdered them all in making that

frontal attack across a swamp in face of well-set machine gun positions.

However, the Americans were scarcely better off when they had taken

Seltso, for their artillery now could not get up to them. So the enemy

gunboats could shell Seltso at will. Hence it appeared wise to retire

for a few days to Yakovlevskaya. In the early hours of the morning

following the battle the Americans retired from Seltso. They were

exceedingly hungry, dog-tired, sore in spirit, but they had undergone

their baptism of fire.

After a few days spent in Yakovlevskoe we set out again, and advanced as

far as a village called Pouchuga. Here we expected another encounter

with the Bolo, but he had just left when we arrived. We were fallen out

temporarily on a muddy Russian hillside in the middle of the afternoon,

the rain was falling steadily, we had been marching for a week through

the muddiest mud that ever was, the rations were hard tack and bully,

and tobacco had been out for several weeks. A more miserable looking and

feeling outfit can scarce be imagined. A bedraggled looking convoy of

Russian carts under Lt. Warner came up, and he informed us that he could

let us have one package of cigarettes per man. We accepted his offer

without any reluctance, and passed them out. To paraphrase Gunga Din,

says Capt. Boyd:

"They were British and they stunk as anyone who smoked British issue

cigarettes with forty-two medals can tell you, but of all the smokes

I've (I should say 'smunk' to continue the paraphrase) I'm gratefulest

to those from Lt. Warner. You could see man after man light his

cigarette, take a long draw, and relax in unadulterated enjoyment. Ten

minutes later they were a different outfit, and nowhere as wet, cold,

tired or hungry. Lucy Page Gaston and the Anti-Cigarette League please

note."

After a long day's march we finally arrived in a "suburb" of Pouchuga

about 7:00 p.m. with orders to place our outposts and remain there that

night. By nine o'clock this was done, and the rest of the company was

scattered in billets all over the village, being so tired that they

flopped in the first place where there was floor space to spread a

blanket. Then came an order to march to the main village and join Major

Corbley. At least a dozen of the men could not get their shoes on by

reason of their feet being swollen, but we finally set out on a pitch

black night through the thick mud. We staggered on, every man falling

full length in the mud innumerable times, and finally reached our

destination. Captain Boyd writes:

"I shall never forget poor Wilson on that march, cheery and

good-spirited in spite of everything. His loss later at Toulgas was a

personal one as well as the loss of a good soldier.

"I also remember Babcock on that march--Babcock, who was one of our

best machine gunners, never complaining and always dependable. We were

ploughing along through the mud when from my place at the head of the

column I heard a splash. I went back to investigate and there was

Babcock floundering in a ditch with sides too slippery to crawl up.

The column was marching stolidly past, each man with but one thought,

to pull his foot out of the mud and put it in a little farther on. We

finally got Babcock up to terra firma, he explained that it had looked

like good walking, nice and smooth, and he had gone down to try it. I

cautioned him that he should never try to take a bath while in

military formation, and he seemed to think the advice was sound."

Now the battalion was needed over on the Vaga river front, the story of

whose advance there is told in another chapter. By barge the Americans

went down the Dvina to its junction with the Vaga and then proceeded up

that river as far as Shenkursk. To the doughboys this upper Vaga area

seemed a veritable land of milk and honey when compared with the

miserable upper Dvina area. Fresh meat and eggs were obtainable. There

were even women there who wore hats and stockings, in place of boots and

shawls. We had comfortable billets. But it was too good to be true. In

less than a week the Bolo's renewed activities on the upper Dvina made

it necessary for one company of the first battalion to go again to that

area. Colonel Corbley saw "B" Company depart on the tug "Retvizan" and

so far as field activities were concerned it was to be part of the

British forces on the Dvina from October till April rather than part of

the first battalion force. The company commander was to be drafted as

"left bank" commander of a mixed force and hold Toulgas those long, long

months. The only help he remembers from Colonel Corbley or Colonel

Stewart in the field operations was a single visit from each, the one to

examine his company fund book, the other to visit the troops on the line

in obedience to orders from Washington and General Ironside. Of this

visit Captain Boyd writes:

"When Col. Stewart made his trip to Toulgas his advent was marked

principally by his losing one of his mittens, which were the ordinary

issue variety. He searched everywhere, and half insinuated that Capt.

Dean, my adjutant, a British officer, had taken it. I could see Dean

getting hot under the collar. Then he told me that my orderly must

have taken it. I knew Adamson was more honest than either myself or

the colonel, and that made me hot. Then he finally found the mitten

where he had dropped it, on the porch, and everything was serene

again.

"Col. Stewart went with me up to one of the forward blockhouses, which

at that time was manned by the Scots. After the stock questions of

'where are you from' and 'what did you do in civil life' he launched

into a dissertation on the disadvantages of serving in an allied

command. The Scot looked at him in surprise and said, 'Why, sir, we've

been very glad to serve with the Americans, sir, and especially under

Lt. Dennis. There's an officer any man would be proud to serve under.'

That ended the discussion."

After this slight digression from the narrative, we may take up the

thread of the story of this push for Kotlas. Royal Scots and Russians

had been left in quiet possession of the upper Dvina near Seltso after

the struggle already related. But hard pressed again, they were waiting

the arrival of the company of Americans, who arrived one morning about

6:00 a. m. a few miles below our old friend, the village of

Yakovlevskoe. We marched to the village, reported to the British officer

in command at Seltso, and received the order, "Come over here as quick

as you possibly can." The situation there was as follows: The Bolos had

come back down the river in force with gunboats and artillery, and were

making it exceedingly uncomfortable for the small British garrisons at

Seltso and Borok across the river. We marched around the town, through

swamps at times almost waist deep, and attacked the Bolo trenches from

the flank at dusk. We were successful, driving them back, and capturing

a good bit of supplies, including machine guns and a pom pom. The Bolos

lost two officers and twenty-seven men killed, while we had two men

slightly wounded, both of whom were later able to rejoin the company.

"We expected a counter attack from the Bolo, as our force was much

smaller than his, and spent the first part of the night making trenches.

An excavation deeper than eighteen inches would have water in the

bottom. We were very cold, as it was October in Russia, and every man

wet to the skin, with no blankets or overcoats. About midnight the

British sent up two jugs of rum, which was immediately issued, contrary

to military regulations. It made about two swallows per man, but was a

lifesaver. At least a dozen men told me that they could not sleep before

that because they were so cold, but that this started their circulation

enough so they were able to sleep later.

In the morning we advanced to Lipovit and attacked there, but ran into a

jam, had both flanks turned by a much larger force, and were very

fortunate to get out with only one casualty. Corporal Downs lost his

eye, and showed extreme grit in the hard march back through the swamp,

never complaining. I saw, after returning to the States, an interview

with Col. Josselyn, at that time in command of the Dvina force, in which

he mentioned Downs, and commended him very highly."

The ensuing week we spent in Seltso, the Bolos occupying trenches around

the upper part of our defenses. They had gunboats and naval guns on

rafts, and made it quite uncomfortable for us with their shelling,

although the only American casualties were in the detachment of 310th

Engineers. Our victory was short lived, however, for in a few days our

river monitor was forced to return to Archangel on account of the

rapidly receding river, which gave the enemy the opportunity of moving

up their 9.2 inch naval guns, with double the range of our land

batteries, making our further occupation of Seltso impossible.

On the afternoon of October 14, the second and third platoons of Company

"B" were occupying the blockhouses when the Bolos made an attack, which

was easily repelled. As we were under artillery fire with no means of

replying, the British commander decided to evacuate that night. It was

impossible to get supplies out owing to the lack of transportation

facilities. That part of Company "B" in the village left at midnight,

followed by the force in the blockhouses at 3:00 a. m. After a very hard

march we reached Toulgas and established a position there.

Our position at Toulgas in the beginning was very unfavorable, being a

long narrow string of villages along the Dvina which was bordered with

thick underbrush extending a few hundred yards to the woods. We had a

string of machine gun posts scattered through the brush, and when our

line of defense was occupied there was less than two platoons left as a

reserve. With us at this time we had Company "A" of the 2nd Tenth Royal

Scots (British) under Captain Shute, and a section of Canadian

artillery.

The Bolos followed us here and after several days shelling, to which

because of being outranged we were unable to reply, they attacked late

in the afternoon of October 23rd. Our outposts held, and we immediately

counter attacked. The enemy was repulsed in disorder, losing some

machine guns, and having about one hundred casualties, while we came out

Scot free.

It was during the shelling incidental to this that Edvinson, the Viking,

did his stunt. He was in a machine gun emplacement which was hit by a

small H. E. shell. The others were considerably shaken up, and pulled

back, reporting Edvinson killed, that he had gone up in the air one way,

and the Lewis gun the other. We established the post a little farther

back and went out at dusk to get Edvinson's body. Much was the surprise

of the party when he hailed them with, "Well, I think she's all right."

He had collected himself, retrieved the Lewis gun, taken it apart and

cleaned it and stuck to his post. The shelling and sniping here had been

quite heavy. His action was recognized by the British, who awarded him a

Military Medal, just as they did Corporal Morrow who was instrumental in

reoccupying and holding an important post which had been driven in early

in the engagement. Corporal Dreskey and Private Lintula also

distinguished themselves at this point.

Here we may leave "B" Company and the Scots and Russians making a

fortress of Toulgas on the left bank of the Dvina. The Reds were busy

defending Plesetskaya from a converging attack and not till snow clouds

gathered in the northern skies were they to gather up a heavy force to

attack Toulgas. We will now turn to the story of the first battalion

penetrating with bayonets far up the Vaga River.

IV

DOUGHBOYS ON GUARD IN ARCHANGEL

Second Battalion Lands To Protect Diplomatic Corps--Colonel Tschaplin's

Coup d'Etat Is Undone By Ambassador Francis--Doughboys Parade And

Practice New Weapons--Scowling Solombola Sailors--Description Of

Archangel--American Headquarters.

With the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force, the diplomatic

corps of the various Allied nations which had been compelled to flee

north before the Red radicals that had overthrown the Kerensky

provisional government, asked for troops in the city of Archangel itself

to stabilize the situation.

The second battalion of the 339th under command of Major J. Brooks

Nichols disembarked at Smolny Quay at four o'clock of the afternoon of

September 4th, the same day the ships dropped anchor in the harbor. A

patrol was at once put out under Lieut. Collins of "H" Company. It was

well that American troops were landed at once as will prove evident from

the following story.

The new government of Archangel was headed by the venerable Tchaikowsky,

a man who had been a revolutionary leader of the highest and saneest

type for many years. He had lived for a period of years in America, on a

farm in Kansas, and had been a writer of note in Russia and England for

many years. He was a democratic leader and his government was readily

accepted by the people. But as with all newly constructed governments it

moved very slowly and with characteristic Russian deliberation and

interminable talk and red tape.

This was too much for the impatient ones among the Russians who had

invited the Allied expedition. One Colonel Tschaplin (later to be dubbed

"Charley Chaplin" by American officers who took him humorously) who had

served under the old Czar and had had, according to his yarns--told by

the way in the most engaging English--a very remarkable experience with

the Bolsheviks getting out of Petrograd. He was, it is said, influenced

by some of the subordinate English officers to make a daring try to

hasten matters.

On the evening of the 5th of September, while the American soldiers were

patrolling the Smolny area, near Archangel proper, this Col. Tschaplin

executed his coup d'etat. He quietly surrounded the homes of Tchaikowsky

and other members of the Archangel State Government and kidnapped them,

hiding them away on an island in the Dvina River.

Great excitement prevailed for several days. The people declared

Tschaplin was moving to restore monarchy under aid of the foreign arms

and declared a strike on the street railroads and threatened to take the

pumping station and the electric power station located at Smolny.

American troops manned the cars and by their good nature and patience

won the respect and confidence of the populace, excited as it was. The

American ambassador, the Hon. David R. Francis, with characteristic

American directness and fairness called the impetuous Tschaplin before

him and gave him so many hours in which to restore the rightful

government to power. And Tchaikowsky came back into the State House on

September 11th much to the rejoicing of the people and to the harmony of

the Allied Expedition. The diplomatic and military authorities of the

American part of the expedition had handled the situation in a way that

prevented riot and gained esteem for Americans in the eyes of all the

Russians.

Archangel, Smolny and Bakaritza now were busy scenes of military

activity. Down the streets of Archangel marched part of a battalion of

doughboys past the State House and the imposing foreign Embassy

Building. Curious eyes looked upon the O. D. uniform and admired the

husky stalwarts from over the seas. Bright-eyed women crowded to the

edge of the boardwalks amongst the long-booted and heavily bewhiskered

men. Well-dressed men with shaven faces and marks of culture studied the

Americans speculatively. Russian children began making acquaintance and

offering their flattering Americanski Dobra.

At Solombola, Smolny, Bakaritza, sounds of firing were heard daily, but

the populace were quieted when told that it was not riot or Bolo attack

but the Americans practising up with their ordnance. In fact the

Americans, hearing of actions at the fronts, were desperately striving

to learn how to use the Lewis guns and the Vickers machine guns. At Camp

Custer they had perfected themselves in handling the Colt and the

Brownings but in England had been obliged to relinquish them with the

dubious prospect of re-equipping with the Russian automatic rifles and

machine gun equipment at Archangel. Now they were feverishly at work on

the new guns for reports were coming back from the front that the enemy

was well equipped with such weapons and held the Americans at great

disadvantage.

Here let it be said that the American doughboy in the North Russian

campaign mastered every kind of weapon that was placed in his hands or

came by fortune of war to his hand. He learned to use the Lewis gun and

the Vickers machine gun of the British and Russian armies, also the

one-pounder, or pom pom. He became proficient in the use of the French

Chauchat automatic rifle and the French machine gun, and their rifle

grenade guns. He learned to use the Stokes mortars with deadly effect on

many a hard-fought line. And during the winter two platoons of "Hq."

Company prided themselves on the mastery of a battery of Russian

artillery patterned after the famous, in fact, the same famous French 75

gun.

While the 2nd Battalion under Major Nichols was establishing itself in

quarters at Smolny, where was a great compound of freshly unloaded

supplies of food, herring and whiskey (do not forget the hard stuff)

and, becoming responsible for the safety of the pumping station and the

electric power station and the ships in the harbor, Captain Taylor

established the big Headquarters Company at Olga barracks at the other

end of the city on September seventh where he could train his men for

the handling of new weapons and could co-operate with Captain Kenyon's

machine gun men. They on the same day took up quarters in Solombola

Barracks and were charged with the duty of not only learning how to use

the new machine guns but to keep guard over the quays and prevent

rioting by the turbulent Russian sailors. Their undying enmity had been

earned by the well-meant but untactful, yes, to the sailors apparently

treacherous, conduct of General Poole toward them on the Russian ships

in the Murmansk when he got them off on a pretext and then seized the

ships to prevent their falling into the hands of the Red Guards. And

while the doughboys on the railroad and Kodish fronts in the fall were

occasionally to run up against the hard-fighting Russian sailors who had

fled south to Petrograd and volunteered their services to Trotsky to go

north and fight the Allied expeditionary forces, these doughboys doing

guard duty in Archangel over the remnants of stores and supplies which

the Bolo had not already stolen or sunk in the Dvina River, were

constantly menaced by these surly, scowling sailors at Solombola and in

Archangel.

Really it is no wonder that the several Allied troop barracks were

always guarded by machine guns and automatics. Rumor at the base always

magnified the action at the front and always fancied riot and uprising

in every group of gesticulating Russkis seen at a dusky corner of the

city.

The Supply Company of the regiment became the supply unit for all the

American forces under Captain Wade and was quartered at Bakaritza, being

protected by various units of Allied forces. "Finish" the package of

Russki horse skin and bones which the boys "skookled" from the natives,

that is, bought from the natives, became the most familiar sight on the

quays, drawing the strange-looking but cleverly constructed drosky, or

cart, bucking into his collar under the yoke and pulling with all his

sturdy will, not minding the American "whoa" but obedient enough when

the doughboy learned to sputter the Russki "br-r-r br-r-r."

Archangel is situated on one of the arms of the Dvina River which deltas

into the White Sea. Out of the enormous interior of North Russia,

gathering up the melted snows of a million square miles of seven-foot

snow and the steady June rains and the weeks of fall rains, the great

Mississippi of North Russia moves down to the sea, sweeping with deep

wide current great volumes of reddish sediment and secretions which give

it the name Dvina. And the arm of the Arctic Ocean into which it carries

its loads of silt and leachings, and upon which it floats the

fishermen's bottoms or the merchantmen's steamers, is called the White

Sea. Rightly named is that sea, the Michigan or Wisconsin soldier will

tell you, for it is white more than half the year with ice and snow, the

sporting ground for polar bears.

While we were fighting the Bolsheviki in Archangel, the National

Geographic Society, in a bulletin, published to our people certain facts

about the country. It is so good that extracts are in this chapter

included:

"The city of Archangel, Russia, where Allied and American troops have

their headquarters in the fight with the Bolshevik forces, was the

capital of the Archangel Province, or government, under the czar's

regime--a vast, barren and sparsely populated region, cut through by

the Arctic Circle.

"West and east, the distance across the Archangel district is about

that from London to Rome, from New York to St. Louis, or from Boston

to Charleston, S. C. Its area, exclusive of interior waters, is

greater than that of France, Italy, Belgium and Holland combined. Yet

there are not many more people in these great stretches than are to be

found in Detroit, Mich., or San Francisco or Washington.

"Arable land in all this territory is less than 1,200 square miles,

and three-fourths of that is given over to pasturage. The richer

grazing land supports Holmagor cattle, a breed said to date back to

the time of Peter the Great, who crossed native herds with cattle

imported from Holland.

"About fifteen miles from the mouth of the Dvina River, which affords

an outlet to the White Sea, lies the city of Archangel. Norsemen came

to that port in the tenth century for trading. One expedition was

described by Alfred the Great. But first contact with the outside

world was established in the sixteenth century when Sir Richard

Chancellor, an English sailor, stopped at the bleak haven while

attempting a northeast passage to India. Ivan the Terrible summoned

him to Moscow and made his visit the occasion for furthering

commercial relations with England. Thirty years after the Englishman's

visit a town was established and for the next hundred years it was the

Muscovite kingdom's only seaport, chief doorway for trade with England

and Holland.

"When Peter the Great established St. Petersburg as his new capital

much trade was diverted to the Baltic, but Archangel was compensated

by designation as the capital of the Archangel government.

"Boris Godunov threw open to all nations, and in the seventeenth

century Tartar prisoners were set to work building a large bazaar and

trading hall. Despite its isolation the city thus became a

cosmopolitan center and up to the time of the world war Norwegian,

German, British, Swedish and Danish cargo vessels came in large

numbers.

"Every June thousand of pilgrims would pass through Archangel on their

way to the famous far north shrine, Solovetsky Monastery, situated on

an island a little more than half a day's boat journey from Archangel.

"The city acquired its name from the Convent of Archangel Michael. In

the Troitski Cathedral, with its five domes, is a wooden cross,

fourteen feet high, carved by the versatile Peter the Great, who

learned the use of mallet and chisel while working as a shipwright in

Holland after he ascended the throne."

To the sailor looking from the deck of his vessel or to the soldier

approaching from Bakaritza on tug or ferry, the city of Archangel

affords an interesting view. Hulks of boats and masts and cordage and

docks and warehouses in the front, with muddy streets. Behind, many

buildings, grey-weathered ones and white-painted ones topped with many

chimneys, and towering here and there a smoke stack or graceful spire or

dome with minarets. Between are seen spreading tree tops, too. All these

in strange confused order fill all the horizon there with the exception

of one space, through which in June can be seen the 11:30 p. m. setting

sun. And in this open space on clear evenings, which by the way, in

June-July never get even dusky, at various hours can be seen a wondrous

mirage of waters and shores that lie on the other side of the city below

the direct line of sight.

Prominently rises the impressive magnitudinous structure of the

reverenced cathedral there, its dome of the hue of heaven's blue and set

with stars of solid gold. And when all else in the landscape is bathed

in morning purple or evening gloaming-grey, the levelled rays of the

coming or departing sun with a brilliantly striking effect glisten these

white and gold structures. Miles and miles away they catch the eye of

the sailor or the soldier.

Built on a low promontory jutting into the Dvina River, the city appears

to be mostly water-front. In fact, it is only a few blocks wide, but it

is crescent shaped with one horn in Smolny--a southern suburb having

dock and warehouse areas--and the other in Solombola on the north, a

city half as large as Archangel and possessing saw-mills, shipyards,

hospitals, seminary and a hard reputation, Archangel is convex westward,

so that one must go out for some distance to view the whole expanse of

the city from that direction. A mass of trees, a few houses, some large

buildings and churches mainly near the river, with a foreground of

shipping, is the summer view. The winter view is better, the bare trees

and the smaller amount of shipping at the docks permitting a better view

of the general layout of the city, the buildings and the type of houses

used by the population as homes.

Along the main street, Troitsky Prospect, runs a two-track trolley line

connecting the north and south suburbs mentioned in the preceding

paragraph. The cars are light and run very smoothly. They are operated

chiefly by women. Between the main street and the river-front near the

center of the city is the market-place. This covers several blocks and

is full of dingy stalls and alleys occupied by almost hopeless traders

and stocks in trade. As new wooden ware, home-made trinkets, second-hand

clothing and fresh fish can be obtained there the year around, and in

summer the offerings of vegetables are plentiful and tempting, the

market-place never lacks shoppers who carry their paper money down in

the same basket they use to carry back their purchases.

Public buildings are of brick or stone and are colored white, pink, grey

or bright red to give a light or warm effect. Down-town stores are built

some of brick and some of logs. Homes are square in type, with few

exceptions, built of logs, usually of very plain architecture, set

directly against the sidewalks, the yards and gardens being at the side

or rear. For privacy, each man's holdings are surrounded by a seven-foot

fence. Thus the streets present long vistas of wooden ware, partly house

and partly fence, with sometimes over-hanging trees, and with an

inevitable set of doorsteps projecting from each house over part of the

sidewalk. This set of steps is seldom used, for the real entrance to the

home is at the side of the house reached through a gateway in the fence.

The houses in Archangel are usually of two stories, with double windows

packed with cotton or flax to resist the cold. When painted at all, the

houses have been afflicted by their owners with one or more coats of

yellowish-brown stuff familiar to every American farmer who has ever

"primed" a big barn. A few houses have been clap-boarded on the outside

and some of these have been painted white.

The rest of the street view is snow, or, lacking that, a cobbled

pavement very rough and uneven, and lined on each side--sometimes on one

side only, or in the centre--with a narrow sidewalk of heavy planks laid

lengthwise over the otherwise open public sewer, a ditch about three

feet wide and from three to six feet deep. Woe be to him who goes

through rotten plank! It has been done.

So much for general scenic effects at Archangel. The Technical

Institute, used as Headquarters by the American Forces, is worth a

glance. It is a four-story solid-looking building about one hundred and

fifty feet square and eighty feet high, with a small court in the

centre. The outside walls of brick and stone are nearly four feet thick,

and their external surface is covered by pink-tinted plaster which

catches the thin light of the low-lying winter sun and causes the

building to seem to glow. On the front of the building there are huge

pillars rising from the second story balcony to the great Grecian gable

facing the river.

Inside, this great building is simple and severe, but rather pleasing.

Windows open into the court from a corridor running around the building

on each floor, and on the other side of the corridor are the doors of

the rooms once used as recitation and lecture halls, laboratories,

manual training shops, offices, etc. Outside, it was one of the city's

imposing buildings; inside, it was well-appointed. To the people of the

city it was a building of great importance. It was worthy to offer the

Commander of the American troops.

Here Colonel Stewart set up his Headquarters. The British Commanding

General had his headquarters, the G. H. Q., N. R. E. F., in another

school building in the centre of the city, within close reach of the

Archangel State Capitol Building. Colonel Stewart's headquarters were

conveniently near the two buildings which afterward were occupied and

fitted up for a receiving hospital and for a convalescent hospital

respectively, as related elsewhere, and not far either from the

protection of the regimental Headquarters Company quartered in Olga

Barracks.

Here the Commanding Officer of this expeditionary force of Americans off

up here near the North Pole on the strangest fighting mission ever

undertaken by an American force, tried vainly to keep track of his

widely dispersed forces. Up the railroad he had seen his third

battalion, under command of Major C. G. Young, go with General Finlayson

whom General Poole had ordered to take Vologda, four hundred miles to

the south. His first battalion, under Lieutenant Colonel Corbley he had

seen hurried off up the Dvina River under another British

Brigadier-General to take Kotlas hundreds of miles up the river. His

second battalion under Major J. Brooks Nichols was on duty in Archangel

and the nearby suburbs. These forces, and his 310th Engineer Battalion

and his Ambulance and Hospital Units were shifted about by the British

Generals and Colonels and Majors often without any information whatever

to Colonel Stewart, the American commanding officer. He lost touch with

his battalion and company commanders.

He had a discouraging time even in getting his few general orders

distributed to the American troops. No wonder that often an American

officer or soldier reporting in from a front by order or permission of a

British field officer, did not feel that American Headquarters was his

real headquarters and in pure ignorance was guilty of omitting some duty

or of failure to comply with some Archangel restriction that had been

ordered by American Headquarters. As to general orders from American

Headquarters dealing with the action of troops in the field, those were

so few and of so little impressiveness that they have been forgotten. We

must say candidly that the doughboy came to look upon American

Headquarters in Archangel as of very trifling importance in the strange

game he was up against. He knew that the strategy was all planned at

British G. H. Q., that the battle orders were written in the British

field officer's headquarters, that the transportation and supplies of

food were under control of the British that altogether too much of the

hospital service was under control of the British. Somehow the doughboy

felt that the very limited and much complained about service of his own

American Supply Unit, that lived for the most part on the fat of the

land in Bakaritza, should have been corrected by his commanding officer

who sat in American Headquarters. And they felt, whether correctly or

not, that the court-martial sentences of Major C. G. Young, who acted as

summary court officer at Smolny after he was relieved of his command in

the field, were unnecessarily harsh. And they blamed their commanding

officer, Colonel Stewart, for not taking note of that fact when he

reviewed and approved them. The writers of this history of the

expedition think the doughboy had much to justify his feeling.

V

WHY AMERICAN TROOPS WERE SENT TO RUSSIA

This Was A Much Mooted Question Among Soldiers--Partisan Politicians

Attacked With Vitriol--Partisan Explanations Did Not Explain--Red

Propaganda Helped Confuse The Case--Russians Of Archangel, Too, Were

Concerned--We Who Were There Think Of Those Pitiable Folk And Their

Hopeless Military And Political Situation That Tried Our Patience And

That Of The Directors Of The Expedition Who Undoubtedly Knew No Better

Than We Did.

To many people in America and England and France the North Russian

Expedition appears to have been an unwarrantable invasion of the land of

an ally, an ally whose land was torn by internal upheavals. It has been

charged that commercial cupidity conceived the campaign. Men declare

that certain members of the cabinet of Lloyd George and of President

Wilson were desirous of protecting their industrial holdings in North

Russia.

The editors of this work can not prove or disprove these allegations nor

prove or disprove the replies made to the allegations. We have not the

time or means to do so even if our interests, political or otherwise,

should prompt us to try it. From discussion of the partisan attacks on

and defense of the administration's course of action toward Russia in

1918-19, both of which are erratic and acrimonious, we plead to be

excused.

We shall tell the story of the genesis of the expedition as well as we

can. We do not profess to know all about it. It will be some time before

the calm historian can possess himself of all the facts. Till such time

we hope that this brief statement will stand. We offer it hesitatingly

with keen consciousness of the danger that it will probably suit neither

of the two parties in controversy over the sending of troops to North

Russia.

But we offer this straightforward story confidently to our late

comrades. They have entrusted us with the duty of writing the history of

what they did in North Russia as their bit in the Great World War. And

we know our comrades, at least, and we hope the general reader, too,

will credit us with writing in sincerity and good faith.

Early in 1918, for the Allied forces, it looked dark. The Germans were

able to neglect the crumbled-in Eastern Front and concentrate a tornado

drive on the Western Front. It was at last realized that the controlling

Bolshevik faction in Russia was bent on preventing the resumption of the

war on the Eastern Front and possibly might play its feeble remnants of

military forces on the side of the Germans. The Allied Supreme Council

at Versailles decided that the other allies must go to the aid of their

old ally Russia who had done such great service in the earlier years of

the war. On the Russian war front Germany must be made again to feel

pressure of arms. Organization of that front would have to be made by

efforts of the Allied Supreme War Council.

They had some forces to build on. Several thousand Czecho-Slovak troops

formerly on the Eastern Front had been held together after the

dissolution of the last Russian offensive in 1917. Their commander had

led them into Siberia. Some at that time even went as far as

Vladivostok. These troops had desired to go back to their own country or

to France and take part in the final campaign against the Germans. There

was no transportation by way of the United States. Negotiations with the

Bolshevist rulers of Russia, the story runs, brought promises of safe

passage westward across central Russia and then northward to Archangel,

thence by ship to France.

This situation in mind the Allied Supreme War Council urged a plan

whereby an Allied expedition of respectable size would be sent to

Archangel with many extra officers for staff and instruction work, to

meet the Czechs and reorganize and re-equip them, rally about them a

large Northern Russian Army, and proceed rapidly southward to reorganize

the Eastern Front and thus draw off German troops from the hard pressed

Western Front. This plan was presented to the Allied Supreme War Council

by a British officer and politician fresh from Moscow and Petrograd and

Archangel, enthusiastic in his belief in the project.

The expedition was to be large enough to proceed southward without the

Czechs, sending them back to the West by the returning ships if their

morale should prove to be too low for the stern task to be essayed on

the restored Eastern Front. General Poole, the aforementioned British

officer in command, seems to have been very sure that the Bolsheviks who

had so blandly agreed to the passage of the Czechs through the country

would not object to the passage of the expedition southward from

Archangel, via Vologda, Petrograd and Riga to fight the Germans with

whom they, the Bolsheviki, had compacted the infamous Brest-Litovsk

treaty.

All this while, remember, the old allies of Russia had preserved a

studied neutrality toward the factional fight in Russia. They steadily

refused to recognize the Bolshevik government of Lenine and Trotsky.

While this plan was still in the whispering stages, the activities of

the Germans in Finland where they menaced Petrograd and where their

extension of three divisions to the northward and eastward seemed to

forecast the establishment of submarine bases on the Murmansk and

perhaps even at Archangel where lay enormous stores of munitions

destined earlier in the war to be used by the Russians and Rumanians

against the Huns. At any rate, the port of Archangel would be one other

inlet for food supplies to reach the tightly blockaded Germans.

Since the autumn of 1914 military supplies of all kinds, chiefly made in

America and England, had been sent to Archangel for the use of the

Russian armies. At the time of the revolution against the old Czar

Nicholas, in 1917, there were immense stores in the warehouses of the

Archangel district and the Archangel-Vologda Railway had been widened to

standard gauge and many big American freight cars supplied to carry

those supplies southward. And these stores had been greatly augmented

during the Kerensky regime, the enthusiastic time immediately subsequent

to the fall of the Czar, when anti-German Russians were exulting "Now

the arch traitor is gone, we can really equip our armies," and when the

Allies believed that after a few months of confusion the revolutionary

government would become a more trustworthy ally than the old imperial

government had been.

U.S. Official Photo

Olga Barracks.

U.S. Official Photo

Street Car Strike in Archangel.

U.S. Official Photo

American Hospitals and Headquarters.

U.S. Official Photo

"Supply" C. canteen "Accommodates" Boys.

U.S. Official Photo

Red Cross Ambulances, Archangel.

U.S. Official Photo

"Cootie Mill" Operating at Smolny Annex of Convalescent Hospital.

Wisckot

Single Flat Strip of Iron on Plow point.

Wagner

Thankful for What at Home We Feed Pigs.

Now, although Archangel was the chief port of entry for military

supplies to the new Russian government, the geographical situation of

the northern province, or rather state, of Archangel had left it rather

high and dry in the hands of a local government, which, so distantly

affiliated with Moscow and Petrograd, did not reflect fully either the

strength or weaknesses of the several regimes which succeeded one

another at the capital between the removal of the Czar and the machine

gun assumption of control by the bloody pair of zealots and tricksters,

Lenine and Trotzky. Consequently, when Kerensky disappeared the

government at Archangel did not greatly change in character.

To be sure, it had no army or military force of its own. The central

government sent north certain armed Red Guards, and agents of government

called "commissars," who were to organize and control additions to the

Red Guards and to supervise also the civil government of Archangel

state, as much as possible. These people of the northern state were

indeed jealous of their rights of local government. And the work of the

Red agents in levying on the property and the man-power of the North was

passively resisted by these intelligent North Russians.

All this was of great interest to the Allied Supreme War Council because

of the danger that the war supplies would be seized by the rapidly

emboldened Bolshevik government and be delivered into the hands of the

Germans for use against the Allies. For since the Brest-Litovsk treaty

it had appeared from many things that the crafty hand of Germany was

inside the Russian Bolshevik glove.

Moreover, there were in North Russia, as in every other part, many

Russians who could not resign themselves to Bolshevik control, even of

the milder sort, nor to any German influence. Those in the Archangel

district banded themselves together secretly and sent repeated calls to

the Allies for help in ridding their territory of the Bolshevik Red

Guards and German agents, using as chief arguments the factors above

mentioned. While the anti-Bolshevists were unwilling to unmask in their

own state, for obvious reason, their call for help was made clear to the

outside world and furnished the Allied Supreme War Council just the

pretext for the expedition which it was planning for a purely military

purpose, namely, to reconstruct the old Eastern fighting front.

In fact, when a survey of the military resources of the European Allies

had disclosed their utter lack of men for such an expedition and it was

found that the only hope lay in drawing the bulk of the needed troops

from the United States forces, and when the statement of the cases in

the usual polite arguments brought from President Wilson a positive

refusal to allow American troops to go into Russia, it was only by the

emphasis, it is said, of the pathetic appeal of the North Russian

anti-Bolshevists, coupled with the stirring appeals of such famous

characters as the one-time leader of the Russian Women's Battalion of

Death and the direct request of General Foch himself for the use of the

American troops there in Russia as a military necessity to win the war,

that the will of President Wilson was moved and he dubiously consented

to the use of American troops in the expedition.

Even this concession of President Wilson was limited to the one regiment

of infantry with the needed accompaniments of engineer and medical

troops. The bitter irony of this limitation is apparent in the fact that

while it allowed the Supreme War Council to carry out its scheme of an

Allied Expedition with the publicly announced purposes before outlined,

committing America and the other Allies to the guarding of supplies at

Murmansk and Archangel and frustrating the plans of Germany in North

Russia, it did not permit the Allied War Council sufficient forces to

carry out its ultimate and of course secret purpose of reorganizing the

Eastern Front, which naturally was not to be advertised in advance

either to Russians or to anyone. The vital aim was thus thwarted and the

expedition destined to weakness and to future political and diplomatic

troubles both in North Russia and in Europe and America.

During the months spent in winning the participation of the United

States in an Allied Expedition to North Russia, England took some

preliminary steps which safeguarded the Murmansk Railway as far south

toward Petrograd as Kandalaksha.

Royal Engineers and Marines, together with a few officers and men from

French and American Military Missions, who had worked north with the

diplomatic corps, were thus for a dangerously long period the sole

bulwark of the Allies against complete pro-German domination of the

north of Russia. Some interesting stories could be told of the clever

secret work of the American officers in ferreting out the evidences in

black and white, of the co-operation of the German War Office with

Lenine and Trotsky. And stories of daring and pluck that saved men's

lives and kept the North Russians from a despairing surrender to the

Bolsheviki.

Meanwhile England was taking measures herself to support these men so as

to form a nucleus for the larger expedition when it should be

inaugurated by the Allied Supreme War Council. But the total number of

British officers and men who could be spared for the purpose, in view of

the critical situation on the Western Front, was less than 1,200. And

these had to be divided between the widely separated areas of Murmansk

and Archangel. And the officers and men sent were nearly all, to a man,

those who had already suffered wounds or physical exhaustion on the

Western Front. This was late in June. About this time the plan of the

Allied Supreme War Council as already stated was, under strict

limitations, acceded to by President Wilson, and the doughboys of the

339th Infantry in July found themselves in England hearing about

Archangel and disgustedly exchanging their Enfields for the Russian

rifles.

For various reasons the command of the expedition was assigned by

General Foch to General Poole, the British officer who had been so

enthusiastic about rolling up a big volunteer army of North Russians to

go south to Petrograd and wipe out the Red dictatorate and re-establish

the old hard-fighting Russian Front on the East. Naturally, American

soldiers who fought that desperate campaign in North Russia now feel

free to criticize the judgment of General Foch in putting General Poole

in command. It appears from the experiences of the soldiers up there

that for military, for diplomatic and for political reasons it would

have been better to put an American general in command of the

expedition. And while we are at it we might as well have our little say

about President Wilson. We think he erred badly in judgment. He either

should have sent a large force of Americans into North Russia--as we did

into Cuba--a force capable of doing up the job quickly and thoroughly,

or sent none at all. He should have known that the American doughboy

fights well for a cause, but that a British general would have a hard

time convincing the Americans of the justice of a mixed cause. This is

confession of a somewhat blind prejudice which the American citizen has

against the aggressive action of British arms wherever on the globe they

may be seen in action, no matter how justifiable the ultimate turn of

events may prove the British military action to have been. We say that

this prejudice should have been taken into account when the American

doughboy was sent to Russia to fight under British command. It might not

be out of order to point out that the North Russian shared with his

American allies in that campaign the same prejudice, unreasonable at

times without doubt, but none the less painful prejudice against the

British command of the expedition. And all this in spite of the fact

that most of the British officers were personally above reproach, and

General Ironside, who soon succeeded the failing Poole, was every inch

of his six foot-four a man and a soldier, par excellence.

The French were able to send only part of a regiment, one battalion of

Colonial troops and a machine gun company, who reached the Murmansk late

in July about the time the Americans were sailing from England. They

were soon sent on to Archangel, where political things were now come to

a head.

The Serbian battalion which had left Odessa at the time of the summer

collapse of the Russian armies in 1917 had gradually worked its way

northward from Petrograd on the Petrograd-Kola Railroad with the

intention of shipping for the Western fighting front by way of England.

They had been of potential aid to the Allied military missions during

the summer and now were permitted by the Serbian government to be joined

to the Allied expedition. They were accordingly put into position along

the Kola Railroad. These troops, of course, as well as thousands of

British troops which were stationed in the Murmansk and by the British

War Office were numbered in the North Russian Expeditionary forces, were

of no account whatever in the military activities of that long fall and

winter and spring campaign in the far away Archangel area where the

American doughboys for months, supported here and there by a few British

and French and Russians, stood at bay before the swarming Bolos and

battled for their lives in snow and ice.

The battalion of Italian troops with its company of skii troops which

sailed from England with the American convoy also went to the Murmansk

and all the American doughboy saw of Italians in the fighting area of

Archangel, North Russia, was the little handful of well dressed Italian

officers and batmen in the city of Archangel. Of course, we had plenty

of representation of Italian fighting blood right in our own ranks. They

were in the O. D. uniform and were American citizens. And of course the

same thing could be said of many another nationality that was

represented in the ranks of American doughboys and whose bravery in

battle and fortitude in hardships of cold and hunger gave evidence that

no one nationality has a corner on courage and "guts" and manhood. To

call the roll of one of those heroic fighting companies of doughboys or

engineers or medical or hospital companies in the olive drab would

evidence by the names of the men and officers that the best bloods of

Europe and of Asia were all pulsing in the American ranks.

The presence of British, French and American war vessels and the first

small bodies of troops encouraged the Murmansk Russian authorities to

declare their independence of the Red Moscow crowd and to throw in their

lot with the Allies in the work of combatting the agents of the German

War Office in the North. In return the Allies were to furnish money,

food and supplies. Early in July written agreement to this effect had

been signed by the Murmansk Russian authorities and all the Allies

represented, including the United States. It will be recalled that

Ambassador Francis had been obliged to leave Petrograd by the Bolshevik

rulers, and he had gone north into Murmansk.

The result of this agreement with the Murmansk and the arrival of

further troops at the Murmansk coast, together with the promise of more

to follow immediately, was to influence the Russian local government of

the state of Archangel to break with the hated Reds. And so, on August

1st, a quiet coup d'etat was effected. The anti-Bolshevists came out

into the open. The Provisional North Russian Government was organized.

The people were promised an election and they accepted the situation

agreeably for they had detested the Red government. Two cargoes of food

had no little also to do with the heartiness of their acceptance of the

Allied military forces and the overturn of the Bolshevik government.

Within forty-eight hours came the military forces already mentioned, the

advance forces of the British that preceded the Allied expedition,

consisting of a huge British staff, a few British soldiers, a few French

and a detachment of fifty American sailors from the "Olympia." In a few

days the battalion of French colonials sailed in from Murmansk.

The coming of the troops prevented the counter coup of the Reds. They

could only make feeble resistance. The passage up the delta of the Dvina

River and the actual landing while exciting to the jackies met with

little opposition. Truth to tell, the wily Bolsheviks had for many weeks

seen the trend of affairs, and, expecting a very much larger expedition,

had sent or prepared for hasty sending south by rail toward Vologda or

by river to Kotlas of all the military supplies and munitions and

movable equipment as well as large stores of loot and plunder from the

city of Archangel and suburbs. Count von Mirbach, the German ambassador

at Moscow, threatened Lenine and Trotsky that the German army then

glowering in Finland, across the way, would march on Petrograd unless

the military stores were brought out of Archangel.

The rearguard of the Bolshevik armed forces was disappearing over the

horizon when the American jackies seized engines and cars at Archangel

Preestin and Bakaritza, which had been saved by the hindering activities

of anti-Bolshevik trainmen, and dashed south in pursuit. There is a

heroic little tale of an American Naval Reserve lieutenant who with a

few sailors took a lame locomotive and two cars with a few rifles and

two machine guns, mounted on a flat car, and hotly gave chase to the

retreating Red Guards, routing them in their stand at Issaka Gorka where

they were trying to destroy or run off locomotives and cars, and then

keeping their rear train moving southward at such a rate that the Reds

never had time to blow the rails or burn a bridge till he had chased

them seventy-five miles. There a hot box on his improvised armored train

stopped his pursuit. He tore loose his machine guns and on foot reached

the bridge in time to see the Reds burn it and exchange fire with them,

receiving at the end a wound in the leg for his great gallantry.

The Red Guards were able to throw up defenses and to bring up supporting

troops. A few days later the French battalion fought a spirited, but

indecisive, engagement with the Reds. It was seen that he intended to

fight the Allies. He retreated southward a few miles at a time, and

during the latter part of August succeeded in severely punishing a force

of British and French and American sailors, who had sought to attack the

Reds in flank. And it was this episode in the early fighting that caused

the frantic radiogram to reach us on the Arctic Ocean urging the

American ships to speed on to Archangel to save the handful of Allied

men threatened with annihilation on the railroad and up the Dvina River.

And we were to go into it wholehearted to save them, and later find

ourselves split up into many detachments and cornered up in many another

just such perilous position but with no forces coming to support us.

The inability of the Allied Supreme War Council to furnish sufficient

troops for the North Russian expedition, and the delay of the United

States to furnish the part of troops asked of her, very nearly condemned

the undertaking to failure before it was fairly under way. However, as

the ultimate success of the expedition depended in any event on the

success of the Allied operations in far off Siberia in getting the

Czecho-Slovak veterans and Siberian Russian allies through to Kotlas,

toward which they were apparently fighting their way under their gallant

leader and with the aid of Admiral Kolchak, and because there was a

strong hope that General Poole's prediction of a hearty rallying of

North Russians to the standards of the Allies to fight the Germans and

Bolsheviki at one and the same time, the decision of the Supreme War

Council was, in spite of President Wilson's opposition to the plan, to

continue the expedition and strengthen it as fast as possible. To the

American soldier at this distance it looks as though the French and

British, perhaps in all good faith, planned to muddle along till the

American authorities could be shown the fitness or the necessity of

supporting the expedition with proper forces. But this was playing with

a handful of Americans and other Allied troops a great game of hazard.

Only those who went through it can appreciate the peril and the hazard.

To the credit of the American doughboys and Tommies and Poilus and

others who went into North Russia in the fall of 1918 let it be said

that they smashed in with vim and gallant action, thinking that they

were going to do a small bit away up there in the north to frustrate the

military and political plans of the Germans. And although they were not

all interested in the Russian civil war at the beginning, they did learn

that the North Russian people's ideal of government was the

representative government of the Americans, while the Red Guards whom

they were fighting stood for a government which on paper at its own face

value represented only one class and offered hatred to all other

classes. When it tried to put into effect its so-called constitution

that had been dreamed out of a nightmare of oppression and hate, it

failed completely. Machine gun beginning begot cruel offspring of

provisional courts of justice and sword-revised soviets of the people so

that packed soviets and Lenine-picked delegates and Trotsky-ridden

ministers made the actual soviet government as much resemble the ideal

soviet government as a wild-cat mining stock board of directors

resembles a municipal board of public works. And the world knows now, if

it did not in 1918-19, that the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet

Republic was, and is, a highly centralized tyranny, frankly called by

its own leaders "The Dictatorship of the Proletariat." The Russian

people prayed for "a fish and received a serpent."

VI

ON THE FAMOUS KODISH FRONT IN THE FALL

"K" Company Hurries To Save Force "B"--Importance Of Kodish

Front--Hazelden's Force Destroyed--First Fight At Seletskoe--Both Sides

Burn Bridges--Desperate Fighting At Emtsa River--Capture Of

Kodish--Digging In--We Lose Village After Days Of Hard

Fighting--Trenches And Blockhouses.

Nowhere did the Yanks in North Russia find the fighting fiercer than did

those who were battling their way toward Plesetskaya on the famous

Kodish front. Woven into their story is that of the most picturesque

American fighter and doughtiest soldier of the many dauntless officers

and men who struggled and bled in that strange campaign. This man was

Captain Michael Donoghue, commanding officer of "K" Company, 339th

Infantry. He afterward was promoted in the field to rank of major and

his old outfit of Detroit boys proudly remember that "K" stands for

Kodish where they and their commander earned the plaudits of the

regiment.

It will be remembered that the third battalion was hurried from

troopship to troop train and steamed south as fast as the rickety Russki

locomotives of the 1880 type could wobble, and it will be remembered

that Captain Donoghue, the senior captain of that battalion, was chosen

to go with half of his "K" Company to the relief of a mixed force of

American sailors and British Royal Scots and French infantry who had

been surrounded, it was rumored, and were in imminent danger of

annihilation.

With his little force of one hundred and twenty men, including a medical

officer with eight enlisted medical men, transporting his rations and

extra munitions on the dumpy little Russki droskie, the American officer

led out of Obozerskaya at three o'clock in the afternoon, bivouacked for

the night somewhere on the trail in a cold drizzle, and reached

Volshenitsa, the juncture of the trails from Seletskoe and Emtsa, about

noon of the 8th of September.

Four versts beyond Volshenitsa the column passed the scene of the battle

between the Bolos and "B" Force. Gear and carts scattered around and two

or three fresh graves told that this was serious business. A diary of an

American sailor and the memoranda of a British officer, broken off

suddenly on the 30th of August, that were picked up told of the

adventures of the handful of men we were going to hunt. More

explanations of the genesis of this Kodish front is now in order.

Consideration of the map will show that Kodish was of great strategic

Importance. Truth to tell it was of more importance than our High

Command at first estimated. The Bolshevik strategists were always aware

of its value and never permitted themselves to be neglectful of it.

Trotsky knew that the strategy and tactics of the winter campaign would

make good use of the Kodish road. Indeed it was seen in the fall by

General Poole that a Red column from Plesetskaya up the Kodish road was

a wedge between the railroad forces and the river forces, always

imperiling the Vaga and Dvina forces with being cut off if the Reds came

strong enough.

The first movement on Kodish by the Allied troops had been made by "B"

force under the command of Col. Hazelden of the British army. With about

two hundred men composed of French soldiers, a few English soldiers,

American sailors from the Olympic, and some local Russian volunteers, he

had pushed up the Dvina and Vaga to Seletskoe and operating from there

had sent a party of French even as far as Emtsa River, a few miles north

of Kodish.

But before he could attack Kodish, Hazelden was ordered to strike across

the forest area and attack the Reds in the rear near Obozerskaya where

the Bolshevik rear guard with its excellent artillery strategist was

stubbornly holding the Allied Force "A." Passing through Seletskoe he

left the Russian volunteers to oppose the Reds in Kodish, and guard his

rear. But these uncertain troops fled upon approach of the Bolos and

about the first of September Col. Hazelden instead of being in a

position to demoralize the Reds on the railroad by a swift blow from

behind, found himself in desperate defense, both front and rear, and

beleagured in the woods and swamps some twenty-seven versts east of

Obozerskaya.

He managed to get a message through to Sisskoe just before the Reds

closed in on him from behind. About a hundred English marines, a section

of machine gunners, a platoon of Royal Scots, and some Russian

artillery, all enroute to Archangel from their chase of the Reds up the

Dvina, were ordered off their barges at Sisskoe, were christened "D"

Force, and, under the command of Captain Scott, British officer, were

given the task of preventing the Reds from Kodish from cutting off the

river communications.

This force was also to help Col. Hazelden out. But as we have seen, his

force had been destroyed, and Americans hurriedly sent out. At

Volshenitsa Captain Donoghue received a message by aeroplane from Col.

Guard at Obozerskaya that "D" Force was held up at Tiogra by the Reds.

After patrolling the forest five days and finding the trail to Emtsa

impassable during the wet season, "K" Company received both the welcome

reinforcements of Lieut. Gardner and the twenty men who had been left at

Lewis gun School at Bakaritza, and orders to proceed on to Seletskoe.

The Red Guards hearing of the American successes on the railway and

hearing of the approach of this force from the railroad in their rear

went back to Kodish, and on the morning of September 16th "K" Company

became a full-fledged member of "D" Force to be better known the world

over in the bitterest part of this campaign as the Kodish Force.

Here the doughboys got their baptism of fire when they took over under

fire the outposts of the village of Seletskoe. For the Bolos who had

retreated the week before had told the inhabitants they would be back

and they were making their threat, or promise, as you will have it,

good. For two days and nights the Americans beat off the attacks,

principally through the good work of Sgt. Michael Kinney, the gallant

soldier who fell at Kodish on New Year's Day. Aided by the accurate fire

of the French machine gun section, the "K" men inflicted such heavy

penalties that the Reds quit in panic, assassinated their commander and

skurried south thirty miles.  However, this victory was not exploited by

the Allied force. It seems that the commander of the force had sent out

a Russian patrol on the east bank of the Emtsa River which brought back

information that a heavy force of the enemy was operating in the rear of

"D" force.

Accordingly Captain Scott ordered a retreat from Seletskoe to Tiogra,

taking up a position on the north bank of the Emtsa River after burning

the bridge to prevent pursuit by the Reds who it was afterwards found

were fleeing in the opposite direction, after having burned another

bridge on the Emtsa further to the south to prevent the Americans from

pursuing them.

An interesting story was often repeated about this funny episode which

was due to the credence given by the British officer to the report of

the highly imaginative Russian patrol.

An English corporal on one of the outposts of Seletskoe was not informed

by Captain Scott of the retreat during the night. Next morning he went

forward and discovered that the Reds had burned their bridge. But when

he went to report that fact he found the village of Seletskoe evacuated

by his own forces, natives also having fled with everything of value

from the samovar to the cow. A few hours later the old corporal appeared

on the other bridgeless bank of the Emtsa across from the "K" men who

were digging in and said in a puzzled way, "I saiy, old chap, wots the

bloody gaime?"

Of course as soon as an improvised pontoon could be rigged up "K"

Company and the rest of the happily informed force were in pursuit again

of the Reds. The bridge was constructed by a detachment of the 310th

American Engineers, who had come up with Col. Henderson, of the famous

"Black Watch," the new commander.

The French machine gunners by this time were badly needed on the

railroad force. In their place came a company of the Russian Officers'

Training Corps.

On September 23rd Seletskoe was again occupied and the Yanks began

improving its defenses, taking much satisfaction in the arrival from

Archangel of Lieut. Ballard's American machine gun platoon. Within two

days also their ranks were greatly strengthened by the arrival of Lieut.

Chappel from Issaka Gorka with the other two platoons of "K" company

closely followed by Captain Cherry with "L" Company from the Railroad

force.

General Finlayson, whose job it was to take Plesetskaya, now sought to

shove the Kodish force ahead rapidly so as to trap the Reds on the

railroad between the two forces. Accordingly the next morning, September

26th, "K" Company and two platoons of "L" and the machine gun section

moved south toward Kodish to achieve the mission that had been assigned

to Col. Hazelden. The Bolshevik was found the next morning strongly

entrenched on the other side of the river Emtsa near the burned bridge

and after severe losses suffered in the gaining of a foothold on the

north side of the river by crossing on a raft, the Americans had to dig

in. In fact they lay for over a week in the swamp hanging tenaciously to

their position but unable to advance. Men's feet swelled in their wet

boots till the shoes burst. But still they hung on under the example of

their game old captain, At this time Lieut. Chappel was victim of a Bolo

machine gun while trying to lead a raiding squad up to its capture. Six

others were killed and twenty-four were wounded. Droskies needed for

transportation of supplies and ammunition had to be used to take back

the wounded and sick from exposure to Seletskoe. No "K" or "L" or "M.

G." man who was there will ever forget those days.

It was obvious that the Kodish force must be augmented. English marines

and a section of Canadian artillery came up. Headquarters was

established in the four-house village of Mejnovsky, eight miles back.

Steady sniping and patrol action was carried on actively by both forces.

Col. Henderson's further attempt to throw a force across the river by

means of a raft was frustrated by the Reds. October 7th Lieut.-Col.

Gavin came up to assume command.

This energetic and keen British officer soon worked out plans for

effecting an advance. Using the American engineers, he soon had a ferry

in use three versts--about two miles--below Mejnovsky.

And on October the 12th "K" and "L" Companies crossed on that ferry and

marched up the left bank of the Emtsa till within one thousand yards of

the flank of the strong Bolo position, and bivouacked in the swamp for

the night. In the morning Captain Cherry took his company and two

platoons of "K" and struck south to pass by the flank and fall upon

Kodish in rear of the enemy who was holding the position in great force

at the river.

The remainder of "K" Company moved upon the right of the enemy front

line at the river crossing. At the time Donoghue struck, a frontal

demonstration was made upon the Reds by the English marines and American

machine guns firing across the river and by the Canadian artillery

shelling the woods where the Red reserves were thought to be. The plan

failed because of the inability of Captain Cherry to reach his

objective, on account of the bottomless swamps that he encountered.

Captain Donoghue gained a foot-hold and then was forced to dig in and

during the afternoon repulsed two counter attacks of the Bolos, having

paid for the capture of the two Bolo machine guns by severe losses.

During the night under cover of these two platoons, "L" and the English

marines crossed the river, where the Reds had held them so many days.

And during the following day the right of the Bolo position was turned

by a movement through the woods.

But at four o'clock in the afternoon the enemy's second, position, a

mile north of the village, developed surprising strength. In fact, the

Reds counterattacked just at dark and once more the doughboys lay down,

on their arms, in the rain-flooded swamp, where the dark, frosty morning

would find them stiff and ugly customers for the Reds to tackle. In fact

they did rise up and smite the Bolshevik so swiftly that he fled from

his works and left Kodish in such a hurry that he gave no forwarding

address for his mail. Captain Donoghue set up his headquarters in Kodish

and sent detachments out to follow the Reds and to threaten the Red

Shred Makhrenga and Taresevo forces. During this fight, or rather after

it, the Canadians taught our boys their first lesson in looting the

persons of the dead.  Our men had been rather respectful and gentle with

the Bolo dead who were quite numerous on the Emtsa River battlefield.

Can you call a tangle of woods a field? But the Canadians, veterans of

four years fighting, immediately went through the pockets of the dead

for roubles and knives and so forth and even took the boots off the

dead, as they were pretty fair boots.

The officer who reports this says he has often heard of dead men's boots

but had to go to war to actually see them worn.

In passing let it be stated that many a footsore doughboy helped himself

to a dry pair of boots from a dead Red Guard or in winter to a pair of

valenkas, or warm felt boots. One of "Captain Mike's" nervy sergeants

protested against being sent back to Seletskoe to get him a new pair of

shoes, for he hated the ill-fitting British army shoe, as all Americans

did, and prevailed upon Donoghue to let him wait a few days till after a

battle when he sure enough helped himself to a fine pair of boots.

One thing the American never did take from the dead Bolo was his Russian

tobacco, for it was worse even than the British issue tobacco. A good

story is told on one of Donoghue's lieutenants. During the excitement of

burning the bridge over the Emtsa at Tiogra, time when the two forces

fled from one another, the officer, greatly fatigued, sat down on the

bridge during the preparations by the men. He was missed later on the

march and the man whom the captain sent back to find the lieutenant

arrived just in time to keep what little hair the popular bald-headed

little officer had from being singed off by the leaping flames. Lieut.

Ryan does not like to be kidded about it.

The morning of the seventeenth of October saw the American forces again

on the advance. Good news had come of the successes on the railroad.

The Kodish force was in the strategic position now to force the Reds to

give up Emtsa and Plesetskaya. But Trotsky's northern army commander

evidently well understood that situation, for he gave strict attention

to this Kodish force of Americans and at the fifteenth verst pole on the

main road his Red Guards held the Americans all day. Again the next day

he made Donoghue's Yanks strive all day. Just at night successful

flanking movements caused the enemy to evacuate his formidable position.

It was here that Sgt. Cromberger, one of Ballard's machine gun men,

distinguished himself by going single-handed into the Bolo lines to

reconnoiter.

The converging advances upon Plesetskaya by the three columns, up the

Onega Valley, on the railroad and on the Kodish-Plesetskaya-Petrograd

highway now seemed about to succeed. Hard fighting by all three columns

had broken the Bolshevik's confidence somewhat.

Of course at this time of writing it can be seen better than it could

then. He did not make a stand at Avda. He was found by our patrols way

back at Kochmas, only a few miles from the railroad. Meanwhile the

Russian Officers' Training Corps which was armed with forty Lewis guns

and acted rather independently, together with the Royal Scot platoon and

a large number of "partisans," anti-Bolshevik volunteers of the area,

effected the capture of Shred Makhrenga, Taresevo and other villages,

which added to the threat of the Kodish force on Plesetskaya.

Plesetskaya at that moment was indeed of immense value to the Reds. It

was the railroad base of their four columns that were holding up the

left front of their Northern Army. But they were discouraged. Our

patrols and spies sent into Plesetskaya vicinity reported and stories of

deserters and wounded men all indicated that the Reds were getting ready

to evacuate Plesetskaya. A determined smash of the three Allied columns

would have won the coveted position. But the Kodish force now received

the same strange order from far-off Archangel that was received on the

other fronts:

"To hold on and dig in." No further advances were to be made. Thinking

of their eleven comrades killed in this advance and of the thirty-one

wounded and of the many sick from exposure, the Americans on the Kodish

force as well as the English marines and Scots who also had lost

severely, were loath to stop with so easy a victory in sight.

Of course General Ironside's main idea was right, but its application at

that time and place seemed to work hardship on the Kodish force. And the

sequel proves it. To add to their discomfort, the very size of this

force which had struggled so valiantly this little distance, was now

reduced by the withdrawal of the English marines and of "L" Company, and

by the ordering of the Canadian artillery guns to the Dvina front. The

remaining force with Captain Donoghue totalled one hundred and eighty

men, which seemed very small to them, in view of the fact that a mere

reconnoitering patrol from the Bolos now returning to activity always

showed anywhere from seventy-five to one hundred rifles and a machine

gun or two. However, they made the best of their remaining days in

October to fortify the Kodish-Avda front sector of the road. The Yanks

were to be prepared for the worst. And they got it. Let us take a look

at the position held by these Americans. It is typical of the positions

in which many of the far-flung detachments found themselves.

At the seventeenth verst pole was a four-man outpost. At the sixteenth

verst pole Lieut. Ballard had two of his machine guns, a Lewis gun crew

and some forty-six men from "K" Company. Four versts behind him on the

densely wooded road Lieut. Gardner with forty men and a Vickers gun was

occupying the old Bolo dugouts. One verst further back in the big

clearing was Kodish village, a place which by all the rules of field

strategy was absolutely untenable. Here with four Vickers guns were the

remainder of "K" Company along with the sick and the lame and the halt,

scarce forty men really able to do active duty, but obliged to stay on

to support their comrades. The nearest friendly troops, including their

artillery, were back at Seletskoe, thirty versts away. On October 29th

the Reds returned to Avda. The noise from that village and reports

brought by patrols indicated that this enemy who erstwhile was on the

run, and whom our high command now held lightly, was determined to

regain Kodish. And while striking heavily at their enemy on the railroad

as we have seen, the Red Guards now fell upon this single company of

Americans strung out along the Kodish-Avda road.

In the afternoon of November 1st the enemy drove in our cossack post of

"K" men at verst seventeen, began shelling us with his artillery and for

several days kept raiding Ballard heavier and heavier. Meanwhile Captain

Donoghue sent out from Kodish every available man to strengthen the

line. Night and day the men labored to erect additional defenses, with

scarcely time to close an eye in sleep, patrolling all the trails on

their flanks. On the fourth of November, the day the Reds were massed in

such numbers on the railroad, they succeeded in forcing Ballard from his

trenches at the sixteenth verst pole. He fell back to the new defenses

at the fifteenth verst. It is related by his men that he passed between

Bolo forces who lined the road but permitted the Americans to escape.

Lieut. Gardner was now reinforced at the twelfth verst pole, for a

patrol had lost a man somewhere on the river flank and it was thought

that the enemy was preparing to pass by the flank and bag this body of

American fighters by taking the newly constructed bridge on the Emtsa in

the rear of Donoghue's small force. This bridge was their "only way

home."

Their worst fears came true. On the morning of the fifth of November

these Yanks way out at front of Kodish, holding the enemy off

desperately from the frontal attack, and endeavoring vainly to frustrate

the flank attacks of their enemy in greatly superior numbers, suddenly

heard great bursts of machine gun fire way towards the rear in the

vicinity of Kodish. Instantly they knew that Reds had worked down the

river by the flank from Avda or even from Emtsa on the railroad and were

attacking in force three miles to their rear. That made the situation

desperate. But the Yanks who had in the beginning of the campaign been

looked down upon by the Red Capped British High Command because of their

greenness, now showed their fineness of fighting stuff by fighting on

with undiminished vigor and effectiveness. Nowhere did they give way.

Day and night they were on the alert. Attacks from the front, sly raids

from the woods on each side of the road, heart chilling assaults upon

the cluster of houses in Kodish way in their rear, and steady progress

of the Red Guards toward the bridge on the Emtsa, their only way out of

the bag in which the worn and depleted company was being trapped,

brought the prolonged struggle to a crisis in the middle of the

afternoon of the eighth of November.

It came as follows: Colonel Hazelden, survivor of the disaster earlier

in the fall, as already related, had returned to command the

Kodish-Shred Makhrenga fronts, when Col. Gavin was sent to command the

railroad front where Colonel Sutherland had fizzled.

This gallant officer was on his way to the perilous front to see

Ballard. Just as he passed Gardner at the twelfth verst pole, he found

himself and the two detachments of Americans at last completely cut off

by a whole battalion of Red Guards fresh from the south of Russia, sent

up by Trotsky to brace his Northern Army. For half an hour there raged a

fight as intense as was the bitter reality of the emergency to the forty

Americans with Gardner in those dugouts. By almost miraculous luck in

directing their fire through the screen of trees that shielded the Reds

from view, Sgt. Cromberger's Vickers gun and Cpl. Wilkie's Lewis gun

inflicted terrible losses upon this fresh battalion just getting into

action against the Americanskis. It was massed preparatory to the final

dispositions of its commander to overwhelm the Americans. But with the

hail of bullets tearing through their heavy ranks, the Bolos were unable

long to stand it, and at last broke from control, yelling and screaming,

to suffer still more from the well-handled guns when they left their

cover and ran for the woods. And so the little force was saved. But so

loud and prolonged were the yells of the frightened and wounded Reds

that Captain Donoghue, a verst in the rear at his field headquarters, he

related afterwards, paced the floor of the log shack in an agony of

certainty that his brave men were all gone. He had been sure that the

howling of the scattered pack had been the fervent yells of a last

bayonet charge wiping out the Yankees.

The Reds could not get themselves together for another attack at this

point before dark but did drive Ballard back verst after verst that

afternoon. It was a grim handful of "M. G." and "K" men who looked at

their own losses and counted the huge enemy losses of that desperate day

and wondered how many such days would whittle them off to the point of

annihilation. Col. Hazelden had gone back to headquarters. Captain

Donoghue now acted with his usual decisiveness.

The Americanskis had slipped out of the bag before the Red string was

tied. And in the morning of the 9th of November the good old Vickers

guns and Lewis guns were peeking from their old concealed strongholds on

the American side of the Emtsa. Artillery support was reported on the

way to argue with the Bolo artillery. A platoon of "L" Company which had

come up during the last of the fighting, together with a platoon of

replacement men from the old Division in France, who had just come

across the trail from the railroad, now took over the active defense of

the bridge.

Both sides began digging in. American Engineers came up to build block

houses. And the fagged warriors of machine gun and "K" infantry men now

retired a short distance to the rear to make themselves as comfortable

as possible in the woods, and try to forget their recent harrowing

experiences and the sight of the seven bleeding stretchers that were

part of the cost of trying to hold a place that was a veritable death

trap. Here it was that Major Nichols on a look-see from the railroad

detachments found them. He had been sent across by the French colonel

commanding Vologda force, under which this Kodish force had recently

been brought. He was the first American field officer that had come to

inspect this hard-battered outfit. And his report on their miserable

plight had no little influence in bringing them relief.

Shortly afterward "K" Company was relieved by "E" Company which had come

down from Archangel guard duty, and "K" Company went to reserve position

in Seletskoe and later marched across the trail to Obozerskaya, took

troop train to Archangel for a much needed and highly deserved two

weeks' change of scenery and rest, arriving one evening in November in

an early winter's snow storm at Smolny Quay where the "M" Company men

captured them and their luggage and carried them off to a big feed,

first one they had had in Russia. Lieut. Ballard's heroic machine gun

platoon a few days later was also relieved, by Lieut. O'Callaghan's

platoon. So ended the fall campaign on the famous Kodish front.

VII

PENETRATING TO UST PADENGA

Taking Of Shenkursk On Vaga--"Horse Marines"--Battling At Puia--Bad

Position For Troops--Retirement To Ust Padenga--Critical Situation--"C"

Company Stands Heavy Losses--Lieutenant Cuff And Men Killed In Hand To

Hand Fighting--Bolshevik Patrols--Cossack Forces Weak On Defense.

While the old first battalion was, as we have seen, fighting up to

Seltso on the Dvina River, numerous reports were coming in daily that a

strong force of the Bolsheviki were operating on the Vaga River. This

river is a tributary of the Dvina and empties into it at a village

called Ust Vaga, about thirty versts below Beresnik and on which is

located the second largest town or city in the province of Archangel.

This river was strategically of more value than the upper Dvina,

because, as a glance at the map will show, its possession threatened the

rear of both the Dvina and the Kodish columns. Accordingly, on the

fifteenth day of September, accompanied by a river gunboat, the

remaining handful of Company "A", comprising two platoons, under Capt.

Odjard and Lieut. Mead, went on board a so-called fast river steamer en

route to Shenkursk. On the seventeenth day of September this detachment

took possession of Shenkursk without firing a single shot, the

Bolsheviki having fled in disorder upon word of our arrival. The

citizens of this village turned out en masse to welcome us as their

deliverers, and the Slavo-British Allied Legion soon gained a

considerable number of new recruits.

Shenkursk is a village about one hundred and twenty-five versts up the

Vaga River from its junction with the Dvina River. It is by far one of

the most substantial and prosperous in the province of Archangel. It

differs very materially from all the surrounding country in that it is

located on good sandy soil on a high bluff overlooking the river and is

comparatively dry, even in wet weather. It is quite a summer resort

town, has a number of well constructed brick buildings, half a dozen or

more schools, a seminary, monastery, saw mill, and in many others

respects is far above the average Russian village.

Upon their arrival our troops were quartered in an old Cossack garrison,

reminiscent of the days of the Czar. We prepared to settle down very

comfortably for the winter. Our dream of rest and quiet was rudely

shattered, however, for two days later we were notified that the British

command for the Vaga River troops was on its way to Shenkursk, and that

we were to push further on down the river to stir up the enemy. Without

question we were quite willing to leave the enemy rest in peace as long

as he did not molest us, but such was not the fortune nor luck of war,

and therefore, on September 1st, the small detachment of American

troops, reinforced by some thirty or forty S. B. A. L. troops, went

steaming up the Vaga River on the good ship "Tolstoy," a decrepit old

river steamer on which we had mounted a pom pom and converted it into a

"battle cruiser." The troops immediately christened themselves the horse

"marines" and the name was quite an appropriate one as later events

proved.

About noon that day Capt. Odjard and Lieut. Mead with two platoons

arrived opposite a village named Gorka when suddenly without any warning

the enemy, concealed in the woods on both sides of the river, opened up

a heavy machine gun and rifle fire. Our fragile boat was no protection

from this fire. To attempt to run around and withdraw in the shallow

stream was next to impossible, so after a hasty consultation the

commander grasped the horns of the dilemma by running the boat as close

to the shore as possible, where the troops immediately swarmed overboard

in water up to their waists, quickly gained the protection of the shore

and spreading out in perfect skirmish order, poured a hot fire into the

enemy, who was soon on the run. This advance continued for some several

days until under the severe marching conditions, lack of food, clothing,

etc., a halt was made at Rovdinskaya, a village about ninety versts from

Shenkursk, and a few days later more reinforcements arrived under

Lieuts. McPhail and Saari.

A number of incidents on this advance clearly indicated that we were

operating in hostile and very dangerous country. Our only line of

communication with our headquarters was the single local telegraph line,

which was constantly being cut by the enemy. At one time a large force

of the enemy got in our rear and we were faced with the unpleasant

situation of having the enemy completely surrounding us. Capt. Odjard

determined upon a bold stroke. Figuring that by continuing the advance

and striking a quick blow at the enemy ahead of us, those in the rear

would anticipate the possibility of heavy reinforcements bringing up our

rear. On October 8th we engaged the enemy at the village of Puiya. We

inflicted heavy casualties upon him. He suffered no less than fifty

killed and several hundred wounded. As anticipated, the enemy in our

rear quickly withdrew and thus cleared the way for our retreat. We

retired to Rovdinskaya, which position we held for several weeks. The

situation was growing more desperate day by day. Our rations were at the

lowest ebb; cold weather had set in and the men were poorly and lightly

clad, in addition to which our tobacco ration had long since been

completely exhausted, which added much to the general dissatisfaction

and lowering of the morale of the troops.

With the approach of the Russian winter a new and dangerous problem

presented itself. At the outset of the expedition it had been planned

that the troops on the railroad front were to push well down the

railroad to or beyond Plesetskaya. The Vaga Column was to go as far as

Velsk and there establish a line of communication across to the railroad

front. Unfortunately, their well-laid plans fell through and perhaps

fortunately so. The forces of the railroad had been checked near Emtsa,

far above Plesetskaya. The other troops on the Dvina had by this time

retired to Toulgas and as a consequence the smallest force in the

expedition, the Vaga Column, was now in the most advanced position of

these three fronts, a very dangerous and poorly chosen military

position.

WAGNER

Artillery "O. P.," Kodish.

LANMAN

Mill for Grinding Grain.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Pioneer Platoon Clearing Fire Lane.

U. S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Testing a Vickers Machine Gun.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO (152813)

Doughboy Observing Bolo in Pagosta--Near Ust Padenga.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Cossack Receiving First Aid, Vistavka.

LANMAN

Ready for Day's Work.

DOUD

Flax Hung Up to Dry.

WAGNER

310th Engineers at Beresnik.

To make matters still worse, from the village of Nyandoma on the Vologda

railroad, there is a well defined winter trail, running straight across

country to the village of Ust Padenga, located on the Vaga River, about

half way between Shenkursk and Rovdinskaya. Rumors were constantly

coming in that the Bolo was occupying the villages all along this trail

in order to launch a big drive on Shenkursk as soon as winter set in. On

these frozen, packed trails, troops, artillery, etc., could be moved as

easily and readily as by rail.

In order then to withdraw our lines and to add greater safety to the

columns, it was finally decided to withdraw from Rovdinskaya to Ust

Padenga.

At one o'clock on the morning of October 18th, as we lay shivering and

shaking in the cold and dismal marshes, which we chose to call our front

line, orders came through for us to hold ourselves in readiness for a

quick and rapid retreat the following morning. All that night we had

Russian peasants, interpreters, etc., scouring the villages about us for

horses and carts to assist in our withdrawal. At 6:00 a. m. that morning

the withdrawal began. The god of war, had he witnessed this strange

sight that morning, must have recalled a similar sight a hundred years

and more prior to that, at Moscow, when the army of the great Napoleon

was scattered to the winds by the cavalry and infantry of the Russian

hordes. Three hundred and more of the ludicrous two-wheeled Russian

carts preceded us with the artillery, floundering, miring, and slipping

in the sticky, muddy roads. Following at their rear, came the tired,

worn and exhausted troops--unshaven, unkempt and with tattered

clothing. They were indeed a pitiful sight. All that day they marched

steadily on toward Ust Padenga. To add to the difficulty of the march, a

light snow had fallen which made the roads a mere quagmire. Late that

night we arrived at the position of Ust Padenga, which was to become our

winter quarters and where later so many of our brave men were to lay

down their lives in the snow and cold of the Russian forests.

With small delay for rest or recuperation we at once began preparation

for the defense of this position. Our main position and the artillery

were stationed in a small village called Netsvetyavskaya, situated on a

high bluff by the side of which meandered the Vaga River. In front of

this bluff flowed the Padenga River, a small tributary of the Vaga, and

at our right, all too close for safety, was located the forest. About

one thousand yards directly ahead of us was located the village of Ust

Padenga proper, which was garrisoned by a company of Russian soldiers.

To our right and about seventeen hundred yards ahead of us on another

bluff was located the village of Nijni Gora, to be the scene of fierce

fighting in the snow.

On the last day of October Company "A", which had been on this front for

some forty days without a relief, were relieved by Company "C" and a

battery of Canadian Artillery was also brought up to reinforce this

position.

All was now rather quiet on this front, but rumors more and more

definite were coming in daily that the Bolo was getting ready to launch

a big drive on this front. From the location of our troops here, several

hundred miles and more from our base on the Dvina and with long drawn

out lines of communication, some of the stations forty miles or so

apart, it was apparent that if attacked by a large force, we would have

to give way. It was also plainly apparent that in case the Vaga River

force was driven back to the Dvina it would necessitate the withdrawal

of the forces on the Dvina from their strongly fortified position at

Toulgas--consequently, we received orders that this position at Ust

Padenga must be held at all cost. Such was the critical position of the

Americans sent up the river by order of General Poole on a veritable

fool's errand. The folly of his so-called "active defense" of Archangel

was to be exposed most plainly at Ust Padenga and Shenkursk in winter.

By the middle of November the enemy was becoming more and more active in

this vicinity. On the seventeenth day of November a small patrol of

Americans and Canadians were ambushed and only one man, a Canadian,

escaped. The ambush occurred in the vicinity of Trogimovskaya, a village

about eight versts below Ust Padenga, where it was known that the Bolo

was concentrating troops.

On the morning of November 29th, acting under orders from British

Headquarters, a strong patrol, numbering about one hundred men, was sent

out at daybreak, under Lieut. Cuff of "C" Company, to drive the enemy

out of this position. The only road or trail leading into this town ran

through a dense forest. The snow, of course, was so deep in the forest

that it was impossible to proceed by any other route than this roadway

or trail. As this patrol was approaching one of the most dense portions

of the forest they were suddenly met by an overwhelming attacking party,

which had been concealed in the forest. The woods were literally

swarming with them and after a sharp fight Lieut. Francis Cuff, one of

the bravest and most fearless officers in the expedition, in command of

the patrol, succeeded in withdrawing his platoon.

A detachment of the patrol on the edge of the woods skirting the Vaga

River was having considerable difficulty extricating itself, however,

and without faltering Lieut. Cuff immediately deployed his men and

opened fire again upon the enemy. During this engagement, he, with

several other daring men, became separated from their fellows and it was

at this time that he was severely wounded. He and his men, several of

whom were also wounded, although cut off and completely surrounded,

fought like demons and sold their lives dearly, as was evidenced by the

enemy dead strewn about in the snow near them. The remains of these

heroic men were later recovered and removed to Shenkursk, where they

were buried almost under the shadows of the cathedral located there.

During this period the thermometer was daily descending lower and lower;

snow was falling continually and the days were so short and dark that

one could hardly distinguish day from night. These long nights of bitter

cold, with death stalking at our sides, was a terrible strain upon the

troops. Sentries standing watch in the lonely snow and cold were

constantly having feet, hands, and other parts of their anatomy frozen.

Their nerves were on edge and they were constantly firing upon white

objects that could be seen now and then prowling around in the snow.

These objects as we later found were enemy troops clad in white clothing

which made it almost impossible to detect them.

About this time an epidemic of "flu" broke out in some of the villages.

In view of the Russian custom of keeping the doors and windows of their

houses practically sealed during the winter and with their utter

disregard for the most simple sanitary precautions, small wonder it was

that in a short time the epidemic was raging in practically every

village within our lines. The American Red Cross and medical officers of

the expedition at once set to work to combat the epidemic as far as the

means at their disposal would permit. The Russian peasant, of course, in

true fatalist fashion calmly accepted this situation as an inevitable

act of Providence, which made the task of the Red Cross workers and

others more difficult. The workers, however, devoted themselves to their

errand of mercy night and day and gradually the epidemic was checked.

This voluntary act of mercy and kindness had a great effect upon the

peasantry of the region and doubtless gave them a better and more kindly

opinion of the strangers in their midst than all the efforts of our

artillery and machine guns ever could have done. And when in the winter

horses and sleighs meant life or death to the doughboys, the peasants

were true to their American soldier friends.

After the fatal ambush of Lieutenant Cuff's patrol at Ust Padenga, "C"

Company, was relieved about the first of December by Company "A." During

the remainder of the month there was more or less activity on both sides

of the line. About the fifth or sixth of the month, the enemy brought up

several batteries of light field artillery in the dense forests and

begun an artillery bombardment of our entire line. Fortunately, however,

we soon located the position of their guns and our artillery horses were

immediately hitched to the guns, and supported by two platoons of "A"

Company under Captain Odjard and Lieut. Collar, swung into a position

from which they obtained direct fire upon the enemy guns with the result

that four guns were shortly thereafter put out of commission.

From this time on, there were continual skirmishes between the outposts

and patrols. The Bolo's favorite time for patrolling was at night and

during the early hours of the morning when everything was pitch dark.

They all wore white smocks over their uniforms and they could easily

advance within fifteen or twenty feet of our sentries and outposts

without being seen. They were not always so fortunate, however, in this

reconnoitering, as a picture on a following page proves which shows one

of their scouts clad in the white uniform and cap, who was shot down by

one of our sentries when he was less than fifteen feet away from the

sentry. Outside of the terrific cold and the natural hardships of the

expedition, the month of December was comparatively quiet on the Padenga

front.

However, in the neighborhood of Shenkursk there was a growing feeling

that a number of the enemy troops were in nearby villages and that the

enemy was constantly occupying more and more of them daily. In order to

break up this growing movement and to assure the natives of the

Shenkursk region that we would brook no such interference or happenings

within our lines, on the fifth of December, a strong detachment,

consisting of Company "C" under Lieut. Weeks, and Russian infantry,

mounted Cossacks, and a pom pom detachment, set out for Kodima about

fifty versts north and east of Shenkursk toward the Dvina River.

It was reported that there were about one hundred and fifty or two

hundred of the enemy located in this village, who were breaking a trail

through from the Dvina River in order that they could send across

supporting troops from the Dvina for the attack on Shenkursk. Our

detachment, after a day and a half's march, arrived in the vicinity of

Kodima and prepared to take the position. At about the moment when the

attack was to begin, it was found that the pom poms and the Vickers guns

were not working. The thermometer at this time stood at fifty below zero

and the intense cold had frozen the oil in the buffers of the pom poms

and machine guns, rendering them worse than useless. Fortunately, this

was discovered in time to prevent any casualties, for it was later found

that there were between five hundred and one thousand of the enemy

located in this position and that they were intrenched in prepared

positions and well equipped with rifles, machine guns and artillery.

Our forces, of course, were compelled to retreat, but this maneuver

naturally gave the enemy greater courage and the following week it was

reported that they were advancing from Kodima on Shenkursk. We at once

dispatched a large force of infantry, artillery, and mounted Cossacks to

delay this advance. This maneuver was also a miserable failure, and it

is not difficult to understand the reason for same when one considers

that this detachment was composed of Americans, Canadians, and Russians,

of every conceivable, type and description, and orders issued to one

body might be and usually were entirely misunderstood by the others.

Shortly after this, however, the Cossack Colonel desired to vindicate

his troops and a new attack was planned in which the Cossacks, supported

by their own artillery, were to launch a drive against the enemy at

Kodima. After a big night's pow-wow and a typical Cossack demonstration

of swearing eternal allegiance to their leader and boasting of the dire

punishment they were going to inflict upon the enemy, they sallied forth

from Shenkursk with their banners gaily flying. No word was heard from

them until the following evening when just at dusk across the river

came, galloping like mad, the first news-bearers of our valiant cohorts.

On gaining the shelter of Shenkursk, most of them were completely

exhausted and many of their horses dropped dead from over-exertion on

the way, while others died in Shenkursk.

Our first informants described at great detail a thrilling engagement in

which they had participated and how they had fought until their

ammunition became exhausted, when they were forced to retreat. Others

described in detail how Prince Aristoff and his Adjutant, Captain

Robins, of the British Army, had fought bravely to the last and when

about to be taken prisoners, used the last bullets remaining in their

pistols to end their lives, thus preventing capture. More and more of

the scattered legion were constantly arriving, and each one had such a

remarkably different story to tell from that of his predecessor, that by

the following morning, we were all inclined to doubt all of the stories.

However, it is true that Colonel Aristoff and Robins failed to return,

and we were compelled for the time being to assume that at least part of

the stories were true. The Cossacks immediately went into deep mourning

for the loss of their valiant leader and affected great grief and

sorrow. This, however, did not prevent them from ransacking the

Colonel's headquarters and carrying off all his money and jewelry and,

in fact, about everything that he owned. Four days later, however, in

the midst of all this mourning and demonstrations, we were again treated

to a still greater surprise, for that afternoon who should come riding

into the village but the Colonel himself along with his adjutant. It can

be readily imagined what scrambling and endeavor there was on the part

of the sorrowing ones to return undetected to the Colonel's headquarters

his stolen property and belongings. For days thereafter, the garrison

resounded to the cracking of the Colonel's knout, and this time the

wailing and shedding of tears was undoubtedly more real than any that

had been shed previously to that time. These various unfortunate

affairs, while harmful enough in themselves, did far greater harm than

such incidents would ordinarily warrant, in this respect, that they gave

the enemy greater and greater confidence all along, meanwhile lowering

the morale of our Russian cohorts as well as our own troops.

And here we leave these hardy Yanks, far, far to the south of Archangel.

When their story is picked up again in the narrative, it will be found

to be one of the most thrilling stories in American military exploits.

VIII

PEASANTRY OF THE ARCHANGEL PROVINCE

Russian Peasant Born Linguist--Soldiers See Village Life--Communal

Strips Of Land Tilled By Grandfather's Methods--Ash Manure--Rapid Growth

During Days Of Perpetual Daylight--Sprinkling Cattle With Holy

Water--"Sow In Mud And You Will Be A Prince"--Cabbage Pie At

Festival--Home-Brewed "Braga" More Villainous Than Vodka--Winter

Occupations And Sports--North Russian Peasants Less Illiterate Than

Commonly Supposed.

The province of Archangel is in the far north or forest region of

Russia. It is a land of forest and morass, plentifully supplied with

water in the form of rivers, lakes and marshes, along the banks of which

are scant patches of cultivated land, which is invariably the location

of a village. Throughout the whole of this province the climate is very

severe. For more than half of the year the ground is covered by deep

snow and the rivers are completely frozen. The arable land all told

forms little more than two per cent of the vast area. The population is

scarce and averages little more at the most than two to the square mile,

according to the latest figures, about 1905.

During the late fall and early winter, shortly after Company "A" had

been relieved at Ust Padenga, we were stationed in the village of

Shegovari. Here we had considerable leisure at our disposal and

consequently the writer began devoting more time to his linguistic

studies. Difficult as the language seems to be upon one's first

introduction to it, it was not long before I was able to understand much

of what was said to me, and to express myself in a vague roundabout way.

In the latter operation I was much assisted by a peculiar faculty of

divination which the Russian peasant possesses to a remarkably high

degree. If a foreigner succeeds in expressing about one-fourth of an

idea, the Russian peasant can generally fill up the remaining

three-fourths from his own intuition. This may perhaps be readily

understood when one considers that a great majority of the upper classes

speak French or German fluently and a great number English as well.

Then, too, the many and varied races that have united and intermingled

to form the Russian race may offer an equally satisfactory explanation.

Shegovari may be taken as a fair example of the villages throughout the

northern half of Russia, and a brief description of its inhabitants will

convey a correct notion of the northern peasantry in general. The

village itself is located about forty versts above Shenkursk on the

banks of the Vaga river, which meanders and winds about the village so

that the river is really on both sides. On account of this location

there is more arable land surrounding the village than is found in the

average community and dozens of villages are clustered about this

particular location, the villages devoting most of their time to

agricultural pursuits.

I believe it may safely be said that nearly the whole of the female

population and about one-half the male inhabitants are habitually

engaged in cultivating the communal land, which comprises perhaps five

hundred acres of light, sandy soil. As is typical throughout the

province this land is divided into three large fields, each of which is

again subdivided into strips. The first field is reserved for one of the

most important grains, i.e., rye, which in the form of black bread, is

the principal food of the population. In the second are raised oats for

the horses and here and there some buckwheat which is also used for

food. The third field lies fallow and is used in the summer for

pasturing the cattle.

This method of dividing the land is so devised in order to suit the

triennial rotation of crops, a very simple system, but quite practical

nevertheless. The field which is used this year for raising winter

grain, will be used next summer for raising summer grain and in the

following year will lie fallow. Every family possesses in each of the

two fields under cultivation one or more of the subdivided strips, which

he is accountable for and which he must cultivate and attend to.

The arable lands are of course carefully manured because the soil at its

best is none too good and would soon exhaust it. In addition to manuring

the soil the peasant has another method of enriching the soil. Though

knowing nothing of modern agronomical chemistry, he, as well as his

forefathers, have learned that if wood be burnt on a field and the ashes

be mixed with the soil, a good harvest may be expected. This simple

method accounts for the many patches of burned forest area, which we at

first believed to be the result of forest fires. When spring comes round

and the leaves begin to appear, a band of peasants, armed with their

short hand axes, with which they are most dextrous, proceed to some spot

previously decided upon and fell all trees, great and small within the

area. If it is decided to use the soil in that immediate vicinity, the

fallen trees are allowed to remain until fall, when the logs for

building or firewood are dragged away as soon as the first snow falls.

The rest of the piles, branches, etc., are allowed to remain until the

following spring, at which time fires may be seen spreading in all

directions. If the fire does its work properly, the whole of the space

is covered with a layer of ashes, and when they have been mixed with the

soil the seed is sown, and the harvest, nearly always good, sometimes

borders on the miraculous. Barley or rye may be expected to produce

about six fold in ordinary years and they may produce as much as thirty

fold under exceptional circumstances!

In most countries this method of treating the soil would be an absurdly

expensive one, for wood is entirely too valuable a commodity to be used

for such a purpose, but in this northern region the forests are so

boundless and the inhabitants so few that the latter do not make any

great inroad upon the former.

The agricultural year in this region begins in April, with the melting

snows. Nature which has been lying dormant for some six months, now

awakes and endeavors to make up for lost time. No sooner does the snow

disappear than the grass immediately sprouts forth and the shrubs and

trees begin to bud. The rapidity of this transition from winter to

spring certainly astonished the majority of us, accustomed as we were to

more temperate climes.

On the Russian St. George's Day, April 23rd, according to the old

Russian calendar, or two weeks later according to our calendar, the

cattle are brought forth from their winter hibernation and sprinkled

with holy water by the priest. They are never very fat at any time of

the year but at this particular period of the year their appearance is

almost pitiful. During the winter they are kept cooped up in a shed,

usually one adjoining the house or under the porch of same with very

little, if any, light or ventilation, and fed almostly exclusively on

straw. It is quite remarkable that there is one iota of life left in

them for when they are thus turned out in the spring they look like mere

ghosts of their former selves. With the horses it is a different matter

for it is during the winter months in this region that the peasants do

most of their traveling and the horse is constantly exposed to the

opposite extreme of exposure and the bleak wind and cold, but is well

fed.

Meanwhile the peasants are impatient to begin the field labor--it is an

old Russian proverb known to all which says: "Sow in mud and you will be

a prince," and true to this wisdom they always act accordingly. As soon

as it is possible to plough they begin to prepare the land for the

summer grain and this labor occupies them probably till the end of May.

Then comes the work of carting out manure, etc., and preparing the

fallow field for the winter grain which will last until about the latter

part of June when the early hay making generally begins. After the hay

making comes the harvest which is by far the busiest time of the year.

From the middle of July--especially from St. Elijah's day about the

middle of July, when the Saint according to the Russian superstition,

may be heard rumbling along the heavens in his chariot of fire--until

the end of August or early September the peasant may work day and night

and yet find that he has barely time to get all his work done. During

the summer months the sun in this region scarcely ever sets below the

horizon and the peasant may often be found in the fields as late as

twelve o'clock at night trying to complete the day's work. In a little

more than a month from this time he has to reap and stack his grain,

oats, rye and whatever else he may have sown, and to sow his winter

grain for the next, year. To add to the difficulty both grains often

ripen about the same time and then it requires almost superhuman efforts

on his part to complete his task before the first snow flies.

When one considers that all this work is done by hand--the planting,

plowing, reaping, threshing, etc., in the majority of cases by home made

instruments, it is really a more remarkable thing that the Russian

peasant accomplishes so much in such a short space of time. About the

end of September, however, the field labor is finished and on the first

day of October the harvest festival begins. At this particular season of

the year our troops on the Vaga river were operating far below Shenkursk

in the vicinity of Rovdinskaya and it was our good fortune to witness a

typical parish fete--celebrated in true Russian style. While it is true

during the winter months that the peasant lives a very, frugal and

simple life, it is not in my opinion on account of his desire so to do

but more a matter of necessity. During the harvest festivals the

principal occupation of the peasant seems to be that of eating and

drinking. In each household large quantities of braga or home brewed

beer is prepared and a plentiful supply of meat pies are constantly on

hand. There is also another delectable dish, which I am sure did not

appeal to our troops to the fullest extent. It was a kind of pie

composed of cabbage and salt fish, but unless one was quite accustomed

to the odor, he could not summon up sufficient courage to attack this

viand. It, however, was a very popular dish among the peasants.

After a week or so of this preparation the fete day finally arrives and

the morning finds the entire village attending a long service in the

village church. All are dressed in their very best and the finest linens

and brightest colors are very much in evidence. After the service they

repair to their different homes--of course many of the poorer ones go to

the homes of the more well to do where they are very hospitably received

and entertained. All sit down to a common table and the eating begins. I

attended a dinner in a well-to-do peasant's house that day and before

the meal was one-third through I was ready to desist. The landlord was

very much displeased and I was informed confidentially by one of the

Russian officers who had invited me that the landlord would take great

offense at the first to give up the contest--and that as a matter of

fact instead of being a sign of poor breeding, on the contrary it was

considered quite the thing to stuff one's self until he could eat no

more. As the meal progressed great bowls of braga and now and then a

glass of vodka were brought in to help along the repast. After an almost

interminable time the guests all rose in a body and facing the icon

crossed themselves--then bowing to the host--made certain remarks which

I afterward found out meant, "Thanks for your bread and salt"--to which

the host replied, "Do not be displeased, sit down once more for

goodluck," whereupon all hands fell to again and had it not been for a

mounted messenger galloping in with important messages, I am of the

opinion that we would probably have spent the balance of the day trying

not to displease our host.

If the Russian peasant's food were always as good and plentiful as at

this season of the year, he would have little reason to complain, but

this is by no means the case. Beef, mutton, pork and the like are

entirely too expensive to be considered as a common article of food and

consequently the average peasant is more or less of a vegetarian, living

on cabbage, cabbage soup, potatoes, turnips and black bread the entire

winter--varied now and then with a portion of salt fish.

From the festival time until the following spring there is no

possibility of doing any agricultural work for the ground is as hard as

iron and covered with snow. The male peasants do very little work during

these winter months and spend most of their time lying idly upon the

huge brick stoves. Some of them, it is true, have some handicraft that

occupies their winter hours; others will take their guns and a little

parcel of provisions and wander about in the trackless forests for days

at a time. If successful, he may bring home a number of valuable

skins--such as ermine, fox and the like. Sometimes a number of them

associate for the purpose of deep sea fishing, in which case they

usually start out on foot for Kem on the shores of the White Sea or for

the far away Kola on the Murmansk Coast. Here they must charter a boat

and often times after a month or two of this fishing they will be in

debt to the boat owner and are forced to return with an empty pocket.

While we were there we gave them all plenty to do--village after village

being occupied in the grim task of making barb wire entanglements, etc.,

building block houses, hauling logs, and driving convoys. This was of

course quite outside their usual occupation and I am of the impression

that they were none to favorably impressed--perhaps some of them are

explaining to the Bolo Commissars just how they happened to be engaged in

these particular pursuits.

For the female part of the population, however, the winter is a very

busy and well occupied time. For it is during these long months that the

spinning and weaving is done and cloth manufactured for clothing and

other purposes. Many of them are otherwise engaged in plaiting a kind of

rude shoe--called lapty, which is worn throughout the summer by a great

number of the peasants--and I have seen some of them worn in extremely

cold weather with heavy stockings and rags wrapped around the feet. This

was probably due to the fact, however, that leather shoes and boots were

almost a thing of the past at that time, for it must be remembered that

Russia had been practically shut off from the rest of the world for

almost four years during the period of the war. The evenings are often

devoted to besedys--a kind of ladies' guild meeting, where all assemble

and engage in talking over village gossip, playing games and other

innocent amusements, or spinning thread from flax.

Before closing this chapter, I wish to comment upon an article that I

read some months ago regarding what the writer thought to be a

surprising abundance of evidence disproving the common idea of

illiteracy among the Russian peasants. It is admitted that the peasants

of this region are above the average in the way of education and

ability, but as I have later learned they are not an average type of the

millions of peasants located in the interior and the south of Russia,

whose fathers and forefathers and many of themselves spent the greater

part of their lives as serfs. While the peasants of this region

nominally may have come under the heading of serfs, yet when they were

first driven into this country for the purpose of colonization and

settlement by Peter the Great, they were given far greater liberties

than any of the peasants of the south enjoyed. They were settled on

State domains and those that lived on the land of landlords scarcely

ever realized the fact, inasmuch as few of the landed aristocracy ever

spent any portion of their time in the province of Archangel unless

compelled to do so. In addition to this liberty and freedom, there was

also the stimulating effect of the cold, rigorous climate and therefore

it is more readily understood why the peasants of this region are more

energetic, more intelligent, more independent and better educated than

the inhabitants of the interior to the south.

After becoming somewhat acquainted with the family life of the

peasantry, and no one living with them as intimately as we did, could

have failed to have become more than ordinarily acquainted, we turned

our attention to the local village government or so-called Mir. We had

early learned that the chief personage in a Russian village was the

starosta, or village elder, and that all important communal affairs were

regulated by the Selski Skhod or village assembly. We were also well

acquainted with the fact that the land in the vicinity of the village

belonged to the commune, and was distributed periodically among the

members in such a way that every able bodied man possessed a share

sufficient for his maintenance, or nearly so. Beyond this, however, few

of us knew little or nothing more. We were fortunate in having with us a

great number of Russian born men, who of course were our interpreters,

one of whom, by the way, Private Cwenk, was killed on January 19th,

1919, in the attack of Nijni Gora when he refused to quit his post,

though mortally injured, until it was too late for him to make his

escape.

Through continual conversations and various transactions with the

peasants (carried on of course through our interpreters) the writer

gradually learned much of the village communal life. While at first

glance there are many points of similarity between the family life and

the village life, yet there are also many points of difference which

will be more apparent as we continue. In both, there is a chief or

ruler, one called the khozain or head of the house and the other as

above indicated, the starosta or village elder. In both cases too there

is a certain amount of common property and a common responsibility. On

the other hand, the mutual relations are far from being so closely

interwoven as in the case of the household.

From these brief remarks it will be readily apparent that a Russian

village is quite a different thing from a provincial town or village in

America. While it is true in a sense that in our villages the citizens

are bound together in certain interests of the community, yet each

family, outside of a few individual friends, is more or less isolated

from the rest of the community--each family having little to interest it

in the affairs of the other. In a Russian village, however, such a state

of indifference and isolation is quite impossible. The heads of

households must often meet together and consult in the village assembly

and their daily duties and occupations are controlled by the communal

decrees. The individual cannot begin to mow the hay or plough the fields

until the assembly has decided the time for all to begin. If one becomes

a shirker or drunkard everyone in the village has a right to complain

and see that the matter is at once taken care of, not so much out of

interest for the welfare of the shirker, but from the plain selfish

motive that all the families are collectively responsible for his taxes

and also the fact that he is entitled to a share in the communal

harvest, which unless he does his share of the work, is taken from the

common property of the whole.

As heretofore stated on another page of this book, the land belonging to

each village is distributed among the individual families and for which

each is responsible. It might be of interest to know how this

distribution is made. In certain communities the old-fashioned method of

simply taking a census and distributing the property according to same

is still in use. This in a great many instances is quite unfair and

works a great hardship--where often the head of the household is a widow

with perhaps four or five girls on her hands and possibly one boy.

Obviously, she cannot hope to do as much as her neighbor, who, perhaps,

in addition to the father, may have three or four well-grown boys to

assist him. It might be logically suggested, then, that the widow could

rent the balance of her share of the land and thus take care of same. If

land were in demand in Russia, especially in the Archangel region, as it

is in the farming communities of this country, it might be a simple

matter--but in Russia often the possession of a share of land is quite

often not a privilege but a decided hardship. Often the land is so poor

that it cannot be rented at any price, and in the old days it was quite

often the case that even though it could be rented, the rent would not

be sufficient to pay the taxes on same. Therefore, each family is quite

well satisfied with his share of the land and is not looking for more

trouble and labor if they can avoid it, and at the assembly meetings,

when the land is distributed each year, it is amusing to hear the

thousand-and-one excuses for not taking more land, as the following

brief description will illustrate.

It is assembly day, we will imagine, and all the villagers are assembled

to do their best from having more land and its consequent

responsibilities thrust upon them. Nicholas is being asked how many

shares of the communal land he will take, and after due deliberation and

much scratching of the head to stir up the cerebral processes (at least

we will assume that is the function of this last movement) he slowly

replies that inasmuch as he has two sons he will take three shares for

his family to farm, or perhaps a little less as his health is none too

good, though as a matter of fact he may be one of the most ruddy-faced

and healthiest individuals present.

This last remark is the signal for an outburst of laughter and ridicule

by the others present and the arguments pro and con wax furious. Of a

sudden, a voice in the crowd cries out: "He is a rich moujik, and he

should have five shares of the land as his burden at the least."

Nicholas, seeing that the wave is about to overwhelm him, then resorts

to entreaty and makes every possible explanation now why it will be

utterly impossible for him to take five shares, his point now being to

cut down this allotment if within his power. After considerable more

discussion the leader of the crowd then puts the question to the

assembly and inquires if it be their will that Nicholas take four

shares. There is an immediate storm of assent from all quarters and this

settles the question beyond further argument.

This native shrewdness and spirit of barter is quite typical of the

Russian peasant in all matters--large or small--and he greets the

outcome of every such combat with stoical indifference, in typical

fatalist fashion.

The writer recalls one experience in the village of Shegovari on the

occasion of our first occupation of this place. It was before the rivers

had frozen over and headquarters at Shenkursk was getting ready to

install the sledge convoy system which was our only means of

transportation during the long winter months. Shegovari being a large

and prosperous community and there being a plentiful supply of horses

there, we were accordingly dispatched to this place to take over the

town and buy up as many horses as could be commandeered in this section.

In company with a villainous looking detachment of Cossacks we set out

from Shenkursk on board an enormous barge being towed by the river

steamer "Tolstoy." On our way we became pretty well acquainted with

Colonel Aristov, the commander of the Cossacks, who, through his

interpreter, filled our ears with the various deeds of valor of himself

and picked cohorts. He further informed us that the village where we

were going was hostile to the Allied troops, and that there was some

question just at that time as to whether it was not in fact occupied by

the enemy. Consequently he had devised a very clever scheme, so he

thought, for getting what we were after and incidentally putting horses

on the market at bargain rates.

We were to bivouac for the night some ten miles or so above the town and

at early dawn we would steam down the river on our gunboat. If there

were any signs of hostility we were at once to open up on the village

with the pom pom mounted on board our cruiser, and the infantry were to

follow up with an attack on land. The colonel's idea was that a little

demonstration of arms would thoroughly cow the native villagers and

therefore they would be willing to meet any terms offered by him for the

purchase of their horses. Fortunately or unfortunately (which side one

considers) the plan failed to materialize, for when we anchored

alongside the village the peasants were busily occupied in getting their

supply of salt fish for the winter and merely took our arrival as one of

the usual unfortunate visitations of Providence. The colonel at once

sent for the starosta (the village elder as heretofore explained) who

immediately presented himself with much bowing and scraping, probably

wondering what further ill-luck was to befall him. The colonel with a

great display of pomp and gesticulating firmly impressed the starosta

that on the following day all the peasants were to bring to this village

their horses, prepared to sell them for the good of the cause. ... The

following morning the streets were lined up with horses and owners, and

they could be seen corning from all directions. At about ten o'clock the

parade began. Each peasant would lead his horse by the colonel, who

would look them over carefully and then ask what the owner would take

for his horse. Usually he would be met with a bow and downcast eyes as

the owner replied: "As your excellency decides." "Very well, then, you

will receive nine hundred roubles or some such amount." Instantly the

air of submissiveness and meekness disappears and a torrent of words

pours forth, eulogizing the virtues of this steed and the enormous

sacrifice it would be to allow his horse to go at that price. After the

usual haggling the bargain would be closed--sometimes at a greater

figure and sometimes at a lesser.

Now the amusing part of this transaction to me was that with my

interpreter we moved around amongst the crowd and got their own values

as to some of these horses.  What was our amazement some moments later

to see them pass before the colonel who in a number of cases offered

them more than their estimates previously given to myself, whereupon

they immediately went through the maneuvers above described and in some

cases actually obtained increases over the colonel's first hazard.

This lesson later stood us in good stead, for some weeks later it

devolved upon us to purchase harnesses and sleds for these very horses

and the reader may be sure that such haggling and bargaining (all

through an interpreter) was never seen before in this part of the

country. Somehow the word got around that the Amerikanskis who were

buying the sleds and harness had gotten acquainted with the horse

dealing method of some weeks past and therefore it was an especial event

to witness the sale and purchase of these various articles, and,

needless to say, there was always an enthusiastic crowd of spectators

present to cheer and jibe at the various contestants. All these various

transactions must have resulted with the balance decidedly in favor of

the villagers, for they were extremely pleasant and hospitable to us

during our entire stay here and instead of being hostile were exactly

the opposite, actually putting themselves to a great amount of trouble

time after time to meet with our many demands for logs and laborers,

although they were in no way bound to do these things.

In our dealings with the community here, as elsewhere, all transactions

were carried on with the starosta or village head. We naturally figured

that this officer was one of the highest and most honored men of the

village, probably corresponding to the mayor of one of our own cities,

but we were later disillusioned in this particular. It seems that each

male member of the community must "do time" some time during his career

as village elder, and each one tried to postpone the task just as long

as it was in his power to do so. True it is that the starosta is the

leader of his community during his regime, but therein is the

difficulty, for coupled with this power is the further detail of keeping

a strict and accurate account of all the business transactions of the

year, all the moneys, wages, etc., due the various members for labors

performed and services rendered. This, of course, is due to the fact

that everything is owned in common by the community: Land, food

products, wood, in short, practically all tangible property.

Imagine, then, the starosta who, we will say, at eight or nine o'clock

on a cold winter's night is called upon to have a dozen or more drivers

ready the next morning at six o'clock to conduct a sledge convoy through

to the next town, another group of fifty or a hundred workmen to go into

the forests and cut and haul logs for fortifications, and still others

for as many different duties as one could imagine during time of war. He

must furthermore see, for example, that the same drivers are properly

called in turn, for it is the occasion of another prolonged verbal

battle in case one is called out of his turn. During the day he is

probably busily occupied in commandeering oats and hay for the convoy

horses and when night comes he certainly has earned his day's repose,

but his day does not end at nightfall as in the case of the other

members of the commune.

During our stay here, practically every night he would call upon the

commanding officer to get orders for the coming day, to check over

various claims and accounts and each week to receive pay for the entire

community engaged in these labors. One occasion we distinctly recall as

a striking example of this particular starosta's honesty and integrity.

He had spent the greater part of the evening in our headquarters,

checking over accounts involving some three or four thousand roubles for

the pay roll the following day. Finally the matter was settled and the

money turned over to him, after which we all retired to our bunks. At

about one o'clock that morning the sentry on post near headquarters

awakened us and said the starosta was outside and wished to see the

commander, whereupon the C. O. sent word for him to come up to our

quarters. After the usual ceremony of crossing himself before the icon

the starosta announced that he had been overpaid about ninety roubles,

which mistake he found after reaching his home and checking over the

account again. We were too dumfounded to believe our ears. Here was this

poor hard-working moujik who doubtless knew that the error would never

have been discovered by ourselves, and, even if it had, the loss would

have been trifling, yet he tramped back through the snow to get this

matter straightened out before he retired to the top of the stove for

the night. Needless to say, our C. O. turned the money back to him as a

reward for his honesty, in addition to which he was given several hearty

draughts of rum to warm him up for his return journey, along with a

small sack of sugar to appease his wife who, he said, always made things

warmer for him when he returned home with the odor of rum about him.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO (159458)

Joe Chinzi and Russian Bride.

DOUD

Watching Her Weave Cloth.

U.S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Doughboy Attends Spinning-Bee.

DOUD

Doughboy in the Best Bed--On Stove.

MORRIS

Defiance to Bolo Advance.

DOUD

337th Hospital at Beresnik.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Onega.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Y M. C. A., Obozerskaya.

IX

"H" COMPANY PUSHES UP THE ONEGA VALLEY

Two Platoons Of "H" Company By Steamer To Onega--Occupation Of

Chekuevo--Bolsheviki Give Battle--Big Order To Little Force--Kaska Too

Strongly Defended--Doughboys' Attack Fails--Cossacks Spread False

Report--Successful Advance Up Valley--Digging In For Winter.

Meanwhile "H" Company was pushing up the Onega Valley. Stories had

leaked out in Archangel of engagements up the Dvina and up the railroad

where American soldiers had tasted first sweets of victory, and "H" men

now piled excitedly into a steamer at Archangel on the 15th of September

and after a 24-hour ride down the Dvina, across the Dvina Bay up an arm

of the White Sea called Onega Bay and into the mouth of the Onega River,

landed without any opposition and took possession. The enemy had been

expelled a few days previously by a small detachment of American sailors

from the "Olympia."

The "H" force consisted of two platoons commanded by Lieuts. Phillips

and Pellegrom, who reported to an English officer, Col. Clark.

The coming of Americans was none too soon. The British officer had not

made much headway in organizing an effective force of the anti-Bolshevik

Russians. The Red Guards were massing forces in the upper part of the

valley and, German-like, had sent notice of their impending advance to

recapture the city of Onega.

On September 18th Lieut. Pellegrom received verbal orders from Col.

Clark to move his platoon of fifty-eight men with Lieut. Nugent, M. R.

C., and one man at once to Chekuevo, about fifty miles up the river.

Partly by boat and partly by marching the Americans reached the village

of Chekuevo and began organizing the defenses, on the 19th. Three days

later Lieut. Phillips was hurried up with his platoon to reinforce and

take command of the hundred and fifteen Americans and ninety-three

Russian volunteers. At dawn on the twenty-fourth the enemy attacked our

positions from three sides with a force of three hundred and fifty men

and several machine guns.

The engagement lasted for five hours. The main attack coming down the

left bank of the Onega River was held by the Americans till after the

enemy had driven back the Allies, Russians, on the right bank and placed

a machine gun on our flank.

Then the Americans had to give ground on the main position and the Reds

placed another machine gun advantageously. Meanwhile smaller parties of

the enemy were working in the rear. Finally the enemy machine guns were

spotted and put out of action by the superior fire of our Lewis

automatics, and the Bolshevik leader, Shiskin, was killed at the gun.

This success inspirited the Americans who dashed forward and the Reds

broke and fled. A strong American combat patrol followed the retreating

Reds for five miles and picked up much clothing, ammunition, rifles, and

equipment, and two of his dead, ten of his wounded and one prisoner and

two machine guns. Losses on our side consisted of two wounded. Our

Russian allies lost two killed and seven wounded.

The action had been carried on in the rain under very trying conditions

for the Americans who were in their first fire fight and reflected great

credit upon Lieut. Phillips and his handful of doughboys who were

outnumbered more than three to one and forced to give battle in a place

well known to the enemy but strange to the Americans and severely

disadvantageous.

Outside of a few patrol combats and the capture of a few Bolshevik

prisoners the remainder of the month of September was uneventful.

The Onega Valley force, like the Railway and Kodish forces, was sparring

for an opening and plans were made for a general push on Plesetskaya. On

September 30th Lieut. Phillips received an order as follows:

"The enemy on the railway line is being attacked today (the 29th) and

some Cossacks are coming to you from Obozerskaya. On their arrival you

will move south with them and prevent enemy from retiring across the

river in a westerly direction.

"Open the wire to Obozerskaya and ascertain how far down the line our

troops have reached and then try to keep abreast of them but do not go

too far without orders from the O/CA force (Col. Sutherland at

Obozerskaya). I mean by this that you must not run your head against a

strong force which may be retiring unless you are sure of holding your

ground. There is a strong force at Plesetskaya on the railway and it

is possible that they may retire across your front in the direction of

the line running from Murmansk to Petrograd. The commandant of

Chekuevo must supply you with carts for rations and, as soon as you

can, make arrangements for food to be sent to you from the railway.

The S. S. service can run up to you with supplies and can keep with

you until you reach the rapids, if you go so far. Don't forget that

the enemy has a force at Turchesova, south of you. Keep the transports

in the middle of your column so that no carts get cut off, and it

would be a good thing if you could get transport from village to

village.

"Captain Burton, R. M. L. I., will remain in command at Chekuevo."

W. J. CLARK, Lieut.-Col.

The Americans knew that this was a big contract, but let us now look at

the map and see what the plan really called for. Forty miles of old

imperial telegraph and telephone line to the eastward to restore to use

between Chekuevo and Obozerskaya. No signal corps men and no telling

where the wires needed repair. And sixty miles more or less to the south

and eastward on another road to make speed with slow cart transport with

orders to intercept an enemy supposed to be preparing to flee westward

from the railway. Not forgetting that was to be done in spite of the

opposition of a strong force of Red Guards somewhere in the vicinity of

Turchesova thirty-five miles up the valley. "A little job, you know,"

for those one hundred and fifteen Americans, veterans of two weeks in

the wilds of North Russia.

The American officer from his reconnaissance patrols and from friendly

natives learned that the enemy instead of seeking escape was massing

forces for another attack on the Americans.

About seven hundred of the Red Guards were heavily entrenched in and

around Kaska and were recruiting forces. In compliance with his orders,

Lieut. Phillips moved out the next morning, October 1st, with the

eighteen mounted Cossacks, joined in the night from Obozerskaya, and his

other anti-Bolshevik Russian volunteer troops. Movement began at 2:30 a.

m. with about eight miles to march in the dark and zero hour was set for

five o'clock daybreak. Two squads of the Americans and Russian

volunteers had been detached by Lieut. Phillips and given to the command

of Capt. Burton to make a diversion attack on Wazientia, a village

across the river from Kaska. Lieut. Pellegrom was to attack the enemy in

flank from the west while Lieut. Phillips and the Cossacks made the

frontal assault.

Phillip's platoon was early deserted by the Cossacks and, after

advancing along the side of a sandy ridge to within one hundred yards of

the enemy, found it necessary to dig in. Lieut. Pellegrom on the flank

on account of the nature of the ground brought his men only to within

three hundred yards of the enemy lines and was unable to make any

communication with his leader. Captain Burton was deserted by the

volunteers at first fire and had to retreat with his two squads of

Americans. The fire fight raged all the long day. Phillips was unable to

extricate his men till darkness but held his position and punished the

enemy's counter attacks severely. The enemy commanded the lines with

heavy machine guns and the doughboys who volunteered to carry messages

from one platoon to the other paid for their bravery with their lives.

Believing himself to be greatly outnumbered the American officer

withdrew his men at 7:30 p. m. to Chekuevo, with losses of six men

killed and three wounded. Enemy losses reported later by deserters were

thirty killed and fifty wounded.

Again the opposing sides resorted to delay and sparring for openings. At

Chekuevo the Americans strengthened the defenses of that important road

junction and kept in contact with the enemy by daily combat patrols up

the valley in the direction of Kaska, scene of the encounter. It was

during this period that one day the "H" men at Chekuevo were surprised

by the appearance of Lieut. Johnson with a squad of "M" Company men who

had patrolled the forty miles of Obozerskaya road to Chekuevo looking

for signs of the enemy whom a mounted patrol of Cossacks sent from

Obozerskaya had declared were in possession of the road and of Chekuevo.

They learned from these men that on the railway, too, the enemy had

disclosed astonishing strength of numbers and showed as good quality of

fighting courage as at Kaska and had administered to the American troops

their first defeat. They learned, too, that the French battalion was

coming back onto the fighting line with the Americans for a heavy united

smash at the enemy.

A new party of some fifteen Cossacks relieved the eighteen Cossacks who

returned to Archangel. The force was augmented materially by the coming

of a French officer and twenty-five men from Archangel.

The same boat brought out the remainder of "H" Company under command of

Capt. Carl Gevers, who set up his headquarters at Onega, October 9th,

under the new British O/C Onega Det., Col. ("Tin Eye") Edwards, and sent

Lieut. Carlson and his platoon to Karelskoe, a village ten miles to the

rear of Chekuevo, to support Phillips.

Success on the railroad front, together with information gathered from

patrols led Col. Edwards to believe the enemy was retiring up the

valley. An armed reconnaissance by the whole force at Chekuevo moving

forward on both sides of the Onega River on October 19th, which was two

days after the Americans on the railroad had carried Four Hundred and

Forty-five by storm and the Bolo had "got up his wind" and retired to

Emtsa. Phillips found that the enemy had indeed retired from Kaska and

retreated to Turchesova, some thirty-five miles up the valley.

Phillips occupied all the villages along the river Kachela in force,

sending his combat patrols south of Priluk daily to make contact. Winter

showed signs of early approach and, in compliance with verbal orders of

Col. Edwards at Onega, Phillips withdrew his forces to Chekuevo on

October 25th. This seems to have been in accordance with the wise plan

of the new British Commanding General to extend no further the

dangerously extended lines, but to prepare for active defense just where

snow and frost were finding the various widely scattered forces of the

expedition. On the way back through Kaska it was learned that two of the

"H" men who had been reported missing in the fight at Kaska, but who

were in fact killed, had been buried by the villagers. They were

disinterred and given a regular military funeral, and graves marked.

Outside of daily patrols and the reliefs of platoons changing about for

rest at Onega there was little of excitement during the remainder of

October and the month of November. Occasionally there would be a flurry,

a "windy time" at British Headquarters in Onega and patrols and

occupying detachments sent out to various widely separated villages up

the valley. There seems to have been an idea finally that the village of

Kyvalanda should be fortified so as to prevent the Red Guards from

having access to the valley of the Chulyuga, a tributary of the Onega

River, up which in the winter ran a good road to Bolsheozerke where it

joined the Chekuevo road to Oborzerskaya. Wire was brought up and the

village of Kyvalanda was strongly entrenched, sometimes two platoons

being stationed there.

Captain Gevers had to go to hospital for operation. This was a loss to

the men. Here old Boreas came down upon this devoted company of

doughboys. They got into their winter clothing, gave attention to making

themselves as comfortable shelters as possible on their advanced

outposts, organized their sleigh transport system that had to take the

place of the steamer service on the Onega which was now a frozen barrier

to boats but a highway for sleds. They had long winter nights ahead of

them with frequent snow storms and many days of severe zero weather. And

though they did not suspect it they were to encounter hard fighting

during and at the end of the winter.

X

"G" COMPANY FAR UP THE PINEGA RIVER

Reds Had Looted Villages Of Pinega Valley--Winter Sees Bolsheviks

Returning To Attack--Mission Of American Column--Pinega--Pinkish-White

Political Color--Yank Soldiers Well Received--Take Distant

Karpogora--Greatly Outnumbered Americans Retire--"Just Where Is Pinega

Front?"

In making their getaway from Archangel and vicinity at the time the

Allies landed in Archangel, the Reds looted and robbed and carried off

by rail and by steamer much stores of furs, and clothing and food, as

well as the munitions and military equipment. What they did not carry by

rail to Vologda they took by river to Kotlas. We have seen how they have

been pursued and battled on the Onega, on the Railroad, on the Vaga, on

the Dvina. Now we turn to the short narrative of their activities on the

Pinega River. As the Reds at last learned that the expedition was too

small to really overpower them and had returned to dispute the Allies on

the other rivers, so, far up the Pinega Valley, they began gathering

forces. The people of the lower Pinega Valley appealed to the Archangel

government and the Allied military command for protection and for

assistance in pursuing the Reds to recover the stores of flour that had

been taken from the co-operative store associations at various points

along the river. These co-operatives had bought flour from the American

Red Cross. Accordingly on October 20th Captain Conway with "G" Company

set off on a fast steamer and barge for Pinega, arriving after three

days and two nights with a force of two platoons, the other two having

been left behind on detached service, guarding the ships in the harbor

of Bakaritza. Here the American officer was to command the area,

organize its defense and cooperate with the Russian civil authorities in

raising local volunteers for the defense of the city of Pinega, which,

situated at the apex of a great inverted "V" in the river, appeared to

be the key point to the military and political situation.

Pinega was a fine city of three thousand inhabitants with six or seven

thousand in the nearby villages that thickly dot the banks of this broad

expansion of the old fur-trading and lumber river port. Its people were

progressive and fairly well educated. The city had been endowed by its

millionaire old trader with a fine technical high school. It had a large

cathedral, of course. Not far from it two hours ride by horseback, an

object of interest to the doughboy, was the three hundred-year-old

monastery, white walls with domes and spires, perched upon the grey

bluffs, in the hazy distance looking over the broad Pinega Valley and

Soyla Lake, where the monks carried on their fishing. In Pinega was a

fine community hall, a good hospital and the government buildings of the

area.

Its people had held a great celebration when they renounced allegiance

to the Czar, but they had very sensibly retained some of his old trained

local representatives to help carry on their government. Self government

they cherished. When the Red Guards had been in power at Archangel they

had of course extended their sway partially to this far-off area. But

the people had only submitted for the time. Some of their able men had

had to accept tenure of authority under the nominal overlordship of the

Red commissars. And when the Reds fled at the approach of the Allies,

the people of Pinega had punished a few of the cruel Bolshevik rulers

that they caught but had not made any great effort to change all the

officers of civil government even though they had been Red officials for

a time. In fact it was a somewhat confused color scheme of Red and White

civil government that the Americans found in the Pinega Valley. The

writer commanded this area in the winter and speaks from actual

experience in dealing with this Pinega local government, half Red as it

was. The Americans were well received and took up garrison duty in the

fall, raising a force of three hundred volunteers chiefly from the

valley above Pinega, whose people were in fear of a return of the Reds

and begged for a military column up the valley to deliver it from the

Red agitators and recover their flour that had been stolen.

November 15th Captain Conway, acting under British G. H. Q., Archangel,

acceded to these requests and sent Lieut. Higgins with thirty-five

Americans and two hundred and ten Russian volunteers to clear the valley

and occupy Karpogora.

For ten days the force advanced without opposition. At Marynagora an

enemy patrol was encountered and the next day the Yanks drove back an

enemy combat patrol. Daily combat patrol action did not interfere with

their advance and on Thanksgiving Day the "G" Company boys after a

little engagement went into Karpogora. They were one hundred and twenty

versts from Pinega, which was two hundred and seven versts from

Archangel, a mere matter of being two hundred miles from Archangel in

the heart of a country which was politically about fifty-fifty between

Red and White. But the Reds did not intend to have the Americans up

there. On December 4th they came on in a much superior force and

attacked. The Americans lost two killed and four wounded out of their

little thirty-five Americans and several White Guards, and on order from

Captain Conway, who hurried up the river to take charge, the flying

column relinquished its hold on Karpogora and retired down the valley

followed by the Reds. A force of White Guards was left at Visakagorka,

and one at Trufanagora, and Priluk and the main White Guard outer

defense of Pinega established at Pelegorskaya.

Like the whole expedition into Russia of which the Pinega Valley force

was only one minor part, the coming of the Allied troops had quieted the

areas occupied but, in the hinterland beyond, the propaganda of the wily

Bolshevik agents of Trotsky and Lenine succeeded quite naturally in

inflaming the Russians against what they called the foreign bayonets.

And here at the beginning of winter we leave this handful of Americans

holding the left sector of the great horseshoe line against a gathering

force, the mutterings of whose Red mobs was already being heard and

which was preparing a series of dreadful surprises for the Allied forces

on the Pinega as well as on other winter fronts. Indeed their activities

in this peace-loving valley were to rise early in the winter to major

importance to the whole expedition's fate and stories of this flank

threat to Archangel and especially to the Dvina and Vaga lines of

communication, where the Pinega Valley merges with the Dvina Valley, was

to bring from our American Great Headquarters in France the terse

telegram: "Just where is the Pinega Front?"

It was out there in the solid pine forests one hundred fifty miles to

the east and north of Archangel. Out where the Russian peasant had

rigged up his strange-looking but ingeniously constructed sahnia, or

sledge. Where on the river he was planting in the ice long thick-set

rows of pines or branches in double rows twice a sled length apart.

These frozen-in lines of green were to guide the traveller in the long

winter of short days and dark nights safely past the occasional open

holes and at such times as he made his trip over the road in the

blinding blizzards of snow. Out there where the peasant was changing

from leather boots to felt boots and was hunting up his scarfs and his

great parki, or bearskin overcoat. That is where "G" Company, one

hundred strong, was holding the little, but important, Pinega Front at

the end of the fall campaign.

XI

WITH WOUNDED AND SICK

Lest We Forget S. O. L. Doughboy--Column In Battle And No Medical

Supplies--Jack-Knife Amputation--Sewed Up With Needle And Thread From

Red Cross Comfort Kit--Diary Of American Medical Officer--Account Is

Choppy But Full Of Interest.

Some things the doughboy and officer from America will never have grace

enough in his forgiving heart to ever forgive. Those were the outrageous

things that happened to the wounded and sick in that North Russian

campaign. Of course much was done and in fact everything was meant to be

done possible for the comfort of the luckless wounded and the men who,

from exposure and malnutrition, fell sick. But there were altogether too

many things that might have been avoided. Lest we forget and go off

again on some such strange campaign let us chronicle the story of the

grief that came to the S. O. L. doughboy.

One American medical officer who went up with the first column of

Americans in the Onega River Valley in the fall never got through

cussing the British medical officer who sent him off with merely the

handful of medical supplies that he, as a medical man, always carried

for emergencies of camp. Story has already been told of the lack of

medical supplies on the two "flu"-infected ships that took the soldiers

to Russia. Never will the American doughboy forget how melancholy he

felt when he saw the leaded shrouds go over the side of the sister ship

where the poor Italians were suffering and dying. And the same ill-luck

with medical supplies seemed to follow us to North Russia.

Dr. Nugent, of Milwaukee, writes after the first engagement on the Onega

front he was obliged to use needle and thread from a doughboys' Red

Cross comfort kit to take stitches in six wounded men.

Lieut. Lennon of "L" Company reports that during the first action of his

Company on the Kodish Front in the fall, there was no medical officer

with the unit in action. The American medical officer was miles in rear.

Wounded men were bandaged on the field with first aid and carried back

twenty-six versts. And he relates further that one man on the field

suffered the amputation of his leg that day with a pocket knife. The

officer further states that the American medical officer at Seletskoe

was neglectful and severe with the doughboys. At one time there was no

iodine, no bandages, no number 9's at Kodish Front. The medical officer

under discussion was never on the front and gained the hearty dislike of

the American doughboys for his conduct.

This matter of medical and surgical treatment is of such great

importance that space is here accorded to the letter and diary notes of

an American officer, Major J. Carl Hall, our gallant and efficient

medical officer of the 339th Infantry, who from his home in Centralia,

Illinois, August 6th, 1920, sends us a contribution as follows:

"Take what you can use from this diary. Thought I would avoid the

English antagonism throughout but later have decided to add the

following incident at Shenkursk, December 12, 1918. I was ordered by the

British General, Finlayson, to take the duties of S. M. O. and sanitary

officer of Vaga Column, that all medical and sanitary questions,

including distribution of American personnel would be under the British

S. M. O. Dvina forces--right at the time the American soldiers were

needing medical attention most. This order absolutely contradicted my

order from the American headquarters at Archangel, making me powerless

to care for the American soldiers. I wired the British I could not obey

it, unless sent from American headquarters. Col. Graham, British officer

in charge of Shenkursk column, informed me that I was disobeying an

order on an active front, for which the maximum punishment was death. I

immediately told him I was ready to take any punishment they might

administer and sooner or later the news would travel back to U. S. A.

and the general public would awaken to the outrageous treatment given

the American soldiers by the hands of the British. This affair was

hushed and I received no punishment, for he knew that there would have

to be too many American lives accounted for. I returned to the base at

Archangel and was then placed in charge of the surgery of the American

Red Cross Hospital.

"The Russian-English nurse story you know and also add that 75% of all

medical stores obtained from the British on the river front, if not

stolen by myself and men, were signed over to us with greatest

reluctance, red tape, and delay. It was a question of fight, quarrel,

steal and even threaten to kill in order to obtain those supplies justly

due us.

"Would like very much to have given you a more satisfactory report--but

right now am rushed for time--anyway, probably you can obtain most of

the essential points.

"Yours very truly,

(Signed) JOHN C. HALL."

This faithful and illuminating diary account of Major Hall's is typical

of the story on the other four fronts, except that British medical

officers dominated on the Railroad front and on the Onega front and at

Kodish.

Upon arrival of 339th Infantry in Russia on Sept. 4th, 1918, as

Regimental Surgeon, established an infirmary in Olga Barracks,

Archangel. After taking over civilian hospital by American Red Cross, I

then established a twenty bed military hospital and an infirmary at

Solombola.

On Sept. 10th I was ordered to report to Major Rook, R. A. M. C, at

Issakagorka, on railroad front, four miles south of Bakaritza, for

instructions regarding medical arrangements on River and Railroad

fronts.

On Sept. 11th I reported to Col. McDermott, R. A. M. C., A. D. M. S.,

North Russian Expeditionary Force, and there received instructions that

I should leave immediately for Issakagorka.

Accompanied by my interpreter, Private Anton Russel, and Sgt. Paul

Clark, boarded Russian launch for Bakaritza six miles up the Dvina and

on the opposite bank of the river, where we transferred to train and

proceeded to Issakagorka. Upon arrival there and reporting to Major

Rook, R. A. M. C., I was informed that I should go armed night and day

for they were having trouble with local Bolsheviks and expected an

attack any time.

Issakagorka is a village located in a swamp with about 2,000 population,

and every available room occupied. The overcrowded condition due to the

presence of many refugees from Petrograd and Moscow and other Bolshevik

territories. The streets deep. An odor of decaying animal matter,

stagnant water and feces is to be had on the streets and in all the

homes. At the house in which I was billeted, a fair example of

practically all Russian homes, the toilet was inside.

On Sept. 14th I was ordered to railroad front to inspect medical

arrangements. Arrived at Obozerskaya and found that Lieut. Ralph Powers

had taken over the railroad station and had almost completed

arrangements for a Detention Hospital of forty beds. He had just

evacuated thirty sick and wounded. The first aid station being in a log

hut, one-quarter mile west of station, in charge of Capt. Wymand Pyle,

M. C. In this there were ten stretchers which they had used for

temporary beds until cases could be evacuated to the rear.

Pits had been dug for latrines daily because the ground was so swampy

the pit would fill with water by night. The Americans had been

instructed to boil water before drinking, but after investigating I

found it had been almost impossible for they had no way to boil it only

by mess cup, and the officers found it difficult to get the men to

strictly observe this order. The return trip from the front to

Issakagorka was made on the ambulance train. This train consisted of

five coaches, which had been used in the war against Germany, and all

badly in need of repair. Two were nothing more than box cars fitted with

stretchers. Two were a slight improvement over these, having

double-decked framework for beds, which were fitted with mattresses and

blankets. The other coach was divided into compartments. One an

operating room, which was built on modern plans, and the other

compartment was built on the style of the American Pullman, and occupied

by the Russian doctor in charge of train, one felcher or assistant

doctor (a sanitar), which is a Russian medical orderly, and two Russian

female nurses.

Our sick and wounded were being evacuated by this train from the front

to Bakaritza; there kept at the Field Hospital 337th or taken by boat to

Archangel.

I reported to General Finlayson on Sept. 16 and was given 50,000 roubles

to be delivered to Col. Joselyn, then in charge of river forces, and

informed to leave for river front to make medical arrangements for the

winter drive.

At noon Sept. 18th, with Lieut. Chappel and two platoons of infantrymen,

boarded a box car, travelled to Bakaritza, where we transferred to a

small, dirty Russian tug. The day was spent going south on Dvina River,

toward Beresnik. At the same time Lieut. Chappel with the platoons of

infantrymen boarded a small boat and proceeded up the river.

The tug on which we were had no sleeping accommodations and on account

of the number aboard we had to sleep the first night sitting erect.

The cockroaches ran around in such large numbers that when we ate it was

necessary to keep a very close watch, or one would get into the food.

The following day the infantrymen were left at Siskoe and we went on to

Beresnik. Lieut. Chappel was killed two days after leaving us.

Arrived at Beresnik, which is about one hundred and fifty miles from

Archangel, after a thirty-eight-hour trip; reported to Major Coker, and

then visited British Detention Hospital in charge of Capt. Watson, R. A.

M. C. The hospital being a five-room log building with the toilet built

adjoining the kitchen.

In this hospital there were twenty sick and wounded Americans and Royal

Scots. The beds were stretchers placed on the floor about one and

one-half feet apart. The food consisted of bully beef, M and V, hard

tack, tea and sugar, as reported by the patients stationed there. The

pneumonia patients, Spanish influenza and wounded were all fed alike.

It was here that I met Capt. Fortescue, R. A. M. C. A general

improvement in sanitation was ordered and Capt. Watson instructed to

give more attention to the feeding of patients. With Capt. Fortescue I

visited civilian hospital two miles northwest of Beresnik; found Russian

female doctor in charge, and, looking over buildings, decided to take

same over for military hospital. Conditions of buildings fair; five in

number, and would accommodate one hundred patients in an emergency. The

equipment of the hospital was eight iron beds. Vermin of all kinds, and

cockroaches so thick that they had to be scraped from the wall and

shovelled into a container. The latrines were built in the buildings, as

is Russian custom, and were full to overflowing. The four patients who

were there were retained and cared for by the civilian doctor. While at

Beresnik we stayed at the Detention Hospital.

The following morning, Sept. 21st, with Capt. Fortescue, boarded British

motor launch. After travelling for about thirty versts we transferred on

to several tugs and barges, and on Sept. 23rd boarded hospital boat

"Vologjohnin," and left for front after hearing that there were eight or

ten casualties, several having been killed, but unable to ascertain name

of village where the wounded were.

After an hour slowly moving up stream, because of sand bars and mines,

the tug was suddenly stranded in mid-stream. After trying for two hours

the captain gave up in despair. We then arranged with engineers (a squad

on board same tug) to make a raft with two barrels. When this was about

completed two boats approached from opposite directions. We then

transferred to the "Viatka" and proceeded to Troitza and there succeeded

in commandeering twenty horses.

The following day with Capt. McCardle, American Engineer, Capt.

Fortescue and Pvt. Russel, with our horses, we crossed the river by

ferry and then proceeded to the front. Traveling very difficult on

account of the swampy territory and lack of information from natives who

seemed afraid of us. The horses sank in the mud and water above their

knees. The Bolos had told natives that the Allies would burn their homes

and take what little food they had.

Arrived at Zastrovia and saw American troops who informed us that the

hospital was located in the next village. Lower Seltso about three miles

farther. Upon arrival there we located the hospital, which was in a log

hut, considered the best the village afforded, in charge of Capt. Van

Home and Lieut. Katz with eight enlisted Medical detachment men. Lieut.

Goodnight with twenty or thirty Ambulance men had just arrived at this

place. Eight sick and wounded Americans were being treated in hospital.

Arranged for two more rooms so capacity of hospital might be increased.

It was vitally important that these cases be evacuated at once, but

there was no possible way except by river, which was heavily mined.

Decided it best to attempt evacuation by rowboat. Sgt. Clair Petit

volunteered to conduct convoy to hospital boat at Troitza. Convoy was

arranged and patients safely placed on board hospital boat, where they

were hurriedly carried to Archangel.

Returned to headquarters boat the following morning and all seemed to be

suffering from enteritis, due to the water not being boiled. Sanitation

in these villages almost an impossibility. Barn built in one end of

home, with possibly a hallway between it and the kitchen. The hay loft

is usually on a level with the kitchen floor, a hole in many houses is

cut through this floor and used as a toilet. Or it quite often is

nothing more than a two-inch board nailed over the sills. In the very

best southern villagers' homes there may be a closed toilet in the

hallway between the barn and kitchen. These are the billets used by the

Allied troops on the river front in North Russia. The native seldom

drinks raw water, but nearly always quenches his thirst by drinking tea.

Wired Major Longley at base Sept. 22nd for one-half of 337th Field

Hospital to be sent to Beresnik, to take over civilian hospital.

Communication with the base was very poor. Unable to get any definite

answer to my telegrams.

Another trip was made from Troitza to Beresnik with hospital boat

"Currier." Sick and wounded Royal Scots taken to Field Hospital at

Beresnik. After arrival they were loaded on two-wheeled carts and hauled

two miles to the hospital.

Upon arrival at Beresnik found Capt. Martin, with one-half of Field

Hospital 337th, had taken over civilian hospital.

On Sept. 28th it was decided to establish a detention hospital at

Shenkursk, so Capt. Watson and twelve R. A. M. C. men with medical

supplies for a twenty-bed hospital were placed on board hospital boat

"Currier." After posting two guards with machine guns on the boat we

started on the trip to Shenkursk. A distance of about ninety-five versts

from Beresnik on the Vaga River.

All along the way the boat stopped to pick up wood and at each stop

natives would come down to the river banks with vegetables and eggs,

willing to trade most anything for a few cigarettes or a little tobacco.

Arrived at Shenkursk at 5:00 p. m., Sept. 29th, and about one-half hour

later the American Headquarters boat docked next to the hospital boat.

When the various boats docked at Shenkursk all the natives of the town

came down to the banks of the river and were very curious as well as

friendly. The village of Shenkursk is situated on a hill and surrounded

by forest. One company of Americans and a detachment of Russians in

control of town. It had been taken only a few days before.

Capt. Fortescue and I looked over civilian hospital and found it to be

very filthy. Owing to the fact that it was so small and occupied to its

full capacity, decided to look further. Directing our steps to the

school, we found a very clean, desirable building, large enough to

accommodate at least one hundred patients.

After consulting the town commandant, were given permission to take over

building for military hospital. Capt. Watson and Capt. Daw, with

equipment for thirty beds, were placed in charge. Stretchers were used

as beds, until it was possible to make an improvement or procure some

from base. Employed two Russian female nurses. Wired to Major Longley

for one-half of Field Hospital 337th to take over this hospital, and in

addition more medical officers and personnel, for Ambulance work. On

Oct. 2nd Capt. Fortescue returned to Beresnik, which left me as A. D. A.

D. M. S. river forces. The same day we took quarters with Russian

professor and established an office in same building.

Upon investigation we found that the American troops had not been issued

any tobacco or cigarettes for several weeks and were smoking tea leaves,

straw or anything that would smoke. The paper used for these cigarettes

was mostly news and toilet paper.

On Oct. 3rd, with Russian medical officer and six American enlisted

medical men, we proceeded to Rovidentia, the advance front, about

thirty-five miles from Shenkursk on Vaga River. Established a small

detention hospital here of ten beds, leaving the Russian medical officer

and six American enlisted medical men in charge. This village was

occupied by two platoons of Americans and about one hundred Russians.

In comparison to previous villages I visited in Russia, Shenkursk was an

improvement over most of them. Mainly because of its location, there

being a natural drainage, and the water was much better, containing very

little animal and vegetable matter.

On Oct. 7th with Pvts. Russel and Stihler again embarked on hospital

boat "Vologjohnin," and the following morning at 8:00 a.m. proceeded to

Beresnik with a few Russian wounded, arriving at 2:00 p.m. Made

inspection of hospital. Capt. Martin with one-half of Field Hospital

working overtime, making beds, cleaning wards and hospital grounds, and

at the same time caring for thirty sick and wounded patients. Marked

improvement over previous condition.

Left Beresnik Oct. 9th on hospital boat "Vologjohnin" with headquarters

boat and small gunboat. Downpour of rain. Gunboat landed on sand bar and

headquarters boat turned back, but the "Vologjohnin" kept on going until

dark. Anchored opposite an island and at daybreak proceeded further,

finally reaching the only boat, the "Yarrents," left on the river front.

Before leaving Beresnik three more men were placed on board the boat.

The personnel aboard at this time consisted of Capt. Hall in charge, two

Russian female nurses, five American medical men and two British.

Upon arrival at Toulgas I received word from Major Whittaker that

sixteen wounded and six sick Royal Scots were located in the hospital at

Seltso, but that Seltso had been under shell fire that day and would be

too dangerous to bring hospital boat up. That night, under the cover of

darkness with all lights extinguished, I ordered hospital boat to

Seltso. We arrived at Seltso but the British troops who were stationed

there stated they knew nothing of the sick and wounded Royal Scots, but

that Royal Scots were stationed across the river. They stated that it

would be very dangerous to attempt to go across the river, and no one on

the hospital boat knew the exact location of the Royal Scots. After a

while a British sergeant stated that he would go along and direct the

way, but when the boat pulled out the sergeant was not to be found. But

we went across the river. The barge directly opposite was empty, so we

went to the next barge about two versts farther up. That one had been

sunk, so we went a few more versts to the third barge which had been

used by the Royal Scots but which had been evacuated by them that day. I

decided that we had gone far enough, and we returned to Toulgas. On the

way back we picked up two wounded officers of the Polish Legion, who had

just come from the Borak front, in a small rowboat, and stated it was at

that place that they had the sick and wounded Scots. It would be

impossible to reach this place by boat, because they had quite a time in

getting through with a small boat. They would not believe that we had

come up the river so far, and made the remark that we had been within a

few yards of the Bolshevik lines.

On Oct. 11th, after getting in touch with Major Whittaker, who stated

that the Royal Scots would be placed on the left bank of the river

opposite Seltso, I ordered the boat to Seltso to make another attempt to

get the Royal Scots. Although we had the window well covered, the

Bolsheviks must have seen the light from a candle which was used to

light the cabin. They began firing, but could not get the range of the

boat. We then returned without success.

On the afternoon of Oct. 12th, while Seltso was under shell fire, the

"Vologjohnin" was docked about twenty-nine yards behind the Allied barge

with the big naval gun, and did not leave until the shell fire became

heavy. About 8:00 p.m., after transferring the sick troops and female

nurses from the "Vologjohnin," another attempt was made, although the

Russian crew refused to make another trip, and would not start until I

insisted that the trip had to be made and placed several armed guards,

American Medical men, on the boat. On this night the medical supplies

were handed over to Capt. Griffiths, R. A. M. C, and casualties were

safely placed on board. After returning to Toulgas the female nurses and

sick troops who had been left there were again placed on board. The

"Vologjohnin" proceeded to Beresnik where all casualties, totaling

forty-three, were handed over to the 337th Field Hospital.

(The Major modestly omits to tell that he with his pistol compelled the

crew to run the boat up to get the wounded men. General Pershing

remembered Major Hall later with a citation. He repeated the deed two

days later, that time for Americans instead of Scots.)

Left Beresnik Oct. 14th with hospital boat for Seltso and upon arrival

there, the town was again under shell fire. All afternoon and evening

the hospital boat was docked within twenty-five yards of the big gun.

Received reports that several Americans had been wounded so I ordered

the Russian crew and medical personnel of boat, with stretchers, to

upper Seltso to get the wounded. The seriously wounded had to be carried

on stretchers through mud almost knee deep, while the others were placed

on two-wheeled carts and brought to the boat, a distance of two miles.

After two hours they succeeded in getting six wounded Americans on

board, one dying, another almost dead, and a third in a state of shock

from a shrapnel wound in thigh. Necessary to ligate heavy bleeders. Bolo

patrol followed along after bearers.

That night the Allies retreated on both sides of the river. British

Commanding Officer taken aboard hospital boat. Remained over night

anchored in mid-stream. Nothing could have prevented the Bolo boats from

coming down stream and either sink our boat or take us prisoners, for

our guns were left in the retreat. Several wounded on opposite bank but

it was necessary for them to be evacuated overland for several versts

under most extreme difficulties on two-wheeled carts through mud in many

places to the horses' bellies. By moving up and down stream next day the

wounded were found. It was necessary to have the boat personnel serve

what extra tea and hard tack they had to the weary, mud-spattered Royal

Scots.

Americans retreated to Toulgas on right bank of river where Lieut. Katz,

M. C., with medical detachment men established a detention hospital.

On Oct. 16th thirty-five sick and wounded patients were transferred to

Field Hospital 337th, Beresnik. Capt. Kinyon, M. C.., Lieut. Danziger,

M. C., Lieut. Simmons, D. C., and one-half of Field Hospital 337th

arrived at Beresnik from base, and placed on board hospital boat

"Currier." Arranged to take personnel and supplies to Shenkursk and

establish hospital there, at this time occupied by Capt. Watson and

fourteen R. A. M. C. men. Pvt. Stihler transferred to British hospital

barge "Michigan" to work in office of D. A. D. M. S. In addition to

being used for the office of the D. A. D. M. S., the barge was also used

for a convalescent hospital of forty beds, in charge of Capt. Walls, R.

A. M. C.

Left Beresnik Oct. 18th with complete equipment and personnel for

hospital of one hundred beds, also medical and Red Cross supplies. Many

refugees and several prisoners on board. Placed guards from medical

personnel over stores and prisoners. One prisoner tried to escape

through window of boat but was caught before he could get away.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Trench Mortar Crew, Chekuevo--Hand Artillery.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO (152755)

Wounded and Sick--Over a Thousand in All.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Bolo Killed in Action--For Russia or Trotsky?

ROULEAU

Monastery at Pinega.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Russian 75's Bound for Pinega.

HILL

"G" Men Near Pinega.

HILL

Lewis Gun Protects Mess Hall, Pinega.

He was reported later as Bolshevik spy, another as a Lett officer.

Travel by night is against the rules of Russian river boat crew. Had to

use force to get them to continue moving. Arrived at Shenkursk Oct. 19th

and delivered prisoners. Relieved Capt. Watson, R. A. M. C., and

personnel from duty at detention hospital, and started Field Hospital

337. Returned to Beresnik and found that hospital now working about full

capacity. After placing all seriously sick and wounded on board hospital

ship "Currier" we proceeded to Archangel, and arrived there Oct. 22nd.

Boat greatly in need of repairs.

Arranged with Major Longley to get Red Cross and medical supplies, and

had them placed aboard. Among the Red Cross supplies were ten bags of

sugar to be divided between the hospitals and used for the purpose of

bartering natives for vegetables, eggs and chickens.

Oct. 25th, 1918, weather growing colder. Departed for Beresnik on

hospital boat. The Russian crew did not want to travel at night but I

insisted and we kept on going. Awakened by cooties. After lighting my

candle found quite a number.

Oct. 26th, 1918, stopped for a short time to pick up wood. Awakened by

rumbling and cracking noise against boat and upon looking out saw we

were running through floating ice. This condition persisted for

thirty-five versts until we reached Beresnik. Crew stopped boat and

refused to go any farther. Necessary to use some moral "suasion." When

we arrived at Beresnik found that one paddle was out of order and bow of

boat dented in many places and almost punctured in one place.

Reported to General Finlayson, who ordered me to proceed with boat after

unloading medical and Red Cross supplies, to Pianda, which is about

twelve versts back up river on a tributary of the Dvina River, and

report on the situation at Charastrovia for billets or building for

convalescent hospital. Left Bereznik for Pianda Oct. 28th and had to run

boat through two miles of almost solid ice, four inches thick. At the

mouth of this tributary had to make three attempts before successfully

penetrating ice enough to get into channel of stream.

The following day after leaving a few medical supplies with Canadian

Artillery Headquarters and arranging transportation for myself and

personnel, with a few cooking utensils and blankets, we started for

Beresnik. Stopped at Charastrovia and looked over several buildings but

nothing available worth while. Natives very unfriendly and suspicious.

Arrived at Beresnik, reported to the General and spent the night at

Field Hospital 337.

Oct. 30th left on tug "Archangel" for Kurgomin with dentist. Received

report that several casualties were there to be evacuated. Reached Pless

but found the river full of ice again. Captain of boat stated that he

could not get to Kurgomin, but within about three miles of the place.

Docked boat and walked through mud and water to my knees to Kurgomin.

Found there had been a small detention hospital of fifteen beds

established by Capt. Fortescue in charge of Capt. Watson, R. A. M. C.

Good building at Pless for a hospital of fifty or seventy-five beds,

which was necessary to be taken over and used as advance base evacuating

hospital after Dvina froze. Sent dentist with equipment over to opposite

bank to take care of men's teeth of Co. "B", then holding the front on

the left bank. Getting his field equipment together and using cabin as

his office, he was able to care for twenty men. All to be evacuated were

walking cases. Very dark and mud twelve inches deep. Officially reported

that Bolos were coming around the rear that night. We arrived tired, but

safely, where the boat was waiting and returned eight miles through ice.

Waited until morning before going farther and at daybreak started for

Chamova. Stopped there while dentist cared for several Co. "D" men.

Finally reached Beresnik after being stuck on sand bars many times, as

river was very shallow at that time of the year and channel variable.

Handed patients over and spent night at Field Hospital 337.

Following day found it necessary to be deloused. We had nothing but

Serbian barrels for clothing disinfectors at that time. Reported that a

thresh delouser had been started for Beresnik. Sanitation greatly

improved.

After a few days' rest and arranging with engineers to make ambulance

sled, started again on tug "Archangel" for Dvina front. On the way only

one hour when boat ran aground, and after two hours' work (pushing with

poles by all on board) we succeeded getting into channel and anchored

for the night.

Started again at daybreak and stopped at Chamova. "D" Company 339th

Infantry at that place with one medical enlisted man, who had taken

three years in medicine. The only man with medical knowledge available.

He had established an aid station with two stretchers for beds. Place

comfortable and clean. General sanitation and billeting the same as in

all other Russian villages.

Reached Pless and left some medical stores with Capt. Watson, then

proceeded to Toulgas with medical and Red Cross supplies. On way to

headquarters a few stray shots were fired by snipers, but no harm done.

Left medical and Red Cross supplies at Lower Toulgas and took aboard

eight sick and wounded troops. Started for Beresnik. Stopped at Chamova

to pick up one sick and one wounded American.

Arrived at Beresnik Nov. 8th. With medical and Red Cross supplies left

for Shenkursk on hospital ship "Currier." Natives very friendly along

the Vaga River and anxious to barter. Arrived at Shenkursk Nov. 11th.

Over one hundred patients in hospital. Officers had taken over an

additional building for contagious ward which was full of "flu" and

pneumonia cases. With every caution against the spread of the disease,

the epidemic was growing. Russian soldier seems to have no resistance,

probably due to the lack of proper kind of food for the last four years.

Seven at hospital morgue at one time, before we could get coffins made.

People were dying by hundreds in the neighboring villages. Found it

necessary to try and organize medical assistance in order to combat the

epidemic. Funerals of three or four passed wailing through the streets

every few hours.

The Russian funeral at Shenkursk was as follows: Corpse is carried out

in the open on the lid of the coffin, face exposed, and a yellow robe

(used for every funeral) is thrown over the body. The body is then

carried to the church where there is little or no ventilation except

when the doors are opened. Here during the chants every member of the

funeral party, at different times during the service, proceeds to kiss

the same spot on an image, held by the priest. It is their belief that

during a religious service it is impossible to contract disease.

Visited civilian hospitals Nov. 16th, which were in a most horrible

state. No ventilation and practically all with Spanish influenza and, in

addition, many with gangrenous wounds. Tried to enlighten the Russian

doctor in charge with the fact that fresh air would be beneficial to his

cases. But he seemed to think I was entirely out of my sphere and

ignored what I said. I reported the situation to British headquarters

and thereafter he reluctantly did as I suggested. Then arranged with

headquarters to send Russian medical officer and felchers with American

medical officers out to villages where assistance was needed most,

instructing each to impress on the natives the necessity of fresh air

and proper hygiene. They found there was such a shortage of the proper

kind of food that the people had no resistance against disease, and were

dying by the hundreds. In the meantime established annex to civilian

hospital in a school building. Had wooden beds made and placed felchers

in charge.

Tried to segregate cases in Shenkursk and immediate vicinity as much as

possible. After getting everything in working order I found a shortage

of doctors. So I proceeded to villages not yet reached by others. Report

from Ust Padenga that Lieut. Cuff and fourteen enlisted men killed or

missing on patrol Nov. 29th; some of the bodies recovered.

Weather growing colder. Twenty degrees below zero, with snow four inches

deep. Evacuated sick and wounded from Ust Padenga eighteen versts beyond

Shenkursk in sleds filled with hay and blankets necessary for warmth.

Shakleton shoes had not arrived at that time. Most cases coming back in

good condition, but pneumonia cases would not stand the exposure.

Condition at Ust Padenga very uncertain. Lieut. Powers and Lieut.

Taufanoff in charge of ten-bed detention hospital. Advised them to keep

their hospital clear for an emergency.

Action reported on Dvina and hospital captured; later retaken. Slight

action every day or so at Ust Padenga. Lieut. Powers caring for all

civilians in and around that place. Visited one home where I found the

father sick and in adjoining room the corpse of his wife and two

children. In another village I found twenty-four sick in four families;

eight of which were pneumonia cases. In one peasant home, six in family,

all sick with a child of eight years running a fever, but trying to care

for others. All sleeping in the same room; three on the floor and

balance together in a loft made by laying boards between the sills. They

informed me that no food had been cooked for them for three days. The

child eight years old was then trying to make some tea. This same room

was used as a dining room and kitchen. It had double windows, all sealed

air-tight.

Russian troops very difficult to discipline along sanitary or hygienic

lines and have no idea of cleanliness. A guard on the latrine was an

absolute necessity. I adopted this plan in hospital, but impossible to

get their officers to follow this rule at their barracks latrines.

Reported it to British headquarters but they stated that they could not

do anything.

Dec. 8th, 1918. Left by sled for Ust Padenga to inspect hospital.

Arrived at 11:00 a.m. Very cold day. General conditions very good

considering circumstances. Using pits out in open for latrines. Men

living in double-decker beds, and as comfortable as possible in the

available billets. Hospital consisted of two rooms in a log hut, but

light, dry and comfortable. Beds improvised with stretchers laid across

wooden horses. Had three casualties which they were evacuating that day.

Started for Shenkursk at 3:00 p.m. Began snowing and my driver proceeded

in circles leaving the horse go as he chose. A Russian custom when they

lose their bearings. I got somewhat anxious and had been trying to

inquire with the few Russian terms I had been forced to learn. Driver

stated that he did not know the way, and we ran into snow drifts, into

gullies, over bluffs, through bushes, and after floundering around in

the snow for six hours I heard the bugle from Shenkursk which was just

across the river. I then started the direction which I thought was up

the river and by good luck, ran into the road that led across the Vaga

to Shenkursk.

December 12th, 1918. Hospital inspected by Major Fitzpatrick of American

Red Cross.

December 14th, 1918. Left Shenkursk for Shegovari where Lieut. Goodnight

and 337th Ambulance men were running a detention hospital of eight beds

and infirmary for American platoon, stationed at that place which is

forty versts down Vaga river from Shenkursk toward Beresnik, where we

arrived at 6:00 p.m. Looked over his hospital and continued on to Kitsa.

Remained over night and left at daylight December 15th, going across

Vaga through woods to Chamova, arriving at noon. Very cold day.

Here given a team of horses and proceeded to Toulgas, the farthest Dvina

front. Found small hospital with several sick at Lower Toulgas in charge

of British medical officer. Stayed over night at headquarters two versts

further up the river. The following day some artillery firing. Proceeded

to front line dressing station in charge of Lieut. Christie and ten

337th Ambulance men. One from advance headquarters on left bank, British

holding front. One company of Americans and one of Scots on right bank.

Stopped at Shushuga on return, eight versts from Toulgas. Across the

river from this place is Pless where an evacuation hospital was

conducted by Capt. Watson, R. A. M. C., with fourteen British and one

American Ambulance man, used as a cook and interpreter. Stretchers used

for beds. Casualties held here for two or three days and evacuated by

sled to Beresnik about fifty versts to the rear. At Shushuga there were

two Ambulance men conducting a first aid station. Village held by one

platoon of Americans.

Returned to Beresnik making a change of horses at Chamova and Ust Vaga.

The latter place held by twenty-eight American engineers and about one

hundred Russians. First aid given by a Russian felcher.

Inspected wards, kitchen, food, etc. Found there was no complaint as to

treatment received. December 16th, 1918. With rations for five days left

for Archangel by sleigh, making a change of horses about every twenty

versts. Arrived at Archangel at 2:00 p.m., December 23, 1918.

XII

Armistice Day With Americans In North Russia

"B" And "D" Busy With Attacking Bolos--"L" Vigilantly Holding Front Near

Kodish--Quiet On Other Fronts--Engineers Building Blockhouses With

Willing Assistance Of Doughboys--How Was Our Little War Affected--"We're

Here Because We're Here"--No Share In Victory Shouting--"F" On Lines Of

Communication.

Armistice Day, November 11th, 1918, with American soldiers in North

Russia, was a day of stern activity for continued war. A great thrill of

pride possessed the entire force because the Yanks on the Western Front

had been in at the death of Hun militarism. The wonderful drives of our

armies under Pershing which crushed in the Hindenberg Lines, one after

another, had been briefly wirelessed and cabled up to Russia. We got the

joyful news in Archangel on the very day the fighting ceased on the

Western Front.

But the "B" and "D" Company men were too busy on Armistice Day to listen

to rumors of world peace. The Reds had staged that awful four-day

battle, told next in this story, and the American medical and hospital

men were sadly busy with thirty bleeding and dead comrades who had

fallen in defending Toulgas. "C" was far out at Ust Padenga earnestly

building blockhouses. "A" was at Shenkursk with Colonel Corbley, resting

after two months stiff fighting and with American Engineers of the 310th

building blockhouses. For they correctly suspected that the Reds would

not quit just because of the collapse of the Germans.

"L" Company and Ballard's Machine Gun platoon were hourly prepared to

fight for their position at the Emtsa River against the Red force

flushed with the victorious recapture of Kodish. 310th Engineers were

skillfully and heartily at work on the blockhouses and gun emplacements

and log shelters for this Kodish force, doomed to a desperate winter,

armistice or no armistice. Old "K" Company, breathless yet from its

terrific struggle to hold Kodish, was back at base headquarters at

Seletskoe waiting patiently for "E" Company to relieve them.

Captain Heil's company had left Archangel by railroad and was somewhere

on the cold forest trail between Obozerskaya and Seletskoe.

"F" Company, as we have seen, was now on the precious lines of

communication, now more subject to attack because of the numerous winter

trails across the hitherto broad, impassable expanses of forest and

swamp, which were now beginning to freeze up. Far out on their left

flank and to their rear was the little force of "G" Company who were

holding Pinega and a long sector of road which was daily becoming more

difficult to safeguard. And hundreds of miles across this state of

Archangel in the Onega Valley our "H" Company comrades felt the

responsibility of wiring in themselves for a last ditch stand against

the Reds who might try to drive them back and flank their American and

Allied comrades on the railroad.

On the railroad the 3l0th Engineers were busy as beavers building, with

the assistance of the infantrymen, blockhouses and barracks and gun

emplacements and so forth. For, while the advanced positions on the

railroad were of no value in themselves, it was necessary to hold them

for the sake of the other columns. Obozerskaya was to be the depot and

sleigh transportation point of most consequence next to Seletskoe, which

itself in winter was greatly dependent on Obozerskaya.

"I" and "M" Companies were resting from the hard fall offensive

movement, the former unit at Obozerskaya, the latter just setting foot

for the first time in Archangel for a ten day rest, the company having

gone directly from troopship to troop train and having been "shock

troops" in everyone of the successive drives at the Red army positions.

In Archangel "Hq." Company units were assisting Machine Gun units in

guarding important public works and marching in strength occasionally on

the streets to glare down the scowling sailors and other Red

sympathizers who, it was rumored persistently, were plotting a riot and

overthrow of the Tchaikowsky government and throat-cutting for the

Allied Embassies and military missions.

Oh, Armistice Day in Archangel made peace in our strange war no nearer.

It was dark foreboding of the winter campaign that filled the thoughts

of the doughboy on duty or lying in the hospital in Archangel that day.

Out on the various fronts the American soldiers grimly understood that

they must hold on where they were for the sake of their comrades on

other distant but nevertheless cotangent fronts on the circular line

that guard Archangel. In Archangel the bitter realization was at last

accepted that no more American troops were to come to our assistance.

Of course every place where two American soldiers or officers exchanged

words on Armistice Day, or the immediate days following, the chief topic

of conversation was the possible effect of the armistice upon our little

war. Vainly the scant telegraphic news was studied for any reference to

the Russian situation in the Archangel area. Was our unofficial war on

Russia's Red government to go on? How could armistice terms be extended

to it without a tacit recognition of the Lenine-Trotsky government?

As one of the boys who was upon the Dvina front writes: "We would have

given anything we owned and mortgaged our every expectation to have been

one of that great delirious, riotous mob that surged over Paris on

Armistice Day; and we thought we had something of a title to have been

there for we claimed the army of Pershing for our own, even though we

had been sent to the Arctic Circle; and now that the whole show was over

we wanted to have our share in the shouting."

But the days, deadly and monotonous, followed one another with ever

gloomy regularity, and there was no promise of relief, no word, no news

of any kind, except the stories of troops returning home from France.

Doubtless in the general hilarity over peace, we were forgotten. After

all, who had time in these world stirring days to think of an

insignificant regiment performing in a fantastic Arctic side show.

Truth to tell, the Red propagandists on Trotsky's Northern Army staff

quickly seized the opportunity to tell the Allied troops in North Russia

that the war was over and asked us what we were fighting for. They did

it cleverly, as will be told elsewhere. Yet the doughboy only swore

softly and shined his rifle barrel. He could not get information

straight from home. He was sore. But why fret? His best answer was the

philosophic "We're here because we're here" and he went on building

blockhouses and preparing to do his best to save his life in the

inevitable winter campaign which began (we may say) about the time of

the great world war Armistice Day, which in North Russia did not mean

cease firing.

Before passing to the story of the dark winter's fighting we must notice

one remaining unit of the American forces, hitherto only mentioned. It

is the unit that after doing tedious guard duty in Archangel and its

suburbs for a couple of months, all the while listening impatiently to

stories of adventure and hardship and heroism filtering in from the

fronts and the highly imaginative stories of impending enemy smashes and

atrocities rumoring in from those same fronts and gaining color and

tragic proportions in the mouth-to-mouth transit, that unit "F" Company,

the prize drill company of Camp Custer in its young life, now on October

30th found itself on a slow-going barge en route to Yemetskoe, one

hundred and twenty-five versts, as the side wheeler wheezed up the

meandering old Dvina River.

There in the last days of the fall season this company of Americans took

over the duty of patrolling constantly the line of communications and

all trails leading into it so that no wandering force of Red Guards

should capture any of the numerous supply trains bound south with food,

powder and comforts--such as they were--for the Americans and Allied

forces far south on the Dvina and Vaga fronts.

It was highly important work admirably done by this outfit commanded by

Captain Ralph Ramsay. Any slackening of alertness might have resulted

disastrously to their regimental comrades away south, and while this

outfit was the last of the 339th to go into active field service it may

be said in passing that in the spring it was the last unit to come away

from the fighting front in June, and came with a gallant record, story

of which will appear later. Winter blizzards found the outfit broken

into trusty detachments scattered all the way from Kholmogori, ninety

versts north of Yemetskoe, to Morjegorskaya, fifty-five versts south of

company headquarters in Yemetskoe. And it was common occurrence for a

sergeant of "F" Company with a "handful of doughboys" to escort a mob of

Bolshevik prisoners of war to distant Archangel.

XIII

WINTER DEFENSE OF TOULGAS

General Ironside Makes Expedition Aim Defensive--Bolsheviki Help Give It

Character--Toulgas--Surprise Attack Nov. 11th By Reds--Canadian

Artillery Escapes Capture--We Win Back Our Positions--"Lady Olga" Saves

Wounded Men--Heroic Wallace--Cudahy And Derham Carry Upper Toulgas By

Assault--Foukes--A Jubilant Bonfire--Many Prisoners--Ivan Puzzled By Our

War--Bolo Attack In January Fails--Dresing Nearly Takes

Prisoner--Winter Patrolling--Corporal Prince's Patrol Ambushed--We Hold

Toulgas.

General Ironside had now taken over command of the expedition and

changed its character more to accord with the stated purpose of it. We

were on the defensive. The Bolshevik whose frantic rear-guard actions

during the fall campaign had often been given up, even when he was

really having the best of it, merely because he always interpreted the

persistence of American attack or stubbornness of defense to mean

superior force. He had learned that the North Russian Expeditionary

Force was really a pitifully small force, and that there was so much

fussing at home in England and France and America about the justice and

the methods of the expedition, that no large reinforcements need be

expected. So the Bolsheviks on Armistice Day, November 11, began their

counter offensive movement which was to merge with their heavy winter

campaign. So the battle of November 11th is included in the narrative of

the winter defense of Toulgas.

Toulgas was the duplicate of thousands of similar villages throughout

this province. It consisted of a group of low, dirty log houses huddled

together on a hill, sloping down to a broad plain, where was located

another group of houses, known as Upper Toulgas. A small stream flowed

between the two villages and nearly a mile to the rear was another group

of buildings which was used for a hospital and where first aid was given

to the wounded before evacuating them to Bereznik, forty or fifty miles

down the river.

The forces engaged in the defense of this position consisted of several

batteries of Canadian artillery, posted midway between the hospital and

the main village. In addition to this "B" Company, American troops, and

another company of Royal Scots were scattered in and about these

positions. From the upper village back to the hospital stretched a good

three miles, which of course meant that the troops in this position,

numbering not more than five hundred were considerably scattered and

separated. This detailed description of our position here is set forth

so specifically in order that the reader may appreciate the attack which

occurred during the early part of November.

On the morning of November 11th, while some of the men were still

engaged in eating their breakfasts and while the positions were only

about half manned, suddenly from the forests surrounding the upper

village, the enemy emerged in attack formation. Lieut. Dennis engaged

them for a short time and withdrew to our main line of defense. All

hands were immediately mustered into position to repel this advancing

wave of infantry. In the meantime the Bolo attacked with about five

hundred men from our rear, having made a three day march through what

had been reported as impassable swamp. He occupied our rearmost village,

which was undefended, and attacked our hospital. This forward attack was

merely a ruse to divert the attention of our troops in that direction,

while the enemy directed his main assault at our rear and undefended

positions for the purpose of gaining our artillery. Hundreds of the

enemy appeared as if by magic from the forests, swarmed in upon the

hospital village and immediately took possession. Immediately the

hospital village was in their hands, the Bolo then commenced a desperate

advance upon our guns.

At the moment that this advance began, there were some sixty Canadian

artillery men and one Company "B" sergeant with seven men and a Lewis

gun. Due to the heroism and coolness of this handful of men, who at once

opened fire with their Lewis guns, forcing the advancing infantry to

pause momentarily. This brief halt gave the Canadians a chance to

reverse their gun positions, swing them around and open up with muzzle

bursts upon the first wave of the assault, scarcely fifty yards away. It

was but a moment until the hurricane of shrapnel was bursting among

solid masses of advancing infantry, and under such murderous fire, the

best disciplined troops and the most foolhardly could not long

withstand. Certain it was that the advancing Bolo could not continue his

advance. The Bolos were on our front, our right flank and our rear, we

were entirely cut off from communication, and there were no

reinforcements available. About 4:00 p. m. we launched a small counter

attack under Lt. Dennis, which rolled up a line of snipers which had

given us considerable annoyance. We then shelled the rear villages

occupied by the Bolos, and they decamped. Meanwhile the Royal Scots, who

had been formed for the counter attack, went forward also under the

cover of the artillery, and the Bolo, or at least those few remaining,

were driven back into the forests.

The enemy losses during this attack were enormous. His estimated dead

and wounded were approximately four hundred, but it will never be known

as to how many of them later died in the surrounding forests from wounds

and exposure. This engagement was not [only] disastrous from the loss of

men, but was even more disastrous from the fact that some of the leading

Bolshevik leaders on this front were killed during this engagement. One

of the leading commanders was an extremely powerful giant of a man,

named Melochofski, who first led his troops into the village hospital in

the rear of the gun positions. He strode into the hospital, wearing a

huge black fur hat, which accentuated his extraordinary height, and

singled out all the wounded American and English troops for immediate

execution, and this would undoubtedly have been their fate, had it not

been for the interference of a most remarkable woman, who was christened

by the soldiers "Lady Olga."

This woman, a striking and intelligent appearing person, had formerly

been a member of the famous Battalion of Death, and afterwards informed

one of our interpreters that she had joined the Soviets out of pure love

of adventure, wholly indifferent to the cause for which she exposed her

life. She had fallen in love with Melochofski and had accompanied him

with his troops through the trackless woods, sharing the lot of the

common soldiers and enduring hardships that would have shaken the most

vigorous man. With all her hardihood, however, there was still a touch

of the eternal feminine, and when Melochofski issued orders for the

slaughter of the invalided soldiers, she rushed forward and in no

uncertain tones demanded that the order be countermanded and threatened

to shoot the first Bolo who entered the hospital. She herself remained

in the hospital while Melochofski with the balance of his troops went

forward with the attack and where he himself was so mortally wounded

that he lived only a few minutes after reaching her side. She eventually

was sent to the hospital at the base and nursed there. Capt. Boyd states

that he saw a letter which she wrote, unsolicited, to her former

comrades, telling them that they should not believe the lies which their

commissars told them, and that the Allies were fighting for the good of

Russia.

At daybreak the following day, five gun boats appeared around the bend

of the river, just out of range of our three inch artillery, and all day

long their ten long ranged guns pounded away at our positions, crashing

great explosives upon our blockhouse, which guarded the bridge

connecting the upper and middle village, while in the forests

surrounding this position the Bolo infantry were lying in wait awaiting

for a direct hit upon this strong point in order that they could rush

the bridge and overwhelm us. Time after time exploding shells threw huge

mounds of earth and debris into the loop holes of this blockhouse and

all but demolished it.

Here Sergeant Wallace performed a particularly brave act. The blockhouse

of which he was in command was near a large straw pile. A shell hit near

the straw and threw it in front of the loop holes. Wallace went out

under machine gun fire from close range, about seventy-five yards, and

under heavy shelling, and removed the straw. The same thing happened a

little later, and this time he was severely wounded. He was awarded the

Distinguished Conduct Medal by the British. Private Bell was in this

blockhouse when it was hit and all the occupants killed or badly

wounded. Bell was badly gashed in the face, but stuck with his Lewis gun

until dark when he could be relieved, being the only one in the

shattered blockhouse which held the bridge across the small stream

separating us from the Bolos.

For three days the gun boats pounded away and all night long there was

the rattle and crack of the machine guns. No one slept. The little

garrison was fast becoming exhausted. Men were hollow-eyed from

weariness and so utterly tired that they were indifferent to the

shrieking shells and all else. At this point of the siege, it was

decided that our only salvation was a counter attack. In the forests

near the upper village were a number of log huts, which the natives had

used for charcoal kilns, but which had been converted by the enemy into

observation posts and storehouses for machine guns and ammunition. His

troops were lying in and about the woods surrounding these buildings. We

decided to surprise this detachment in the woods, capture it if possible

and make a great demonstration of an attack so as to give the enemy in

the upper village the impression that we were receiving reinforcements

and still fresh and ready for fighting. This maneuver succeeded far

beyond our wildest expectations.

Company "B," under command of Lt. John Cudahy, and one platoon of

Company "D" under Lt. Derham, made the counter attack on the Bolo

trenches. Just before dawn that morning the Americans filed through the

forests and crept upon the enemy's observation posts before they were

aware of any movement on our part. We then proceeded without any warning

upon their main position. Taken as they were, completely by surprise, it

was but a moment before they were in full rout, running panic-stricken

in all directions, thinking that a regiment or division had followed

upon them. We immediately set fire to these huts containing their

ammunition, cartridges, etc., and the subsequent explosion that followed

probably gave the enemy the impression that a terrific attack was

pending. As we emerged from the woods and commenced the attack upon

upper Toulgas we were fully expecting stiff resistance, for we knew that

many of these houses concealed enemy guns. Our plans had succeeded so

well, however, that no supporting fire from the upper village came and

the snipers in the forward part of the village seeing themselves

abandoned, threw their guns and came rushing forward shouting "tovarish,

tovarish," meaning the same as the German "kamerad." As a matter of

fact, in this motley crew of prisoners were a number of Germans and

Austrians, who could scarcely speak a word of German and who were

probably more than thankful to be taken prisoners and thus be relieved

from active warfare.

During this maneuver one of their bravest and ablest commanders, by the

name of Foukes, was killed, which was an irreparable loss to the enemy.

Foukes was without question one of the most competent and aggressive of

the Bolo leaders. He was a very powerful man physically and had long

years of service as a private in the old Russian Army, and was without

question a most able leader of men. During this four days' attack and

counter attack he had led his men by a circuitous route through the

forests, wading in swamps waist deep, carrying machine guns and rations.

The nights were of course miserably cold and considerable snow had

fallen, but Foukes would risk no fire of any kind for fear of discovery.

It was not due to any lack of ability or strategy on his part that this

well planned attack failed of accomplishment. On his body we found a

dramatic message, written on the second day of the battle after the

assault on the guns had failed. He was with the rear forces at that time

and dispatched or had intended to dispatch the following to the command

in charge of the forward forces:

"We are in the two lowest villages--one steamer coming up

river--perhaps reinforcements. Attack more vigorously--Melochofski and

Murafski are killed. If you do not attack, I cannot hold on and

retreat is impossible. (Signed) FOUKES."

Out of our force of about six hundred Scots and Americans we had about a

hundred casualties, the Scots suffering worse than we. Our casualties

were mostly sustained in the blockhouses, from the shelling. It was here

that we lost Corporal Sabada and Sergeant Marriott, both of whom were

fine soldiers and their loss was very keenly felt. Sabada's dying words

were instructions to his squad to hold their position in the rear of

their blockhouse which had been destroyed.

It was reported that Trotsky, the idol of the Red crowd, was present at

the battle of Toulgas, but if he was there, he had little influence in

checking the riotous retreat of his followers when they thought

themselves flanked from the woods. They fled in wild disorder from the

upper village of Toulgas and for days thereafter in villages far to our

rear, various members of this force straggled in, half crazed by

starvation and exposure and more than willing to abandon the Soviet

cause. For weeks the enemy left the Americans severely alone. Toulgas

was held.

But it was decided to burn Upper Toulgas, which was a constant menace to

our security, as we had no men to occupy it with sufficient numbers to

make a defense and the small outposts there were tempting morsels for

the enemy to devour. Many were reluctant to stay there, and it was

nervous work on the black nights when the wind, dismal and weird, moaned

through the encompassing forest, every shadow a crouching Bolshevik.

Often the order came through to the main village to "stand to," because

some fidgety sentinel in Upper Toulgas had seen battalions, conjured by

the black night. So it was determined to burn the upper village and a

guard was thrown around it, for we feared word would be passed and the

Bolos would try to prevent us from accomplishing our purpose. The

inhabitants were given three hours to vacate. It was a pitiful sight to

see them turned out of the dwellings where most of them had spent their

whole simple, not unhappy lives, their meagre possessions scattered awry

upon the ground.

The first snow floated down from a dark foreboding sky, dread announcer

of a cruel Arctic winter. Soon the houses were roaring flames. The women

sat upon hand-fashioned crates wherein were all their most prized

household goods, and abandoned themselves to a paroxysm of weeping

despair, while the children shrieked stridently, victim of all the

realistic horrors that only childhood can conjure. Most of the men

looked on in silence, uncomprehending resignation on their faces, mute,

pathetic figures. Poor moujiks! They didn't understand, but they took

all uncomplainingly. Nitchevoo, fate had decreed that they should suffer

this burden, and so they accepted it without question.

But when we thought of the brave chaps whose lives had been taken from

those flaming homes, for our casualties had been very heavy, nearly one

hundred men killed and wounded, we stifled our compassion and looked on

the blazing scene as a jubilant bonfire. All night long the burning

village was red against the black sky, and in the morning where had

stood Upper Toulgas was now a smoking, dirty smudge upon the plain.

We took many prisoners in this second fight of Toulgas. It was a trick

of the Bolos to sham death until a searching party, bent on examining

the bodies for information, would approach them, when suddenly they

would spring to life and deliver themselves up. These said that only by

this method could they escape the tyranny of the Bolsheviki. They

declared that never had they any sympathy with the Soviet cause. They

didn't understand it. They had been forced into the Red Army at the

point of a gun, and were kept in it by the same persuasive argument.

Others said they had joined the Bolshevik military forces to escape

starvation.

There was only one of the thirty prisoners who admitted being an ardent

follower of the cause, and a believer in the Soviet articles of

political doctrine, and this was an admission that took a great deal of

courage, for it was instilled universally in the Bolos that we showed no

mercy, and if they fell into the hands of the cruel Angliskis and

Americanskis there was nothing but a hideous death for them.

Of course our High Command had tried to feed our troops the same kind of

propaganda. Lenine, himself, said that of every one hundred Bolsheviks

fifty were knaves, forty were fools, and probably one in the hundred a

sincere believer. Once a Bolshevik commander who gave himself up to us

said that the great majority of officers in the Soviet forces had been

conscripted from the Imperial Army and were kept in order by threats to

massacre their families if they showed the slightest tendency towards

desertion. The same officer told me the Bolshevik party was hopelessly

in the minority, that its adherents numbered only about three and a half

in every hundred Russians, that it had gained ascendancy and held power

only because Lenine and Trotsky inaugurated their revolution by seizing

every machine gun in Russia and steadfastly holding on to them. He said

that every respectable person looked upon the Bolsheviks as a gang of

cutthroats and ruffians, but all were bullied into passive submission.

We heard him wonderingly. We tried to fancy America ever being

brow-beaten and cowed by an insignificant minority, her commercial life

prostrated, her industries ravished, and we gave the speculation up as

an unworthy reflection upon our country. But this was Russia, Russia who

inspired the world by her courage and fortitude in the great war, and

while it was at its most critical stage, fresh with the memories of

millions slain on Gallician fields, concluded the shameful treaty of

Brest Litovsk, betraying everything for which those millions had died.

Russia, following the visionary Kerensky from disorder to chaos, and

eventually wallowing in the mire of Bolshevism. Yes, one can expect

anything in Russia.

They were a hardboiled looking lot, those Bolo prisoners. They wore no

regulation uniform, but were clad in much the same attire as an ordinary

moujik--knee leather boots and high hats of gray and black curled fur.

No one could distinguish them from a distance, and every peasant could

be Bolshevik. Who knew? In fact, we had reason to believe that many of

them were Bolshevik in sympathy. The Bolos had an uncanny knowledge of

our strength and the state of our defenses, and although no one except

soldiers were allowed beyond the village we knew that despite the

closest vigilance there was working unceasingly a system of enemy

espionage with which we could never hope to cope.

Some of the prisoners were mere boys seventeen and eighteen years old.

Others men of advanced years. Nearly all of them were hopelessly

ignorant, likely material for a fiery tongued orator and plausible

propagandist. They thought the Americans were supporting the British in

an invasion of Russia to suppress all democratic government, and to

return a Romanoff to the throne.

That was the story that was given out to the moujiks, and, of course,

they firmly believed it, and after all why should they not, judging by

appearances? We quote here from an American officer who fought at

Toulgas:

"If we had not come to restore the Tsar, why had we come, invading

Russia, and burning Russian homes? We spoke conciliatingly of

'friendly intervention,' of bringing peace and order to this

distracted country, to the poor moujik, when what he saw were his

villages a torn battle ground of two contending armies, while the one

had forced itself upon him, requisitioned his shaggy pony, burned the

roof over his head, and did whatever military necessity dictated. It

was small concern to Ivan whether the Allies or the Bolsheviks won

this strange war. He did not know what it was all about, and in that

he was like the rest of us. But he asked only to be left alone, in

peace to lead his simple life, gathering his scanty crops in the hot

brief months of summer and dreaming away the long dreary winter on top

of his great oven-like stove, an unworrying fatalistic disciple of the

philosophy of nitchevoo."

After the fierce battle to hold Toulgas, the only contact with the enemy

was by patrols. "D" Company came up from Chamova and relieved "B"

Company for a month. Work was constantly expended upon the winter

defenses. The detachment of 310th Engineers was to our men an invaluable

aid. And when "B" went up to Toulgas again late in January, they found

the fortifications in fine shape. But meanwhile rumors were coming in

persistently of an impending attack.

The Bolo made his long expected night attack January 29, in conjunction

with his drive on the Vaga, and was easily repulsed. Another similar

attack was made a little later in February, which met with a similar

result. It was reported to us that the Bolo soldiers held a meeting in

which they declared that it was impossible to take Toulgas, and that

they would shoot any officer who ordered another attack there.

It was during one of the fracases that Lt. Dressing captured his

prisoner. With a sergeant he was inspecting the wire, shortly after the

Bolo had been driven back, and came upon a Bolo who threw up his hands.

Dressing drew his revolver, and the sergeant brought his rifle down to a

threatening position, the Bolo became frightened and seized the bayonet.

Dressing wishing to take the prisoner alive grabbed his revolver by the

barrel and aimed a mighty swing. Unfortunately he forgot that the

British revolver is fastened to a lanyard, and that the lanyard was

around his shoulder. As a result his swing was stopped in midair, nearly

breaking his arm, the Bolo dropped the bayonet and took it on the run,

getting away safely, leaving Dressing with nothing to bring in but a

report.

March 1st we met with a disaster, one of our patrols being ambushed, and

a platoon sent out to recover the wounded meeting a largely superior

force, which was finally dispersed by artillery. We lost eight killed

and more wounded. Sergeant Bowman, one of the finest men it has been my

privilege to know, was killed in this action and his death was a blow

personally to every man in the company.

Corporal Prince was in command of the first patrol, which was ambushed.

In trying to assist the point, who was wounded, Prince was hit. When we

finally reached the place of this encounter the snow showed that Prince

had crawled about forty yards after he was wounded and fired his rifle

several times. He had been taken prisoner.

From this time on the fighting in the Upper Dvina was limited to the

mere patrol activities. There to be sure was always a strain on the men.

Remembering their comrades who had been ambushed before, it took the

sturdiest brand of courage for small parties to go out day and night on

the hard packed trails, to pass like deer along a marked runway with

hunter ready with cocked rifle. The odds were hopelessly against them.

The vigilance of their patrols, however, may account for the fact that

even after his great success on the Vaga, the commander of Bolshevik

Northern Army did not send his forces against the formidably guarded

Toulgas.

One day we were ordered by British headquarters to patrol many miles

across the river where it had been reported small parties of Bolos were

raiding a village. We had seventeen sleighs drawn by little shaggy

ponies, which we left standing in their harnesses and attached to the

sleighs while we slept among the trees beside a great roaring blaze that

our Russian drivers piled high with big logs the whole night through;

and the next morning, in the phantom gloom we were off again, gliding

noiselessly through the forest, charged with the unutterable stillness

of infinite ethereal space; but, as the shadows paled, there was

unfolded a fairyland of enchanted wonders that I shall always remember.

Invisible hands of artistry had draped the countless pines with garlands

and wreaths of white with filmy aigrettes and huge, ponderous globes and

festoons woven by the frost in an exquisite and fantastic handiwork; and

when the sun came out, as it did for a few moments, every ornament on

those decorated Christmas trees glittered and twinkled with the magic of

ten thousand candles. It was enchanted toyland spread before us and we

were held spell bound by a profusion of airy wonders that unfolded

without end as we threaded our way through the forest flanked by the

straight, towering trunks.

After a few miles the ponies could go no further through the high

drifts, so we left them and made our way on snowshoes a long distance to

a group of log houses the reported rendezvous of the Bolsheviks, but

there were no Bolos there, nor any signs of recent occupancy, so we

burned the huts and very wearily dragged our snow shoes the long way

back to the ponies. They were wet with sweat when we left them belly

deep in the snow; but there they were, waiting with an attitude of

patient resignation truly Russian and they made the journey homeward

with more speed and in higher spirits than when they came. There is only

one thing tougher than the Russian pony and that is his driver, for the

worthies who conducted us on this lengthy journey walked most of the way

through the snow and in the intense cold, eating a little black bread,

washed down with hot tea, and sleeping not at all.

WAGNER

Something Like a Selective Draft.

WAGNER

Canadian Artillery, Kurgomin.

U. S. OFFICIAL

Watch-Tower, Verst 455.

U. S. OFFICIAL

Toulgas Outpost.

U. S. OFFICIAL

One of a Bolo Patrol.

U. S. OFFICIAL

Patrolling.

Those long weeks of patrol and sentry duty were wearing on the men.

Sentinels were continually seeing things at night that were not. Once we

were hurried out into the cold darkness by the report of a great

multitude of muttering voices approaching from the forest, but not a

shot answered our challenge and the next morning there in the snow were

the fresh tracks of timber wolves--a pack had come to the end of the

woods--no wonder the Detroit fruit salesman on guard thought the Bolos

were upon us.

But not long afterwards the Bolos did come and more cunningly and

stealthily than the wolf pack, for in the black night they crept up and

were engaged in the act of cutting the barbed wire between the

blockhouses, when a sentinel felt--there was no sound--something

suspicious, and sped a series of machine gun bullets in the direction he

suspected. There was a fight lasting for hours, and in the morning many

dead Bolos were lying in the deep snow beyond the wire defenses. They

wore white smocks which, at any distance, in the dim daylight, blended

distinctly with the snow and at night were perfectly invisible. We were

grateful to the sentinel with the intuitive sense of impending danger.

Some soldiers have this intuition. It is beyond explanation but it

exists. You have only to ask a soldier who has been in battle combat to

verify the truth of this assertion.

Still we decided not to rely entirely upon this remarkable faculty of

intuition, some man might be on watch not so gifted; and so we tramped

down a path inside the wire encompassing the center village. During the

long periods between the light we kept up an ever vigilant patrol.

The Bolos came again at a time when the night was blackest, but they

could not surprise us, and they lost a great many men, trying to wade

through waist deep snow, across barbed wire, with machine guns working

from behind blockhouses two hundred yards apart. It took courage to run

up against such obstacles and still keep going on. When we opened fire

there was always a great deal of yelling from the Bolos--commands from

the officers to go forward, so our interpreters said, protests from the

devils, even as they protested, many were hit; but it is to be noted

that the officers stayed in the background of the picture. There was no

Soviet leader who said "follow me" through the floundering snow against

those death scattering machine guns--it did not take a great deal of

intelligence to see what the chances were.

So weeks passed and we held on, wondering what the end would be. We did

not fear that we should lose Toulgas. With barbed wire and our

surrounding blockhouses we were confident that we could withstand a

regiment trying to advance over that long field of snow; but the danger

lay along our tenuous line of communication.

The plight of the Yankee soldier in North Russia fighting the Bolsheviki

in the winter of 1918-19 was often made the subject of newspaper

cartoon. Below is reproduced one of Thomas' cartoons from The Detroit

News, which shows the doughboy sitting in a Toulgas trench--or a Kodish,

or Shred Makrenga, or Pinega, or Chekuevo, or Railroad trench. Of course

this dire position was at one of those places and at one of those times

before the resourceful Yanks had had time to consolidate their gains or

fortify their newly accepted position in rear of their former position.

In a few hours--or few days at most, the American soldier would have dug

in securely and made himself rudely comfortable. That rude comfort would

last till some British officer decided to "put on a bit of a show," or

till the Reds in overwhelming numbers or with tremendous artillery

pounding or both combined, compelled the Yanks to fight themselves into

a new position and go through the Arctic rigors of trench work again in

zero weather for a few days. The cartoonist knows the unconquerable

spirit of humor with which the American meets his desperate situations;

for he puts into the soldier's mouth words that show that although he

may have more of a job than he bargained for, he can joke with his

buddie about it. As reserve officers of that remarkable North Russian

expeditionary force the writers take off their hats in respect to the

citizen soldiers who campaigned with us under conditions that were,

truth to say, usually better but sometimes much worse than the trench

situation pictured by the cartoon below. With grit and gumption and good

humor those citizen soldiers "endured hardness as good soldiers."

Well, Bill, we certainly got a job after the war.

"Peace Conference News: After War Labor Problem."

XIV

GREAT WHITE REACHES

Lines Of Communication Guarded Well--Fast Travelling Pony Sleighs--Major

Williams Describes Sled Trip--A Long Winter March--Visiting Three

Hundred Year Old Monastery--Snowshoe Rabbit Story--Driving Through

Fairyland--Lonely, Thoughtful Rides Under White North Star--Wonderful

Aurora Borealis.

We left "F" Company in the winter, swirling snows guarding the many

points of danger on the long lines of communication. They were in

December scattered all the way from Archangel to Morjegorskaya. For a

few weeks in January, Lieut. Sheridan with his platoon sat on the Bolo

lidtilters in Leunova in the lower Pinega Valley and then was hurried

down the Dvina to another threatened area. The Red success in pushing

our forces out of Shenkursk and down the Vaga made the upper Dvina and

Vaga roads constantly subject to raiding parties of the Bolsheviki.

Early in February "K" Company came up from Archangel and took station at

Yemetskoe, one platoon being left at Kholmogori. "F" Company had been

needed further to the front to support the first battalion companies

hard pressed by the enemy. Nervous and suspected villages alike were

vigilantly visited by strong patrols. On February 12th Captain Ramsay

hurried up with two platoons to reinforce Shred Mekhrenga, traveling a

distance of forty versts in one day. But the enemy retired mysteriously

as he had oft before just when it seemed that he would overpower the

British-Russian force that had been calling for help. So the Americans

were free to go back to the more ticklish Vaga-Dvina area.

From here on the story of "F" Company on the lines of communication

merges into the story of the stern rear guard actions and the final

holding up of the advance of the Reds, and their gallant part will be

read in the narrative related elsewhere.

Mention has already been made of the work of "G" and "M" Company

platoons on the isolated Pinega Valley lines and of "H" Company guarding

the very important Onega-Obozerskaya road, over which passed the mails

and reinforcements from the outside world. The cluster of villages

called Bolsheozerki was on this road. Late in March it was overpowered

by a strong force of the Reds and before aid could come the Bolshevik

Northern Army commander had wedged a heavy force in there, threatening

the key-point Obozerskaya. This point on the line of communication had

been guarded by detachments from the Railroad force at Obozerskaya,

Americans alternating with French soldiers, and both making use of

Russian Allied troops. At the time of its capture it was occupied by a

section of French supported by Russian troops. The story of its

recapture is told elsewhere.

The trail junction point Volshenitsa, between Seletskoe and Obozerskaya,

was fitted up with quarters for soldiers and vigilantly guarded against

surprise attacks by the Reds from 443, or Emtsa. Sometimes it was held

by British and Russians from Seletskoe and sometimes by Americans from

Obozerskaya.

It sounds easy to say "Guarding lines of communication." But any veteran

of the North Russian expedition will tell you that the days and nights

he spent at that duty were often severe tests. When that Russki

thermometer was way below forty and the canteen on the hip was solid ice

within twenty minutes of leaving the house, and the sleigh drivers'

whiskers were a frozen Niagara, and your little party had fifteen versts

to go before seeing another village, you wondered how long you would be

able to handle your rifle if you should be ambushed by a party of Bolos.

With the settling down of winter the transportation along the great

winter reaches of road became a matter of fast traveling pony sleighs

with frequent exchange of horses. Officers and civil officials found

this travel not unpleasant. The following story, taken from the Red

Cross Magazine and adapted to this volume, will give the doughboy a

pleasing recollection and the casual reader a vivid picture of the

winter travel.

This might be the story of Captain Ramsay driving to Pinega in January

to visit that front. Or it might be old "Three-Hair" Doc Laird sledging

to Soyla to see "Military Pete" Primm's sturdy platoon. Or it might be

Colonel Stewart on his remarkable trip to the river winter fronts.

However, it is the story of the active American Red Cross Major

Williams, who hit the long trails early and showed the rest the way.

"I have just returned from a trip by sled up the Pinega River, to the

farthest point on that section where American troops are located. The

trip consumed six days and this, with the trip to the Dvina front, makes

a total of twenty days journeying by sled and about eight hundred miles

covered. Horses and not reindeer are used for transport. The Russian

horse, like the peasant, must be a stout breed to stand the strain and

stress of existence. They are never curried, are left standing in the

open for hours, and usually in spots exposed to cruel winds when there

is a semblance of shelter available within a few feet. The peasants do

not believe in 'mollycoddling' their animals, nor themselves.

"On the return trip from Dvina I had a fine animal killed almost

instantly by his breaking his neck. It was about five o'clock in the

afternoon, pitch dark of course, and our Russian driver who, clad in

reindeer skin and hood, resembled for all the world a polar bear on the

front of the sled shouted meaningless and unnecessary words to our two

horses to speed them on their way.

"All sexes and ages look alike in these reindeer parkis. We were in a

semi-covered sled with narrow runner, but with safety skids to prevent

it from completely capsizing. At the foot of every Russian hill the road

makes a sharp turn. For a solid week we had been holding on at these

turns, but finally had become accustomed, or perhaps I should say

resigned, to them. Going down a long hill the horse holds back as long

as he can, the driver assisting in retarding the movement of the sled.

But on steep hills, where this is not possible, it is a case of a run

for life.

"Our horse shied sharply at a sleeping bag which had been thrown from

baggage sled ahead. The safety skids could not save us, but made the

angle of our overturn more complete. Kirkpatrick, several pieces of his

luggage, and an abnormal quantity of hay added to my discomfort. His

heavy blanket roll, which he had been using as a back rest, was thrown

twenty feet. The top of the sled acted as an ideal snow scoop and my

head was rubbed in the snow thoroughly before our little driver, who was

hanging on to the reins (b-r-r b-r-r b-r-r) could hold down the horse.

It was not until an hour later, when our driver was bringing in our

baggage, that I discovered that our lives had been in the hands of a

thirteen-year-old girl.

"After a trip of this sort one becomes more and more enthusiastic about

his blanket roll. Sleeping at all times upon the floor, and occasionally

packed in like sardines with members of peasant families all in the same

room, separated only by an improvised curtain, we kept our health,

appetites and humor.

"A small village of probably two hundred houses. The American soldiers

have been in every house. At first the villagers distrusted them. Now

they are the popular men of the community with the elders as well as

children. Their attitude toward the Russian peasant is helpful,

conciliatory, and sympathetic. One of these men told me that on the

previous day he had seen a woman crying on the street, saying that their

rations would not hold out and they would be forced to eat straw. The

woman showed me a piece of bread, hardly a square meal for three

persons, which she produced carefully wrapped as if worth its weight in

gold from a box in the corner. They had been improvident in the use of

their monthly ration of fifteen pounds of flour per person and the end

of the month, with yet three days to go, found them in a serious

dilemma. When the hard tack and sugar were produced they were speechless

with astonishment. And the satisfaction of the American soldier was

great to see.

"Up on the Pinega River, many miles from any place, we passed a

considerable body of American soldiers headed to the front. Every man

was the picture of health, cheeks aglow, head up, and on the job. These

same men were on the railroad front--four hundred miles in another

direction--when I had seen them last. There they were just coming out of

the front line trenches and block houses, wearing on their heads their

steel hats and carrying on their backs everything but the kitchen stove.

"Now they were rigged more for long marching, in fur caps, khaki coats

of new issue with woollen lining, and many carried Alpine poles, for in

some places the going was hard.

"From our sled supply every man was given a package of Red Cross

cigarettes, and every man was asked if he had received his Christmas

stocking. They all had. I dined, by the way, with General Ironside last

night, and he was very strong in his praise for this particular body of

men who have seen strenuous service and are in for more."

One of the most memorable events in the history of a company of

Americans in Russia was the march from Archangel to Pinega, one hundred

and fifty miles in dead of winter. The first and fourth platoons made

the forced march December 18th to 27th inclusive, hurrying to the relief

of two platoons of another company with its back to the wall.

Two weeks later the second and third platoons came through the same

march even faster, although it was forty degrees below zero on three

days, for it was told at Archangel that the other half of "M" Company

was in imminent danger of extermination.

The last instructions for the march, given in the old Smolny barracks,

are typical of march orders to American soldiers:

"We march tomorrow on Pinega. Many versts but not all in one day. We

shall quarter at night in villages, some friendly, some hostile. We may

meet enemy troops. We march one platoon ahead, one behind the 60-sleigh

convoy. Alert advance and rear parties to protect the column from

surprise.

"Ours is a two-fold mission: First, to reinforce a half of another

company which is now outnumbered ten to one; second, to raise a regiment

of loyal Russian troops in the great Pinega Valley where half the people

are loyal and half are Bolo sympathizers. We hold the balance of power.

Hold up your chins and push out your chests and bear your arms proudly

when passing among the Russian people. You represent the nation that was

slow to wrath but irresistible in might when its soldiers hit the

Hindenburg Line. Make Russians respect your military bearing. The loyal

will breathe more freely because you have come. The treacherous Bolo

sympathizers will be compelled to wipe off their scowls and will fear to

try any dirty work.

"And further, just as important, remember not only to bear yourselves as

soldiers of a powerful people, but bear yourselves as men of a

courteous, generous, sympathetic, chivalrous people. Treat these simple

people right and you win their devoted friendship. Respect their

oddities. Do not laugh at them as do untactful soldiers of another

nation. Molest no man's property except of military necessity. You will

discover likable traits in the character of these Russians. Here, as

everywhere in the world, in spite of differences of language and

customs, of dress and work and play and eating and housing, strangers

among foreign people will find that in the essentials of life folks is

folks.

"You will wear your American field shoes and Arctics in preference to

the clumsy and slippery bottomed Shackleton boot. Overcoats will be

piled loosely on top of sleighs so as to be available when delay is

long. Canteens will be filled each evening at Company "G-I" can. Drink

no water in villager's home. You may buy milk. Everyone must protect his

health. We have no medical man and only a limited supply of number

nines.

"Tomorrow at noon we march. Prepare carefully and cheerfully."

The following account of the march is copied from the daily story

written in an officer's diary:

To OUIMA--FIRST DAY, DECEMBER 18TH

After the usual delay with sleigh drivers, with shoutings and "brrs" and

shoving and pullings, the convoy was off at 11:55 a. m. December 18. The

trail was an improved government road. The sun was on our right hand but

very low. The fire station of Smolny at last dropped out of the rearward

view. The road ran crooked, like the Dvina along whose hilly banks it

wound. A treat to our boys to see rolling, cleared country. Fish towns

and lumber towns on the right. Hay stacks and fields on the left, backed

by forests. Here the trail is bareswept by the wind from across the

river. Again it is snow blown and men and ponies slacken speed in the

drifts. Early sets the sun, but the white snow affords us light enough.

The point out of sight in front, the rear party is lost behind the

curve. Tiny specks on the ice below and distant are interpreted to be

sledges bound for some river port. Nets are exposed to the air and wait

now for June suns to move out the fetters of ice. Decent looking houses

and people face the strange cavalcade as it passes village after

village. It is a new aspect of Russia to the Americans who for many

weeks have been in the woods along the Vologda railroad.

Well, halting is a wonderful performance. The headman--starosta--must be

hunted up to quarter officers and men. He is not sure about the drivers.

Perhaps he fears for the great haystacks in his yard. We cannot wait. In

we go and Buffalo Bill's men never had anything on these Russki drivers.

But it all works out, Slava Bogga for army sergeants. American soldiers

are quick to pull things through anyway. Without friction we get all in

order. Guard is mounted over the sleighs. Now we find out that Mr. Poole

was right in talking about "friendly Russians." Our lowly hosts treat us

royally. Tea from the samovar steams us a welcome. It is clean homes,

mostly, soldiers find themselves in,--clean clothing, clean floors, oil

lamps, pictures on the walls.

To LIABLSKAYA--SECOND DAY, DECEMBER 19TH

Crawled out of our sheepskin sleeping bags about 6:00 o'clock well

rested. Breakfasted on bacon and bread and coffee. Gave headman ten

roubles. Every soldier reported very hospitable treatment. Tea for all.

Milk for many. Some delay caused by the sledge drivers who joined us

late at night from Bakaritza with oats. Left at 8:40. Billeting party

given an hour's start, travelling ahead of the point to get billets and

dinner arranged. Marching hard. Cold sleet from southeast with drifting

snow. The Shackelton boot tricky. Men find it hard to navigate. Road

very hilly. Cross this inlet here. Down the long hill and up a winding

hill to the crest again which overhangs the stream that soon empties

into the big Dvina. To the left on the ice-locked beach are two scows.

It is warmer now for the road winds between the pines on both sides. The

snow ceases gradually but we do not see the least brightness in the sky

to show location of old Sol. We are making four versts an hour in spite

of the hills and the cumbrous boots. The drivers are keeping up well.

Only once is the advance party able to look back to the rear guard, the

caravan being extended more than a verst. Here is another steep hill.

See the crazy Russki driver give his pony his head to dash down the

incline. Disaster hangs in a dizzy balance as he whirls round and round

and the heavily loaded sled pulls horse backwards down the hill. Now we

meet a larger party of dressed-up folks going to church. It is holy day

for Saint Nicholas.

The long hill leading into Liablskaya is a good tester for courage. Some

of the men are playing out--eight versts more will be tough marching.

Here is the billeting officer to tell us that the eight versts is a

mistake--it is nineteen instead. We must halt for the night. No one is

sorry. There is the blazing cook's fire and dinner will be ready soon.

It is only 12:15, but it seems nearly night. Men are quickly assigned to

quarters by the one-eyed old headman, Kardacnkov, who marks the building

and then goes in to announce to the householder that so many Amerikanski

soldats will sleep there. Twenty-five minutes later the rear guard is

in. Our host comes quickly with samovar of hot water and a pot of tea.

He is a clerical man from Archangel, a soldier from the Caucasus. With

our M. & V. we have fresh milk.

It is dark before 3:00 p.m. We need a lamp. All the men are well

quartered and are trying to dry their shoes. We find the sergeants in a

fine home. A bos'n of a Russian vessel is home on leave. We must sit in

their party and drink a hop-ferment substitute for beer. Their coffee

and cakes are delicious and we hold converse on the political situation.

"American soldiers are here to stop the war and give Russia peace" is

our message. In another home we find a war prisoner from Germany, back

less than a week from Petrograd front. He had to come around the

Bolsheviki lines on the Vologda R. R. He says the B. government is on

its last legs at Petrograd.

To KOSKOGOR--THIRD DAY, DECEMBER 20TH

Oh, you silvery moon, are you interested in that bugle call? It is

telling our men to come to breakfast at once--6:45, for we start for

Koskogor at 8:00 a. m. or before. The start is made at 7:45. Road is

fine--well-beaten yesterday by marketing convoys and by Russians bound

for church to celebrate Saint Nick's Day. Between the pines our road

winds. Not a breath of air has stirred since the fine snow came in the

night and "ridged each twig inch deep with pearl." What a sight it would

have been if the sun had come up. Wisconsin, we think of you as we

traverse these bluffs. You tenth verst, you break a beautiful scene on

us with your trail across the valley. You courageous little pony, you

deserve to eat all that hay you are lugging up that hill. Your load is

not any worse than that of the pony behind who hauls a giant log on two

sleds. You deserve better treatment, Loshad. When Russia grows up to an

educated nation animal power will be conserved.

Here we see the primitive saw mill. Perched high on a pair of horses is

a great log. Up and down cuts the long-toothed saw. Up pulls the man on

top. Down draws the man on the ground. Something is lacking--it is the

snap-ring that we so remember from boyhood wood-cutting days in

Michigan.

Here we are back to the river again and another picturesque scene with

its formidable hill--Verst 18. But we get on fast for the end is in

sight. The windmill for grinding grain tells us a considerable village

is near. We arrive and stop on the top of the hill in the home of a

merchant-peasant, Lopatkin: a fine home--house plants and a big clock

and a gramophone. It is cold, for the Russian stove has not been fired

since morning--great economy of fuel in a land of wood.

To KHOLMOGORA--FOURTH DAY, DECEMBER 21ST

Harbinger of hope! Oh you red sky line! Shall we see the sun today?

It is 8:00 a. m. and from our hill top the wide red horizon in the south

affords a wonderful scene. In the distance, headlands on the Dvina cut

bold figures into the red. Far, far away stretches the flat river. Now

we are safely down the long, steep hill and assembled on the river.

Sergeant Getzloff narrowly escapes death from a reckless civilian's pony

and sleigh. We crawl along the east shore for a verst and then cross

squarely to the other side, facing a cold, harsh wind. What a wonderful

subject for a picture. Tall pines--tallest we have yet seen in Russia,

on the island lift their huge trunks against the red, the broad red band

on the skyline. And now, too, the upland joins itself to the scene.

The going is drifty and sternly cold. Broad areas allow the biting wind

full sweep. Ears are covered and hands are thrashed. That "stolen horse"

pole there may be a verst post. Sure enough, and "5," it says, "16 to

go." Look now for the barber poles. We are too late to get a glimpse of

the sun. Red is the horizon yet but the sun has risen behind a low cloud

screen. The advance guard has outwalked the convoy and while ponies toil

up the hill, we seek shelter in the lee of a house to rest, to smoke.

The convoy at last comes up. One animal has a ball of ice on his foot.

We make the drivers rest their ponies and look after their feet. Ten

minutes and then on.

It is a desperate cold. A driver's ears are tipped with white. The

bugler's nose is frozen on the windward side. Everyone with yarn mittens

only is busy keeping fingers from freezing. Here it is good going for

the long straight road is flanked by woods that protect road from drifts

and traveller from icy blasts. This road ends in a half mile of drifts

before a town on the bank of a tributary to the Dvina. We descend to the

river.

So there you are, steamboat, till the spring break-up frees you and then

you will steam up and down the river with logs and lumber and hemp and

iron and glass and soldiers perhaps--but no Americans, I hope. What is

this train that has come through our point? Bolshevik? Those uniforms of

the Russki M. P.'s are alarmingly like those we have been shooting at.

Go on with your prisoners. Now it is noon. The sun is only a hand high

in the sky. The day has grown grey and colder. Or is it lack of food

that makes us more susceptible to winter's blasts? A bit of hard tack

now during this rest while we admire the enduring red of the sky. We are

nearing our objective. For several versts we have skirted the edge of

the river and watched the spires and domes of the city come nearer to

us. We wind into the old river town and pass on for a verst and a half

to an old monastery where we find quarters in a subsidiary building

which once was an orphan's home. The old women are very kind and

hospitable. The rooms are clean and airy and warm.

AT MONASTERY--FIFTH DAY, DECEMBER 22ND

We spend the day at rest. Men are contented to lie on the warm floors

and ease their feet and ankles. We draw our rations of food, forage and

cigarettes. It is bitterly cold and we dread the morrow. The Madam

Botchkoreva, leader of the famous women's Battalion of Death, comes to

call on us. She excites only mild interest among the soldiers.

To UST PINEGA--SIXTH DAY, DECEMBER 23RD

Zero is here on the edge of a cutting wind. But we dash around and

reorganize our convoy. Five sleds and company property are left at the

monastery in charge of two privates who are not fit to march further.

Five horses are unfit to go. Billeting party leaves about 8:00 a. m. The

convoy starts at 8:40. Along the river's edge we move. A big

twelve-verst horseshoe takes us till noon. Men suffer from cold but do

not complain. We put up in village. People are friendly. Officers are

quartered with a good-natured peasant. Call up Pinega on long distance

phone. We are needed badly. Officer will try to get sleighs to come to

meet us forty versts out of Pinega. Maj. Williams, Red Cross, came in to

see us after we had gone to bed, on his way to Pinega.

To VERKHNE PALENGA--SEVENTH DAY, DECEMBER 24TH

At breakfast telegram came from Pinega promising one hundred horses and

Red Cross Christmas dinners. Get away at 7:50 a. m. The lane is full of

snow but the winding road through the pines is a wonderfully fine road.

For thirteen versts there is hardly a drift. The hills are very

moderate. Wood haulers are dotting the river. Stores are evidently

collecting for scow transport in the summer. No, do not take to the ice.

Keep on to the left, along the river. This hill is not so bad. We lost

our point on a tortuous road, but find that we have avoided a ravine.

The fourteenth verst takes us across the river--follow the telephone

wires there. Come back, you point, and take the road to the left that

climbs that steep bluff yonder. What a sight from the top! The whole

convoy lies extended from advance guard on the hill to rear guard on the

river.

Up and down our winding pine-flanked road takes us. It is hard going but

the goal is only a few versts away. Now we are in sight of the village

and see many little fields. Oh boy! see that ravine. This town is in two

parts. Hospitable is the true word. Men turn out and cut notches in the

ice to help the ponies draw the sleds up the hill. It is some show.

Several of the ponies are barely able to make the grade. The big man of

the village is Cukov. We stay in his home--fine home. Headman Zelenian

comes to see us. Opened our Red Cross Christmas stockings and doughboys

share their meagre sweets with Russki children.

To LEUNOVO--EIGHTH DAY, DECEMBER 25TH

Up at 6:00 for a Merry Christmas march. Away at 8:05. Good road for

thirteen versts, to Uzinga. Here we stop and call for the headman who

gets his men to help us down the hill to the river. Not cold. Holes in

the river for washing clothes. Officer reported seeing women actually

washing clothes. Found out what the high fences are for. Hang their flax

up to dry. The twenty-fourth verst into Leunovo is a hard drag. Quarters

are soon found. People sullen. Forester, Polish man who lives in house

apart at north end of village, tells me there are many Bolsheviki

sympathizers in the town. Also that Ostrov and Kuzomen are affected

similarly. This place will have to be garrisoned by American soldiers to

protect our rear from treachery.

TO GBACH--NINTH DAY, DECEMBER 26TH

Delay in starting due to necessity for telephoning to Pinega in regard

to rations and sleighs. Some error in calculations. They had sleighs

waiting us at Gbach this morning instead of tomorrow morning. Snow

falling as we start on the river road at 8:25. We find it glada (level)

nearly all the way but drifty and hard walking. Nevertheless we arrive

at end of our twenty-one verst march at 1:25. Met by friendly villagers

and well quartered. These people need phone and a guard the same as at

Verkne Palenga. Find that people here view the villages of Ostrov and

Kuzomen with distrust. Kulikoff, a prominent leader in the Bolo Northern

army, hails from one of these villages. Spent an hour with the village

schoolmaster. Had a big audience of men and boys. Sgt. Young and

interpreter came through from Pinega to untangle the sleigh situation.

We find that it is again all set here for an early start with one

hundred sleighs. A spoiled can of M. & V. makes headquarters party

desperately sick.

TO PINEGA--TENTH DAY, DECEMBER 27TH

Hard to get up this morning. Horses and sleighs came early as promised.

Put one man and his barrack bag and equipment into each sleigh and in

many sleighs added a light piece of freight to lighten our regular

convoy sleds. Got away at 9:00 a. m. Nice day for driving. The Russian

sleigh runs smoothly and takes the bumps gracefully. It is the first

time these solders have ridden in sleighs. Urgency impels us. Light ball

snow falls. Much hay cut along this valley. We meet the genial Red Cross

man who passes out cigarettes and good cheer to all the men.

Arrive at Soyla at noon. Some mistake made. The hundred horses left

yesterday and the headman goes out to get them again for us to go on

this evening. Seventeen sleighs got away at 3:00 p. m. Twenty-five more

at 7:00 p. m. At 9:30 we got away with the remainder of company. Have a

good sleigh and can sleep. Here is Yural and I must awake and telephone

to Pinega to see how situation stands. Loafer in telegraph office

informs us of the battle today resulting in defeat of White Guards, the

volunteers of Pinega who were supporting the hundred Americans. Bad

news. It is desperately cold. No more sleeping. The river road is bleak.

We arrive at last--3:00 a. m. In the frosty night the hulks of boats and

the bluffs of Pinega loom large. So endeth diary of the remarkable

march.

No group of healthy men anywhere in the world, no matter what the danger

and hardships, will long forego play. It is the safety valve. It may be

expressed in outdoor sports, or indoor games, or in hunting, fishing or

in some simple diversion. It may be in a tramp or a ride into some new

scenery to drink in beauty, or what not, even to getting the view-points

of strange peoples. What soldier will ever forget the ride up to the old

three-hundred-year-old monastery and the simple feed that the monks set

out for them. Or who will forget the dark night at Kodish when the

orator called out to the Americans and they joshed him back with great

merriment.

Often the soldier on the great line of communication duty whiled away an

hour helping some native with her chores. "Her" is the right word, for

in that area nearly every able-bodied man was either in the army,

driving transport, working in warehouses, or working on construction, or

old and disabled. Practically never was a strong man found at home

except on furlough or connected with the common job of the peasants,

keeping the Bolo out of the district.

For a matter of several weeks in weather averaging twenty-four degrees

below zero three American soldiers were responsible for the patrol of

seven versts of trail leading out from a village on the line of

communication toward a Bolo position which was threatening it. One or

all of them made this patrol by sleigh every six or eight hours,

inspecting a cross-trail and a rest shack which Bolo patrols might use.

Their plan was never to disturb the snow except on the path taken by

themselves, so that any other tracks could be easily detected. One day

there were suspicious signs and one of the men tramped a circle around

the shack inspecting it from all sides before entering it.

Next morning, before daylight, another one of  the trio made the patrol

and being informed of the circle about the shack, saw what he took to be

additional tracks leading out and into the shack and proceeded to burn

the shack as his orders were, if the shack were ever visited and

promised to be of use to the enemy. Later by daylight a comrade making

the patrol came back with the joke on his buddie who in the darkness had

mistaken a huge snowshoe rabbit's tracks, made out of curiosity smelling

out the man's tracks. Often the patrol sled would travel for hours

through a fairy land. The snow-laden trees would be interlaced over the

trail, so that the sled travelled in a wonderful crystal, grey, green

and golden tunnel. Filtering beams of sunlight ahead of it. A mist of

disturbed snow behind it. No sound save from the lightly galloping pony,

the ooh-chee-chee of the driver or the bump of the sleigh against a

tree or a root, or the occasional thunder of a rabchik or wild turkey in

partridge-like flight. Beside the trail or crossing might be seen the

tracks of fox and wolf and in rare instances of reindeer.

Or on the open road in the night: solemn again the mood of the doughboy

as he recollects some of those lonely night rides. Here on his back in

the hay of the little sled he reclines muffled in blankets and robes,

his driver hidden in his great bearskin parki, or greatcoat, hidden all

but his two piercing eyes, his nose and whiskers that turned up to

shield his face. With a jerk the fiery little pony pulls out, sending

the two gleaming sled tracks to running rearward in distant meeting

points, the woods to flying past the sleigh and the snow to squealing

faintly under the runners; sending the great starry heavens to sweep

through the tops of the pine forest and sending the doughboy to long

thoughts and solemn as he looks up at the North Star right above him and

thinks of what his father said when he left home:

"Son, you look at the North Star and I'll look at it and every time we

will think of one another while you are away, and if you never come

back, I'll look at the North Star and know that it is looking down at

your grave where you went with a purpose as fixed as the great star and

a motive as pure as its white light." Oh, those wonderful night heavens

to the thoughtful man!

Every veteran at this point in the narrative thinks now of the wonderful

nights when the Northern Lights held him in their spell. Always the

sentry called to his mates to come and see. It cannot be pictured by

brush or pen, this Aurora Borealis. It has action, it has color, sheets

of light, spires, shafts, beams and broad finger-like spreadings, that

come and go, filmy veils of light winding and drifting in, weaving in

and out among the beams and shafts, now glowing, now fading. It may be

low in the north or spread over more than half the heavens. It may shift

from east to western quarter of the northern heaven. Never twice the

same, never repeating the delicate pattern, nor staying a minute for the

admirer, it brightens or glimmers, advances or retreats, dies out

gradually or vanishes quickly. Always a phenomenon of wonder to the

soldier who never found a zero night too cold for him to go and see, was

the Aurora Borealis.

XV

MOURNFUL KODISH

Donoghue Brings Valuable Reinforcements--Bolshevik Orator On Emtsa

Bridge--Conditions Detrimental To Morale--Preparations For Attack On

Kodish--Savage Fighting Blade To Blade--Bolsheviks Would Not Give

Way--Desperately Bitter Struggle--We Hold Kodish At Awful Cost--Under

Constant And Severe Barrage--Half-Burned Shell-Gashed Houses Mark Scene

Of Struggle--We Retire From Kodish--Again We Capture Kodish But Can Not

Advance--Death Of Ballard--Counter Attack Of Reds Is Barely

Stemmed--Both Sides See Futility Of Fighting For Kodish--"K" Means

Kodish Where Heroic Blood Of Two Continents Stained Snows Richly.

We left "K" Company and Ballard's platoon of machine gun men, heroes of

the fall fighting at Kodish, resting in Archangel. We have seen that the

early winter was devoted to building defenses against the Reds who

showed a disposition to mass up forces for an attack. "K" Company had

come back to the force in December and with "L" Company gone to reserve

in Seletskoe. Captain Donoghue had become "Major Mike" for all time and

Lt. Jahns commanded the old company. Donoghue had taken back to the

Kodish Force valuable reinforcements in the shape of Smith's and

Tessin's trench mortar sections of "Hq" Company.

It had been in the early weeks of winter during the time that Captain

Heil with "E" Company and the first platoon machine gunners were holding

the Emtsa bridge line, that the Bolsheviki almost daily tried out their

post-armistice propaganda. The Bolo commander sent his pamphlets in

great profusion; he raised a great bulletin board where the American

troops and the Canadian artillery forward observers could read from

their side of the river his messages in good old I. W. W. style and

content; he sent an orator to stand on the bridge at midnight and

harangue the Americans by the light of the Aurora Borealis.

He even went so far as to bring out to the bridge two prisoners whom the

Bolos had had for many weeks. One was a Royal Scot lad, the other was

Pvt. George Albers of "I" Company who had been taken prisoner one day on

the railroad front. These two prisoners were permitted to stand near

enough their comrades to tell them they were well treated.

Captain Heil was just about to complete negotiations for the exchange of

prisoners one day when a patrol from another Allied force raided the

Bolos in the rear and interrupted the close of the deal. The Bolos were

occupied with their arms. And shortly afterward Donoghue heard of the

negotiations and the wily propaganda of the Reds and put a stop to it.

On another page is told the story of similar artifices resorted to by

the Reds on the Toulgas Front to break into the morale of the American

troops.

It was well that the American officer adopted firm measures.

To be sure the great rank and file of American soldiers like their

people back home could not be fooled by propaganda. They could see

through Red propaganda as well as they could see through the old German

propaganda and British propaganda and American for that matter. Of

course not always clearly. But it was wise to avoid the stuff if

possible, and to discount it good-humoredly when it did contact with us.

The black night and short, hazy days, the monotonous food, the great

white, wolf-howling distances, and the endless succession of one d---

hardship after another was quite enough. Add to that the really pathetic

letters from home telling of sickness and loneliness of those in the

home circle so far away, and the uselessly sobful letters that carried

clippings from the partisan papers that grossly exaggerated and

distorted stories of the Arctic campaign and also carried suggestions of

resistance to the military authorities, and you have a situation that

makes us proud at this time of writing that our American men showed a

real stamina and morale that needs no apology.

The story of this New Year's Day battle with the Bolos proves the point.

For six weeks "E" Company had been on the line. Part of "L" Company had

been sent to reinforce Shred Makrenga and the remainder was at Seletskoe

and split up into various side detachments. Now they came for the

preparations for their part in the united push on Plesetskaya, mentioned

before. "K" Company came up fresh from its rest in Archangel keen to

knock the Bolo out of Kodish and square the November account. Major

Donoghue was to command the attacking forces, which besides "E" and "K"

consisted of one section of Canadian artillery, one platoon of the "M.

G." Company, one trench mortar section, a medical detachment and a

detachment of 310th Engineers who could handle a rifle if necessary with

right good will. Each unit caught a gleam of fire from the old

Irishman's eye as he looked them over on December 28th and 29th, while

"L" Company came up to take over the front so as to relieve the men for

their preparations for the shock of the battle.

The enemy was holding Kodish with two thousand seven hundred men,

supported by four pieces of artillery and a reserve of seven hundred

men. Donoghue had four hundred fifty men. At 6:00 a. m. "E" and "K"

Companies were on the east bank of the Emtsa moving toward the right

flank of the Bolos and firing red flares at intervals with Very pistol

to inform Donoghue of their progress.

Meanwhile the seven Stokes mortars were putting a fifteen-minute barrage

of shells, a great 1000-shell burst, on the Bolo trenches, which added

to the 20-gun machine and Lewis gun barrage, demoralized the Red front

line and gave the two infantry companies fifteen minutes later an easy

victory as they swung in and on either side of the road advanced rapidly

toward Kodish village. Meanwhile the Canadian artillery pounded the Bolo

reserves in Kodish.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

By Reindeer Jitney to Bakaritza.

PRIMM

Russian Eskimos at Home, Near Pinega.

WAGNER

Fortified House, Toulgas.

U. S. OFFICIAL

To Bolskeozerki.

WAGNER

Colonel Morris--at Right.

RED CROSS

Russian Eskimo Idol.

DOUD

Ambulance Men.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Practising Rifle and Pistol Fire Oil Onega Front.

WAGNER

French Machine Gun Men at Kodish.

U.S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Allied Plane Carrying Bombs.

The Reds tried to rally at a ridge of ground a verst in front of Kodish

but the dreadful trench mortars again showered them at eight hundred

yards with this new kind of hell and they were easily dislodged by the

infantry and machine gun fire. At 1:00 p. m. after seven hours hard

fighting the Americans were again in possession of Kodish. An

interesting side incident of this recapture of Kodish was the defeat of

a company of Reds occupying a Kodish flank position at the church on the

river two versts away. The Reds disputed but Sergeant Masterson and

fifteen men of "E" Company dislodged them. But time was valuable.

Donoghue's battle order that day called for his force to take Kodish and

its defenses, Avda and its defenses and to occupy Kochmas. Only a matter

of twenty miles of deep snow and hard fighting.

So the enemy was attacked again vigorously at one of the old fighting

spots of the fall campaign, at Verst 12. As in the previous fighting the

Red Guards, realizing the strategic value of this road fought

tenaciously for every verst of it. They had been prepared for the loss

of Kodish village itself; it was untenable. But they refused to budge

from Verst 12. The trench mortars could not reach their dugout line. And

the Red machine guns poured a hot fire into the village of Kodish as

well as into the two platoons that forced their way a half a verst from

the village toward this stubborn stronghold of the Reds.

Darkness fell on the combatants locked in desperate fight. All the

American forces were brought up into Kodish for they had expected to get

on to Avda as their order directed. Out in front the night was made

lurid by flares and shell fire and gun fire where the two devoted

platoons of "K" and "E" Companies with two machine guns of the first

platoon of "M. G." Company hung on. Lts. Jahns, Shillson and Berger were

everywhere among their men and met nothing but looks of resolution from

them, for if this little force of less than a hundred men gave way the

whole American force would be routed from Kodish. There could be no

orderly retreat from the village under such desperate conditions in the

face of such numbers. They had to stick on. Half their number were

killed and wounded, among whom was the gallant Lt. Berger of "E" Company

who had charged across the bridge in the morning in face of machine gun

fire. Sergeants Kenney and Grewe of "K" Company gave their lives that

night in moving courageously among their men. Frost bites cruelly added

to the miseries of those long night hours after the fighting lulled at

eleven o'clock.

Morning discovered the force digging in. The odds were all against them.

Again they were standing in Kodish where after personal reconnaisance

Col. Lucas, their nominal superior officer, commanding Vologda Force,

had said no troops should be stationed as it was strategically

untenable. But a new British officer had come into command of the

Seletskoe detachment, and perhaps that accounts for the foolhardy order

that the doughty old Donoghue received; "Hold what you have got and

advance no further south; prepare defenses of Kodish." What an irony of

fate. His force had been the only one of the various forces that had

actually put any jab into the push on Plesetskaya. Now they were to be

penalized for their very desperately won success.

The casualties had been costly and had been aggravated by the rapid

attacks of the frost upon hands and feet. In temperature way below zero

the men lay in the snow on the outskirts and in that lowly village under

machine gun fire and shrapnel. They undermined the houses to get warmth

and protection in the dugouts thus constructed under them. Barricades

they built; and chipped out shallow trenches in the frozen ground. Again

the trench mortar came into good use. A platoon of "K" and a platoon of

"E" found themselves partly encircled by a strong force of Reds, with a

single mortar near them to support. This mortar although clogged

repeatedly with snow and ice worked off two hundred fifty shells on the

Reds and finally spotted the enemy machine gun positions and silenced

them, contributing greatly to the silencing of the enemy fire and to his

discouragement.

The firer of this mortar, Pvt. Barone of "Hq" Company, who worked

constantly, a standing target for the Bolos, near the end of the fight

fell with a bullet in his leg. And so the Americans scrapped on. And

they did hold Kodish. Seven were killed and thirty-five wounded, two

mortally, in this useless fight. Lt. O'Brien of "E" Company was severely

wounded and at this writing is still in hospital. "The memories of these

brave fellows," says Lt. Jack Commons, "who went as the price exacted,

Lt. Berger of "E" Company, Sgts. Kenney and Grewe and many other steady

and courageous and loyal pals through the months of hardship that had

preceded, made Kodish a place horrible, detested, and unnerving to the

small detachment that held it."

Meanwhile their fellows at the river bank with the engineers were

slashing down the trees on the Bolo side clearing the bank to prevent

surprise of the Allied position over the seven foot ice that now made

the river into a winding roadway. More blockhouses and gun positions

were put in. It was only a matter of time till they would have to

retreat to the old position on the river.

On January 4th Donoghue sent "E" Company back to occupy and help

strengthen the old position at the river, from where they sent

detachments forward to help "K" and "M.G." and trench mortar hold the

shell-shattered village of Kodish. The enemy confined himself chiefly to

artillery shelling, always replied to vigorously by our gallant Canadian

section who, though outgunned, sought to draw part of the enemy fire

their way to lighten the barrage on their American comrades caught like

rats in the exposed village. From their three hills about the doomed

village of Kodish the Reds kept up a continuous sharpshooting which

fortunately was too long range to be effective. And the enormous losses

which the Reds had suffered on their side that bloody New Year's Day

made them hesitate to move on the village with infantry to be mowed down

by those dreadful Amerikanski fighters, when a few days of steady

battering with artillery would perhaps do just as well.

Flesh and blood can stand only so much. Terrible was the strain. No

wonder that on the seventh day of this hell a lieutenant with a single

platoon holding the village after receiving magnified reports from his

patrols of strong Bolo flanking forces, imagined a general attack on

Kodish. The French Colonel, V. O. C. O., had said Kodish should not be

held. And in the night he set fire to the ill-fated village and

retreated to the river. Swift came the command from the fiery old

Donoghue: "Back to that village with me, the Reds shall not have it."

And his men reoccupied it before dawn. But no one but they can ever know

how they suffered. The cold twenty below zero stung them in the village

half burned. Their beloved old commander's words stung them. Hateful to

them was the certainty that he was grimly carrying out a written order

superior indeed to the French Colonel's V. O. but which was not based on

a true knowledge of the situation by the far-distant British officer who

went over Col. Lucas' head and ordered Kodish held. Could they hold on?

They did, with a display of fortitude that became known to the world and

which makes every soldier who was in the expedition thrill with honest

pride and admiration for them. The Americans held it till they were

relieved by a company of veteran fighters, the King's Liverpools,

supported by a half company of "Dyer's Battalion" of Russians.

In passing let it be remarked that the English officer, Captain Smerdon,

soon succeeded in convincing the British O. C. Seletskoe that Kodish was

no place for any body of soldiers to hold. He gallantly held it but only

temporarily, for soon he and the Canadians and trench mortar and machine

gun men and the Dyer's Battalion men were back under Major Donoghue

holding the old Emtsa river line and its two supporting blockhouse

lines.

Our badly shattered "E" Company and "K" Company went to reserve in

Seletskoe. The former company in the middle of January went to Archangel

for a ten day rest, and will be heard of later in the winter on another

desperate front. Old "K" Company was glad to just find warm bunks in

Seletskoe and regain their old fighting pep that had been exhausted in

the New Year's period of protracted fighting under desperate odds. Here

let us insert the story of a two-man detachment of those redoubtable

trench mortar men who rivaled their comrades' exploits with rifle and

bayonet or machine gun. Corp. Andriks and Pvt. Forthe of "Hq" Company

trench mortar platoon were loaned for a few days to the British officer

at Shred Makrenga to instruct his Russian troops in the use of the

Stokes mortars. But the two Yanks in the two months they were on that

hard-beset front spent most of their time in actually fighting their

guns rather than in teaching the Russians. This is only one of many

cases of the sort, where small detachments of American soldiers sent off

temporarily on a mission, were kept by the British officers on active

duty. They did such sterling service.

Ever hear of the "lost platoon of "D" Company?" Like vagabonds they

looked when finally their platoon leader, Lt. Wallace, cut loose from

the British officer and reported back to Lieut.-Col. Corbley on the

Vaga. But the erratic Reds would not settle down to winter quarters.

They had frustrated the great push on Plesetskaya with apparent ease.

They had the Allied warriors now ill at ease and nervous.

The trench mortar men and the machine gun men can tell many an

interesting story of those January days on the Kodish Front serving

there with the mixed command of Canadians and King's Liverpools and

Dyer's Battalion of Russians. These latter were an uncertain lot of

change-of heart Bolshevik prisoners and deserters and accused spies and

so forth, together with Russian youths from the streets of Archangel,

who for the uniform with its brass buttons and the near-British rations

of food and tobacco had volunteered to "help save Russia." By the rugged

old veteran, Dyer, they had been licked into a semblance of fighting

trim. This was the force which Major Donoghue had at command when again

came the order to take Kodish. This time it was not a great offensive

push to jab at the Red Army vitals, but it was a defensive thrust, a

desperate operation to divert attention of the Reds from their

successful winter operations against the Shred Makrenga front. Two

platoons of Couriers du Bois, the well trained Russian White Guards

under French tutelage, and those same Royal Marines that had been with

him the first time Kodish was taken in the bloody fight in the fall. And

Lt. Ballard's gallant platoon of machine gun men came to relieve the

first "M. G." platoon and to join the drive. They had an old score to

settle with the Bolos, too.

Again the American officer led the attack on Kodish and this time easily

took the village, for the Reds were wise enough not to try to hold it.

Their first lines beyond the village yielded to his forces after stiff

fighting, but the old 12th Verst Pole position held three times against

the assaults of the Allied troops.

Meanwhile the courageous "French-Russians" had marched fourteen miles

through the woods, encircling the Bolo flank, and fell upon his

artillery position, captured the guns and turned them upon the Red

reserves at Avda. But the other forces could not budge the Reds from

Verst 12 and so the Couriers du Bois, after holding their position

against counter attack all the afternoon, blew up the Red field pieces

and retreated in the face of a fresh Bolo battalion from Avda.

And during the afternoon the Americans who were engaged in this fight

lost an officer whose consummate courage and wonderful cheerfulness had

won him the adoration of his men and the respect and love of the

officers who worked with him.

Brave, energetic, cheerful old Ballard's death filled the Machine Gun

Company and the whole regiment with mingled feelings of sorrow and

pride. Over and beyond the call of duty he went to his death while

striving to save the fortune of the day that was going against his

doughty old leader Donoghue. He did not know that the Liverpool Company

had left a hole in the line by finding a trail to the rear after their

second gallant but fruitless assault, and he went forward of his own

initiative, with a Russian Lewis gun squad to find position where he

could plant one of his machine guns to help the S. B. A. L. platoons and

Liverpools whom old Donoghue was coming up to lead in another charge on

the Bolo position.

Lt. Ballard ran into the exposed hole in the line and pushed forward to

a place where his whole squad was ambushed and the Russian Lewis gunner

was the only one to get out. He returned with his gun and dropped among

the Americanski machine gunners, telling of the death of Ballard and the

Russian soldiers at the point of the Bolshevik bayonets. Lt. Commons of

"K" Company declares that Ballard met his death at that place by getting

into the hole in the line which he supposed was held by English and

Russians and by being caught in a cross fire of Bolo Colt machine guns.

Whichever way it was, his body was never seen nor recovered. Hope that

he might have been taken as a wounded prisoner by the Reds still lived

in the hearts of his comrades. And all officers and men of the American

forces who came into Detroit the following July vainly wished to believe

with the girl who piteously scanned every group that landed, that

Ballard might yet be heard from as a prisoner in Russia. No doubt he was

killed.

The battle continued. Finally the withdrawal of the Couriers du Bois and

the coming through of the Avda Battalion of the Reds, together with Red

reinforcements from Kodlozerskaya-Pustin, reduced Donoghue's force to a

stern defensive and he retreated at five o'clock in good order to the

old lines on the river.

The half-burned and scarred buildings of Kodish mournfully reminded the

soldier of the losses that had decimated the ranks of the forces that

fought and refought over the village. Into their old strongholds they

retired, keeping a sharp lookout for the expected retaliation of the

Reds. It came two days later. And it nearly accounted for the entire

force, although that was not so remarkable, Lt. Commons, the Major's

adjutant, says, because so many even of the shorter engagements on this

and other fronts had been equally narrow squeaks for the Americans and

their Allies.

The Reds in this fight reached the second line of defense with their

flanking forces, and bombarded it with new guns brought up from

Plesetskaya. Meanwhile, all along the front they attacked in great force

and succeeded in taking one blockhouse, killing the seven gallant

Liverpool lads who fought up all their ammunition and defied the Bolo

steel to steel. But the remainder of the front held, largely through the

effective work of the American trench mortar and the deadly machine

gunners shooting for revenge of the death of Ballard, their nervy

leader, held fast their strongholds.

At last the Reds found their losses too severe to continue the attack.

And they had been constantly worried by the gallant Russian Couriers du

Bois, who fearlessly stayed out in the woods and nipped the Bolo forces

in flank or rear. And so they withdrew. There was little more fighting

on this front. The Reds were content to let well enough alone. Kodish in

ruins was theirs. Plesetskaya was safe from threats on that hard fought

road.

This was the last fight for the Americans on the Kodish Front. "K"

Company had already looked for the last time on the old battle scenes

and at the wooden crosses which marked the graves of their heroic dead,

and had gone to Archangel to rest, later to duty on the lines of

communication at Kholmogori and Yemetskoe. Now the trench mortar platoon

and "M. G." platoon went to the railroad front, and Major Donoghue was

the last one to leave the famous Kodish Front, where he had won

distinction. It was now an entirely British-Russian front and the

American officer who had remained voluntarily to lead in the last big

fight because of his complete knowledge of the battle area now went to

well-earned rest in Archangel.

In closing the story of the Americans on the Kodish Front we turn to the

words written us by Lt. John A. Commons:

"Thus the Kodish Front was really home to the men of "K" Company, for

most of their stay in the northern land. To "E" and "L" and Machine Gun

and Trench Mortar "Hq" platoon it was also, but for a shorter period,

their only shelter from the rains of the fall and the bite of the

winter. "K", however, meant Kodish. There they had their first fight,

there their dead were buried. There they had their last battle. And

there their memories long will return, mostly disagreeable to be sure,

but still representing very definitely their part, performed with

honesty, courage and distinction, in the big work that was given the

Yankee doughboys to do 'on the other side.'

"The scraps mentioned here were the tougher part of the actions at the

front. In between the line should be read first the cold as it was felt

only out in the Arctic woods, away from the villages and their warm

houses. Then, too, everything was one ceaseless and endless repetition

of patrolling and scouting. Many were the miles covered by these lads

from Detroit and other cities and towns of America among the soft snow

and the evergreens. Many a time did these small parties have their own

little battles way out in the woods. Much has been said here and there

of the influence of Bolshevik propaganda upon the American forces. It is

true that these soldiers got a lot of it, and it is true that these

soldiers read nearly all that they got. But it is true also that there

was not a single incident of the whole campaign which could with honesty

be attributed to this propaganda. On the Kodish Front it is quite safe

to say that there was more of this ludicrous literature--not ludicrous

to the Russian peasant, but very much so to the average American--taken

in than on any other. Scarce a patrol went out which did not bring back

something with which to while away a free hour or so, or with which to

start a fire. It was always welcome.

"But it was seriously treated in the same spirit that moved a corporal

of Ballard's machine gun platoon who felt strongly the discrepancy

between the remarks of the Bolshevik speaker on the bridge to the effect

that his fellows were moved by brotherly love for the Yanks and the FACT

that nine out of every ten Bolshevik cartridges captured had the bullets

clipped. The corporal reciprocated later with a machine gun, not for the

love but for the bullets.

"So they stuck and fought, suffering through the bitter months of winter

just below the Arctic Circle, where the winter day is in minutes and the

night seems a week. And there is not one who is not proud that he was

once a "side kicker" and a "buddy" to some of those fine fellows of the

various units who unselfishly and gladly gave the last that a man has to

give for any cause at all."

XVI

UST PADENGA

Positions Near Ust Padenga In January--Bolo Patrols--Overwhelming

Assault By Bolos January Nineteenth--Through Valley Of Death--Canadian

Artillery And Machine Gun Fire Punishes Enemy Frightfully When He Takes

Ust Padenga--Death Of Powers--Enemy Artillery Makes American Position

Untenable--Escaping From Trap--Retreating With Constant Rear-Guard

Actions--We Lose Our Last Gun--"A" Company Has Miraculous Escape But

Suffers Heavy Losses.

Outside of routine patrolling, outpost duties and intermittent shelling

and sniping, the early part of the month of January, 1919, was

comparatively quiet on the Ust Padenga front. The troops now engaged in

the defense of this sector were Company "A," 339th Infantry, a platoon

of "A" Company, 310th Engineers, Canadian Artillery, English Signal

Detachment and several companies of Russians and Cossacks.

It will be recalled that the main positions of our troops was in

Netsvetiafskaya, on a high bluff overlooking Ust Padenga and Nijni

Gora--the former about a thousand yards to our left front on the bank of

the Vaga, and the latter about a mile to our right front located on

another hill entirely surrounded by a deep ravine and valleys. In other

words our troops were in a V-shaped position with Netsvetiafskaya as the

base of the V, Ust Padenga as the left fork, and Nijni Gora as the right

fork of same. The Cossack troops refused to occupy the position of Nijni

Gora, claiming that it was too dangerous a position and almost

impossible to withdraw from in case they were hard pressed.

Consequently, orders were issued from British headquarters at Shenkursk,

ordering an American platoon to occupy Nijni Gora and the Cossacks to

occupy Ust Padenga.

On the afternoon of January 18, the fourth platoon of Company "A," with

forty-six men under command of Lieut. Mead, relieved the second platoon

and took over the defense of Nijni Gora. The weather at this time was

fearfully cold, the thermometer standing about forty-five degrees below

zero. Rumors after rumors were constantly coming in to our intelligence

section that the enemy was preparing to make a desperate drive on our

positions at this front. His patrols were getting bolder and bolder. A

few nights before, one of the members of such a patrol had been shot

down within a few feet of Pvt. George Moses, one of our sentinels, who,

single handed, stood his post and held off the patrol until assistance

arrived. We had orders to hold this front at all cost. By the use of

field glasses we could see considerable activity in the villages in

front of us and on our flanks, and during the night the inky blackness

was constantly being illuminated by flares and rockets from many

different points. It is the writer's opinion that these flares were used

for the purpose of guiding and directing the movements of the troops

that on the following day annihilated the platoon in Nijni Gora.

On the morning of that fatal nineteenth day of January, just at dawn the

enemy's artillery, which had been silent now for several weeks, opened

up a terrific bombardment on our position in Nijni Gora. This artillery

was concealed in the dense forest on the opposite bank of the Vaga far

beyond the range of our own artillery. Far in the distance at ranges of

a thousand to fifteen hundred yards, we could see long skirmish lines of

the enemy clad in ordinary dark uniforms. Whenever they got within range

we would open fire with rifles and machine guns which succeeded in

repelling any concerted movement from this direction. At this time there

were twenty-two men in the forward position in command of Lt. Mead and

about twenty-two men in command of the platoon sergeant in the rear

position, After about an hour's violent shelling the barrage suddenly

lifted, Instantly, from the deep snow and ravines entirely surrounding

us, in perfect attack formation, arose hundreds of the enemy clad in

white uniforms, and the attack was on.

Time after time well directed bursts of machine gun fire momentarily

held up group on group of the attacking party, but others were steadily

and surely pressing forward, their automatic rifles and muskets pouring

a veritable hail of bullets into the thin line of the village defenders.

Our men fought desperately against overwhelming odds. Corporal Victor

Stier, seeing a Russian machine gun abandoned by the panic-stricken

Russians in charge of same, rushed forward and manning this gun

single-handed opened up a terrific fire on the advancing line. While

performing this heroic task he was shot through the jaw by an enemy

bullet. Still clinging to his gun he refused to leave it until ordered

to the rear by his commanding officer. On his way back through the

village he picked up the rifle of a dead comrade and joined his comrades

in the rear of the village determined to stick to the end. It was while

in this position that he was again hit by a bullet which later proved

fatal--his death occurring that night. He was an example of the same

heroic devotion to duty that marked each member of this gallant company

throughout the expedition. Being thus completely surrounded, the enemy

now advancing with fixed bayonets, and many of our brave comrades lying

dead in the snow, there was nothing left for those of us in the forward

position to do but to cut our way through to the rear position in order

to rejoin our comrades there. The enemy had just gained the street of

the village as we began our fatal withdrawal--fighting from house to

house in snow up to our waists, each new dash leaving more of our

comrades lying in the cold and snow, never to be seen again. How the

miserable few did succeed in eventually rejoining their comrades no one

will ever know. We held on to the crest of the hill for a few moments to

give our artillery opportunity to open up on the village and thus cover

our withdrawal. Again another misfortune arose to add more to the danger

and peril of our withdrawal. A few days previously our gallant and

effective Canadian artillery had been relieved by a unit of Russian

artillery and during the early shelling this fateful morning, the

Russian artillerymen deserted their guns--something that no Canadian

ever would have done in such a situation. By the time the Russians were

forced back to their guns at the point of a pistol in the hands of

Captain Odjard, our little remaining band had been compelled to give way

in the face of the terrific fire from the forests on our flanks and the

oncoming advance of the newly formed enemy line. To withdraw we were

compelled to march straight down the side of this hill, across an open

valley some eight hundred yards or more in the terrible snow, and under

the direct fire of the enemy. There was no such thing as cover, for this

valley of death was a perfectly open plain, waist deep with snow. To run

was impossible, to halt was worse yet and so nothing remained but to

plunge and flounder through the snow in mad desperation, with a prayer

on our lips to gain the edge of our fortified positions. One by one, man

after man fell wounded or dead in the snow, either to die from the

grievous wounds or terrible exposure. The thermometer still stood about

forty-five degrees below zero and some of the wounded were so terribly

frozen that their death was as much due to such exposure as enemy

bullets. Of this entire platoon of forty-seven men, seven finally

succeeded in gaining the shelter of the main position uninjured. During

the day a voluntary rescue party under command of Lieut. McPhail, "Sgt."

Rapp, and others of Company "A" with Morley Judd of the Ambulance Corps,

went out into the snow under continuous fire and brought in some of the

wounded and dead, but there were twelve or more brave men left behind in

that fatal village whose fate was never known and still remains unknown

to the present day, though long since reported by the United States War

Department as killed in action. Many others were picked up dead in that

valley of death later in the day and others died on their way back to

hospitals. These brave lads made the supreme sacrifice, fighting bravely

to the last against hopeless odds. Through prisoners later captured by

us, we learned that the attacking party that morning numbered about nine

hundred picked troops--so the reader will readily appreciate what chance

our small force had.

All that day and far into the night the enemy's guns continued hammering

away at our positions. Under cover of darkness the Russians and Cossacks

in the village of Ust Padenga withdrew to our lines--a move which the

enemy least suspected. The following days were just a repetition of this

day's action. The enemy shelled and shelled our position and then sent

forward wave after wave of infantry. The Canadian Artillery under

command of Lieut. Douglas Winslow rejoined us and, running their guns

out in the open sight, simply poured muzzle burst of shrapnel into the

enemy ranks, thus breaking up attack after attack. Two days later after

a violent artillery preparation, the enemy, still believing our Russian

comrades located in the village of Ust Padenga, started an open attack

upon this deserted position over part of the same ground where so many

of our brave comrades had lost their lives on the nineteenth. They

advanced in open order squarely in the face of our artillery, machine

gun, and rifle fire, but by the time they had gained this useless and

undefended village, hundreds of their number lay wounded and dying in

the snow. The carnage and slaughter this day in the enemy's ranks was

terrific, resulting from a most stupid military blunder, but it atoned

slightly for our losses previous thereto. The valley below us was dotted

with pile after pile of enemy dead, the carnage here being almost equal

to the terrific fighting later at Vistavka. When he discovered his

mistake and useless sacrifice of men, and seeing it was hopeless to

drive our troops from this position by his infantry, the enemy then

resorted to more violent use of his artillery. Shells were raining into

our position now by the thousands, but our artillery could not respond

as it was completely outranged. By the process of attrition our little

body of men was growing smaller day by day, when to cap the climax late

that day a stray shell plunged into our little hospital just as the

medical officer, Ralph C. Powers, who had been heroically working with

the dead and dying for days without relief and who refused to quit his

post, was about to perform an operation on one of our mortally wounded

comrades. This shell went through the walls of the building and through

the operating room, passing outside where it exploded and flared back

into the room. Four men were killed outright, including Sgt. Yates K.

Rodgers and Corp. Milton Gottschalk, two of the staunchest and most

heroic men of Company "A." Lieutenant Powers was mortally wounded and

later died in the hospital at Shenkursk, where he and many of his brave

comrades now lie buried in the shadow of a great cathedral.

This was the beginning of the end for us in this position. The enemy was

slowly but surely closing in on Shenkursk as evidenced by the following

notation, made by one of our intelligence officers in Shenkursk, set

forth verbatim:

"January 22, Canadian artillery and platoon of infantry left of

Nikolofskia at 6:30 a.m., spent the day there establishing helio

communication between church towers, here and there. All quiet there.

At 10:00 a. m. one of the mounted Cossack troopers came madly

galloping from Sergisfskia saying that the Bolos were approaching from

there and that he had been fired upon. He was terrified to death; other

arrivals verify this report. The defenses are not all manned and a

patrol sent in that direction. They are sure out there in force right

enough. The clans are rapidly gathering for the big drive for the

prize, Shenkursk. Later--Orders from British Headquarters for troops

at Ust Padenga to withdraw tonight. 10:00 p. m.--There is a red glare

in the sky in the direction of Ust Padenga and the flames of burning

buildings are plain to be seen. There is ---- a popping down there and

the roar of artillery is clearly heard."

That night, January 22nd, we withdrew from this shell-torn and flaming

village, leaving behind one of our guns which the exhausted horses could

not move. We did not abandon this position a moment too soon, for just

as we had finished preparations for withdrawal an incendiary shell

struck one of the main buildings of the village, and instantly the

surrounding country was as bright as day. All that night, tired,

exhausted and half-starved, we plodded along the frozen trails of the

pitch black forest. The following morning we halted for the day at

Shelosha, but late that day we received word to again withdraw to

Spasskoe, a village about six versts from Shenkursk. Again we marched

all night long, floundering through the snow and cold, reaching Spasskoe

early that morning. On our march that night it was only by means of a

bold and dangerous stroke that we succeeded in reaching Spasskoe. The

enemy had already gotten between us and our objective and in fact was

occupying villages on both sides of the Vaga River, through one or the

other of which we were compelled to pass. We finally decided that under

the cover of darkness and in the confusion and many movements then on

foot, we could possibly march straight up the river right between the

villages, and those on one side would mistake us for others on the

opposite bank. Our plan worked to perfection and we got through safely

with only one shot being fired by some suspicious enemy sentry, but

which did us no harm, and we continued silently on our way.

For days now we had been fighting and marching, scarcely pausing for

food and then only to force down a ration of frozen bully beef or piece

of hard tack, and we expected here at least to gain a short breathing

spell, but such was not fate's decree. About 4:00 a.m. we finally

"turned in," but within a couple of hours we were again busily occupied

in surveying our positions and making our plans. About 7:30 a. m. Lieut.

Mead and Capt. Ollie Mowatt, in command of the artillery, climbed into a

church tower for observation, when to our surprise we could plainly see

a long line of artillery moving along the Shenkursk road, and the

surrounding villages alive with troops forming for the attack. Scarcely

had we gotten our outposts into position when a shell crashed squarely

over the village, and again the battle was on. All that day the battle

raged, the artillery was now shelling Shenkursk as well as our own

position. The plains in front of us were swarming with artillery and

cavalry, while overhead hummed a lone airplane which had travelled about

a hundred and twenty-five miles to aid us in our hopeless encounter, but

all in vain.

At 1:30 p. m. an enemy shell burst squarely on our single piece of

artillery, putting it completely out of action, killing several men,

seriously wounding Capt. Otto Odjard, as well as Capt. Mowatt, who later

died from his wounds. While talking by telephone to our headquarters at

Shenkursk, just as we were being notified to withdraw, a shell burst

near headquarters, demolishing our telephone connections. Again

assembling our men we once more took up our weary retreat, arriving that

evening in Shenkursk, where, worn and completely exhausted, we flung

ourselves on floors and every available place to rest for the coming

siege, about to begin.

XVII

THE RETREAT FROM SHENKURSK

Shenkursk Surrounded By Bolsheviki--Enemy Artillery Outranged

Ours--British General At Beresnik Orders Retreat--Taking Hidden Trail We

Escape--Shenkursk Battalion Of Russians Fails Us--Description Of

Terrible March--Casting Away Their Shackletons--Resting At Yemska

Gora--Making Stand At Shegovari--Night Sees Retreat Resumed--Cossacks

Cover Rear--Holding Ill-Selected Vistavka--Toil, Vigilance And Valor

Hold Village Many Days--Red Heavy Artillery Blows Vistavka To Splinters

In March--Grand Assault Is Beaten Off For Two Days--Lucky Cossacks Smash

In And Save Us--Heroic Deeds Performed--Vistavka Is Abandoned.

After five days and nights of ceaseless fighting and marching, it is

necessary to say that we were soon sleeping the sleep of utterly

exhausted and worn out soldiers, but alas, our rest was soon to be

disturbed and we were to take up the weary march once more. Immediately

after our arrival within the gates of Shenkursk, the British High

Command at once called a council of war to hastily decide what our next

step should be. The situation briefly stated was this: Within this

position we had a large store of munitions, food, clothing, and other

necessaries sufficient to last the garrison, including our Russian

Allies, a period of sixty days. On the other hand, every available

approach and trail leading into Shenkursk was held by the enemy, who

could move about at will inasmuch as they were protected by the

trackless forests on all sides, and thus would soon render it impossible

for our far distant comrades in Archangel and elsewhere on the lines to

bring through any relief or assistance. Furthermore, it was now the dead

of the Arctic winter and three to four months must yet elapse before the

block ice of the Vaga-Dvina would give way for our river gunboats and

supply ships to reach us.

Between our positions and Beresnik, our river base, more than a hundred

miles distant, were but two occupied positions, the closest being

Shegovari, forty-four miles in rear of us, with but two Russian

platoons, and Kitsa, twenty miles further with but one platoon and a few

Russian troops. There were hundreds of trails leading through the

forests from town to town and it would be but a matter of days or even

hours for the enemy to occupy these positions and then strike at

Beresnik, thus cutting off not only our forces at Shenkursk but those at

Toulgas far down the Dvina as well. Already he had begun destroying the

lines of communication behind us.

That afternoon at 3:10 p. m. the last message from Beresnik arrived

ordering us to withdraw if possible. While this message was coming over

the wire and before our signal men had a chance to acknowledge it, the

wires suddenly "went dead," shutting off our last hope of communication

with the outside world. We later learned from a prisoner who was

captured some days later that a strong raiding party had been dispatched

to raid the town of Yemska Gora on the line and to cut the wires.

Fortunately for us they started from their bivouac on a wrong trail

which brought them to their objective several hours later, during which

time the battle of Spasskoe had been fought and we had been forced to

retire, all of which information reached Beresnik in time for the

general in command there to wire back his order of withdrawal, just as

the wires were being cut away.

With this hopeless situation before us, and the certain possibility of a

starvation siege eventually forcing us to surrender, the council decided

that retreat we must if possible and without further delay. All the

principal roads or trails were already in the hands of the enemy.

However, there was a single, little used, winter trail leading straight

back into the forest in rear of us which, with devious turns and

windings, would finally bring us back to the river trail leading to

Shegovari, about twenty miles further down the river. Mounted Cossacks

were instantly dispatched along this trail and after several hours of

hard riding returned with word that, due to the difficulty of travel and

heavy snows, the enemy had not yet given serious consideration to this

trail, and as a consequence was unoccupied by them.

Without further delay English Headquarters immediately decided upon

total evacuation of Shenkursk. Orders were at once issued that all

equipment, supplies, rations, horses, and all else should be left just

as it stood and each man to take on that perilous march only what he

could carry. To attempt the destruction of Shenkursk by burning or other

means would at once indicate to the enemy the movement on foot;

therefore, all was to be left behind untouched and unharmed. Soon the

messengers were rapidly moving to and fro through the streets of the

village hastily rousing the slumbering troops, informing them of our

latest orders. When we received the order we were too stunned to fully

realize and appreciate all the circumstances and significance of it.

Countless numbers of us openly cursed the order, for was it not a

cowardly act and a breach of trust with our fallen comrades lying

beneath the snow in the great cathedral yard who had fought so valiantly

and well from Ust Padenga to Shenkursk in order to hold this all

important position? However, cooler heads and reason soon prevailed and

each quickly responded to the task of equipping himself for the coming

march.

Human greed often manifests itself under strange and unexpected

circumstances, and this black night of January 23, 1919, proved no

exception to the rule. Here and there some comrade would throwaway a

prized possession to make more room for necessary food or clothing in

his pack or pocket. Some other comrade would instantly grab it up and

feverishly struggle to get it tied onto his pack or person, little

realizing that long before the next thirty hours had passed he, too,

would be gladly and willingly throwing away prize after prize into the

snow and darkness of the forest.

At midnight the artillery, preceded by mounted Cossacks, passed through

the lane of barbed wire into the forests. The Shenkursk Battalion, which

had been mobilized from the surrounding villages, was dispatched along

the Kodima trail to keep the enemy from following too closely upon our

heels. This latter maneuver was also a test of the loyalty of this

battalion for there was a well defined suspicion that a large portion of

them were at heart sympathizers of the Bolo cause. Our suspicions were

shortly confirmed; very soon after leaving the city they encountered the

enemy and after an exchange of a few shots two entire companies went

over to the Bolo side, leaving nothing for the others to do but flee for

their lives.

Fortune was kind to us that night, however, and by 1:00 a. m. the

infantry was under way. Company "A", which had borne the brunt of the

fighting so many long, weary days, was again called upon with Company

"C" to take up the rear guard, and so we set off into the blackness of

the never ending forest. As we marched out of the city hundreds of the

natives who had somehow gotten wind of this movement were also scurrying

here and there in order to follow the retreating column. Others who were

going to remain and face the entrance of the Bolos were equally

delighted in hiding and disposing of their valuables and making away

with the abandoned rations and supplies.

Hour after hour we floundered and struggled through the snow and bitter

cold. The artillery and horses ahead of us had cut the trail into a

network of holes, slides and dangerous pitfalls rendering our footing so

uncertain and treacherous that the wonder is that we ever succeeded in

regaining the river trail alive. Time after time that night one could

hear some poor unfortunate with his heavy pack on his back fall with a

sickening thud upon the packed trail, in many cases being so stunned and

exhausted that it was only by violent shaking and often by striking some

of the others in the face that they could be sufficiently aroused and

forced to continue the march.

At this time we were all wearing the Shackleton boot, a boot designed by

Sir Ernest Shackleton of Antarctic fame, and who was one of the advisory

staff in Archangel. This boot, which was warm and comfortable for one

remaining stationary as when on sentry duty, was very impracticable and

well nigh useless for marching, as the soles were of leather with the

smooth side outermost, which added further to the difficulties of that

awful night. Some of the men unable to longer continue the march cast

away their boots and kept going in their stocking feet; soon others were

following the example, with the result that on the following day many

were suffering from severely frostbitten feet.

The following morning, just as the dull daylight was beginning to appear

through the snow-covered branches overhead, and when we were about

fifteen versts well away from Shenkursk, the roar of cannon commenced

far behind us. The enemy had not as yet discovered that we had abandoned

Shenkursk and he was beginning bright and early the siege of Shenkursk.

Though we were well out of range of his guns the boom of the artillery

acted as an added incentive to each tired and weary soldier and with

anxious eyes searching the impenetrable forests we quickened our step.

At 9:00 a. m. we arrived at Yemska Gora on the main road from Shenkursk,

where an hour's halt was made. All the samovars in the village were at

once put into commission and soon we were drinking strong draughts of

boiling hot tea. Some were successful in getting chunks of black bread

which they ravenously devoured. The writer was fortunate in locating an

old villager who earlier in the winter had been attached to the company

sledge transport and the old fellow brought forth some fishcakes to add

to the meagre fare. These cakes were made by boiling or soaking the vile

salt herring until it becomes a semi-pasty mass, after which it is mixed

with the black bread dough and then baked, resulting in one of the most

odoriferous viands ever devised by human hands and which therefore few,

if any, of us had summoned up courage enough to consume. On this

particular morning, however, it required no courage at all and we

devoured the pasty mass as though it were one of the choicest of viands.

The entire period of the halt was consumed in eating and getting ready

to continue the march.

At 10:00 a. m. we again fell in and the weary march was resumed. The

balance of the day was simply a repetition of the previous night with

the exception that it was now daylight and the footing was more secure.

At five o'clock that afternoon we arrived at Shegovari, where the little

garrison of Company "C" and Company "D", under command of Lieut. Derham,

was anxiously awaiting us, for after the attack of the preceding day,

which is described in the following paragraph, they were fearful of the

consequences in case they were compelled to continue holding the

position through the night without reinforcements.

Shortly after the drive had begun at Ust Padenga marauding parties of

the enemy were reported far in our rear in the vicinity of Shegovari. On

the night of January 21st some of the enemy, disguised as peasants,

approached one of the sentries on guard at a lonely spot near the

village and coldly butchered him with axes; another had been taken

prisoner, and with the daily reports of our casualties at Ust Padenga,

the little garrison was justly apprehensive. On the morning of January

23rd a band of the enemy numbering some two hundred men emerged from the

forest and had gained possession of the town before they were detected.

Fortunately the garrison was quickly assembled, and by judicious use of

machine guns and grenades quickly succeeded in repelling the attack and

retaining possession of the position, which thus kept the road clear for

the troops retreating from Shenkursk. Such was the condition here upon

our arrival.

Immediately we at once set up our outposts and fortunately got our

artillery into position, which was none too soon, for while we were

still so engaged our Cossack patrols came galloping in to report that a

great body of the enemy was advancing along the main road. Soon the

advance patrols of the enemy appeared and our artillery immediately

opened upon them. Seeing that we were thus prepared and probably

assuming that we were going to make a stand in this position, the enemy

retired to await reinforcements. All through the night we could see the

flames of rockets and signal lights in surrounding villages showing them

the enemy was losing no time in getting ready for an attack. Hour after

hour our guns boomed away until daylight again broke to consolidate our

various positions.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Holiday Dance at Convalescent Hospital--Nurses and "Y" Girls.

ROZANSKEY

Subornya Cathedral.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Building a Blockhouse.

Our position here was a very undesirable one from a military standpoint,

due to the fact that the enemy could approach from most any direction

under cover of the forest and river trails. Our next position was Kitsa,

which was situated about twenty miles further down the river toward

Beresnik, the single trail to which ran straight through the forests

without a single house or dwelling the entire way. This would have been

almost impossible to patrol, due to the scarcity of our numbers,

consequently, it was decided to continue our retreat to this position.

At 5:00 p. m., under cover of darkness, we began assembling and once

more plunged into the never-ending forest in full retreat, leaving

Shegovari far behind. We left a small body of mounted Cossacks in the

village to cover our retreat, but later that night we discovered a

further reason for this delay here. At about eleven that night, as we

were silently pushing along through the inky blackness of the forest,

suddenly far to the south of us a brilliant flame commenced glowing

against the sky, which rapidly increased in volume and intensity. We

afterward learned that our Cossack friends had fired the village before

departing in order that the enemy could not obtain further stores and

supplies which we were compelled to abandon.

At midnight of January 26th the exhausted column arrived in Vistavka, a

position about six versts in advance from Kitsa, and we again made ready

to defend this new position.

The next day we made a hasty reconnaissance of the place and soon

realized that of all the positions we had chosen, as later events

conclusively proved, this was the most hopeless of all. Vistavka,

itself, stood on a high bluff on the right bank of the Vaga. Immediately

in front of us was the forest, to our left was the forest, and on the

opposite bank of the river more forest. The river wound in and around at

this point and at the larger bends were several villages--one about five

versts straight across the river called Yeveevskaya--and another further

in a direct line called Ust Suma. About six or seven versts to our rear

was Kitsa and Ignatevskaya lying on opposite sides of the river--Kitsa

being the only one of all these villages with any kind of prepared

defenses at all. However, we at once set to work stringing up barbed

wire and trying to dig into the frozen snow and ground, which, however,

proved adamant to our shovels and picks. To add further to the

difficulty of this task the enemy snipers lying in wait in the woods

would pick off our men, so that we finally contented ourselves with snow

trenches, and thus began the defense of Vistavka, which lasted for about

two months, during which time thousands upon thousands of shells were

poured into the little village, and attack after attack was repulsed.

Within two days after our occupation of this place the enemy had gotten

his light artillery in place and with his observers posted in the trees

of the surrounding forest he soon had our range, and all through the

following month of February he continued his intermittent shelling and

sniping. Night after night we could hear the ring of axes in the

surrounding woods informing us that the Bolo was establishing his

defenses, but our numbers were so small that we could not send out

patrols enough to prevent this. Our casualties during this period were

comparatively light and with various reliefs by the Royal Scots, Kings

Liverpools, "C" and "D" Companies, American Infantry, we held this place

with success until the month of March.

By constant shelling during the month of February the enemy had

practically reduced Vistavka to a mass of ruins. With no stoves or fire

and a constant fare of frozen corned beef and hard tack, the morale of

the troops was daily getting lower and lower, but still we grimly stuck

to our guns.

On the evening of March 3rd the Russian troops holding Yeveevskaya got

possession of a supply of English rum, with the result that the entire

garrison was soon engaged in a big celebration. The Bolo, quick to take

advantage of any opportunity, staged a well-planned attack and within

an hour they had possession of the town. Ust Suma had been abandoned

almost a month prior to this time, which left Vistavka standing alone

with the enemy practically occupying every available position

surrounding us. As forward positions we now held Maximovskaya on the

left bank and Vistavka on the right.

The following day the enemy artillery, which had now been reinforced by

six and nine-inch guns, opened up with renewed violence and for two days

this continued, battering away every vestige of shelter remaining to us.

On the afternoon of the fifth the barrage suddenly lifted to our

artillery about two versts to our rear, and simultaneously therewith the

woods and frozen river were swarming with wave after wave of the enemy

coming forward to the attack. To the heroic defenders of the little

garrison it looked as though at last the end had come, but with grim

determination they quickly began pouring their hail of lead into the

advancing waves. Attack after attack was repulsed, but nevertheless the

enemy had succeeded in completely surrounding us. Once more he had cut

away our wires leading to Kitsa and also held possession of the trails

leading to that position. For forty-eight hours this awful situation

continued--our rations were practically exhausted and our ammunition was

running low. Headquarters at Kitsa had given us up for lost and were

preparing a new line there to defend. During the night, however, one of

our runners succeeded in getting through with word of our dire plight.

The following day the Kings Liverpools with other troops marched forth

from Kitsa in an endeavor to cut their way through to our relief. The

Bolo, however, had the trails and roads too well covered with machine

guns and troops and quickly repulsed this attempt.

Late that afternoon those in command at Kitsa decided to make another

attempt to bring assistance to our hopeless position and at last ordered

a mixed company of Russians and Cossacks to go forward in the attempt.

After issuing an overdose of rum to all, the commander made a stirring

address, calling upon them to do or die in behalf of their comrades in

such great danger. The comrades in question consisted of a platoon of

Russian machine gunners who were bravely fighting with the Americans in

Vistavka. Eventually they became sufficiently enthusiastic and with a

great display of ceremony they left Kitsa. As was to be expected, they

at once started on the wrong trail, but as good fortune would have it

this afterward proved the turning point of the day. This trail, unknown

to them, led into a position in rear of the enemy and before they

realized it they walked squarely into view of a battalion of the enemy

located in a ravine on one of our flanks, who either did not see them

approaching or mistakenly took them for more of their own number

advancing. Quickly sensing the situation, our Cossack Allies at once got

their machine guns into position and before the Bolos realized it these

machine guns were in action, mowing down file after file of their

battalion. To counter attack was impossible for they would have to climb

the ravine in the face of this hail of lead, and the only other way of

escape was in the opposite direction across the river under direct fire

from our artillery and machine guns. Suddenly, several of the enemy

started running and inside of a minute the remainder of the battalion

was fleeing in wild disorder, but it was like jumping from the frying

pan into the fire, for as they retreated across the river our artillery

and machine guns practically annihilated them. Shortly thereafter the

Cossacks came marching through our lines where they were welcomed with

open arms and again Vistavka was saved. That night fresh supplies and

ammunition were brought up and the little garrison was promised speedy

relief.

Our total numbers during this attack did not amount to more than four

hundred men, including the Cossack machine gunners and Canadian

artillery-men. We afterward learned that from four to five thousand of

the enemy took part in this attack.

The next day all was quiet and we began to breathe more easily, thinking

that perhaps the enemy at last had enough. Our hopes were soon to be

rudely shattered, for during this lull the Bolo was busily occupied in

bringing up more ammunition and fresh troops, and on the morning of the

seventh he again began a terrific artillery preparation. As stated

elsewhere on these pages, our guns did not have sufficient range to

reach the enemy guns even had we been successful in locating them, so

all we could do was to lie shivering in the snow behind logs, snow

trenches and barbed wire, hoping against hope that the artillery would

not annihilate us.

The artillery bombardment continued for two days, continuing up to noon

of March 9th, when the enemy again launched another attack. This time we

were better prepared and, having gotten wind of the plan of attack, we

again caught a great body of the infantry in a ravine waist deep in

snow. We could plainly see and hear the Bolo commissars urging and

driving their men forward to the attack, but there is a limit to all

endurance and once again one or two men bolted and ran, and it was but a

matter of minutes until all were fleeing in wild disorder.

Space does not permit the enumeration of the splendid individual feats

of valor performed by such men as Lieuts. McPhail of Company "A", and

Burns of the Engineers, with their handful of men--nor the grim tenacity

and devotion to duty of Sgts. Yarger, Rapp, Garbinski, Moore and Kenny,

the last two of whom gave up their lives during the last days of their

attacks. Even the cooks were called upon to do double duty and, led by

"Red" Swadener, they would work all night long trying to prepare at

least one warm meal for the exhausted men, the next day taking their

places in the snow trenches with their rifles on their shoulders

fighting bravely to the end. Then, too, there were the countless numbers

of such men as Richey, Hutchinson, Kurowski, Retherford, Peyton, Russel,

De Amicis, Cheney, and others who laid down their lives in this hopeless

cause.

The attack was not alone directed against the position of Vistavka, for

on the opposite bank of the river the garrison at Maximovskaya was

subjected to an attack of almost equal ferocity. The position there was

surrounded by forests and the enemy could advance within several hundred

yards without being observed. The defenders here, comprising Companies

"F" and "A", bravely held on and inflicted terrific losses upon the

enemy.

It was during these terrible days that Lt. Dan Steel of Company "F"

executed a daring and important patrol maneuver. This officer, who had

long held the staff position of battalion adjutant, feeling that he

could render more effective service to his comrades by being at the

front, demanded a transfer from his staff position to duty with a line

company, which transfer was finally reluctantly given--reluctantly

because of the fact that he had virtually been the power behind the

throne, or colonel's chair, of the Vaga River column. A few days later

found him in the thick of the fighting at Maximovskaya, and when a

volunteer was needed for the above mentioned patrol he was the first to

respond. The day in question he set forth in the direction of

Yeveevskaya with a handful of men. The forests were fairly alive with

enemy patrols, but in the face of all these odds he pushed steadily

forward and all but reached the outskirts of the village itself where he

obtained highly valuable information, mapped the road and trails through

the forests, thus enabling the artillery to cover the same during the

violent attacks of these first ten days of March.

By five o'clock of that day the attack was finally repulsed and we still

held our positions at Vistavka and Maximovskaya--but in Vistavka we were

holding a mere shell of what had once been a prosperous and contented

little village. The constant shelling coupled with attacks and counter

attacks for months over the same ground had razed the village to the

ground, leaving nothing but a shell-torn field and a few blackened

ruins. It was useless to hold the place longer and consequently that

night it was decided to abandon the position here and withdraw to a new

line about three versts in advance of Kitsa.

Under cover of darkness on the night of March 9th we abandoned the

position at Vistavka, and as stated in the previous chapter, established

a new line of defense along a trail and in the forests about three

versts in advance of Kitsa. While our position at Vistavka was

practically without protection, this position here was even worse. We

were bivouacked in the open snow and woods where we could only dig down

into the snow and pray that the Bolo artillery observers would be unable

to locate us. Our prayers in this respect were answered, for this

position was not squarely in the open as Vistavka was, and therefore not

under the direct fire of his artillery. The platoons of "F" Company at

Maximovskaya were brought up here to join the balance of their company

in holding this position, "A" Company being relieved by "D" Company and

sent across the river to Ignatovskaya. "F" Company alternated with

platoons of the Royal Scots in this position in the woods for the

balance of the month, during which there was constant shelling and

sniping but with few casualties among our ranks. The latter part of

March "F" Company was relieved for a short time, but the first week in

April were again sent back to the Kitsa position. By this time the

spring thaws were setting in and the snow began disappearing. Our plans

now were to hold these positions at Kitsa and Maximovskaya until the

river ice began to move out and then burn all behind us and make a

speedy getaway, but how to do this and not reveal our plans to the enemy

a few hundred yards across No Man's Land was the problem.

XVIII

DEFENSE OF PINEGA

Kulikoff And Smelkoff Lead Heavy Force Against Pinega--Reinforcements

Hastened Up To Pinega--Reds Win Early Victories Against Small Force Of

Defenders--Value Of Pinega Area--Desperate Game Of Bluffing--Captain

Akutin Reorganizes White Guards--Russians Fought Well In Many

Engagements--Defensive Positions Hold Against Heavy Red

Attack--Voluntary Draft Of Russians Of Pinega Area--American Troops "G"

And "M" Made Shining Page--Military-Political Relations Eminently

Successful.

The flying column of Americans up the Pinega River in late fall we

remember retired to Pinega in face of a surprisingly large force. The

commander of the Bolshevik Northern Army had determined to make use of

the winter roads across the forests to send guns and ammunition and food

and supplies to the area in the upper valley of the Pinega. He would

jolt the Allies in January with five pieces of artillery, two 75's and

three pom poms, brought up from Kotlas where their stores had been taken

in the fall retreat before the Allies. One of his prominent commanders,

Smelkoff, who had fought on the railroad in the fall, went over to the

distant Pinega front to assist a rising young local commander, Kulikoff.

These two ambitious soldiers of fortune had both been natives and bad

actors of the Pinega Valley, one being a noted horse thief of the old

Czar's day.

With food, new uniforms and rifles and common and lots of nice crisp

Bolshevik money and with boastful stories of how they had whipped the

invading foreigners on other fields in the fall and with invective

against the invaders these leaders soon excited quite a large following

of fighting men from the numerous villages. With growing power they

rounded up unwilling men and drafted them into the Red Army just as they

had done so often before in other parts of Russia if we may believe the

statements of wounded men and prisoners and deserters. Down the valley

with the handful of Americans and Russian White Guards there came an

ever increasing tide of anti-Bolshevists looking to Pinega for safety.

The Russian local government of Pinega, though somewhat pinkish, did not

want war in the area and appealed to the Archangel state government for

military aid to hold the Reds off. Captain Conway reported to Archangel

G. H. Q. that the population was very nervous and that with his small

force of one hundred men and the three hundred undisciplined volunteer

White Guards he was in a tight place. Consequently, it was decided to

send a company of Americans to relieve the half company there and at the

same time to send an experienced ex-staff officer of the old Russian

Army to Pinega with a staff of newly trained Russian officers to serve

with the American officer commanding the area and raise and discipline

all the local White Guards possible.

Accordingly, Capt. Moore with "M" Company was ordered to relieve the

Americans at Pinega, and Capt. Akutin by the Russian general commanding

the North Russian Army was ordered to Pinega for the mission already

explained. Two pieces of field artillery with newly trained Russian

personnel were to go up and supplies and ammunition were to be rushed up

the valley.

On December 18th the half company of American troops set off for the

march to the city of Pinega. The story of that 207-verst march of

Christmas week, when the days were shortest and the weather severe, will

be told elsewhere. Before they reached the city, which was desperately

threatened, the fears of the defenders of Pinega had been all but

realized. The Reds in great strength moved on the flank of the White

Guards, surrounded them at Visakagorka and dispersed them into the

woods. If they had only known it they might have immediately besieged

the city of Pinega. But they respected the American force and proceeded

carefully as far as Trufanagora.

On the very day of this disaster to the White Guards the Americans on

the road were travelling the last forty-six versts rapidly by sleigh.

News of this reinforcing column reached the Reds and no doubt slowed up

their advance. They began fortifying the important Trufanagora, which

was the point where the old government roads and telegraph lines from

Mezen and Karpogora united for the Pinega-Archangel line.

Reference to the war map will show that this Pinega area gave all the

advantages of strategy to the Red commander, whose rapid advance down

the valley with the approach of winter had taken the Archangel

strategists by surprise. His position at Trufanagora not only gave him

control of the Mezen road and cut off the meats from Mezen and the

sending of flour and medical supplies to Mezen and Petchura, in which

area an officer of the Russian Northern Army was opposing the local Red

Guards, but it also gave him a position that made of the line of

communication to our rear a veritable eighty-mile front.

In our rear on the line of communication were the villages of Leunova,

Ostrov and Kuzomen, which were scowlingly pro-Bolshevik. One of the

commanders, Kulikoff, the bandit, hailed from Kuzomen. He was in

constant touch with this area. When the winter trails were frozen more

solidly he would try to lead a column through the forest to cut the

line.

Now began a struggle to keep the lower valley from going over to the

Bolsheviki while we were fighting the Red Guards above the city. It was

a desperate game. We must beat them at bluffing till our Russian forces

were raised and we must get the confidence of the local governments.

Half the new American force was sent under Lt. Stoner to occupy the

Soyla area on the line of communication, which seemed most in danger of

being attacked. The men of this area, and the women and children, too,

for that matter, were soon won to the cordial support of the Americans.

Treacherous Yural was kept under surveillance and later subsided and

fell into line with Pinega, which was considerably more than fifty per

cent White, in spite of the fact that her mayor was a former Red.

The rout of the White Guards at Visakagorka had not been as bad as

appeared at first. The White Guards had fought up their ammunition and

then under the instructions of their fiery Polish leader, Mozalevski,

had melted into the forest and reassembled many versts to the rear and

gone into the half-fortified village of Peligorskaya. Here the White

Guards were taken in hand by their new commander, Capt. Akutin, and

reorganized into fighting units, taking name from the villages whence

they came. Thus the Trufanagora Company of White Guards rallied about a

leader who stimulated them to drill for the fight to regain their own

village from the Reds who at that very moment were compelling their

Trufanagora women to draw water and bake bread and dig trenches for the

triumphant and boastful Red Guards.

This was an intense little civil war. No mercy and no quarter. The Reds

inflamed their volunteers and conscripts against the invading Americans

and the Whites. The White Guards gritted their teeth at the looting Reds

and proudly accepted their new commander's motto: White Guards for the

front; Americans for the city and the lines of communication.

And this was good. During the nine weeks of this successful defense of

the city the Russian White Guards stood all the casualties, and they

were heavy. Not an American soldier was hit. Yankee doughboys supported

the artillery and stood in reserves and manned blockhouses but not one

was wounded. Three hospitals were filled with the wounded White Guards.

American soldiers in platoon strength or less were seen constantly on

the move from one threatened spot to another, but always, by fate it

seemed, it was the Russian ally who was attacked or took the assaulting

line in making our advances on the enemy.

On January 8th and again on January 29th and 30th we tried the enemy's

works at Ust Pocha. Both times we took Priluk and Zapocha but were held

with great losses before Ust Pocha. At the first attempt Pochezero was

taken in a flank attack by the Soyla Lake two-company outguard of Soyla.

But this emboldened the Reds to try the winter trail also. On January

24th they nearly took our position.

News of the Red successes at Shenkursk reached the Pinega Valley. We

knew the Reds were now about to strike directly at the city. Capt.

Akutin's volunteer force, although but one-third the size of the enemy,

was ready to beat the Reds to the attack. With two platoons of Americans

and seven hundred White Guards the American commander moved against the

advancing Reds. Two other platoons of Americans were on the line of

communications and one at Soyla Lake ready for counter-attack. Only one

platoon remained in Pinega. It was a ticklish situation, for the Red

agitators had raised their heads again and an officer had been

assassinated in a nearby village. The mayor was boarding in the American

guardhouse and stern retaliation had been meted out to the Red spies.

The Reds stopped our force after we had pushed them back into their

fortifications and we had to retire to Peligora, where barbed wire,

barricades, trenches and fortified log houses had been prepared for this

rather expected last stand before the city of Pinega. For weeks it had

looked dubious for the city. Enemy artillery would empty the city of

inhabitants, although his infantry would find it difficult to penetrate

the wire and other fortifications erected by the Americans and Russians

under the able direction of a British officer, Lieut. Augustine of a

Canadian engineer unit. Think of chopping holes in the ice and frozen

ground, pouring in water and freezing posts in for wire supports! Then

came the unexpected. After six days of steady fighting which added many

occupants to our hospital and heavy losses to the enemy, he suddenly

retreated one night, burning the village of Priluk which we had twice

used as field base for our attack on him.

From Pinega we looked at the faint smoke column across the forest deep

with snow and breathed easier than we had for many anxious weeks. Our

pursuing forces came back with forty loads of enemy supplies they left

behind in the various villages we had captured from his forces. Why? Was

it operations in his rear of our forces from Soyla, or the American

platoon that worried his flank near his artillery, or Shaponsnikoff in

the Mezen area threatening his flank, or was it a false story of the

arrival of the forces of Kolchak at Kotlas in his rear? Americans here

at Pinega, like the vastly more desperate and shattered American forces

on the Vaga and at Kodish at the same time, had seen their fate

impending and then seen the Reds unaccountably withhold the final blow.

The withdrawal of the Reds to their stronghold at Trufanagora in the

second week in February disappointed their sympathizers in Pinega and

the Red Leunova area, and from that time on the occupation of the Pinega

Valley by the Americans was marked by the cordial co-operation of the

whole area. During the critical time when the Reds stood almost at the

gates of the city, the Pinega government had yielded to the demands of

the volunteer troops that all citizens be drafted for military service.

This was done even before the Archangel authorities put its decree

forth. Every male citizen between ages of eighteen and forty-five was

drafted, called for examination and assigned to recruit drill or to

service of supply or transportation. There was enthusiastic response of

the people.

The square opposite the cathedral resounded daily to the Russki recruit

sergeant's commands and American platoons drilling, too, for effect on

the Russians, saw the strange new way of turning from line to column and

heard with mingled respect and amusement the weird marching song of the

Russian soldier. And one day six hundred of those recruits, in obedience

to order from Archangel, went off by sleigh to Kholmogora to be

outfitted and assigned to units of the new army of the Archangel

Republic. Among these recruits was a young man, heir-apparent to the

million roubles of the old merchant prince of Pinega, whose mansion was

occupied by the Americans for command headquarters and billets for all

the American officers engaged in the defense of the city. This young man

had tried in the old Russian way to evade the local government

official's draft. He had tried again at Capt. Akutin's headquarters to

be exempted but that democratic officer, who understood the real meaning

of the revolution to the Russian people and who had their confidence,

would not forfeit it by favoring the rich man's son. And when he came to

American headquarters to argue that he was needed more in the officers'

training camp at Archangel than in the ranks of recruits, he was told

that revolutionary Russia would surely recognize his merit and give him

a chance if he displayed marked ability along military lines, and wished

good luck. He drilled in the ranks. And Pinega saw it.

The Americans had finished their mission in Pinega. In place of the

three hundred dispirited White Guards was a well trained regiment of

local Russian troops which, together with recruits, numbered over two

thousand. Under the instruction of Lieut. Wright of "M" Company, who had

been trained as an American machine gun officer, the at first

half-hearted Russians had developed an eight-gun machine gun unit of

fine spirit, which later distinguished itself in action, standing

between the city and the Bolsheviks in March when the Americans had left

to fight on another front. Also under the instruction of a veteran

Russian artillery officer the two field-pieces, Russian 75's, had been

manned largely by peasant volunteers who had served in the old Russian

artillery units. In addition, a scouting unit had been developed by a

former soldier who had been a regimental scout under the old Russian

Government. Pinega was quiet and able to defend itself.

Compared with the winter story of wonderful stamina in enduring

hardships at Shenkursk and Kodish and the sanguine fighting of those

fronts, this defense of Pinega looks tame. Between the lines of the

story must be read the things that made this a shining page that shows

the marked ability of Americans to secure the co-operation of the

Russian local government in service of supply and transportation and

billeting and even in taking up arms and assuming the burdens of

fighting their own battles.

Those local companies of well-trained troops were not semi-British but

truly Russian. They never failed their dobra Amerikanski soldats, whose

close order drill on the streets of Pinega was a source of inspiration

to the Russian recruits.

Furthermore, let it be said that the faithful representation of American

ideals of manhood and square deal and democratic courtesy, here as on

other fronts, but here in particular, won the confidence of the at first

suspicious and pinkish-white government. Our American soldiers' conduct

never brought a complaint to the command headquarters. They secured the

affectionate support of the people of the Pinega Valley. Never was any

danger of an enemy raiding force surprising the American lieutenant,

sergeant or corporal whose detachment was miles and miles from help. The

natives would ride a pony miles in the dark to give information to the

Americans and be gratified with his thanks and cigarettes.

Freely the Pinega Russians for weeks and weeks provided sleighs and

billets and trench-building details and so forth without expecting pay.

An arrogant British officer travelling with a pocket full of imprest

money could not command the service that was freely offered an American

soldier. The doughboy early learned to respect their rude homes and

customs. He did not laugh at their oddities but spared their sensitive

feelings. He shook hands a dozen times heartily if necessary in saying

dasvedania, and left the Russian secure in his own self-respect and fast

friend of the American officer or soldier.

For his remarkable success in handling the ticklish political situation

in face of overwhelming military disadvantages, and also in rallying and

putting morale into the White Guard units of the Pinega area, during

those nine desperate weeks, the American officer commanding the Pinega

forces, Captain Joel R. Moore, was thanked in person by General

Maroushevsky, Russian G. H. Q., who awarded him and several officers and

men of "M" and "G" Russian military decorations. And General Ironside

sent a personal note, prized almost as highly as an official citation,

which the editors beg the indulgence here of presenting merely for the

information of the readers:

Archangel, March 18, 1919.

My Dear Moore:

I want to thank you for all the hard work you did when in command of the

Pinega area. You had many dealings with the Russians, and organized

their defense with great care and success.

All the reports I have received from the Russian authorities express the

fact that you dealt with them sympathetically under many difficult

circumstances.

As you probably found, responsibility at such a distance from

headquarters is difficult to bear, even for an experienced soldier, and

I think you carried out your duties as Commander with great credit.

I am especially pleased with the manner in which you have looked after

your men, which is often forgotten by the non-professional soldier. In

such conditions as those prevailing in Russia, unless the greatest care

is taken of the men, they lose health and heart and are consequently no

good for the job for which they are here.

Believe me yours very sincerely,

(Signed) EDMOND IRONSIDE, Major-General.

When the Americans left the Pinega sector of defense in March, they

carried with them the good wishes of the citizens and the Russian

soldiers of that area. The writer travelled alone the full length of the

lower Pinega Valley after his troops had passed through, finding

everywhere the only word necessary to gain accommodations and service

was the simple sentence uttered in broken Russian, Yah Amerikanski

Kapitan, Kammandant Pinega. The American soldiers, hastening

Archangel-ward so as to be ready for stern service on another hard-beset

front, found themselves aided and assisted cheerfully by the Pinega

Valley peasants who were grateful for the defense of their area in the

desperate winter campaign.

During those ticklish weeks of Bolshevik pressure of greatly superior

numbers constantly threatening to besiege Pinega, and of a political

propaganda which was hard to offset, the Americans held on

optimistically. If they had made a single false step politically or if

their White Guards had lost their morale they would have had a more

exciting and desperate time than they did have in the defense of Pinega.

XIX

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

Archangel Area--Occupations Of People--Schools--Church--Dress--In

Peasant Homes--Great Masonry Stove--Best Bed In House On Stove--Washing

Clothes In River Below Zero--Steaming Bath House--Festivals--Honesty Of

Peasants.

To the doughboy penetrating rapidly into the interior of North Russia,

whether by railroad or by barge or by more slow-going cart transport,

his first impression was that of an endless expanse of forest and swamp

with here and there an area of higher land. One of them said that the

state of Archangel was 700 miles long by 350 wide and as tall as the

50-foot pine trees that cover it. Winding up the broad deep rivers he

passed numerous villages with patches of clearings surrounding the

villages, and where fishing nets, or piles of wood, numerous hay stacks

and cows, and occasionally a richer area where high drying-racks held

the flax, told him that the people were occupied chiefly in fishing,

trapping, wood-cutting, flax raising, small dairying, and raising of

limited amounts of grain and vegetables. He was to learn later that this

north country raised all kinds of garden and field products during the

short but hot and perpetually daylight summer.

Between villages the forest was broken only by the hunter or the

woodchopper or the haymaker's trails. The barge might pass along beside

towering bluffs or pass by long sandy flats. Never a lone peasant's

house on the trail was seen. They lived in villages. Few were the

improved roads. The Seletskoe-Kodish-Plesetskaya-Petrograd highway on

which our troops fought so long was not much of a road. These roads ran

from village to village through the pine woods, crossing streams and

wide rivers by wooden bridges and crossing swamps, where it was too much

to circuit them, by corduroy. North Russia's rich soil areas, her rich

ores, her timber, her dairying possibilities have been held back by the

lack of roads. The soldier saw a people struggling with nature as he had

heard of his grandfathers struggling in pioneer days in America.

To many people, the mention of North Russia brings vision of wonderful

furs in great quantity. In normal times such visions would not be far

wrong. But under the conditions following the assumption of central

control by the Bolsheviks and the over-running of large sections of the

north country by their ravenous troops, few furs have been brought to

market in the ordinary places. In order to find the fur-catches of the

winters of 1917, 1918 and 1919 before the peaceful security of the

settled sections of Russia has been restored, it will be necessary to

travel by unusual routes into the country far to the northeast of

Archangel--into the Mezen and Pechura districts. There will be found

fur-clad and half-starved tribes cut off from their usual avenues of

trade and hoarding their catches of three seasons while they wonder how

long it will be until someone opens the way for the alleviation of their

misery. Information travels with amazing speed among these simple

people, and they will run knowingly no risk of having their only wealth

seized without recompense while en route to the distant markets. The

Bolshevik forces have been holding a section of the usual road to Pinega

and Archangel, and these fur-gathering tribes are wise and stubborn even

while slowly dying. They absolutely lack medicine and surgical

assistance, and certain food ingredients and small conveniences to which

they had become accustomed through their contact with more settled

peoples during the last half-century.

For those Americans in whose minds Russia is represented largely by a

red blank it would mean an education of a sort to see the passage of the

four seasons, the customs and life of the people, and the scenery and

buildings in any considerable section of Russia.

In the north, the division of the year into seasons is rather uncertain

from year to year. Roughly, the summertime may be considered to last

from May 25th to September 1st, the rainy season until the freeze-up in

late November, the steady winter from early December until early April,

and the thaw-season or spring to fill out the cycle until late May. The

summer may break into the rainy season in August, and the big freeze may

come very early or very late. The winter may be extreme, variable or

steady, the latter mood being most comfortable; and the thaw season may

be short and decisive or a lingering discouraging clasp on the garments

of winter. Summers have been known to be very hot and free from rain,

and they have been known to be very cloudy and chilly. Indeed, twelve

hours of cloud in that northern latitude will reduce the temperature

very uncomfortably. The woodsmen and peasants can foretell quite

accurately some weeks ahead when the main changes are due, which is of

great help to the stranger as well as to themselves.

A little inquiry by American officers and soldiers brought out the

information that the great area lying east, south and west of Archangel

city has been gradually settled during four hundred years by several

types of people, most of them Russians in the sense in which Americans

use the word, but most of them lacking a sense of national

responsibility. Throughout this long time, people have settled along the

rivers and lakes as natural avenues of transportation. They sought a

measure of independence and undisturbed and primitive comfort. Such they

found in this rather isolated country because it offered good hunting

and fishing, fertile land with plenty of wood, little possibility of

direct supervision or control by the government, refuge from political

or civil punishment, few or no taxes, escape from feudalism or from hard

industrial conditions, and--more recently--grants by the government of

free land with forestry privileges to settlers.

Notwithstanding all this, the Government of Archangel State, with its

hundreds of thousands of square miles, has never been self-supporting,

but has had to draw on natural resources in various ways for its

support. This has been done so that there is as yet not noticeable

depletion, and the people have remained so nearly satisfied--until

recently aroused by other inflammatory events--that it is safe to say

that no other larger section of the Russian Empire has been so free from

violence, oppression and revolution as has the North.

It has been so difficult to visit this northern region in detail that

knowledge of it has been scant and meagre. Although many reports have

been forwarded by United States agents to various departments of their

government ever since Russia began to disintegrate, such was the lack of

liaison between departments, and so great the disinclination to take

advantage of the information thus accumulated, that when the small body

of American troops was surprised by orders to proceed to North Russia

there was no compilation of information concerning their theatre of

operations available for them. An amusing error was actually made in the

War Department's ordering a high American officer to proceed to

Archangel via Vladivostok, which as a cursory glance at the map of the

world would discover, is at the far eastern, vostok means eastern, edge

of Siberia, thousands of miles from Archangel. And similar stories were

told by British officers who were ordered by their War Office to report

to Archangel by strange routes. England, who has lived almost next door

to North Russia throughout her history, and who established in the 16th

century the first trading post known in that country, seems to have been

in similar difficulties. The detailed information regarding the roads,

trails and villages of the north country which filtered down as far as

the English officers who controlled the various field operations of the

Expedition turned out to be nil or erroneous. Thereby hang many tales

which will be told over and over wherever veterans of that campaign are

to be found.

The lack of transportation within this great hinterland of Archangel, as

can be verified by any doughboy who marched and rassled his supplies

into the interior, is an immediate reason for the comparative

non-development of this region. It has not been so many years since the

first railroad was run from central Russia to Archangel. At first a

narrow-gauge line, it was widened to the full five-foot standard Russian

gauge after the beginning of the great war. It is a single-track road

with half-mile sidings at intervals of about seven miles. At these

sidings are great piles of wood for the locomotives, and at some of them

are water-tanks. While this railroad is used during the entire year, it

suffers the disadvantage of having its northern terminal port closed by

ice during the winter. After the opening of the great war a parallel

line was built from Petrograd north to Murmansk, a much longer line

through more unsettled region but having the advantage of a northern

port terminal open the year around. These two lines are so far apart as

to have no present relation to each other except through the problem of

getting supplies into central Russia from the north. They are

unconnected throughout their entire length.

Similarly, there is a paucity of wagon-roads in the Archangel district,

and those that are passable in the summer are many miles apart, with

infrequent cross-roads. Roads which are good for "narrow-gauge" Russian

sleds in the winter when frozen and packed with several feet of snow,

are often impassable even on foot in the summer. And dirt or corduroy

roads which are good in dry summer or frozen winter are impassable or

hub-deep in mud in the spring and in the fall rainy season. For

verification ask any "H" company man who pulled his army field shoes out

of the sticky soil of the Onega Valley mile after mile in the fall of

1918 while pressing the Bolsheviki southward. Good roads are possible in

North Russia, but no one will ever build them until industrial

development demands them or the area becomes thickly populated; that is,

disregarding the possibility of future road-building for military

operations. Military roads have, as we know, been built many times in

advance of any economic demand, and have later become valuable aids in

developing the adjacent country.

Another reason for the non-development of the north country in the past

is the lack of available labor-supply. People are widely scattered. The

majority of the industrious ones are on their own farms, and of the

remainder the number available for the industries of any locality is

small. Added to this condition is a very noticeable disinclination on

the part of everybody toward over-exertion at the behest of others;

coupled with a responsiveness to holidays that is incomprehensible to

Americans who believe in making time into money. While the excessive

proportion of holidays in the Russian calendar is deprecated by the more

far-sighted and educated among the Russians, there is no hesitation on

that score noticeable among the bulk of the people. Holidays are holy

days and not to be neglected. Consequently the supply of labor for hire

is not satisfactory from the employer's standpoint, because it is not

only small but unsteady. The Russian workman is faithful enough when

treated understandingly. But if allowance is not made beforehand for his

limitations and his customs, those who deal with him will be sorely

disappointed.

It is said that there are upwards of seventy regular holidays, most of

them of church origin, aside from Sundays; and in addition, holidays by

proclamation are not infrequent. Some holidays last three days and some

holiday seasons--notably the week before Lent--are celebrated in a

different village of a group each day. The villagers in all perform only

the necessary work each day and flock in the afternoon and evenings to

the particular village which is acting as host and entertainment center

for that day. It is all very pleasant, but it is no life for the solid

business man or the industrious laborer. Fortunately the agricultural

and forestry areas of the north, of which this passage is written, yield

a comfortable, primitive living to these hardy people without constant

work. The needs of modern industry as we understand it, have not entered

to cause confusion in their social structure. The sole result has been

to delay the development of resources and industry by deterring the

application of capital and entrepreneurship on any large scale.

Before the war the English had active interest in flax and timber and

some general trading, and the Germans flooded the North with

merchandise, but these activities were more in the nature of utilizing

the opportunities created by the needs of the scattered population than

of developing rapidly a great country.

Soldiers in Archangel saw American flour being unloaded from British

ships in Archangel and sliding down the planks from the unloading quay

into the Russian boats. And at the other side they saw Russian bales of

flax being hoisted up into the ship for transport to England. England

was energetically supplying flour and food and other supplies for an

army of 25,000 anti-Bolsheviki and aid to a civil population of several

hundred thousand inhabitants and refugees in the North Russian area.

This taking of the little stores of flax and lumber and furs that were

left in the country by the English seemed to the suspicious anti-British

of Russia and America to be corroboration of the allegations of

commercial purpose of the expedition, though to the pinched population

of England to let those supplies of flour and fat and sugar leave

England for Russia meant hardship. In all fairness we can only say that

Russia was getting more than England in the exchange.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Market Scene, Yemetskoe--Note Primitive Balances Weighing Beef.

LANMAN

Old Russian Prison, Annex to British Hospital.

WAGNER

Wash Day--Rinsing Clothes in River.

LANMAN

Archangel Cab-Men.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Minstrels of  "I" Company Repeat Program in Y. M. C. A.

U. S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Archangel Girls Filling Xmas Stockings.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Y. M. C. A. Rest Room, Archangel.

Outside of the cities in the life and customs of the people exists a

broad simplicity which is unlike the social atmosphere of most of the

districts of rural America. Persons, however, who are acquainted with

the rural districts of Norway and Sweden feel quite at home in the

atmosphere of the North Russian village life.

The villages are composed of the houses of the small farmers who till

the surrounding land, together with church, school, store, and grain and

flax barns. Except for a few new villages along the railways, all are to

be found along some watercourse navigable at least for small barges. For

the waterways are the first, and for a long time the only avenues of

communication and trade. In the winter they make the very best roadways

for sleds. Wherever there was a great deal of open farm land along a

river several of these village farm centers grew up in close proximity.

The villages in such a group often combine for convenience, in local

government, trading, and support of churches and schools. The majority

of the villagers belong to a few large family groups which have grown in

that community for generations and give it an enviable permanence and

stability.

Family groups are represented in the councils of the community by their

recognized heads, usually active old men. In these later troublous

times, when so many of the men have disappeared in the maelstrom of the

European war or are engaged in the present civil strife, women are quite

naturally the acting heads of many families; and the result has led some

observers to conclude that the women have better heads for business and

better muscles for farming than have the men. It is certain that in some

communities the women outshine in those respects the men who still

remain. The same council of family heads which guides the local affairs

of each village, or group of villages, also attends through a committee

to the affairs of the local cooperative store society which exists for

trading purposes and acts in conjunction with the central society of

Archangel. Each little local store has a vigilant keeper now frequently

some capable young widow, who has no children old enough to help her to

till some of the strips of land.

The election and the duties of the headman have been dealt with

heretofore. His word is law and the soldiers came to know that the

proper way to get things was to go through the starosta. In every

village is a teacher, more or less trained. Each child is compelled to

attend three years. If desirous he may go to high schools of liberal

arts and science and technical scope, seminaries and monastic schools.

Of course, some children escape school, but not many, and the number of

absolute illiterates under middle age who have been raised in North

Russia is comparatively small. The writer well recalls that peasants

seldom failed to promptly sign their names to receipts. Around our

bulletin boards men in Russian camp constantly stood reading. One of the

requests from the White Guards was for Archangel newspapers. One of the

pleasantest winter evenings spent in North Russia was at the time of a

teachers' association meeting in the Pinega Valley. And one of the

cleanest and busiest school-rooms ever visited was one of those little

village schools. To be sure the people were limited in their education

and way behind the times in their schools but they were eager to get on.

Also, in every small center of population there is a Russian State

Church. In America we have been accustomed to call these Greek Catholic

Churches, but they are not. The ritual and creed are admittedly rather

similar, but the church government, the architecture, the sacred

pictures and symbols, and the cross, are all thoroughly Russian. Until

the revolution, the Czar was the State head of the Church, and the

Ecclesiastical head was appointed by him. In the North at present

whatever aid was extended in times past from the government to the

churches--and to the schools as well--is looked for from the Provisional

Government at Archangel; and under the circumstances is very meagre if

not lacking altogether for long periods. The villagers do not close the

churches or schools for such a minor reason as that, however. They feed

and clothe the teacher and heat the church and the school. The priest

works his small farm like the rest of them--that is, if he is a "good"

priest. If he is not a "good" priest he charges heavily for special

services, christenings, weddings or funerals, and begs or demands more

for himself than the villagers think they can afford (and they afford a

great deal, for the villagers are very devout and by training very

long suffering), and the next year finds himself politely kicked upstairs

to another charge in a larger community which the villagers quite

logically believe will better be able to support his demands. Such an

affair is managed with the utmost finesse.

Within the family all share in the work--and the play. The grown men do

the hunting, fishing, felling of timber, building, hauling, and part of

the planting and harvesting. The women, boys and girls do a great deal

toward caring for the live-stock, and much of the work in the field.

They also do some of the hauling and much of the sawing and splitting of

wood for the stoves of the house, besides all of the housework and the

spinning, knitting, weaving and making of clothing. The boys' specialty

during the winter evenings often is the construction of fishnets of

various sized meshes, and the making of baskets, which they do

beautifully.

On Sundays and holidays, even in these times of hardship, the native

dress of the northern people is seen in much of its former interesting

beauty. The women and girls in full skirts, white, red or yellow waists

with laced bodices of darker color, fancy head-cloths and startling

shawls, tempt the stares of the foreigner as they pass him on their way

to church or to a dance. The men usually content themselves with their

cleanest breeches, a pair of high boots of beautiful leather, an

embroidered blouse buttoning over the heart, a broad belt, and a woolly

angora cap without a visor. Suspenders and corsets are quite absent.

On week-days and at work the dress of the North Russian peasant is,

after five years of wartime, rather a nondescript collection of

garments, often pitiful. In the winter the clothing problem is somewhat

simplified because the four items of apparel which are customary and

common to all for out-of-doors wear are made so durably that they last

for years, and when worn out are replaced by others made right in the

home. They are the padded over-coat of coarse cloth or light skins, the

valinka of felt or the long boot of fur, the parki--a fur great coat

without front opening and with head-covering attached, and the heavy

knitted or fur mitten. In several of the views shown in this volume

these different articles of dress may be seen, some of them on the

heads, backs, hands and feet of the American soldiers.

What American soldier who spent days and days in those Russian log

houses does not remember that in the average house there is little

furniture. The walls, floors, benches and tables are as a rule kept very

clean, being frequently scrubbed with sand and water. In the house,

women and children are habitually bare-footed, and the men usually in

stocking-feet. The valinka would scald his feet if he wore them inside,

as many a soldier found to his dismay. Sometimes chairs are found, but

seldom bed-steads except in the larger homes. Each member of the family

has a pallet of coarse cloth stuffed with fluffy flax, which is placed

at night on the floor, on benches, on part of the top of the huge stone

or brick stove, or on a platform laid close up under the ceiling on

beams extending from the stove to the opposite wall of the living-room.

The place on the stove is reserved for the aged and the babies. It was

the best bed in the house and was often proffered to the American with

true hospitality to the stranger. The bed-clothes consist of blankets,

quilts and sometimes robes of skins. Some of the patch-work quilts are

examples of wonderful needle-work. In the day-time it is usual to see

the pallets and rolls of bedding stored on the platform just mentioned,

which is almost always just over the low, heavy door leading in from the

outer hall to the main living-room.

In North Russia the one-room house is decidedly the exception, and

because of the influence of the deep snows on the customs of the people

probably half the houses have two stories. One large roof covers both

the home and the barn. The second story of the barn part can be used for

stock, but is usually the mow or store-room for hay, grains, cured meat

and fish, nets and implements, and is approached by an inclined runway

of logs up which the stocky little horses draw loaded wagons or sleds.

When the snow is real deep the runway is sometimes unnecessary. The mow

is entered through a door direct from the second story of the home part

of the building, and the stable similarly from the ground floor.

The central object, and the most curious to an American, in the whole

house is the huge Russian stove. In the larger houses there are several.

These stoves are constructed of masonry and are built before the

partitions of the house are put in and before the walls are completed.

In the main stove there are three fire-boxes and a maze of surrounding

air-spaces and smoke-passages, and surmounting all a great chimney which

in two-story houses is itself made into a heating-stove with one

fire-box for the upper rooms. When the house is to be heated a little

door is opened near the base of the chimney and a damper-plate is

removed, so that the draft will be direct and the smoke escape freely

into the chimney after quite a circuitous passage through the body of

the stove. A certain bunch of sergeants nearly asphyxiated themselves

before they discovered the secret of the damper in the stove. They were

nearly pickled in pine smoke. And a whole company of soldiers nearly

lost their billet in Kholmogori when they started up the sisters' stoves

without pulling the plates off the chimney.

Then the heating fire-box is furnished with blazing pine splinters and

an armful of pine stove-wood and left alone for about an hour or until

all the wood is burnt to a smokeless and gasless mass of hot coals and

fine ash. The damper plate is then replaced, which stops all escape of

heat up the chimney, and the whole structure of the stove soon begins to

radiate a gentle heat. Except in the coldest of weather it is not

necessary to renew the fire in such a stove more than once daily, and

one armful of wood is the standard fuel consumption at each firing.

Another of the fire-boxes in the main stove is a large smooth-floored

and vaulted opening with a little front porch roofed by a hood leading

into the chimney. This is the oven, and here on baking days is built a

fire which is raked out when the walls and floor are heated and is

followed by the loaves and pastry put in place with a flat wooden paddle

with a long handle. See the picture of the stove and the pie coming out

of the oven in the American convalescent hospital in Archangel. The

third fire-box is often in a low section of the stove covered by an iron

plate, and is used only for boiling, broiling and frying. As there is

not much food broiled or fried, and as soup and other boiled food is

often allowed to simmer in stone jars in the oven, the iron-covered

fire-box is not infrequently left cold except in summer. The

stove-structure itself is variously contrived as to outward architecture

so as to leave one or more alcoves, the warm floors of which form

comfortable bed-spaces. The outer surface of the stove is smoothly

cemented or enameled. So large are these stoves that partition-logs are

set in grooves left in the outer stove-wall, and a portion of the wall

of each of four or five rooms is often formed by a side or corner of the

same stove. And radiation from the warm bricks heats the rooms.

Washing of clothes is done by two processes, soaping and rubbing in hot

water at home and rinsing and rubbing in cold water at the river-bank or

through a hole cut in the ice in the winter. Although the result may

please the eye, it frequently offends the nose because of the common use

of "fish-oil soap." Not only was there dead fish in the soap but also a

mixture of petroleum residue. No wonder the soldier-poet doggereled:

"It's the horns of the cootie and beg-bug,

The herring and mud-colored crows,

My strongest impression of Russia,

Gets into my head through my nose."

Bathing is a strenuous sport pursued by almost every individual with

avidity. It is carried on in special bath-houses of two or more rooms,

found in the yard of almost every peasant family. The outer door leads

to the entry, the next door to a hot undressing-room, and the inner door

to a steaming inferno in which is a small masonry stove, a cauldron of

hot water, a barrel of ice-water, a bench, several platforms of various

altitudes, several beaten copper or brass basins, a dipper and a lot of

aromatic twigs bound in small bunches. With these he flails the dead

cuticle much to the same effect as our scouring it off with a rough

towel. Such is the grandfather of the "Russian Bath" found in some of

our own cities. After scrubbing thoroughly, and steaming almost to the

point of dissolution on one of the higher platforms, a Russian will dash

on cold water from the barrel and dry himself and put on his clothes and

feel tip-top. An American would make his will and call the undertaker

before following suit. In the summer there is considerable open-air

river bathing, and the absence of bathing-suits other than nature's own

is never given a thought.

The people of this north country are shorter and stockier than the

average American. The prevailing color of hair is dark brown. Their

faces and hands are weather-beaten and wrinkle early. Despite their

general cleanliness, they often look greasy and smell to high heaven

because of their habit of anointing hair and skin with fats and oils,

especially fish-oil. Not all do this, but the practice is prevalent

enough so that the fish-oil and old-fur odors are inescapable in any

peasant community and cling for a long time to the clothing of any

traveler who sojourns there, be it ever so briefly. American soldiers in

1918-1919 became so accustomed to it that they felt something intangible

was missing when they left the country and it was some time before a

clever Yank thought of the reason.

Before the great world war, a young peasant who was unmarried at

twenty-two was a teacher, a nun, or an old maid. The birth-rate is high,

and the death-rate among babies not what it is in our proud America.

Young families often remain under the grandfather's rooftree until

another house or two becomes absolutely necessary to accommodate the

overflow. If through some natural series of events a young woman has a

child without having been married by the priest, no great stir is made

over it. The fact that she is not thrown out of her family home is not

consciously ascribed to charity of spirit, nor are the villagers

conscious of anything broad or praiseworthy in their kindly attitude.

The result is that the baby is loved and the mother is usually happily

wed to the father of her child. The North Russian villager is an

assiduous gossip, but an incident of this kind receives no more

attention as an item of news that if its chronology had been thoroughly

conventional by American standards.

Marriages are occasions of great feasting and rejoicing; funerals

likewise stir the whole community, but the noise of the occasion is far

more terrifying and nerve-wracking. Births are quiet affairs; but the

christening is quite a function, attended with a musical service, and

the "name-day" anniversary is often celebrated in preference to the

birthday anniversary by the adult Russian peasant. Everybody was born,

but not everybody received such a fine name from such a fine family at

such a fine service under the leadership of such a fine priest; and not

everybody has such fine god-parents. The larger religious festivals are

also occasions for enjoyable community gatherings, and especially during

the winter the little dances held in a large room of some patient man's

house until the wee small hours are something not to be missed by young

or old. Yes, the North Russian peasant plays as well as works, and so

keen is his enjoyment that he puts far more energy into the play.

Because of his simple mode of existence it is not necessary to overwork

in normal times to obtain all the food, clothing, houses and utensils he

cares to use. Ordinarily he is a quiet easy-going human.

Perhaps there is more of sense of humor in the apparently phlegmatic

passivity of the Russian nitchevo than is suspected by those not

acquainted with him. There is also a great timidity in it; for the

Russian moujik or christianik (peasant farmer) has scarcely been sure

his soul is his own, since time immemorable. But his sense of humor has

been his salvation, for it has enabled him to be patient and pleasant

under conditions beyond his power to change. Courtesy to an extent

unknown in America marks his daily life. He is intelligent, and is

resourceful to a degree, although not well educated.

The average North Russian is not dishonest in a personal way. That is,

he has no personal animus in his deviousness unless someone has directly

offended him. He will haul a load of small articles unguarded for many

versts and deliver every piece safely, in spite of his own great hunger,

because he is in charge of the shipment. But he will charge a commission

at both ends of a business deal, and will accept a "gift" almost any

time for any purpose and then mayhap not "deliver." Only a certain small

class, however, and that practically confined to Archangel and environs,

will admit even most privately that any gift or advantage is payment for

a given favor which would not be extended in the ordinary course of

business. This class is not the national back-bone, but rather the

tinsel trimmings in the national show-window.

One time a passing British convoy commandeered some hay at Bolsheozerki.

Upon advice of the American officer the starosta accepted a paper due

bill from the British officer for the hay. Weeks afterward the American

officer found that the Russian had been up to that time unable to get

cash on his due bill. Naturally he looked to the American for aid. The

officer took it up with the British and was assured that the due bill

would be honored. But to quiet the feeling of the starosta he advanced

him the 92 roubles, giving the headman his address so that he could

return the 92 roubles to the American officer when the British due bill

came cash. Brother officers ridiculed the Yank officer for trusting the

Russian peasant, who was himself waiting doubtfully on the British. But

his judgment was vindicated later and the honesty of the starosta

demonstrated when a letter travelled hundreds of miles to Pinega with 92

roubles for the American officer.

XX

HOLDING THE ONEGA VALLEY

December Fighting--Drawn Struggle Near Turchesova--Fighting Near Khala

In February--Corporal Collins And Men Are Ambushed Near

Bolsheozerki--"H" Company In Two Savage Battles--Lieuts. Collins And

Phillips Both Mortally Wounded.

The enemy, who was massing up forces in the upper Pinega valley and, as

we have seen, caused British G. H. Q. to send one company of Americans

hurrying up the valley for a 150-mile march Christmas week, was also

fixing up a surprise for the G. H. Q. on the other end of the great line

of defense. That same Christmas week "H" Company found itself again up

against greatly superior forces who, as they boasted, were commencing

their winter campaign to drive the invaders of Russia to the depths of

the White Sea.

On December 20th one squad of "H" men were in a patrol fight with the

enemy which drove the Reds from the village of Kleshevo. On the

following day Lt. Ketcham with twenty Americans and a platoon of R. A.

N. B., Russian Allied Naval Brigade, proceeded south for reconnaissance

in force and engaged a strong enemy patrol in Priluk, driving the Reds

out, killing one, wounding one, and taking one prisoner. On December

22nd Lt. Carlson's platoon occupied Kleshevo and Lt. Ketcham's platoon

occupied the village on the opposite side of the river. The next day at

a village near Priluk Lt. Carlson's men on patrol encountered a Bolo

combat patrol and inflicted severe losses and took five prisoners.

Christmas Day and several other days were occupied with these patrol

combats by the two opposing forces, each of which thought the other had

gone into winter quarters.

In conformity with the general advance planned on all fronts by the

British Command to beat the enemy to the attack and to reach a position

which would nullify the enemy's tremendous advantage of position with

his base at Plesetskaya, the British Officer in command of the Onega

Valley Detachment, planned an attack on Turchesova. Lt. E. R. Collins

with the second fourth platoons left Pogashitche at 4:00 a. m. December

29, proceeding up the Schmokee River in an attempt to get around

Turchesova and strike the enemy in the flank. It was found, however,

that the woods on this side were impassable and so the force left the

river by a winter trail for Pertema, proceeding thence to Goglova, to

reinforce the Polish company of Allies who had captured that village on

the same morning.

This was wise. The next morning the enemy counter-attacked Goglova in

great force, but, fortunately, was repulsed without any casualties on

our side. He had, however, a threatening position in the village of

Zelyese, about a mile to the left flank and rear of our position and was

discovered to be preparing to renew the battle the next day. Lt. Collins

was obliged to divide his force just as again and again the American

officers all along that great Russian winter front again and again were

compelled to divide in the face of greatly superior and encircling

forces.

Taking Lt. Ketcham's platoon early the next morning, he boldly struck at

the enemy force in his rear and after an hour's fighting the "H" men had

possession of the village. But the enemy was at once reinforced from

Turchesova and delivered a counter-attack that the "H" men repulsed with

severe losses. Our wounded in the action were two; none killed.

Horseshoes again. The enemy dead and wounded were over fifty. The enemy

continued firing at long range next day, New Years of 1919, and wounded

one "H."

Indications pointed toward an inclination of the enemy to evacuate

Turchesova. Therefore, a message received by Lt. Collins at 5:00 p. m.,

January 1, from British O. C. Onega Det., ordering a withdrawal within

two hours to Kleshevo, came as a surprise to the American soldiers. In

this hasty retreat much confusion arose among the excited Russian

drivers of sleighs. Some horses and drivers were injured; much

ammunition, equipment, and supplies were lost.

The enemy did not follow and for the remainder of January and up to

February 9th the "H" Company men performed the routine duties of patrol

and garrison duties in the Onega Valley in the vicinity of Kleshevo

without any engagement with the enemy who seemed content to rest in

quarters and keep out of the way of the Americans and Allies.

On February 10th Lt. Ketcham with a combat patrol drove the enemy from

Khala whom he encountered with a pair of machine guns on patrol. He

defeated the Reds without any casualties, inflicting a loss on the enemy

of one killed and two wounded.

For more than a month the sector of defense was quiet except for an

occasional rise of the "wind." Active patrols were kept out. Captain

Ballensinger assumed command of the company and moved his headquarters

from Onega to Chekuevo. As the mail from and to Archangel from the

outside world as well as supplies and reinforcements of men were now

obliged to use the road from Obozerskaya to Bolsheozerki to Chekuevo to

Onega to Kem and so on to Kola and return, it became part of the duty of

"H" Company to patrol the road from Chekuevo to Obozerskaya; taking two

days coming and two days going with night stops at Chinova or

Bolsheozerki.

The last of these patrols left Chekuevo on Sunday, March 16, fell into

the hands of the advance patrols of the Bolo General who had executed a

long flank march, annihilated the Franco-Russian force at Bolsheozerki,

and occupied the area with a great force of infantry, mounted men, skii

troops, and both light and heavy artillery, as related elsewhere in

connection with the story of the defense of the railroad.

The next day Lt. Collins with thirty men and a Lewis gun started toward

Bolsheozerki to discover the situation with orders to report at Chinova

to Col. Lucas, the French officer in command of the Vologda Force.

Travelling all night, he reached Col. Lucas in the morning and the

latter determined to push on under escort of the Americans and attempt

to reach Bolsheozerki and Oborzerskaya, being at that time ignorant of

the real strength of the force of Reds that had interrupted the

communications.

About noon, March 18th, the detachment in escort formation left Chinova

and proceeded without signs of enemy till within four versts of

Bolsheozerki, where they were met by sudden burst of a battery of

machine guns. Luckily the range was wrong. The horses bolted upsetting

the sleighs and throwing Col. Lucas into the neck-deep snow. The

Americans returned the fire and slowly retired with the loss of but one

man killed. Crawling in the snow for a great distance gave many of them

severe frost bites, one of the most acute sufferers being the French

Col. Lucas. The detachment returned to Chinova to report by telephone to

Chekuevo and to organize a defensive position in case the enemy should

advance toward Chekuevo. The enemy did not pursue. He was crafty. That

would have indicated his great strength.

By order of Col. Lawrie, British O. C. Onega Det., Lt. Phillips was sent

with about forty "H" Company men to reinforce Lt. Collins. It was the

British Colonel's idea that only a large raiding party of Bolos were at

Bolsheozerki for the purpose of raiding the supply trains of food that

were coming from Archangel to Chekuevo. Phillips reached Chinova before

daybreak of the twentieth. Lt. Collins was joined at the little village

of Chinova by three companies of Yorks, enroute from Murmansk to

Obozerskaya, a U. S. Medical corps officer, Lt. Springer, and four men

joined the force and an attack was ordered on Bolsheozerki by these

seventy Americans and three hundred Yorks. They did not know that they

were going up against ten times their number.

At 2:00 a. m. the movement started and at nine in the morning the

American advance guard drew fire from the enemy. Deploying as planned on

the left of the road the "H" men moved forward in line of battle. One

company of Yorks moved off to the right to attack from the woods and one

on the left of the Americans. One York company was in reserve. After

advancing over five hundred yards in face of the enemy machine gun fire,

the Americans were exhausted by the deep snow and held on to a line

within one hundred yards of the enemy. The Yorks on the right and left

advanced just as gallantly and were also held back by the deep snow and

the severity of the enemy machine gun fire.

The fight continued for five hours. Lovable old Lt. Collins fell

mortally wounded by a Bolo bullet while cheering his men on the

desperate line of battle. At last Lt. Phillips was obliged to report his

ammunition exhausted and appealed for reinforcements and ammunition.

Major Monday passed on the appeal to Col. Lawrie who gave up the attack

and ordered the forces to withdraw under cover of darkness, which they

all did in good order. Losses had not been as heavy as the fury of the

fight promised. One American enlisted man was killed and Lt. Collins

died of hemorrhage on the way to Chekuevo. Eight American enlisted men

were severely wounded. The Yorks lost two officers and two enlisted men

killed, and ten enlisted men wounded. Many of the American and British

soldiers were frostbitten.

During the next week the enemy, we learned later, greatly augmented his

forces and strengthened his defenses of Bolsheozerki with German wire,

machine guns, and artillery. He was evidently bent on exploiting his

patrol action success and aimed to cut the railroad at Obozerskaya and

later deal with the Onega detachment at leisure. Our troops made use of

the lull in the activities to make thorough patrols to discover enemy

positions and to send all wounded and sick to Onega for safety, bringing

up every available man for the next drive to knock the Bolo out of

Bolsheozerki. This was under the command of Lt.-Col. Morrison (British

army).

Meanwhile the Bolo General had launched a vicious drive at the Americans

and Russians who stood between him and his railway objective, encircling

them with three regiments, and on April 2, after two days of continuous

assault was threatening to overpower them. In this extremity Col. Lawrie

answered the appeal of the British officer commanding at Obozerskaya by

ordering another attack on the west by his forces. Captain Ballensinger

reports in substance as follows:

In compliance with orders he detailed April 1, one N. C. O. and ten

privates to man two Stokes mortars, also one N. C. O. and seven privates

for a Vickers gun. Both these details reported to a Russian trench

mortar officer and remained under his command during the engagement. The

balance of the available men at the advance base Usolia was divided into

two platoons, the first under Lt. Phillips and the other under the First

Sergeant. These platoons under Capt. Ballensinger's command, as part of

the reserve, joined the column on the road at the appointed time.

They arrived at their position on the road about four versts from

Bolsheozerki about 1:00 a. m. April 2. Zero hour was set at daybreak,

3:00 a. m. The first firing began about thirty minutes later, "A"

Company of the Yorks drawing fire from the northern or right flank of

the enemy. They reported afterward that the Bolos had tied dogs in the

woods whose barking had given the alarm. That company advanced in the

face of strong machine gun fire and Capt. Bailey, a British officer went

to his death gallantly leading his men in a rush at the guns on a ridge.

But floundering in the snow, with their second officer wounded, they

were repulsed and forced to retire.

At 5:00 a. m. Lt. Pellegrom, having hurried out from Archangel, reported

for duty and was put in command of a platoon.

At 6:00 a. m. "A" Company Yorks was in desperate straits and by verbal

order of Col. Lund one platoon of Americans was sent to support their

retirement. Lt. Phillips soon found himself hotly engaged.

The original plan had been to send the Polish Company in to attack the

southern villages or the extreme left of the Bolo line, but owing to

their lateness of arrival they were not able to go in there and were

held for a frontal attack, supported by the American trench mortars.

They were met by a severe machine gun fire and after twenty minutes of

hot fire and heavy losses retired from action.

Meanwhile "C" Company Yorks which had been sent around to attack on the

north of Bolsheozerki got lost in the woods in the dark, trying to

follow an old trail made by a Russian officer and a few men who had come

around the north end of the Bolsheozerki area a few days previously with

messages from Obozerskaya. The company did not get into action and had

to return. Thus the attack had failed, and the force found itself on a

desperate defensive.

The "A" Yorks, who had suffered severely, retired from action

immediately after the first counter-attack of the Bolo had been

repulsed. Then the whole defense of this messed-up attacking force fell

upon the American platoon and a dozen Yorks with a doughty British

officer. Phillips, through the superb control of his men, kept them all

in line and his Lewis guns going with great effectiveness and gave

ground slowly and grudgingly, in spite of casualties and great severity

of cold.

When Phillips fell with the wound which was later to prove fatal,

Pellegrom came up with his platoon to relieve the exhausted platoon, and

"C" Company Yorks arrived on the line from their futile flank march just

in time to join the Americans at 9:00 a. m. in checking the redoubled

counterattack of the hordes of Bolos.

Meanwhile the Polish troops refused to go back into the fighting line to

help stem the Bolo attack. Peremptory order brought two of their Colt

automatics up to the line where for forty-five minutes they engaged the

enemy, but again retired to the rear and assisted only by firing their

machine gun over the heads of the Americans and British battling for

their very lives all that afternoon in the long thin line of American O.

D. and British Khaki.

The Bolo was held in check and at dusk the Americans and British and

Poles withdrew in good order.

This ill-fated attack had met with a savage repulse but no doubt it had

a great effect upon the Bolshevik General at Bolsheozerki. On his right

he had himself met bloody disaster from a company of Americans who had

fought his attacking battalions to a standstill for sixty hours and here

on his left flank was another Company of Americans who had twice

attacked him and seemed never to stay defeated. April sun was likely to

soften his winter road to mush very soon and then these Americans and

their allies would have him at their mercy.

The losses of the enemy were not known but later accounts from prisoners

and from natives of the village, who were there, placed them very high.

In this last attack "H" lost one officer, who died of wounds later, also

one man killed, one mortally wounded and seven others wounded. The

British lost one officer killed, one wounded, two privates killed, two

missing and ten wounded. The Polish Company lost five killed, eight

missing and ten wounded.

Of the gallant Phillips who fell at Bolsheozerki we are pleased to

include the following from his company commander:

"But when he went forward something made me look him over again, and

the look I saw on his face and especially in his eyes, I shall never

forget.

"I have never seen a look like it before or since. It was by no means

the look of a man being afraid (I have seen those looks) nor was it a

look of 'I don't care what happens.' It was a look that made me watch

him all the way out. It made me hunt him up with my glasses, while I

was watching the enemy. The latter was pressing us awfully hard that

day, and when I observed our troops slowly giving ground, I went out

in person to see if the look on Phillip's face had something to do

with it. But I soon changed my mind. He was all along the line

encouraging his men to hold on, he helped to put new Lewis guns in

position. In short, he was everywhere without apparent thought of the

bullets flying all around him. He pulled back wounded men to be

carried back behind the lines. I know that his men would have held

every bit of ground, had the British who were holding the flanks not

fallen way back behind them.

"When the fateful bullet struck him, it knocked him down as if a ton

of brick had fallen on him. He said to me, 'My God, I got it. Captain,

don't bother with me, I am done for, just look after the boys'."

Let us here relate the story of his plucky fight for life after a Bolo

bullet tore through his breast.

Borne tenderly in the arms of his own men to a sleigh which was gently

drawn to Chanova and thence to Chekuevo, he rallied from his great loss

of blood. Apparently his chances for recovery were good. He sat up in

bed, ate with relish and exchanged greetings with his devoted "H"

company men who to a man would gladly have changed places with him--what

a fine comradeship there was between citizen-officer and

citizen-soldier. Contrary to expectations Phillips was soon moved from

Chekuevo to Onega for safety and for better care. But very soon after

reaching Onega hemmorhage began again. Then followed weeks of struggle

for life. Everything possible was done for him with the means at hand.

Although the hospital afforded no X-ray to discern the location of the

fatal arterial lesion through which his life was secretly spurting away,

the post mortem revealed the fact that the Bolshevik rifle bullet had

severed a tiny artery in his lung.

Care-worn American medical men wept in despair. Wireless messages

throbbed disheartening reports on his condition to anxious regimental

comrades on other fronts and at Archangel. At last the heroic struggle

ended. On the tenth of May Phillips bled to death of his wound.

The valiant company had done its best in the fall and winter fighting.

The company retired to Chekuevo and Onega, doing guard duty and patrols

during the spring. The only event of note was the midnight game of

baseball between the medics and doughboys. The medics could not hit the

pills as hard as the doughboys. They left Onega June 5th, by steamboat

for Economia Island and left Russia June 15th.

XXI

ICE-BOUND ARCHANGEL

Ferry Boat Fights Ice--Archangel Cosmopolitan--Bartering For

Eats--Strange Wood Famine--Entertainment At American

Headquarters--Doughboy Minstrelsy--Reindeer Teams--Russian

Eskimo--Bolshevik Prisoners--S. B. A. L. Mutiny--Major Young's Scare At

Smolny--Shakleton Boots--British Rations For Yank Soldiers--Corporal

Knight Writes Humorous Sketch Of Ice-Bound Archangel.

On the ferry boat the troops speculated whether or not we would get

stuck in the ice before we could cross the river to Archangel Preestin.

It was November 22nd, 1918. The Dvina ran under glass. On the streets of

Archangel sleighs were slipping. Winter was on and Archangel in a few

days would be ice-bound. For a few days more the ice-breakers would keep

the ferry going across the Dvina and would cut for the steamships a way

out to sea. Then the White Sea would freeze solid for six months. In a

few days the Archangel-Economia winter railroad would be running.

Icebreakers would for a while brave the Arctic gales that swept the

north coast. Then they would surrender and the great white silence would

begin.

Varied and interesting are the tales that are told of that winter in

Archangel. They are descriptive as well as narrative but there is not

much coherence to the chapter. However, to the soldiers who were there,

or who were out and in Archangel during the winter of 1918-19 this

chapter will be pleasing.

In from a far-off front for a few days rest, or in on some mission such

as the bringing of Bolshevik prisoners or to get some of the company

property which had been left behind when in the fall the troops left

troopships so hurriedly, these groups of American soldiers from the

fighting fronts always found Archangel of interest. They found that it

was a half-modern, half-oriental city, half-simple, half-wicked, with

the gay along with the drab, with bright lights along with the gloom.

In Archangel were all kinds of people--whiskered moujiks beating their

ponies along the snow-covered streets, sleek-looking people of the

official class, well-dressed men and women of cultured appearance, young

women whose faces were pretty and who did not wear boots and shawls but

dressed attractively and seemed to enjoy the attention of doughboys, and

soldiers of several nations, veterans of war and adventure in many

climes. What a cosmopolitan crowd it was in that frozen-in city of the

North!

The doughboy from the front soon learned that the city had its several

national centers--the British quarters, French, Italian, and so forth,

where their flags denoted their headquarters and in vicinity of which

would be found their barracks and quarters and clubs. The Yank found

himself welcome in every quarter of the city but hailed with most

camaraderie in the French quarter. With the Russian night patrols he

soon came to an amicable understanding and Russian cafes soon found out

that the Yanks were the freest spenders and treated them accordingly.

Woe to the luckless "Limmey" who tried to edge in on a Yank party in a

Russian place.

When the doughboy returned to his company at the front he had a few

great tales to tell of the eats he had found at some places. Some

companies had done well. On the market-place and elsewhere the

resourceful Amerikanski looking for food, especially vegetables, to

supplement his mess, learned his first word of Russian--Skulka rouble.

In spite of the watchful British M. P.'s, Ruby Queens and Scissors

cigarettes were soon bringing in small driblets of cabbage and onions

and potatoes. Happy the old mess sergeant who got his buddies expert at

this game. And much more contented were the men with the mess. In

another chapter read the wonderful menu of the convalescent hospital.

In the city the doughboy found the steaming bahnya or bathhouse, and at

the "cootie mill" turned in his shirt to rid himself of the "seam

squirrels." All cleaned up, with little gifts and cheery words he sought

his buddies who were in hospital sick or wounded. He got books and

records and gramaphones and other things at the Red Cross and "Y" to

take back to the company. He accumulated a thousand rumors about the

expedition and about happenings back home. He tired of the gloom and

magnified fears of Archangel's being overpowered by the Bolos and

usually returned to the front twice glad--once that he had seen

Archangel and second that he was back among his comrades at the front.

During those weary ice-bound months it was a problem to keep warm. Poor

management by high American and British officers at one time, to the

writer's knowledge, suffered American soldiers at Smolny to be actually

endangered in health. As far as proper heating of quarters was concerned

men at the front provided better for themselves than did the commander

at Smolny, Major Young, provide for those fighters in from the fighting

front for rest. And that might be said too for his battalion mess. No

wonder the doughboy set out to help himself in these things.

Strange to the American soldiers was the fact that at Archangel, a city

of saw-mills, sitting in a nick of a great forest that extended for

hundreds of miles south, east and west, there was such difficulty in

getting supplies of fuel. A desperate sergeant took a detail of men and

salvaged a lot of logs lying near the river's edge, borrowed some Russki

saws with a few cigarettes, commandeered some carts and brought to the

cook's kitchen and to the big stoves in the barracks a fine supply of

wood. But the joke of it was that the watchful Russian owner of the logs

sent in his bill for the wood to the British G. H. Q. And a ream of

correspondence was started between Major Young and G. H. Q., the

typewriter controversy continuing long, like Katy-did and Katy-didn't,

long after the sergeant with diplomacy, partial restoration, and sugar

had appeased the complaining Russian.

At American headquarters in the Technical Institute was held many a

pleasant entertainment to while away the winter hours. The auditorium

possessed a stage and a good dance floor. The moving picture machine and

the band were there. Seated on the backless wooden benches soldiers

looked at the pictures or listened to the orchestra or to their own

doughboy talent showing his art at vaudeville or minstrelsy.

Or on officers' entertainment night they and their guests chosen from

charming Russian families, joyfully danced or watched the antics of

Douglas Fairbanks, Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, and even our dear

deceased old John Bunnie. Not a silver lining but has its cloudy

surface, and many were the uncomfortable moments when the American

officer found himself wishing he could explain to his fair guest the

meaning of the scene. More than rumor spread through that North country,

attributing wonderful powers to the Americans based on some Douglas

Fairbanks exploit. Can it be that the enemy heard some of these rumors

and were unwilling at times to go against the Americans?

Enlisted men's entertainments by the "Y" and their own efforts to battle

ennui with minstrel show and burlesque and dances have already been

mentioned. The great high Gorka built by the American engineers in the

heart of the city afforded a half-verst slide, a rush of clinging men

and women as their toboggan coursed laughing and screaming in merriment

down to the river where it pitched swiftly again down to the ice. Here

at the Gorka as at "the merry-go-round," the promenade near Sabornya,

the doughboy learned how to put the right persuasion into his voice as

he said Mozhna, barishna, meaning: Will you take a slide or walk with

me, little girl? At Christmas, New Year's and St. Patrick's Day, they

had special entertainments. Late in March "I" Company three times

repeated its grand minstrel show.

Many a doughboy in Archangel, Kholmogora, Yemetskoe, Onega or Pinega, at

one time or another during the long winter, got a chance to ride with

the Russian Eskimo and his reindeer. Doughboys who were supporting the

artillery the day that the enemy moved on Chertkva and threatened

Peligorskaya, can recall seeing the double sled teams of reindeer that

came flashing up through the lines with the American commanding officer

who had been urgently called for by the Russian officer at Peligorskaya.

Sergeant Kant will never forget that wild ride. He sat on the rear sled,

or rather he clung to the top of it during that hour's ride of twelve

miles. The wise old buck reindeer who was hitched as a rudder to the

rear of his sled would brace and pull back to keep the sergeant's sled

from snapping the whip at the turns, and that would lift the sled clear

from the surface. And when the old buck was not steering the sled but

trotting with leaping strides behind the sled then the bumps in the road

bounced the sled high. Out in front the reindeer team of three strained

against their simple harness and supplied the rapid succession of jerks

that flew the sleds along toward the embattled artillery. The reindeer

travelled with tongues hanging out as if in distress; they panted; they

steamed and coated with frost; they thrust their muzzles into the

cooling snow to slake their thirst; but they were enjoying the wild run;

they fairly skimmed over the snow trail. The Eskimo driver called his

peculiar moaning cry to urge them on, slapped his lead reindeer with the

single rein that was fastened to his left antler, or prodded his team on

the haunches with the long pole which he carried for that purpose and

for steering his light sled, and with surprising nimbleness leaped on

and off his sled as he guided the sled past or over obstructions. A

snow-covered log across the trail caused no delay. A leap of three

antlered forms, twelve grey legs flashing in the air, a bump of the

light sled that volplanes an instant in a shower of snow, a quick leap

and a grab for position back on the sled, the thrilling act is over, and

the Eskimo has not shown a sign of excitement in his Indian-like stoic

face. On we skim at unbroken pace. We soon reach the place.

One of the views shown in this volume is that of a characteristic

reindeer team and sled. Another shows the home of the North Russian

branch of the Eskimo family. The writer vividly recalls the sight of a

semi-wild herd of reindeer feeding in the dense pine and spruce woods.

They were digging down through the deep snow to get the succulent

reindeer moss. We approached on our Russian ponies with our, to them,

strange-looking dress. What a thrill it gave us to see them, as if at

signal of some sentry, raise their heads in one concerted, obedient look

for signal of some leader, and then with great bounds go leaping away to

safety, flashing through the dark stems of the trees like a flight of

grey arrows discharged from a single bow. Further on we came upon the

tented domiciles of the owners of this herd. Our red-headed Russian

guide appeased the clamors of the innumerable dogs who bow-wowed out

from all sides of the wigwam-like tents of these North Russian nomad

homes, while we Americans looked on in wonder. Here was the very

counterpart of the American Indian buck and squaw home that our grandads

had seen in Michigan. The women at last appeared and rebuked the ragged

half-dressed children for their precipitate rushing out to see the

strangers. For a little tobacco they became somewhat talkative and

willingly enough gave our guide information about the location of the

hidden still we were going to visit, where pine pitch was baked out and

barrelled for use in repairing the steamboats and many fishing boats of

the area. We studied this aborigine woman and questioned our guide later

about these people. Like our Indians they are. Pagans they are and in

this volume is a picture of one of their totem poles. Untouched by the

progress of civilization, they live in the great Slavic ocean of people

that has rolled over them in wave after wave, but has not changed them a

bit. Space can not be afforded for the numerous interesting anecdotes

that are now in the mind of the writer and the doughboy reader who so

many times saw the reindeer and their Russian Eskimo owners in their

wilds or in Archangel or other cities and villages where they appear in

their annual winter migrations.

Probably the one most interesting spot in the frozen port city was the

American expeditionary post-office. Here at irregular intervals, at

first via ice-breaker, which battled its way up to the edge of the ice

crusted coast north of Economia, came our mail bags from home. Later

those bags came in hundreds of miles over the winter snow roads, hauled

by shaggy ponies driven by hairy, weather-beaten moujiks. Mail-letters,

papers, little things from home, the word still connotes pleasure to us.

Mail days were boon days, and at the mail-place a detail always arrived

early and cheerful.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Russian Masonry Stove--American Convalescent Hospital.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Pvt. Allikas Finds His Mother in Archangel.

U. S OFFICIAL PHOTO

Printing "The American Sentinel."

Familiar sights in the streets of winter Archangel were the working

parties composed of Bolshevik prisoners of war. Except for the doughboy

guard it might have been difficult to tell them from a free working

party. They all looked alike. In fact, many a scowling face on a passing

sled would have matched the Bolo clothes better than some of those

boyish faces under guard. And how the prisoners came to depend on the

doughboy. Several times it was known and laughingly told about that Bolo

prisoners individually managed to escape, sneak home or to a

confederate's home, get food, money and clean clothes, and then report

back to the American guards. They preferred to be prisoners rather than

to remain at large. Once a worried corporal of a prisoner guard detail

at the convalescent hospital was inventing a story to account to the

sergeant for his A. W. O. L. prisoner when to his mingled feeling of

relief and disgust, in walked the lost prisoner, nitchevo, khorashaw.

The corporal felt about as sheepish as a sergeant and corporal of

another company had felt one night when they had spent an hour and a

half outmaneuvering the sentries, carrying off a big heavy case to a

dark spot, and quietly opening the case found that instead of Scotch

"influenza cure" it was a box of horseshoes. In that case horseshoes

meant no luck.

Is war cruel? In that city of Archangel with nowhere to retreat, nervous

times were bound to come. "The wind up their back," that is, cold

shivers, made kind-hearted, level-headed men do harsh things. Comrade

Danny Anderson of "Hq" Company could tell a blood-curdling story of the

execution he witnessed. Six alleged agents of the German war office,

Russian Bolo spies, in one "windy" moment were brutally put away by

British officers. Their brains spattered on the stone wall. Sherman said

it. We are glad to say that such incidents were remarkably rare in North

Russia. The Allied officers and troops have a record of which they may

be justly proud.

Here we may as well tell of the S. B. A. L. mutiny in Archangel in early

winter. It is the story of an occurrence both pitiful and aggravating.

After weeks of feeding and pampering and drilling and equipping and

shining of brass buttons and showing off, when the order came for them

to prepare to march off to the fighting front, the S. B. A. L. held a

soviet in their big grey-stone barracks and refused to get ready to go

out because they had grievances against their British officers. This was

aggravatingly unreasonable and utterly unmilitary. Severe measures would

have to be used. They were given till 2:00 p. m. to reconsider their

soviet resolution.

Meanwhile G. H. Q. had ordered out the American "Hq" Company trench

mortar section and a section of the American Machine Gun Company to try

bomb and bullet argument on the S. B. A. L.'s who were barricading their

barracks and pointing machine guns from their windows. Promptly on the

minute, according to orders, the nasty, and to the Americans pitifully

disagreeable job, was begun. In a short time a white flag fluttered a

sign of submission. But several had been killed and the populace that

swarmed weeping about the American soldiers reproachfully cried:

"Amerikanski nit dobra." And they did not feel at all glorious.

A few minutes later to the immense disgust of the doughboys, a company

of English Tommies who by all rules of right and reason should have been

the ones to clean up the mutinous mess into which the British officers

had gotten the S. B. A. L.'s, now hove into sight, coming up the

recently bullet-whistling but now deadly quiet street, with rifles slung

on their shoulders, crawling along slowly at sixty to the minute

pace--instead of a riot-call double time, and singing their insulting

version of "Over There the Yanks are Running, Running, everywhere, etc."

And their old fishmonger reserve officer--he wore Colonel's insignia,

wiped off his whiskey sweat in unconcealed relief. His battle of

Archangel had been cut short by the Americans who had eagerly watched

for the first sign of surrender by the foolish Russian soldiers. The

finishing touch was added to the short-lived S. B. A. L. mutiny when the

tender-hearted but severe old General Maroushevsky punished the thirteen

ring-leaders of the S. B. A. L. soviet with death before a Russian

firing squad. This mutiny was described in various ways and use was made

of it by agitators in Archangel. The writer has followed the account

given to him by a machine gun sergeant who was handling one of the guns

that day. His story seemed to contain the facts and feelings most

commonly expressed by American officers and enlisted men who were in

Archangel when the unfortunate incident took place.

We are bound to comment that we believe it never would have occurred if

a tactful, honest American officer had been in charge of the S. B. A. L.

Americans know how tactless and bull-dozing some British orders--not

many to be sure--could be. We fortunately had bluffs enough to offset

the bull-dozings. A stormy threat by a sneering, drunken officer to turn

his Canadian artillery on the bloomin' Yanks could be met by a

cold-as-steel rejoiner that the British officer would please realize his

drunken condition, and take back the sneering threat and come across

with a reasonable order or suffer the immediate consequences. And then

usually the two could cooperate. Such is a partnership war incident.

Late in winter, after the success of the enemy in the Shenkursk area had

given the secret sympathizers in Archangel renewed hope that Trotsky's

army would at last crush the Allies before Archangel, rumor persistently

followed rumor that Archangel was being honeycombed with spies. The

sailors at Solombola wore darker scowls and strange faces began to

appear at Smolny where the city's power station lay. In the Allied

intelligence staff, that is secret information service, there was

redoubled effort. We smile as we think of it. About the time of the Bolo

General's brilliant smash through our line and capture of Bolsheozerki,

menacing Obozerskaya, a few little outbursts were put down in Archangel.

A few dozen rusty rifles were confiscated. Major Young laid elaborate

plans for the, to him, imminent riot at Smolny. Soldiers who had learned

from experience how difficult it was for their enemy to keep a skirmish

line even when his officers were behind with pistol and machine gun

persuasion, now grew sick of this imaginary war in Archangel. One

company going out to the front on March 27th, was actually singing in

very jubilation because they were getting away from battalion mess and

"stand-to" for riot-scare.

A distinguished citizen of the world, Sir Ernest Shakleton, visited the

city of Archangel in the winter. But no one ever saw him try to navigate

Troitsky Prospect in his own invention, the Shakleton boot. How dear to

his heart are the thoughts of that boot, as the doughboy recalls his

first attempts to walk in them. The writer's one and only experience

with them resulted in his taking all the road for steering his course

and calling for the assistance of two brother officers--and "Chi" was

the strongest he had drunk, too. Of course the doughboy mastered the art

of navigating in them. For downright laughableness and ludicrity the

Charlie Chaplin walk has nothing on the Shakleton gliding-wabble. The

shimmy and the cheek dance would not draw a second look while a stranger

could grin audibly at the doughboy shuffle-hip-screwing along in

Shakleton's. Many a fair barishna on Troitsky Prospect held her furs up

to conceal her irrepressible mirth at the sight. Aw, Shakletons.

Allusion has been made to the battalion mess of bully and "M. and V."

Another part of the British issue ration was dried vegetables, which the

soldiers nicknamed "grass stew," much to the annoyance of one Lt.

Blease, our American censor who read all our letters in England to see

that we did not criticise our Allies. One day at Soyla grass stew was on

the menu, says a corporal. One of the men offered his Russian hostess a

taste of it. She spat it out on the hay before the cow. The cow was

insulted and refused either stew or hay. Much was done to improve the

ration by General Ironside who accepted with sympathy the suggestions of

Major Nichols. Coffee finally took the place of tea. More bread and less

hard tack was issued. Occasionally fresh meat was provided. But on the

whole the British ration did not satisfy the American soldier.

This leads to a good story. One day during the Smolny riot-scare the

writer with a group of non-commissioned officers in going all over the

area to discover its possibilities for tactics and strategy, visited the

Russian Veterinarian School. Here we saw the poor Russki pony in all

stages of dissection, from spurting throat to disembowelment and

horse-steaks. "Me for the good old bully," muttered a corporal devoutly,

as he turned his head away. Here we remember the query of a corporal of

Headquarters Company who said: "Where is that half million dogs that

were in Archangel when we landed last September?" The Russians had no

meat market windows offering wieners and bologny but it sure was a tough

winter for food in that city congested with a large refugee population.

And dogs disappeared.

Of the purely military life in Archangel in the long winter little can

be said. The real work was done far out at the fronts anyway. No

commander of a company of troops fighting for his sector of the line

ever got any real assistance from Archangel except of the routine kind.

Many a commendatory message and many a cheering visit was paid the

troops by General Ironside but we can not record the same for Colonel

Stewart. He was not a success as a commanding officer. He fell down

weakly under his great responsibility. Before the long winter was over

General Richardson was sent up to Archangel to take command.

During the early winter a doughboy in Archangel in this spirit of good

humor wrote a letter published later in The Stars and Stripes in France.

It is so good that we include it here.

"Sometimes, about once or twice every now and then, copies of The Stars

and Stripes find their way up here to No Woman's Land and are instantly

devoured by the news-hungry gang, searching for information regarding

their comrades and general conditions in France, where we belong, but

through Fate were sent up to this part of the world to quell Bolshevism

and guard the Northern Lights.

"We are so far north that the doggone sun works only when it feels

inclined to do so, and in that way it is like everything else in Russia.

The moon isn't so particular, and comes up, usually backwards, at any

time of the day or night, in any part of the sky, it having no set

schedule, and often it will get lost and still be on the job at noon.

Yes, we are so far north that 30 degrees below will soon be tropical

weather to us, and they will have to build fires around both cows before

they can milk them. Probably about next month at this time some one will

come around and say we will be pulling out of here in a day or so, but

then, the days will be six months long.

"In our issue of your very popular paper we noticed a cartoon, "Pity the

boys in Siberia," but what about us, Ed? Now, up here in this tough town

there are 269,83l. inhabitants, of which 61,329 are human beings and

208,502 are dogs. Dogs of every description from the poodle to the St.

Bernard and from the wolfhound to the half-breed dachshund, which is

half German and half Bolshevik and looks the part.

"The wind whistles across the Dvina River like the Twentieth Century

Limited passing Podunk, and snowflakes are as numerous as retreating

Germans were in France a few weeks ago. We have good quarters when we

are here, thank fortune for that, and good food, when it comes up. If we

can stand the winter we will be all jake, for a Yank can accustom

himself to anything if he wants to. But just the same, we would like to

see your artists busy on "The Boys in Northern Russia" and tell them not

to leave out the word "Northern."

"We also read in The Stars and Stripes that the boys in Italy had some

tongue twisters and brain worriers, but listen to this: Centimes and

sous and francs may be hard to count, but did you ever hear of a rouble

or a kopec? A kopec is worth a tenth of a cent and there are a hundred

of them in a rouble. As you will see, that makes a rouble worth a dime,

and to make matters worse all the money is paper, coins having gone out

of circulation since the beginning of the mix-up. A kopec is the size of

a postage stamp, a rouble looks like a United Cigar Store's Certificate,

a 25-rouble note resembles a porous plaster and a 100-rouble note the

Declaration of Independence.

"When a soldier in search of a meal enters a restaurant, he says to the

waitress, 'Barishna, kakajectyeh bifstek, pozhalysta,' which means 'An

order of beefsteak, lady, please: You see, you always say to a woman

'barishna' and she is always addressed in that manner. She will answer

the hungry customer with, 'Yah ochen sojalaylu, shto unaus nyet yestnik

prepasov siechas' (a simple home cure for lockjaw), meaning, "I am very

sorry, but we are right out of food today.' He will try several other

places, and if he is lucky he is apt to stumble across a place where he

can get something to eat, but when he looks at the bill of fare and

learns that it cost him about $7.50 for a sandwich and a cup of coffee,

he beats it back to the barracks.

"Every time you get on a street car ('dramvay') you have to count out 60

kopecs for your fare, and most of us would rather walk than be jammed in

the two-by-four buses and fish for the money. Before boarding a car each

passenger usually hunts up a couple of five gallon milk cans, a market

basket or two and a bag of smoked herring, so they will get their

kopec's worth out of the ride, besides making the atmosphere nice and

pleasant for the rest of the passengers. If you should see a soldier

walking down the street with his nose turned up and his mouth puckered

in apparent contempt, you would be wrong in thinking he was conceited,

for if the truth be known he has probably just got his shirt back from

the washwoman, and she has used fish-oil instead of soap and he is

trying to escape the fumes. When you take your clothes to have them

laundered and tell the woman to please omit the odor, she'll tell you

that she has no soap and if you want them washed to your satisfaction

please send in a cake. Anything in the world to keep your clothes from

smelling of fish-oil, so you double-time back and get her the soap, and

then she gives the kids a bath, and that's the end of your soap.

"When a Russian meets another man he knows on the street, both lift hats

and flirt with each other. If they stop to talk, they always shake

hands, even if they haven't seen each other for fully twenty minutes.

Then they simply must shake hands again when they leave. When a man

meets a lady friend he usually kisses her hand and shows her how far he

can bend over without breaking his suspenders. 'Ah,' he will say, 'yah

ochen rrad vasveedyat, kak vui pazhavaetye?' which in the United States

means 'How do you do?' to which she will reply, 'Blogadaru vas, yah

ochen korosho,' or 'very well, thank you.' It is the knockout. A fellow

has to shake hands so much that some of them are getting the habit

around the company.

"And another thing, Ed, are they really holding a separate war up here

for our benefit? Just because we weren't in on the big doings in France

is no reason why they should run a post-season series especially for us.

We appreciate the kindness and honor and all that, but what we want to

know is where everybody gets that stuff. Believe me, after all the dope

we got on the trenches, about pianos and wooden floors, steam heat, and

other conveniences, when we see ourselves on outpost duty with one

blanket and a poncho, sleeping (not on duty, of course) in twenty-eight

inches of pure ooooozy mud, which before we awaken turns into thin, fine

ice, it makes us want to cry out and ask the universe what we have done

to deserve this exile.

"Now don't think, dear old Ed. that we are kicking. American soldiers

never do. We just wanted to have something to write you about, to remind

you that we ARE a part of the American E. F., although 'isolated.'

"With best wishes to your paper and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New

Year to all the boys, I'll close with the consoling assurance in my

heart that we'll meet you back on Broadway, anyway.

C. B. KNIGHT, Corp. "Hq" Co., 339th Inf.,

American E. F., Archangel, Russia."

XXII

WINTER ON THE RAILROAD

We Come Under French Flag--Thanksgiving Day At Verst 455--Exploration

And Blockhouse Building--First Occupation Of Bolsheozerki--Airplane

Bombs Our Own Front Line Troops--Year's End Push On Plesetskaya

Fiasco--Nichols Makes Railroad Sector Impregnable--Bolo Patrol Blows Up

Our Big Six--Heavy Drive By Reds At Winter's End--"I" Company Relieves

French-Russian Force--Valorous Conduct Of Men Gives Lie To Charges Of

Loss Of Morale.

In the narrative telling of the fighting on the Vaga and Dvina, we have

already seen that the Red Guards had disillusioned us in regard to the

quiet winter campaign we hoped and expected. Now we shall resume the

story of the Railroad, or Vologda Force, as it had become known, and

tell of the attempted Allied push on Plesetskaya to relieve the pressure

on the River Fronts.

After our digging in at Verst 445 in early November, a Company of

Liverpools came from Economia to aid the French infantry and American

and French machine gunners, supported by French artillery, to hold that

winter front. The American units who had fought on the railroad in the

fall were all given ten days rest in Archangel. Soon the Americans were

once more back on the front. And it started off uneventful. A French

officer, Colonel Lucas, had come into command of the Vologda Force.

American units were generously supplied with the French Chauchat

automatic rifles, and ammunition for them, and with French rifles and

tromblons to throw the rifle grenades. Earnest business of learning to

use them.

Those who were stationed at field headquarters of the Front Sector of

the Vologda Force, which was at Verst 455, will recollect with great

pleasure the Thanksgiving Day half-holiday and program arranged by Major

Nichols, commanding the American forces. He gave us Miss Ogden, the Y.

W. C. A. woman from d. o. U. S. A. to read President Wilson's

proclamation. How strange it seemed to us soldiers standing there under

arms. And Major Moodie the old veteran of many a British campaign, and

friend of Kitchener, the good old story teller praised the boys and

prayed with them. Major Nichols and Major Alabernarde spoke cheering and

bracing words to the assembled American and French soldiers. It was an

occasion that raised fighting morale.

The President's Thanksgiving proclamation was transmitted to the

American troops in Russia through the office of the American Embassy.

The soldiers listened intently to the words of Mr. De Witt C. Poole,

Jr., the American Charge d'Affaires who since the departure of

Ambassador Francis, was the American diplomatic representative in

European Russia. His message was as follows:

"The military Command has been asked to make this day a holiday for

the troops, so far as military requirements permit, and to communicate

to them upon an occasion fraught with tradition and historical

memories, the hearty greetings of all Americans who are working with

them in Northern Russia.

"The American Embassy desires the troops to know that both here and at

Washington there is a full understanding of the difficulties of the

work which they are being called upon to do and a desire no less

ardent than their own that they should realize as soon as possible the

blessings of the peace which is foreshadowed by the armistice on the

Western Front."

The chief note in the President's proclamation which lingered on the

doughboy's ear was as follows:

"Our gallant armies have participated in a triumph which is not marred

or stained by any purpose of selfish aggression. In a righteous cause

they have won immortal glory and have nobly served their nation in

serving mankind."

Work of building blockhouses went rapidly forward under the steady work

of the 310th Engineers and the cheerful labor of the infantrymen who

found the occupation of swinging axes and hauling logs through the snow

to be not unpleasant exercise in the stinging winter weather that was

closing down. A commodious building began to go up at 455 for the Y. M.

C. A. French-Russian force under a terrific bombardment and barrage of

machine to use for winter entertainments for the men stationed in that

stronghold.

Exploration of the now more available winter swamp trails went on

carefully. The chain of lakes and swamps several miles to the west ran

north from Sheleksa concentration camp of the Bolos to Bolsheozerki,

parallel to the Railroad line of operations. This Bolsheozerki was an

important point on the government road which went from Obozerskaya to

Onega. It was thought wise to protect this village as in winter mail

would have to be sent out of Archangel by way of Obozerskaya, via Onega,

via Kem, via Kola, the open winter port on the Murmansk coast hundreds

of miles away to the west and north. And troops might be brought in,

too. A look at the map will discover the strategic value of this point

Bolsheozerki. American and French troops now began to alternate in the

occupation of that cluster of villages.

A sergeant of "M" Company might tell about the neat villages, about the

evidences of a higher type than usual of agriculture in the broad

clearing, about the fishing nets and wood cutters' tools, and last, but

not least about the big schoolhouse and the winsome barishna who taught

the primary room.

Nothing more than an occasional patrol or artillery exchange took place

on the railroad although there was an occasional flurry when the British

intelligence officers found out that the Reds were plotting a raid or a

general attack. It was known that they had begun to augment their forces

on our front. Sound of their axes had been as constant on the other side

of No Man's Land as it had on our side. They were erecting blockhouses

for the winter. Occasionally their airplanes exchanged visits with ours,

always dropping a present for us. No casualties resulted from their

bombs directed at us. Unfortunately one day our bombing plane mistook

our front line for the Red front line and dropped two big bombs on our

own position and caused one death and one severe wound.

The accident happened just as an American company was being relieved by

a French company. And it was a good thing the commander of the company

consumed the remainder of the day in getting his excited and enraged men

back to Obozerskaya because by that time the men were cooled off and the

nervous Royal Air Force had no occasion to use its rifles in

self-defense as it had prepared to do. They wisely stayed inside, as in

fact did the few other English sergeants and enlisted men at Obozerskaya

that ticklish night. The few wild Yanks who roamed the dark, without

pass, had all the room and road. There was a particularly good mission

at once found for this American company on another front, whether by

design or by coincidence. A board of officers whitewashed the Canadian

flyers of the Royal Air Force and the incident was closed.

Of course all the accidents did not happen to Americans. During the

winter on the Railroad, a sad one happened to a fine British officer. A

brooding enlisted man of the American medical corps went insane one dark

night and craftily securing a rifle held up the first Englishman he

found. He roundly berated the British officer with being the cause of

the North Russian War on the Bolsheviki, told the puzzled but patiently

listening officer to say a prayer and then suddenly blew off the poor

man's head and himself went off his nut completely.

With the beginning of the winter campaign Pletsetskaya's importance to

the Red Army began to loom up. Trotsky's forces could be readily

supplied from that city and his forces could be swiftly shifted from

front to front to attack the widely dispersed forces of the Allied

Expedition. It was seen now clearly that the fall offensive should have

been pushed through to Plesetskaya by the converging Onega, Railroad and

Kodish Forces. And plans were made to retrieve the error by putting on a

determined push late in December to take Plesetskaya and reverse the

strategic situation so as to favor the Allied Expeditionary Forces.

The Onega Force was to make a strong diversion toward the Bolo extreme

left; the Kodish Force was to smash through Kodish to Kochmas assisted

by a heavy force of Russians and English operating on and through Gora

and Taresevo, and thence to Plesetskaya; the French-trained company of

Russian Courier-du-Bois were to go on snow shoes through the snow from

Obozerskaya to the rear of Emtsa for a surprise attack; and timed with

all these was the drive of the Americans and British Liverpools on the

Railroad straight at the Bolo fortifications at Verst 443 and Emtsa.

Study of the big map will show that the plan had its merits.

There were one or two things wrong with the plan. One was that it

underestimated the increased strength of the Bolshevik forces both in

numbers and in morale and discipline. The other was the erroneous

estimate of the time required to make the distances in the deep snow. Of

course it was not the fault of the plan that the information leaked out

and disaffected men deserted the Allied Russian auxiliaries' ranks and

tipped off the push to the Bolsheviki.

The story of the New Year's battles by "H" on the one hand and "K" on

the other have been told. It remains to relate here the "railroad push"

fiasco. The Courier-du-Bois got stuck in the deep snow, exhausted and

beaten before they were anywhere near Emtsa. American Machine Gun men at

Verst 445 front reported that S. B. A. L. deserters had gone over to the

Bolo lines. The Reds on December 29th and 30th became very active with

their artillery. Reports came in of the failure of the Russian-British

force that was to attack Tarsevo, and of the counter attack of the Reds

in the Onega Valley. So the Liverpools and the French company and

Winslow's "I" Company and Lt. Donovan's combination company of two

platoons of "G" and "M" who were all set for the smash toward Emtsa and

Plesetskaya found their orders suddenly countermanded on December 31st

and settled down to the routine winter defensive.

In order to facilitate troop movements and to make command more compact,

the French Colonel in command of the railroad force arranged that the

Americans should man the sectors of defense during the month of February

all alone and that the French battalion should occupy in March. This

worked out fairly satisfactory. "L" Company and half of "E" Company,

after rest at Archangel from their desperate work at Kodish, joined "I"

Company and half of "G" Company on the railroad under Major Nichols,

where an uneventful but busy month was passed in patrolling, instruction

and so forth.

Every sector of the railroad front was made practically impregnable to

infantry attack by the energetic work of "A" and "B" Company engineers

and the Pioneer platoon of Headquarters Company. And the dugouts which

they constructed at Verst 445 proved during the intermittent artillery

shelling of January-March to be proof against the biggest H. E. the Bolo

threw. Major Nichols sure drove the job of fortification through with

thoroughness and secured a very formidable array of all sorts of weapons

of defense. A great naval gun that could shoot twenty versts was mounted

on an American flat car and taken to his popular field headquarters at

Verst 455, where it was the pet of the crew of Russian sailors. And

constant instruction and practice with the various weapons of the

British, French and Russian types, which were in the hands of the

Americans gave them occupation during the many days of tension on this

winter front, where they daily expected the same thing to happen that

was overpowering their comrades on the River Fronts. And when at the

very end of the winter and the break of spring, the Reds did come in

great force the defenses were so strong and well manned that they held

at every point.

In March the French had a little excitement while the battalion of

Americans were at rest in Archangel. A daring Bolshevik patrol in force

circumnavigated through the deep snow of the pine woods on skiis and

surprised the poilu defenders of their favorite howitzer on the railway

track, killing several and capturing the big six-inch trouble maker.

They destroyed it by feeding it a German hand grenade and then made

their getaway. Successes on other fronts seemed to stimulate the Bolos

to try out the defenses on this hitherto very quiet front. They gave the

Frenchies lots of trouble with their raiding parties. Whether the fact

that the French had local Russian troops with them had anything to do

with the renewal of activity is not provable, but it seems probable,

judging from the hatred seen expressed between Bolos and anti-Bolsheviks

on other fronts that winter.

And before the month of March was gone, Major Nichols was hurried back

to the Railroad Front, taking "L" and "E" Companies with him. The

French-Russian forces were in trouble. They had lost the strategic

Bolsheozerki, story of the severe fighting about which will form a

separate chapter. Rumor has it that the Russian troops on the front were

demoralized and that the enemy would strike before the Americans could

get there to relieve the French-Russian force.

General Ironside himself went to the railroad and the new Bolsheozerki

front and saw that quick action only could save the situation. He gave

Major Nichols free hand with his battalion and released "E" Company

which was on the Bolsheozerki front by sending "M" Company to the

desperate spot. Nichols with characteristic decisiveness determined to

make the relief before the set time and have his own men meet the

attack. It worked at all points. At Verst 445, the very front, "I"

Company gallantly went in to relieve the French and Russian under

artillery barrage and a heavy machine gun barrage together with a heavy

infantry attack on one flank. This company which has been unjustly

accused of having mutinied the day before at Archangel, was on this day

and three succeeding days subjected to all the fury of attack that the

Red Army commander had been mustering up for so many days to crush the

French-Russian force. And "I" Company supported by the French artillery,

by machine gun and trench mortar men, stood the Reds off with great

resolution and inflicted terrible losses. The railroad front line was

saved. The flank position gained by the Reds at Bolsheozerki would be of

doubtful value to them as long as the railroad sectors held. The

stoutness of the American defenses and the stoutness of their morale had

both been vindicated in terrific battle action.

And hereafter any veteran of the winter campaign fighting the

Bolsheviki, who still meets the false story of alleged mutiny of one of

the companies of the 339th Infantry in Archangel, a false story that

will not down even after emphatic denial by high army authorities who

investigated the reports that slipped out to the world over the British

cables, may ignore the charges as distortions which partisans who are

pro-Bolshevik are in the habit of giving currency with the vain idea of

trying to show that the Bolshevik propaganda convinced the American

soldier. They may refer to this valorous battle action of the alleged

mutinous company and to shining examples of its morale and valor in the

long fall and winter campaign fighting the Bolsheviki. The story of the

discontent which gave rise to the false story is told elsewhere.

In this connection the editors wish to add further that in their

estimation the morale of this fighting company and of the other American

units was remarkably good. And the story of this "I" Company going in to

relieve the French-Russian force under a terrific bombardment and

barrage of machine guns, the distant roar of which was heard for three

days and nights by the writer who was on an adjoining front, has not

been told with complete emphasis to the good fighting spirit of Captain

Winslow's men. We would like to make it stronger.

The winter drive of the Reds on the Railroad merged into their spring

raids and threats. The French soldiers did not return again to the front

and the Americans stayed on. Major Nichols began breaking in units of

the new Archangel government troops who served alongside the Yanks and

were in the spring to relieve the American entirely.

XXIII

BOLSHEOZERKI

Bolsheozerki One-Reel Thriller--Brilliant Strategy Of Trotsky's Northern

Army Commander--General Ironside And Major Nichols Take Personal Command

Of Critical Situation--Twelve Miles Out In Woods With Five Pieces Of

Artillery--"M" Company Relieves "E"--Little Force Beleaguered For

Days--Three Invincible Days And Nights--Reds Ambush Several

Parties--Enemy Baffled And Punished Dreadfully--American Pluck And Luck

Triumph.

Bolsheozerki was a one reel thriller. Kodish had been a repetition of

nightmares both for the Reds and the Yanks. Shenkursk had been a five

act drama the tragic end of which had been destined when the Americans

were ordered to dig in so far forward, isolated from the supporting

forces. This last front, Bolsheozerki, sprang suddenly into acute

importance in March just at the end of winter and was savagely fought.

The brilliant strategy of the Bolo Northern Army commander, General

Kuropatkin, in sending a Bolo general with a great flying wedge between

the Onega Force and the Railroad Force was executed with a surprisingly

swift flank movement that caught the French napping at the lightly held

Bolsheozerki position, March 16-17. Their force was annihilated, a

convoy was captured, and the old priest of the area came fleeing to

Obozerskaya with news of this enemy drive that would soon, unless

checked, capture Obozerskaya, and thus pierce a vital point of the whole

Archangel defense. The railroad front sectors would be cut off,

Seletskoe would be pinched, and the River Fronts taken in rear if

Obozerskaya with its stores, munitions and transportation fell into the

hands of the Bolsheviki.

General Ironside hastened to Obozerskaya to take personal command. The

French Colonel commanding there had himself been cut off at Chinova on

the west side of Bolsheozerki and had failed to fight his way through

the next day, March 18th, with an escort of "H" Company men, story of

which is related elsewhere. Ironside ordered up three Companies of Yorks

and a Polish Company, who had been on the road from Onega to

Bolsheozerki to join the Americans at Chinova for a smash at the

gathering Reds in Bolsheozerki. Their gallant but futile fight with its

hard losses on March 23rd, from the enemy fire and winter frost has been

told. Meanwhile General Ironside hurried out an American company from

Archangel together with an Archangel Regiment Company and eighty Yorks

and some of the French Legion Courier du Bois to make an attack on the

Reds at the same time on their other flank. But the Reds had their

artillery all set to command the road at Verst 19 and threw the Russian

troops into confusion with severe losses. "E" Company of Americans

resolutely floundered for hours through the five-foot snow to reach a

distant viewpoint of the village of Bolsheozerki where they could hear

the furious action between "H" and the Reds on the farther side, but by

field telephone, were ordered by Colonel Guard to return to Verst 18 on

the road and dig in.

For a few days both sides used the winter sleigh roads for all they were

worth in bringing up artillery and supplies and men and wire, and so

forth. The Reds had sixty versts to haul their loads but they had the

most horses, which they used without mercy. An American soldier who was

ambushed and taken prisoner during this fighting says that he never saw

before nor since so many dead horses, starved and overdriven, as he saw

on the winter trail south from Bolsheozerki. The Reds brought up

artillery enough to cover approaches to both their west and east fronts

where the Allied forces were menacing them.

Ironside ordered out five pieces of French-Russian artillery, a

hazardous but necessary move. These guns were set along the snowpacked

broad corduroy highway near Verst 18, twelve miles from Obozerskaya, and

four miles from the overwhelming force of Bolsheviks. Day and night the

old howitzer, with airplane observation, roared defiance at Bolsheozerki

and the Russian 75's barked viciously first at the village positions of

the Reds and then at their wood's artillery and infantry positions which

the Reds were pushing forward at this devoted Allied force that stood

resolutely between them and Obozerskaya.

Fresh companies of Americans and Russians relieved those who were

shivering and exhausted in the snow camp at Verst 18. Company "C," 310th

Engineers platoon, hastily threw up barricades of logs for the doughboys

and before the day of attack, had completed two of the several projected

blockhouses. Part of them, who had not been sent back to build the

second defense position that now seemed inevitable, were found with the

doughboys, rifle in hand, during the desperate days that followed. The

company of Yanks who now took over the active defense of this camp, "M"

Company, was a resourceful outfit which soon improved its barricades and

built brush shelters within which they could conceal their warm fires.

By their reputation as fighters and by their optimism they won the

spirited support of the green Russian supporting company. And the

machine gun crews of Russians who stood with the Americans at the

critical front and rear road positions did themselves proud.

Every day made the Verst 18 position less hazardous. The Reds made a

mistake in waiting to mass up a huge force, seven thousand--their

prisoners and their own newspapers afterward admitted. If they had

struck quickly after March 23rd the Allied force would have soon been

out of ammunition and been compelled to retire. But during the days

devoted to massing up the Red forces and working around through the deep

snow to attack the rear of the Verst 18 camp, the Allied force of two

hundred Americans and four hundred Allied troops, mostly Russians, were

stocked up with food and munitions and artillery shells sufficient to

stand against a desperate, continuous onslaught. And they did.

Came then the three days' continuous attack by the enemy in his

determined attempt to gain possession of the road so as to be able to

move his artillery over it to attack Obozerskaya. His men could travel

light through the woods on skiis but to get artillery and the heavy

munitions across he must have that one road. He must first dispose of

the stubborn force in the road at Verst 18. For this attack, he used

three regiments. The 2nd Moscow, whose Commissar we took prisoner the

first day; the 90th Saratov whose commanding officer was shot from his

white horse the second day; and the 2nd Kasan.

The first day's fight began, on the morning of the last day of March

with a surprise attack at the rear, cutting our communications off,

ambushing two parties of officers and men, and threatening to capture

the two 75's which were guarded by a single platoon of "M" Company and

two Russian machine guns. The artillery officer reversed his guns and

gave the enemy direct fire, shrapnel set for muzzle burst. Another

platoon reinforced the one and a Lewis gun Corporal distinguished

himself by engaging the two Bolo machine guns that had been set in the

road to the rear. The guns were held.

Meanwhile under cover of this attack at the rear a heavy assault was

delivered against the forward blockhouses and barricades. Fortunately

the Reds directed their attack at the points held by the Americans

rather than at the four flank positions held by the green Archangel

troops. The shooting was good that day for the veteran Yanks and they

repulsed all attacks at front and rear with terrible losses to the

enemy. Night found the Americans shaking hands with themselves for being

in a tightly fortified place and carrying plenty more ammunition to

every firing point where the enemy was expected to appear again the next

day. According to the prisoners taken this was only a preliminary attack

to develop our lines of fire. The next day he would envelop the little

force in great numbers.

He did. At day-break, 3:30 a. m., April 1st, he threw his weight into

three waves of assault on the front line and attacked later in the rear.

The stoutly fortified men did not budge but worked every death dealing

weapon with great severity. Rifle grenades came into use as the enemy by

sheer weight of masses surged within their 200-yard range. The machine

guns faltered only once and then a Yankee Corporal, William Russell,

Company "M" 339th Infantry, won for himself a posthumous American

citation and D. S. C. for his heroic deed in regaining fire control by

engaging the enemy machine gun which crawled up to short range in the

thick woods with his Lewis gun. The Russian artillery observer

distinguished himself by his accuracy in covering the enemy assaulting

lines with shrapnel. As on the preceding day every attacking line of the

enemy was repulsed. And darkness closed the scene at 9:00 p. m. with the

little force still intact but standing to arms all night, front, flanks

and rear.

The cold was severe but the Bolsheviki lying on their arms out in the

snow where their assaulting lines faltered and dug in, suffered even

more and many crawled in to give themselves up rather than freeze. Back

to their camp they could not go for they had been promised the usual

machine gun reception if they retired from the fight. That probably

accounts for their commanding officer's riding up on his white horse to

his death. He thought his men had won their objective when fire ceased

for an hour in the middle of the day, and he rode almost to our

barricade.

This was the fiercest fighting. The all night's vigil did not bring a

renewal of the attack till after the Bolo artillery gave the position

two thorough rakings which destroyed one of the barricades and drove

everyone to shelter behind the pine trees. Then the infantry attack

petered out before noon. This was the day that "H" Company and the Yorks

again attacked on the other side of Bolsheozerki, with the severe losses

mentioned elsewhere. But their attack helped the badly wearied "M"

Company who stood bearing the brunt of attack in the Bolo's road to

Obozerskaya. Their artillery vigorously shelled the Reds in Bolsheozerki

and felt out his advance lines with patrols but were content mainly to

stand fast to their works and congratulate themselves that their losses

had been so slight after so terrific a struggle. The horse shoes had

again been with that outfit of Americans. Three dead, three missing in

action, one wounded and three shell shocked. The Yorks and Russians

suffered no casualties. The ground was covered with Bolshevik dead.

On the night of April 4th the American Company was relieved by a company

of Yorks and an additional company of Russians, and for a few more days

the Bolos occupied Bolsheozerki but they had shot their bolt. They made

no more attempts to break through to the railroad and take Obozerskaya.

Savagely the Red Guards had three times resisted attempts to dislodge

them from Bolsheozerki. Just as stubbornly and with terrible deadliness

the little force at Verst 18 had held the Reds in Bolsheozerki when they

tried to move upon Obozerskaya. And when the April sun began to soften

the winter roads into slush he had to feint an attack on Volshenitsa and

escape between two days from Bolsheozerki, returning to Shelaxa.

The Americans had never had such shooting. They knew the enemy losses

were great from the numbers of bodies found and from statements of

prisoners and deserters. Later accounts of our American soldiers who

were ambushed and captured, together with statements that appeared in

Bolshevik newspapers placed the losses very high. The old Russian

general massed up in all over seven thousand men in this spectacular and

well-nigh successful thrust. And his losses from killed in action,

wounded, missing and frost-bitten were admitted by the Bolshevik

reports to be over two thousand.

It was in this fighting that Bolshevik prisoners were taken in almost

frozen condition to the American Y. M. C. A. man's tent for a drink of

hot chocolate which he was serving to the Americans, Yorks, Russians and

all during those tight days. And the genial Frank Olmstead was

recognized by the prisoners as a "Y" man who had been in the interior of

Russia in the days when Russians were not fighting Americans but

Germans.

To the doughboy or medic or engineer who stood there at bay those three

invincible days, Bolsheozerki means deep snow, bitter cold, cheerless

tents, whiz-bangs, high explosive, shrap, rat-tat-tat interminable, roar

and crash, and zipp and pop of explosive bullet, with catch-as-catch-can

at eats, arms lugged off with cases of ammunition, constant tension,

that all ended up with luck to the plucky.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Flashlight of a Doughboy Outpost at Verst 455.

U.S. Official Photo

Bolo Commander's Sword Taken in Battle of Bolsheozerki

U.S. Official Photo   158853

After Eight Days--Near Bolsheozerki

U.S. Official Photo

Wood Pile Strong Point-- Verst 445

U.S. Official Photo   161108

Verst 455--"Fort Nichols"

WAGNER

Back from Patrol.

U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Our Shell Bursts Near Bolo Skirmish Line.

WAGNER

Blockhouse, Shred Makrenga.

XXIV

LETTING GO THE TAIL-HOLT

Preparing For Spring Defensive--River Situation Ticklish--Must Hold Till

Our Gunboats Can Get Up--"F" Company Crosses River On Cracking

Ice--Canadian Artillery Well Placed And Effectively Handled Holds Off

Red Flotilla--Engineers Help Clear Dvina With Dynamite--Joyful Arrival

Of British Gunboat "Glow Worm"--We Retake Ignatavskaya--Amusing Yet

Dangerous Fishing Party--British Relief Forces Arrive On Vaga--Toulgas

Is Lost And Retaken--British-Russian Drive At Karpogora Fails--Old White

Guard Pinega Troops Hold Their City Against Red Drive Again--Kodish And

Onega Fronts Quiet--Railroad Front Active But No Heavy Fighting

--General Richardson Helps Us Let Go Tail-Holt.

Many an uncomfortable hour in the winter General Ironside and his staff

spent studying over the spring defense against the Reds. It was well

known that the snows would melt and ice would loosen on the distant

southern river valley heights and as customary the river from Kotlas to

Toulgas would be open to the Red gunboats several days before the ice

would be released in the lower river stretches, necessary to permit the

Allied fleets of gunboats to come in from the Arctic Ocean and go up to

help defend the advanced positions on the Dvina and Vaga upper river

fronts. It was feared that Red heavy artillery would blow our fortified

positions into bits, force our evacuation at a time when there was no

such thing as transportation except by the rivers. These would be for a

few days in control of the Reds. Thus our Americans and Allies who had

so gallantly reddened the snows with their stern defense in the winter

might find themselves at the mercy of the Reds.

Every effort was made to improve the shell-proof dugouts. Engineers and

doughboys slaved at the toil. Wire was hurried for the double apron

defenses on which to catch the mass attacks of the Bolsheviki. Supplies

were stored at every point for sixty days so that a siege could be

stood. And an Allied fleet was arranged to come as soon as the

icebreakers could get them through the choked-up neck of the White Sea.

And meanwhile the Canadian artillery was strengthened with the hope that

they could oppose the Red fleets and delay them till the river opened to

passage of the Allied fleets coming to save the troops.

The battle-worn veterans of "A" and "D" were strengthened by the men of

"F" Company who had come into the front lines in March and now were

bearing their full share and then some of the winter's end defense

against the Red pressure. Cossack allies and Archangel regiments also

were added to the Russian quotas that had done service on those fronts

in the winter. Russian artillery units also were sent to Toulgas. In

every way possible these desperate fronts were prepared to meet the

heralded spring drive of the Red Guards.

As the ice and snow daily disappeared more and more Americans began

arranging "booby traps" and dummy machine gun posts in the woods. These

machine gun posts were prepared by fastening a bucket of water with a

small hole punched in the bottom above another bucket which was tied to

the trigger of a machine gun or rifle. The amount of water could be

regulated so as to cause the gun to fire at regular intervals of from

thirty minutes to an hour. Through the woods we strung concealed wires

and sticks attached to hand grenades, the slightest touch of which would

cause them to explode. Meanwhile in the rear, "B" Company Engineers, who

had relieved "A" Company Engineers, were busily engaged in stuffing gun

cotton, explosives and inflammable material in every building and shed

at Kitsa and Maximovskaya.

On April nineteenth the ice in the Vaga was heaving and cracking. Kitsa,

the doomed Kitsa, where the Yanks and Scots and Canadians alternately

had held on so many days, expecting any time another overwhelming

attack, was at this time being held by "F" Company. But the British

officer in command had delayed his order to evacuate till Captain Ramsay

was barely able to lead his men across. One more foolhardy day of delay

would have lost the British officer a company of much needed troops.

Sharp on the hour of midnight April 19th "F" Company silently withdrew

from the front line positions and started across the river, the ice of

which was already beginning to move. As they marched through the inky

darkness of the woods the dummy guns began discharging which kept the

enemy deceived as to our movements.

As the last man crossed the river a rocket went up as a signal to the

Engineers that "F" Company and the other infantry units had arrived

safely at Ignatavskaya. The following moment the entire surrounding

country shook to a series of terrific explosions both at Kitsa and

Maximovskaya and then a great red glare emblazoned the sky as the two

oil soaked villages burst into flame. The engineers quickly joined the

party and from then on until the following morning they continued in a

forced march back to prepared positions at Mala-Beresnik and Nizhni

Kitsa on opposite sides of the river about eight versts in rear of

Kitsa.

The positions here were a godsend after our experience of the past two

months in the open and exposed positions further up the river. Here for

more than two months hundreds of Russian laborers had been busily

engaged in stringing mile after mile of barbed wire about the positions

and constructed practically bomb-proof shelters. Furthermore, our

artillery commanded a good view of the river, which was all important,

for as the ice was now moving out we knew that the enemy gunboats would

soon come steaming down river with nothing but land batteries to stop

them since the mouth of the Dvina and the White Sea would not be free

from ice for several weeks to come, thus making it impossible for our

gunboats there to get down to these positions.

And the ice went out of the upper river with a crunching roar. The Reds

came on with their water attacks, but with little success. The Canadian

artillery was well prepared and so well manned that it beat the Red

flotilla badly. Fortunately the Bolo gunners were not as accurate as on

former occasions. So losses from this source were comparatively few.

The lower Dvina was unusually rapid in clearing this spring. The 310th

Engineers had assisted by use of dynamite. The Red army command had

counted on three weeks to press his water attacks. But by May tenth

gunboats had gone up the Dvina to help batter Toulgas into submission.

And when on May seventeenth Commander Worlsley of Antarctic fame went

steaming up the Vaga on board the "Glow Worm," a heavily armed river

gunboat, the worries of the Americans in the battle-scarred Vaga column

were at an end.

With the gunboats now at their disposal the morale of all ranks was

greatly improved and it was thereupon decided to retake the position at

Ignatavskaya immediately across the river from Kitsa, which position was

held by the enemy, giving him the opportunity of sheltering thousands of

his troops there with his artillery on the opposite side of the river to

further protect them.

On the morning of May 19th several strong patrols went forward into the

woods in the direction of the enemy and quickly succeeded in gaining

contact with his outposts. The Bolo must have sensed some activity for

at 10:30 a. m. he commenced a violent artillery bombardment. Shortly

thereafter his airplanes came flying over our lines and machine-gunned

our trenches. The men had long since become so accustomed to this little

by-play that they gave it little consideration other than keeping well

under cover. Others even gave it less regard, as the following amusing

incident indicates:

During the shelling of that morning a great number of enemy shells

exploded in the river and these explosions immediately brought large

numbers of fish to the surface. The company cook, seeing such a splendid

opportunity to replenish the company larder, crawled down to the edge of

the river, jumped into a rowboat and soon was occupied in filling his

boat with fish, utterly disregardful of the intermittent shelling and

sniping. That evening, needless to say, the cook was the most popular

man in his company.

At 9:30 p. m. the boats brought down battalion after battalion of fresh

Russian troops from Zaboria who were landed near our positions under

cover preparatory to the attack on Ignatavskaya. It might be well to

mention here that at this time of the year the Arctic sun was

practically shining the entire twenty-four hours, only about midnight

barely disappearing below the rim of the horizon, making it dark enough

in the woods in the dull twilight to advance without observation. At

midnight the infantry pushed forward along the road toward the Bolo

outpost positions. American infantry also covered the opposite bank of

the river.

Our guns on the river in conjunction with the land batteries immediately

opened up with a terrific bombardment, shelling the Bolo positions for

twenty minutes until the infantry had gained the outposts of the village

and a few moments later when the barrage had lifted they entered

Ignatavskaya, which had been in the hands of the enemy for more than a

month. Our attack took the enemy clearly by surprise, for in the village

itself we found great numbers of enemy dead and wounded, who had been

caught under our curtain of fire from the artillery, and for the next

several days we were busy in bringing in other wounded men and prisoners

from the surrounding woods, estimated at more than two hundred alone.

We quickly consolidated the new position with our old ones and patiently

sat tight, awaiting the coming of the new British reinforcements, which

had by this time landed in Archangel. From this time on our fighting was

practically at an end on the Vaga River.

Over on the Dvina during the months of March and April, "B" and "C"

Company were still holding forth at Toulgas and Kurgomin far up the

river. They were daily employed in patrol and defensive duty. The Bolo

had acquired a healthy respect for these positions after his terrible

repulses on this front during the winter.

In fact, so strong was this position here that by April we had gradually

begun relieving American troops at Toulgas and supplanting them, about

five to one, by fresh Russian troops from Archangel, who subsequently

fell before the most vicious and deadly of all the enemy

weapons--Bolshevik Propaganda.

During the night of April 25 and 26, these Russian troops who had been

secretly conniving with the Red spies and agents, suddenly revolted,

turned their guns on their own as well as the British officers there,

and allowed the enemy lurking in the woods to walk unmolested into the

positions that months of shelling and storm attacks had failed to shake.

True, some of the Russians, especially the artillery men, remained loyal

and by superhuman efforts succeeded in withdrawing with some equipment

and guns to Shushuga on the same side of the river. Yorkshire troops and

machine gunners were quickly rushed up to bolster up these loyal men and

a few days later retribution swift and terrible was visited upon the

deserters and their newly made comrades.

Shortly prior to the defection of the troops in Toulgas, and unknown to

them, a battery of large six-inch guns had been brought up to the

artillery position at Kurgomin on the opposite side of the river, which,

with the guns already in position there, made it one of our strongest

artillery positions. The enemy was given ample time in which to fully

occupy the position at Toulgas, which he at once proceeded to do.

On the 26th day of April our artillery suddenly opened fire on Toulgas

and at the same time dropped a curtain barrage on the far side of the

village, making retreat practically impossible. During this time

thousands of shells of high explosive gas and shrapnel were placed in

the village proper with telling effect. Unable to go forward or back, we

inflicted enormous losses upon the enemy, and shortly thereafter the

loyal Russians, supported by English infantrymen, entered the village,

putting the remaining numbers to flight and once again Toulgas was ours.

With the settling of the roads and trails the enemy was able to mass up

forces and continue his harrying tactics but could make no impression on

the Allied lines. Americans were gradually withdrawn from the front

lines and Russians served along with the Liverpools and Yorks, who were

now looking every week for the promised volunteers from England who were

to relieve not only the Americans but the Liverpools and Yorks and other

British troops in North Russia. "F" Company was active in patrolling

during the month of May and reported last combat patrol with enemy near

Kitsa on May twentieth. This company of Americans had been the last one

to get into action in the fall and enjoyed the distinction of being the

last one to leave the front, leaving on June 5 for Archangel.

Meanwhile the spring drive of the Red Guards who had massed up near

Trufanagora on the Pinega River was menacing Pinega. After the Americans

had been withdrawn from that area in March for duty on another front,

Pinega forces under command of Colonel Deliktorski were augmented by the

previously mentioned "Charlie" Tschaplan, now a Russian colonel with

three companies, and supported by another section of Russian artillery.

Also an old British veteran of the Mesopotamian campaign, personal

friend of General Ironside, was sent out to Leunova to take command of

a joint drive at the Bolsheviki. He had with him the well-known Colonel

Edwards with his Asiatic troops, the Chinese coolies who had put on the

S. B. A. L. uniform, and a valorous company of British troops equipped

with skiis and sleds to make the great adventurous forest march across

the broad base of the big inverted V so as to cut the Reds off far in

their rear near Karpogora.

But that British-Russian adventure resulted disastrously. Two British

officers lost their lives and their troops were nearly frozen in the

woods and badly cut up by the Reds who had been all set for them with a

murderous battery of machine guns. Too late the British-Russian command

of the Pinega Valley found that the Americans had been right in their

strategy which had not failed to properly estimate the Bolo strength and

to properly measure the enormous labor and hardship of the cross-forest

snows. Again the enthusiastic and fearless but woefully reckless Russian

Colonel and English Colonel threw their men into death traps as they had

done previously on other fronts. With success in defense the Reds gained

their nerve back and again, as in December, January and February, began

a drive on Pinega.

Then the stoutness of the city's White Guard defenses and their morale

was put to the test. "K" Company men at Kholmogori waited with anxiety

for the decision, for if Pinega fell then, Red troops would press down

the river to threaten Kholmogori, which, though safe from winter attack

because of the blockhouses built by American Engineers and doughboys,

would be at the mercy of the gunboats the Reds were reported to have

rigged up with guns sent over from Kotlas. But the Pinega artillery and

machine guns and the stout barricades of the Pelegor and Kuligor

infantrymen held out, though one of the gallant Russian officers, who

had won the admiration of the Americans in the winter by continuing

daily on duty with his machine gun company after he had been wounded

severely in the arm, now fell among his men.

Later Allied gunboats ascended the Pinega River and that area was once

more restored to safety. Spring thaw-up severed the Red communications

with Kotlas, which was on the Dvina. The Bolsheviki in the upper Pinega

could no longer maintain an offensive operation. Archangel was relieved

from the menace on its left.

With the Vaga and Dvina Rivers now so well protected by the naval forces

of the Allies, the Bolo drives up the Kodish-Seletskoe road were now no

longer of much strategic importance to them. In the latter part of the

winter they had hopes of themselves controlling the water. Then they had

put on drives at Shred Mekhrenga and at the Kodish front but with severe

losses and no gains. Now in the spring the warfare was reduced to combat

patrol actions with an occasional raid, most of the aggressive being

taken by our Allies, the Cossacks, and Russian Archangel troops.

On the Onega the spring was very quiet after the Reds withdrew their

huge force from Bolsheozerki April 19. They withdrew under cover of a

feinted attack in force on Volshenitsa, which was on the other flank of

the railroad force. With the opening of Archangel harbor the

Onega-Oborzerskaya road was no longer of so vital importance to us and

the Reds' one savage thrust at it just at the close of winter, as

related already, was their last drive. "H" Company had a quiet time

during the remaining April and May days. And that company of men

deserved the rest.

On the railroad the coming of spring meant the renewal of activities.

For us it meant constant combat patrols and daily artillery duels.

However, the Bolshevik seemed to be discouraged over his failure at the

end of winter. His heralded May Day drive did not materialize. We

brought our Russian infantrymen and machine gunners up to the front

sectors, gradually displacing Americans until finally on May seventh

Major Nichols was relieved at Verst 455--it should have been

re-christened Fort Nichols--by Colonel Akutin, whose Russian troops took

over the active defense of the front, with the Americans at Obozerskaya

in reserve. At this place and at Bolsheozerki, "G", "L", "M", "I", and

"E" Companies in the order named at the end of May, together with

machine gun company platoons, were relieved by British and Russian

troops. American Engineers also withdrew from this front just about the

time that the First Battalion and "F" Company were embarking from

Beresnik and "K" Company was steaming out of Yemeskoe and Kholmogori for

Archangel. Most of the boys of the First Battalion had been up the river

for months and had never seen the streets of Archangel.

One of the interesting features of the spring defensive was the arrival

of General Wilds P. Richardson from France to take command of all

American forces during the remainder of the time we were in North

Russia. He arrived on a powerful ice-breaker which cut its way into

Archangel on April seventeenth. At that time we were still running

trains across the Dvina River on the railroad track laid on the ice, and

continued to do so for several days.

General Richardson, veteran of many years of service in Alaska,

immediately made his way to the various fronts. At Verst 455 on the

railroad he said in part to the soldiers assembled there for his

inspection:

"When I was detailed to come to North Russia, General Pershing,

Commander-in-Chief of the A. E. F., told me that he desired me to

come up to command the troops, help out if I could, and to cheer them

up, as he had an idea that you thought you had been overlooked and

forgotten, and were not part of the A. E. F. When I arrived here I

found a telegram from General Pershing stating briefly all that I

could have said, more and, better, and I only want to emphasize to you

that which was sent out and published, that your comrades in France

have been doing wonderful work just as well as you have up here. Your

people are pleased and proud of you. They have not forgotten you, nor

has the A. E. F. in France. They want to see you come home as soon as

you can, with the right spirit and without any act by company or

individual that you will be ashamed of. You are here to do a certain

duty, determined by the highest authority in our country and in others

of our Allies, and by the best minds in the world in connection with

this great war which we have been waging and were drawn into through

no fault of our own.

"While the 339th and other detachments that have come with them to

perform a share of the work in North Russia seemed far away and at

times you perhaps felt lonely and that you were not getting the same

consideration, you still were as much a part of the game, as far as

forces stand, as any portion of the Western Front.

"Remember, you are Americans in a foreign country taking part in a

great game, making history which will be written and talked of for

generations, doing your duty as best you can so as to maintain the

highest standard that the Army has attained in Europe."

General Pershing's telegram as transmitted to the Americans fighting the

Bolsheviki in, North Russia was as follows:

"Inform our troops that all America resounds with praise of the

splendid record that the American Expeditionary Forces have made. The

reputation of the American soldier for valor and for splendid

discipline under the most trying conditions has endeared every member

of the Expeditionary Forces not only to his relatives and friends but

to all Americans. Their comrades in France have not forgotten that the

Americans in Northern Russia are part of the American Expeditionary

Forces, and we are proud to transmit to you the generous praise of the

American people. I feel sure that every soldier in Northern Russia

will join his comrades here in the high resolve of returning to

America with unblemished reputations. I wish every soldier in Northern

Russia to know that I fully appreciate that his hardships have

continued long after those endured by our soldiers in France and that

every effort is being made to relieve the conditions in the North at

the earliest possible moment."

The Americans had let go the tail holt. The spring defensive had been

surprisingly easy after the desperate winter defensive with the

persistently heralded threats of Trotsky's Northern Army to punish the

invaders with annihilation. In fact, there was a suspicion that the Reds

were content to merely harry the Americans, but not to take any more

losses going against them, preferring to wait till they had gone and

then deal with the Archangel regiments of some twenty-five thousand and

the British troops coming out from England. Probably if the truth were

known Kolchak and Denikin were in the spring of 1919 taking much of

Trotsky's attention. They were getting the grain fields of Russia that

the Reds needed, which was of more importance than the possession of the

Archangel province.

Then there was the political side of the case. The Peace Conference was

struggling with the Russian problem. Lenine and Trotsky could well

afford to deal not too violently and crushingly with the Allied troops

in the North of Russia while they were with both open and underground

diplomacy and propaganda seeking to get recognition of their rule.

Anyway, we found ourselves letting go that tail holt which in the winter

had seemed to be all that the Detroit News cartoonist pictured it, "H---

to hang on, and death to let loose." And we did not get many more bad

scratches or bites from the Bolo bob-cat.

"Come on home, Yank! What did you grab him for in the first place?"

"It is hell to hang on, but it's death to let loose."

The Hard Job Is To Let Go.

From Detroit News.

XXV

THE 310TH ENGINEERS

Engineers Busy Right From Start--Seen On All Fronts--Great Aid To

Doughboys--- Occasionally Obliged To Join Firing Line--Colonel Morris

Gives Interesting Summary Of Engineer Work--General Ironside Pays Fine

Tribute To 310th Engineer Detachment.

The 310th Engineers went into quarters at Bakaritza, September 7th,

where it was said German agents two years before had blown up Russian

munitions even as they had blown many a dock in our own country. They

looked mournfully at the potato fields the retreating Bolos had robbed

and destroyed and they fished for the one hundred motor trucks said to

have been sunk in the Dvina River by the Reds, hoping to get the reward

offered by the British.

They fixed up their quarters, built sheds for the commissary and

quartermaster stores of the Americans and began preparations for their

construction work upon the Railroad and River fronts. On a dark night in

October one platoon crossed the Dvina in the storm thinking of G. W.

crossing the Delaware, and took station in Solombola and began building

"Camp Michigan." The third week in October the engineers saw the Russki

sleighs running about, but then came an Indian Summer-like period. The

greater part of November was spent in making the Russian box cars

habitable for the soldiers and engineers on the Railroad front.

One American company on the railroad had hated to give up its

taploo-shkas which they had fitted up for quarters, to the British units

that had been weeks at Archangel while they were overworked at the

front. But Col. Stewart raised a fine hope. He ordered a detail of men

from that company, resting ten days at Archangel, to go to Bakaritza to

assist the American Engineers to make a protected string of troop

taplooshkas for the company. And while they were at it the engineers

"found" an airplane motor and rigged up electric lights for the entire

train. They set up their tiny sheet iron stoves, built there three tiers

of bunks and were snug, dry, warm and light for the winter. Some proud

company that rode back to the front, feeling grateful to the engineers.

It was zero weather when they went south just before Thanksgiving to

help build blockhouses and hospitals, Y. M. C. A. and so forth, on the

Railroad. Christmas found them at Obozerskaya holding mass in a Y. M. C.

A. to usher in the day. In January this Company "B" exchanged places

with "A" Company 310th Engineers, who had been further forward on the

railroad. There they constructed for Major Nichols the fine dugouts and

the heavy log blockhouses which were to defy the winter's end drive and

the spring shelling of the Bolsheviki. On January 19th and 20th they

found themselves under shell fire but suffered no casualties.

In the latter part of February this "B" Company of Engineers responded

to the great needs for new defenses on the Vaga front, travelling by way

of Kholmogorskaya, Yemetskoe and Beresnik to reinforce the hard-working

engineers then assisting the hard-pressed doughboys fighting their

bitter retreat action.

They were building defenses at Kurgomin and getting ready for the

opening of the river when Toulgas fell, due to the treachery of the

disaffected Archangel Russian troops. They saw the ice go out of the

Dvina, April 26th, snap shot of which is shown, and witnessed the first

engagement between the British boat fleet and the Red fleet in May.

The greatest of camaraderie and loyalty were manifested between

engineers of the 310th and doughboys of the 339th. They have been

mentioned repeatedly in the narrative of battles and engagements. From

the official report of Lt.-Col. P. S. Morris, who commanded the 310th

Engineer Detachment in North Russia, we present the following facts of

interest:

The 310th Engineers arrived in England, August 3rd, 1918. The First

Battalion, under Major P. S. Morris, was detached from the regiment by

verbal order of Major-General Biddle immediately upon arrival to

Cowshot Camp, Surrey, England, where we were equipped for the

expedition. We remained under canvas until August 26th, 1918, at which

time we entrained for Newcastle, England. On August 27th, the entire

command left England on board H. M. S. "Tydeus." The mess and quarters

were clean and the food was good. The health of the men was exceptional,

as none of the men contracted influenza which was very prevalent on the

other three ships of the convoy. We anchored at Archangel on September

4th, 1918. and debarked on September 7th.

When detached from the 310th Engineers the entire Headquarters

detachment was taken with the Second Battalion, leaving this battalion

without a non-com staff for headquarters; even the Battalion

Sergeant-Major was taken, as we were told there was no place in the

table of organization for a battalion sergeant-major when the battalion

is acting separately. No extra officers were furnished us. Upon our

arrival it was found necessary to open an Engineer depot. Capt. William

Knight, Battalion Adjutant, was put in charge. Lieut. R. C. Johnson,

Company "C," was detached from his company and assigned to duty as

Regimental Adjutant, Topographical Officer and Personnel Adjutant.

Lieut. M. K. Whyte, Company "B," was assigned as Supply and

Transportation Officer. As the Northern Russian Expedition covers a

front of approximately five hundred miles and the 310th Engineers were

the only engineering troops with the expedition, the shortage of

officers was a very great handicap. It was necessary to put sergeants

first-class and sergeants in charge of sectors, with what engineers

personnel could be spared. The shortage of officers was not relieved

until April 17th, 1919, when six engineer officers reported.

All the engineering equipment went straight to France. We were

re-equipped in England with English Field Company tools. The English

table of organization does not include mapping or reconnaissance

supplies, which were purchased in small quantities in London.

Upon arrival, the battalion was placed under the direction of

Lieut.-Col. R. G. S. Stokes, C. R. E., Allied Forces, North Russia, for

Engineer operations and distributions of personnel. We remained under

command of Col. Stewart, 339th Infantry, senior American officer, for

all administrative matters.

There were very few engineers here at the time of our arrival and an

immense amount of work to be done at the base besides furnishing

engineer personnel for the forward forces in operation at the time. It

was decided to place one company at the front and the two companies at

the base until some of the important base work could be finished. "A"

Company was then ordered to the front and "B" and "C" Companies remained

at the Base. "B" Company at Bakaritza and "C" Company at Solombola.

On our arrival the forward forces consisted of three main columns or

forces known as "A" force, operating on the Archangel-Vologda Railroad,

with Obozerskaya as a base; "C" force, operating on the Dvina and Vaga

Rivers, with Beresnik as a base; and "D" force, with Seletskoe as a

base. It was necessary to attach engineers to each of these forces; so

one platoon of "A" Company, commanded by an officer, joined "A" force;

one sergeant and ten men joined "D" force, and the remainder of "A"

Company consisting of five officers and approximately one hundred eighty

men joined "C" force, where they were divided into small detachments

with each operating force.

The base work consisted mainly of construction of warehouses and billets

and operation of sawmills, street car systems, water works and power

plants. This work was divided among "B" and "C" Companies.

Later in the fall it became necessary to have two more columns in the

field, one on the Onega River with Onega as a base and one on the Pinega

River with Pinega as a base. By the time this became necessary, the rush

on base work was over and "B" Company was moved forward, having one

detachment of one sergeant and twelve men with "D" force and one platoon

with Onega River Column. The remainder of the company was doing

construction and fortification work on the lines of communication along

the railroad and roads to flanking forces.

In spite of our shortage of personnel and equipment, the morale of the

engineers has been the highest. They have gone about their work in a

most soldier-like manner and have shown extreme gallantry in the actions

in which they have participated.

The engineers were found on every front, as well as at Archangel, the

various sub-bases, the force headquarters of the various columns, and

also were found in winter at work on second and third line defenses.

They often worked under fire as the narrative has indicated. At night

they performed feats of engineering skill. Never was a job that appalled

or stumped them. They generally had the active and willing assistance of

the doughboys in doing the rough work with axe and shovel and wire. The

writers themselves have killed many a tedious hour out helping doughboy

and engineer chop fire lanes and otherwise clear land for the field of

fire.

Here is Colonel Morris' summary of the engineer work done. This includes

much but not all of the doughboy engineering also. One thing the

engineers, doughboys and medics did do in North Russia was to

demonstrate American industry:

Blockhouses (some of logs and some of lumber)   316

Machine gun emplacements      273

Dugouts   167

Double Apron Wire  266,170 yards

Knife Rests (wire entanglement)  2,250 yards

Concertinas (wire entanglement)  485

Barricades (some of earth, some logs)   46

Billets (mostly of lumber)     151

Standard Huts (of lumber)       42

Latrines   114

Washhouses (of lumber)  33

Warehouses (of lumber)  30

Stables (of lumber)   14

Clearing (fire lanes and field of fire)   1,170 acres

Railroad Cars (lined and remodelled)   257

Rafts   12

Bridges (of lumber and of logs)   4,500 lineal feet

Roads         11,000 lineal yards

Trenches         14,210 yards

Topography--total copies of maps and designs   109,145

Topography--plane table road traverses         1,200 miles

In connection with their mapping work engineers took many pictures,

several of which are included in this volume. All the mapping work of

the expedition was done by the American engineers. See the one in this

volume.

The longest bridge constructed was the 280-foot wooden bridge which

spanned the Emtsa River. At Verst 445, close to No Man's Land, a

sixty-foot crib bridge was constructed by Lieut. W. C. Giffels. This

work was completed in two nights and was entirely finished before the

enemy knew that an advance was anticipated. Not a single spike or bolt

was driven on the job. Railway spikes were driven into the ties behind

our own lines and ties carried up and placed. Finally the rails were

forced in under the heads of the spikes and were permanently fastened.

In this district there are three types of road--mail roads, winter

roads, and trails. The mail roads are cleared about eighty feet wide

through the woods. An attempt has been made at surfacing and ditching,

and the bad places corduroyed. The winter roads are cleared about twenty

feet wide. Wherever possible they go through forestry clearings, swamps

and lakes, or down rivers. For this reason they can only be used after a

solid freeze-up. The trails are only cleared about six feet wide and are

often impassable for a horse and sleigh. Approximately four and one-half

miles of road have been corduroyed by this regiment, and a considerable

part of the front line roads were drained.

This battalion was called upon for a great diversity of work, which it

would have been impossible to do had not the men been carefully selected

in the United States. Company "C" was called upon to help operate the

Archangel power plant and street railway system the day they arrived.

This they were able to do very successfully.

Shortly afterwards they raised and spliced a submerged power cable, used

for conducting electricity under the river; one platoon was on railroad

maintenance and construction work; and one platoon operated the saw

mill. All the companies have been in action and have done construction

work under fire.

Two main features have governed all our construction work; first, the

large supply of timber, and second, the very cold climate. All of our

barracks, washhouses, latrines, blockhouses, and stables, were designed

to use available timber stocks. For a form of rapid construction we used

double walls six inches apart and filled the spaces with sawdust. This

proved very satisfactory and much faster than the local method which

calls for a solid log construction.

The supply of engineer material has presented many problems of

difficulty and interest. The distance to the nearest home base, England,

was two to three weeks voyage. The port was not opened to supplies until

after the 1st of June. Coupled with the necessary reshipment to the

various fronts by barge and railway before the freeze-up, this caused a

tremendous over-crowding of the dockage and warehouse facilities. The

congestion and inevitable confusion at the port and warehouses has

sometimes made it impossible to ever ascertain what had arrived.

The local stocks of engineer materials are limited to what can be found

in Archangel itself and in the subsidiary ports of Economia and

Bakaritza. In 1916 and 1917, tremendous stocks of all sorts of war

material were to be found here, mostly brought from England and destined

for the Rumanian and Russian fronts. In the spring of 1918, the

Bolsheviks, anticipating the Allies landing, moved out to Vologda and

Kotlas as much as they could rush out by the railway and river, and on

the arrival of the first troops here not more than five per cent of the

military material still remained.

The materials of most use to the engineers, which still remained, were

forty thousand reels of barb wire and cable. A large amount of heavy

machinery was also left behind, from which we have been able to locate

and put in use a considerable number of various sized electric

generators. A dozen complete searchlight sets, somewhat damaged by

weather, were among this equipment. We overhauled these and used them

for night construction work and also used several of the generator units

of these sets to illuminate the headquarters train, work train, and

hospital trains employed on the railway front.

The problem of transportation was one of the most difficult for us to

contend with. The rail and road situations have already been explained.

The country is very short of horses, the best specimens having long

since been mobilized in the old Russian Army.

With motor transportation, the situation is no better. The Bolsheviks

evacuated the best cars to Vologda before the arrival of the expedition

and it is alleged that most of those they did not get away, were run

into the Dvina River. The few trucks that did remain behind were in

wretched condition. The British turned over two Seabrook trucks to us.

We made all repairs and furnished our own drivers. In addition to these

two trucks, the battalion supply officer secured five more, four

independently. The owners were willing to give them to us, without cost,

in order to forestall their being requisitioned by the Russian Motor

Battalion. The condition of these trucks was poor. During the

construction of the "Michigan" Barracks, the transportation was so

inadequate that we were compelled to run both night and day. Through our

control of the Makaroff sawmill, we had two tug-boats belonging to the

mill, but it was only rarely that we could use them for other purposes.

It was a fine record our comrades, the engineers, made in the

expedition. As the ribald old marching song goes:

"Oh, the infantry, the infantry, with dirt behind their ears,

The infantry, the infantry, that drink their weight in beers,

Artillery, the cavalry, the doggoned engineers,

They could never lick the infantry in a hundred thousand years."

But just the same the doughboy was proud to see the 310th Engineers

cited as a unit by General Ironside who called the 310th Engineers the

best unit, bar none, that he had ever seen soldier in any land. He knows

that without the sturdy and resourceful engineer boys with him in North

Russia the defense against the Bolshevik army would have been

impossible.

XXVI

"COME GET YOUR PILLS"

Medical Units Do Fine Work--Volunteers Of Old Detroit Red Cross Number

Eight Appear In North Russia As 337th Ambulance--Some Unforgettable

Stories That Make Our Teeth Grit--Wonderful Work Of 337th Field Hospital

Unit--Death Of Powers--Medical Men Do Heroic Duty.

Owing to the nature of the country in which the campaign was fought, the

337th Ambulance Company was not able to function as an ambulance company

proper. It was split up into fifteen detachments serving in various

parts of the area under conditions exactly as difficult as those

described for the medical and hospital units. In fact, the three

companies of men--medical, hospital, and ambulance--who ministered to

the needs of the wounded and sick were very soon hopelessly mixed up on

the various fronts.

At first among the officers there were some heart-burnings as to the

apparent incongruity of a hospital man doing field duty and an ambulance

man doing hospital duty and so forth, but their American sense of humor

and of humanity soon had each doing his level best wherever he might be

found, whether under American or British senior officers or none. The

writer remembers many a medical--or was he hospital or ambulance--man

that did effective and sympathetic field service to wounded comrades

with no medical officer to guide the work.

The 337th Ambulance Company was originally a volunteer outfit known as

No. 8 Red Cross Ambulance Company of Detroit. Early in the history of

the 85th Division it came to Camp Custer and was trained for duty

overseas. After a month in the Archangel field several national army men

were transferred to fill up again its depleted ranks.

It was the commanding officer of this Ambulance Company, Captain

Rosenfeld, who, though too strict to be popular with his outfit, was

held in very high esteem by the doughboys for his vigilant attention to

them. It was a sight to see him with his dope bottle of cough syrup

going from post to post dosing the men who needed it. He will not be

forgotten by the man who was stricken with acute appendicitis at a post

where no medical detachment was stationed. He commandeered an engine and

box car and ran out to the place and took the man into the field

hospital himself and operated inside an hour, saving the man's life. For

his gallantry in going to treat wounded men at posts which were under

fire, the French commander remembered him with a citation. He is the

officer whom the Bolshevik artillery tried to snipe with three-inch

shells, as he passed from post to post during a quiet time at Verst 445.

At Yemetskoe in February, one night just after the terrible retreat from

Shenkursk, forty wounded American, British, and Russian soldiers lay on

stretchers on the floor in British field hospital. They were just in

from the evacuation from Shenkursk front, cold and faint from hunger.

There was no American medical personnel at that village. They were all

at the front. Mess Sgt. Vincent of "F" Company went in to see how the

wounded soldiers were getting along. He was just in time to see the

British medical sergeant come in with a pitcher of tea, tin cups, hard

tack, and margarine and jam. He put it on the floor and said; "Here is

your supper; go to it."

Sgt. Vincent protested to the English sergeant that the supper was not

fit for wounded men and that they should be helped to take their food.

The British sergeant swore at him, kicked him out of the hospital and

reported him to the British medical officer who attempted, vainly, to

put the outraged American sergeant under arrest.

Sergeant Vincent then reported the matter to Captain Ramsay of "F"

Company, who ordered him to use "F" Company funds to buy foods at the

British N. A. C. B. canteen. This, with what the Y. M. C. A. gave the

sergeant, enabled him to feed the American and Russian wounded the day

that they rested there. This deed was done repeatedly by Mess Sgt.

Vincent during those dreadful days. In all, he took care of over three

hundred sick and wounded Americans and Russians that passed back from

the fighting lines through Yemetskoe.

Doughboys at Seletskoe tell of equally heartless treatment. There at 20

degrees below zero they were required one day to form sick call line

outside of the British medical officer's nice warm office. This was not

necessary and he was compelled to accede to the firm insistence of the

American company commander that his sick men should not stand out in the

cold. That was only one of many such outrageous incidents. And the

doughboys unfortunately did not always have a sturdy American officer

present to protect them as in this case.

Corporal Simon Bogacheff states that he left Archangel December 8th or

9th with seventy-three other wounded men and "flu" victims. After

fifteen days the "Stephen" landed at Dundee after a very rough voyage in

the pitching old boat. He had to buy stuff on the side from the cooks as

he could not bear the British rations. Men were obliged to steal raw

potatoes and buy lard and fry them. The corporal, who could talk the

Serbian language, fraternized with them and gained entrance to a place

where he could see English sergeants' mess. Steaks and vegetables for

them and cases of beer.

Alfred Starikoff of Detroit states that he was sent out of Archangel in

early winter suffering from an incurable running sore in his ear. He

boarded an ice-breaker at the edge of the frozen White Sea. After a

four-hour struggle they cleared the icebound shore and made the open

sea, which was not open but filled with a great floe of polar ice. At

Murmansk he was transferred to a hospital ship and then without

examination of his ear trouble was sent to shore. There he put in five

protesting weeks doing orderly work at British officers' quarters.

Finally he was allowed to proceed to England, Leith, Liverpool,

Southampton, London, Notty Ash, and thence to Brest, thence to the U. S.

in May to Ford Hospital. The delay in Murmansk did him no good. American

veterans of the campaign know that this is not the only case of where

sick and wounded doughboys were delayed at Murmansk, once merely to make

room for British officers who were neither wounded nor sick. Let Uncle

Sam remember this in his next partnership war.

ROULEAU

Hot Summer Day at Pinega Before War.

DOUD

Dvina River Ice Jam.

WAGNER

Mejinovsky--Near Kodish.

MCKEE

Bolo General Under Flag Truce Near 445--April 1919.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO

After a Prisoner Exchange Parley.

Only on the Pinega front did the American medical officer enjoy free

action. An interesting story could be told of the American hospital and

the two Russian Red Cross (local) hospitals and the city civil hospital

which were all under control of Capt. C. R. Laird, the red-haired, where

he had any, unexcitable old doctor from Nebraska, who treated one

hundred and fourteen wounded Russian soldiers in one night.

And a romantic thread in the narrative would be the story of Sistra

Lebideva, the alleged Bolshevik female spy, who was released from prison

in Pinega by the American commanding officer and given duty as nurse in

the Russian receiving hospital. She was a trained nurse in an apron, and

a Russian beauty in her fine clothes. The Russian lieutenant who acted

as intelligence officer on the American commander's staff in

investigating the nurse's case, fell hopelessly in love with her. An

American lieutenant, out of friendship for the Russian officer, several

weeks later took the nurse to Archangel disguised as a soldier. Then the

Russian lieutenant was ordered to Archangel to explain his conduct. He

had risked his commission and involved himself in appearances of

pro-Bolshevism by disobeying an order to send the suspected nurse in as a

spy. He had connived at her escape from her enemies in Pinega, who, when

the Americans left, would have ousted her from the hospital and thrust

her back into prison. He was saved by the intercession of the American

officer and she was set free upon explanations. But the romance ended

abruptly when Sistra Lebideva threw the Russian lieutenant over and went

to nurse on another front where later the Russians turned traitor.

The 337th Field Hospital Company was trained at Camp Custer as a part of

the 310th Sanitary Train, was detached in England and sent to North

Russia with the other American units. It was commanded by Major Jonas

Longley, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, who till April was the senior American

medical officer. The enlisted personnel consisted of eighty men.

The first duty of the unit in Russia was caring for "flu" patients. It

went up the Dvina River to Beresnik on September 22nd, taking over a

Russian civilian hospital, Three weeks later the hospital barge dubbed

"The Michigan" came up from Archangel with the "B" section of Field

Hospital Company. Five days later this section of the field hospital

proceeded by hospital sidewheeler to Shenkursk and took over a large

high school building for a permanent field hospital. Here the unit gave

service to the one hundred and fifty cases of "flu" among the Russians.

This was where Miss Valentine, the English girl who had been teaching

school for several years in Russia, came on to nurse the Russians during

the "flu" and later became very friendly with the Americans, and was

accused of being a Bolshevik sympathizer, which story is wound all

around by a thread of romance clean and pretty.

During the Bolo's smashing in of the Ust Padenga front and the

subsequent memorable retreat from Shenkursk this section of field

hospital men had their hands full. It was in the field hospital at

Shenkursk that the gallant and beloved Lt. Ralph G. Powers of the

Ambulance Corps died and his body had to be left to the triumphant

Bolos. Powers had been mortally wounded by a shell that entered his

dressing station at Ust Padenga where he was alone with six enlisted

men. His wounds were dressed by a Russian doctor who was with the

Russian company supporting "A" Company. Lt. Powers had gone to the

railroad front in September, shifted to the Kodish front during severe

fighting, and then to the distant Shenkursk front. He was never relieved

from front line duty, although three medical officers at this time were

in Shenkursk. Capt. Kinyon immediately sent Lt. Katz to Ust Padenga upon

the loss of Powers, who will always be a hero to the expeditionary

veterans.

It was at Ust Padenga that Corp. Chas. A. Thornton gave up his chair to

a weary Supply Company man, Comrade Carl G. Berger, just up from

Shenkursk with an ambulance, and a Bolo three-inch shell hurled through

the log wall and decapitated the luckless supply man. In the hasty

retreat the hospital men, like the infantry men, had to abandon

everything but the clothes and equipment on their backs.

During the holding retreat of the 1st Battalion of the Vaga a small

hospital was established temporarily at Kitsa.

Later during the slowing up of the retreat, hospitals were opened at Ust

Vaga and Osinova. Here this section stayed. The other section had been

at Beresnik all the time. During the latter days of the campaign the

field hospital company took over the river front field medical duties so

that the medical detachments of the 339th and the detachments of the

337th Ambulance Company could be assembled for evacuation at Archangel.

And the 337th Field Hospital Company itself was assembled at Archangel

June 13th and sailed June 15th. Their work had for the most part been

under great strain in the long forest and river campaign, always seeing

the seamy side of the war and lacking the frequent changes of scenery

and the blood-stirring combats which the doughboy encountered. It took

strong qualities of heart and nerve to be a field hospital man, or an

ambulance or medical man.

XXVII

SIGNAL PLATOON WINS COMMENDATION

Learning Wireless In A Few Weeks--Sterling Work Of Field Buzzers--With

Assaulting Columns--Wires Repaired Under Shell Fire--General Ironside's

Commendatory Official Citation.

In the North Russian Expedition the doughboy had to learn to do most

anything that was needful. A sergeant, two corporals and four men of the

Headquarters Company Signal Platoon actually in four months time

mastered the mysteries of wireless telegraphy. This is usually a year's

course in any technical school. But these men were forced by necessity

to learn how to receive and to send messages in a few weeks' time.

They were trained at first for a few days at Tundra, the wireless

station used by the British and French for intercepting messages. Later

at Obozerskaya and at Verst 455 they gained experience that made them

expert in picking messages out of the air. At one time the writer was

shown a message which was intercepted passing from London to Bagdad. It

was no uncommon thing for a doughboy to intercept messages from Egypt or

Mesopotamia and other parts of the Mediterranean world, from Red Moscow,

Socialist Berlin, starving Vienna and from London.

At one period in the spring defensive of the Archangel-Vologda Railroad,

this American wireless crew was the sole reliance of the force, as the

Obozerskaya station went out of order for a time, and the various

points, Onega, Seletskoe and Archangel were kept in communication by

this small unit at Verst 455. "H" Company men will recall that out of

the blue sky from the east one day came a message from Major Nichols

asking if their gallant leader, Phillips, had any show of recovering

from the Bolo bullet in his lung. The message sent back was hopeful.

The record of the signal platoon under Lieutenant Anselmi, of Detroit,

shows also that several of these signal men rendered great service as

telegraphers. One of the pleasant duties of the doughboy buzzer

operators one day in spring was to receive and transmit to Major J.

Brooks Nichols the message from his royal majesty, King George of Great

Britain and Ireland, that for gallantry in action he had been honored

with election to the Distinguished Service Order, the D. S. O.

But it is the field telephone men who really made the signal platoon its

great reputation. General Ironside's letter of merit is included later

in this account. Here let us record in some detail the work of the

American signal platoon.

Thirty men maintained nearly five hundred miles of circuit wire that lay

on the surface of the ground and was subject in one-third of that space

to constant disruption by enemy artillery fire and to constant menace

from enemy patrols. The switchboard at Verst 455 was able to give thirty

different connections at once at any time of day or night; at 448, ten;

and at 445, six. This means a lot of work. The writer knows that the

field telephone man is an important, in fact, invaluable adjunct to his

forces whether in attack or in defense. For when the attack has been

successful and the officer in command wishes to send information quickly

to his superior officer asking for supplies of ammunition or for more

forces or for artillery support to come up and assist in beating off the

enemy counter-attack, the field telephone is indispensable. Hence the

doughboy who carries his reels of wire along with the advancing skirmish

line shares largely in the credit for doing a job up thoroughly. At the

capture of Verst 445 the signal men were able to talk through to Major

Nichols at 448 within four minutes of the time the doughboys' cheers of

victory had sounded! And within fifteen minutes a line had been extended

out to the farthest point where doughboys were digging in. There they

were able later to give the artillery commander information of the

effect of his shells long before he could get his own signals into place

for observation. The British signals were good, but, as the writers well

recall, it was especially assuring when the buzzer sounded to have an

American doughboy at the other end say he would make the connection or

take the message. They never fell down on the job.

General Ironside's commendation is not a bit too strong in its praises

of the signal platoon. We are glad to make it a part of the history, and

without doubt all the veterans who read these pages will join us in the

little glow of pride with which we pass on this official citation of the

Commanding General's, which is as follows:

"The Signal Platoon of the 339th Infantry, under Second Lieutenant

Anselmi, has performed most excellent work on this front. Besides

forming the Signals of the Railway Detachment, the platoon provided

much needed reinforcements for other Allied Signal Units, and the

readiness with which they have co-operated with the remainder of

Allied Signal Service has been of the greatest service throughout.

"Please convey to all ranks of the platoon my appreciation of the

services they have rendered."

(Signed) E. IRONSIDE, Major-General,

Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Archangel, Russia.

G. H. Q., 23rd May, 1919.

And our American commander, General Richardson, in transmitting the

letter through regimental headquarters said, "Their work adds further to

the splendid record made by American Forces in Europe."

XXVIII

THE DOUGHBOY'S MONEY IN ARCHANGEL

Coin And Paper Of North Russia--Trafficking In Exchange--New Issue Of

Paper Roubles--Trying To Peg Rouble Currency--Yanks Lose On Pay Checks

Drawn On British Pound Sterling Banks.

The writer has a silver Nicholas the Fifth rouble. It is one of the very

few silver coins seen in Russia. Here and there a soldier was able to

get hold of silver and gold coins of the old days, but they were very

scarce. The Russian peasant had to feel a high degree of affection for

an American before he would part with one of his hoarded bits of real

money.

Of paper money there was no end. When the Americans landed, they were

met by small boys on the streets with sheets of Archangel state money

under their arms. The perforations of some Kerenskies were not yet

disturbed when great sheets and rolls of it were taken from the bodies

of dead Bolos. Everybody had paper money. The Bolsheviki were

counterfeiting the old Czar's paper money and the Kerensky money and

issuing currency of their own. The Polar Bear and Walrus 25-rouble notes

of Archangel and their sign-board size government gold bond notes were

printed in England, as were later the other denominations of Archangel

roubles, better known as British roubles. Needless to say there was a

great speculation in money and exchange. Nickolai and Kerensky and

Archangel and British guaranteed roubles tumbled over one another in the

market. Of course trafficking in money was taboo but was brisk.

Early the Yankee got on to this game. His American money was even more

prized than the English or French. The Russian gave him great rolls of

roubles of various sorts for his greenbacks. Then he took the good money

on the ships in the harbor and bought, usually through a sailor, boxes

of candy and cartons of cigarettes and,--whisper this, bottles and cases

of whiskey of which thousands of cases found their way to Archangel. The

Russian then went out into the ill-controlled markets and side streets

of Archangel and sold to his own countrymen these luxuries at prices

that would make an American sugar profiteer or bootlegger seem a piker.

Meanwhile the Yank or Tommie or Poilu went to his own commissary or to

the British Navy and Army Canteen Bureau, "N. A. C. B." to the

doughboy's memory, or to our various "Y" canteens and at a fixed rate of

exchange--a rate fixed by the bankers in London--to use his roubles in

buying things. He could also use the roubles in buying furs and skins of

the Russians who still had the same saved from the looting Bolsheviki.

At the rate first established, an English pound sterling was

exchangeable for forty-eight roubles and vice versa. But on the illicit

market, the pound would bring anywhere from eighty to one hundred and

forty roubles. The American five dollar bill which was approximately

worth fifty roubles in this "pegged" rouble money on the market when an

American ship was in the harbor, would bring one hundred to one hundred

and fifty roubles. No wonder the doughboy who was stationed around

Archangel or Bakaritza found it possible to stretch his money a good

way. Many a dollar of company fund was made to buy twice as much or more

than it otherwise would have bought. And in passing, let it be remarked

that the Yank who had access to N. A. C. B. and other canteen stores was

not slow in joining the thrifty Russki in this trafficking game, illicit

though it was. And truth to tell, many a case of British whiskey was

stolen by Yank and Tommie and Russki and Poilu and sent rejoicing on its

way through these devious underground channels of traffic. One American

officer in responsible position had to suffer for it when he returned to

the States. The doughboys and medics and engineers who were up there are

still filled with mixed emotions on the subject, a mixture of

indignation and admiration.

"Let him now who is guiltless throw the first stone."

Returning to the discussion of currency, let it be recorded that after

the market was flooded with all sorts of money and after the ships

stopped coming because of the great ice barrier, the money market became

wilder than ever. Finally the London bankers who had been the victims of

this speculation, decided upon a new issue of pegged currency. At forty

to the pound the old roubles were called in. That is, every soldier who

had forty-eight roubles could exchange them for forty new crisp and

pretty roubles. Their beauty was marred by the rubber stamp which was

put over the sign of old Nicholas' rule, which the thoughtless or

tactless London money maker printed on the issue. The Russian would have

none of this new money with that suggestion of restoration of Czar rule.

Inconsistently enough they still prized the old Nickolai rouble notes as

the very best paper currency in the land, and loud was the outcry at

giving forty-eight Nickolais for forty English-printed and guaranteed

roubles of their own new Archangel government.

To stimulate the retirement of all other forms of currency, which

measure in a settled country would have been a sensible economic

pressure, the Archangel government set a date when not forty-eight but

fifty-six roubles might be exchanged for forty new roubles. Then a date

for sixty-four, then for seventy-two and then eighty. Thus the skeptical

peasant and the suspicious soldier saw his old roubles steadily decline

in exchange value for the new roubles. Of course they had always grabbed

all the counterfeit stuff and used it in exchange with no compunctions.

That was the winning part of the game. Now they were pinched. It

afforded some merriment to hear the outcries of some who had been making

rolls of money in the trafficking.

At the same time there was real suffering on the part of peasants in far

distant areas who could not get their currency up for exchange or for

stamping and punching which itself was finally necessary to even get the

eighty-forty rate. They felt mistreated. To their simple hearts and

ignorant minds, it was nothing short of robbery by the distant London

bankers. Soldiers on the far distant fronts were caught also in the

currency reform. Some of the fault was neglect by their own American

officers and some was indifference to the subject by those American

officers at Archangel who were in position to know what was going to be

the result of the attempt to peg the currency at a fixed rate.

An officer who was in Archangel during the summer on Graves Commission

service after the American units had been withdrawn, reports that

speculators for a song bought up great bales of the old Kerensky and

Nickolai currency supposed to be cancelled, dead, defunct stuff, and

when there was a considerable evacuation of central Russians who had

been for months refugees in Archangel, this currency came out of hiding,

and its traffickers realized a handsome profiteerski by selling it to

the returning people at sixty to the pound sterling, for in interior

Russia the old stuff was still in circulation. At any rate that was

Shylokov's advertisement. During the summer, the money market, says

Lieut. Primm, became a violent wonder. On one day a person could not

obtain two hundred and fifty roubles for one hundred North Russian

roubles and a day or two later he might be importuned to take three

hundred old for one hundred new.

Neither the soldiers nor the Russians saw any justice in this

flip-flopping of the currency market, to which of course they themselves

were contributors. The thing they saw clearly was that when they had

need of English credit (that is, checks) to send money to London banks

or when they wanted to buy goods from England or America, then they

could buy only with the new, the guaranteed rouble, which might be dear,

even at one hundred and twenty-five to the pound sterling and was dearer

of course in terms of old roubles, the more the demand was for the new

roubles which were in the hands of speculators who manipulated the

market as sweetly for themselves as the American profiteers with their

oral and written advertisements manipulate our foodstuffs and goods for

us. On the other hand, if the soldier or peasant or small merchant had

dues coming to him in English money he then found them valued at forty

to the pound sterling. This difference between eighty and one hundred

and twenty-five he thought (naturally enough to his unsophisticated

mind) was due to the vacillation in policy of enforcement of the pegged

rate and prosecution of the traffickers.

However opinion may differ as to the blame for the inability to peg the

exchange, we know it was a bonanza to the speculators. Ponzi ought to

have been there to compete with the whiskered money sharks. And we know

there were Americans as well as British, French, Russians and other

nationals who were numbered among those speculators.

After all is said we must admit that the money situation was one that

was exceedingly difficult to handle. It was infinitely worse in

Bolshevikdom. The doughboy who used to find pads of undetached

counterfeit Kerenskie on the dead Bolsheviks, can well believe that

thirty dollars of good American chink one day in the Soviet part of

Russia bought an American newspaper man one million paper roubles of the

Lenine-Trotsky issue, and that before night, spending his money at the

famine prices in the worthless paper, he was a dead-broke millionaire.

During the time American soldiers were in Russia they were paid in

checks drawn on London. During the war, this was at the pegged rate

($4.76-1/4) which had been fixed by agreement between London and New

York bankers to prevent violent fluctuations. But at the end of the war,

after the Armistice, the peg was pulled and the natural course of the

market sent the pound sterling steadily downward, as the American dollar

rose in value as compared with other currencies of the world. To those

who were dealing day by day this was all in the game of money exchange.

But to the soldier in far-off North Russia who had months of pay coming

to him when he left the forests of the Vaga and Onega this was a real

financial hardship. Many a doughboy whose wife or mother was in need at

home because of the rapidly mounting prices put up by the slackers in

the shops and the slackers in the marts of trade, now saw his little pay

check shrink up in exchange value. He felt that his superior officers in

the war department had hardly looked after his interests as well as they

might have done. Major Nichols did succeed at Brest in getting the old

pegged rate for the men and officers, but many had already parted with

the checks at heavy discount for fear that the nearer they got to the

land for which they had been fighting, the more discount there would be

on the pay checks with which their Quartermaster had paid them their

pittances. Soldiers of the second detachment came on home with Colonel

Stewart to Camp Custer and were obliged (most of them) to take their

little $3.82 per pound sterling of the British pound sterling paid them

by Quartermaster Major Ely in North Russia, at $4.76-1/4. Later, through

the efforts of the late Congressman Nichols, many of those soldiers were

reimbursed. Of course complete restitution would have been made by the

war department if all the soldiers had sent their claims in. Hundreds of

American veterans of the North Russian campaign lost ten to twenty per

cent of their pay check's hard earned value.

XXIX

PROPAGANDA AND PROPAGANDA AND--

Propaganda Two-Edged Tool--From Crusaders To Carping Cynics--Be Warned--

Afraid To Tell The Truth--Startling Stories Of Bolo Atrocities

Published--Distortion Disgusts Brave Men--Wrong To Play On Race

Prejudices--Our Own Government Missed Main Chance--Doughboy Beset By

Active Enemy In Front And Plagued By Active Propaganda Of Hybrid

Varieties--Sample Of Bolshevik Propaganda Used On Americans--Yanks

Punched Holes In Red Propaganda--Propaganda To Doughboy Connotes Lies

And Distortion And Concealment Of Truth.

"Over there, over there, the Yanks are coming," sang the soldiers in

training camp as they changed from recruits into fighting units of the

85th Division at Battle Creek. And the morale of the 339th was

evidenced, some thought, by the fervor with which the officers and men

roared out their hate chorus, "Keep your head down, you dirty Hun. If

you want to see your father in your Fatherland, Keep your head down, you

dirty Hun." Maybe so, maybe not. Maybe morale is made of finer stuff

than hate and bombast. Maybe idealism does enter into it. Of course

there are reactionary periods in the history of a people when

selfishness and narrowness and bigotry combine to cry down the

expression of its idealism. Not in 1918.

No secret was made of the fact that the Americans went into the war with

a fervor born of an aroused feeling of world-responsibility. We must do

our part to save Christian civilization from the mad nationalism of the

German people led by their diabolic Hohenzollern reigning family and war

bureaucracy. Too much kultur would ruin the world. Germany must be

whipped. We tingled with anticipation of our entrance to the trenches

beside the bled-white France. We were going "Over There" in the spirit

of crusaders.

What transformed a hesitating, reluctant, long-suffering people into

crusaders? Propaganda. Press work. Five-minute men. Open and secret

work. It was necessary to uncover and oppose the open and secret

propaganda of paid agents of Germany, and woefully deluded

German-Americans who toiled freely to help Kaiser Bill, as though to

disprove the wisdom of the statement that no man can serve two masters.

We beat their propaganda, uncovered the tracks of the Prussian beast in

our midst, found out, we thought, the meaning of explosions and fires

and other terrible accidents in our munition plants, and turned every

community into vigilant searchers for evidences of German propaganda or

deviltry of a destructive kind and we persecuted many an innocent man.

And now we sadly suspect that in fighting fire with fire, that is in

fighting propaganda with propaganda, we descended by degrees to use the

same despicable methods of distorting truth for the sake of influencing

people to a certain desired end. England and France and all other

countries had the same sad experience. Doubtless we could not very well

avoid it. It is part of the hell of war to think about it now.

Propaganda, fair one, you often turn out to be a dissipated hag, a camp

follower.

Many years from now some calm historian going over the various Blue

Books and White Books and Red Books, with their stories of the

atrocities of the enemy, ad nauseam, will come upon the criminating

Official Documents of various nations that sought to propagandize the

world into trembling, cowering belief in a new dragon. Bolshevism with

wide-spread sable wings, thrashing his spiny tail and snorting fire from

his nostrils was volplaning upon the people of earth with open red mouth

and cruel fangs and horrid maw down which he would gulp all the

political, economic and religious liberties won from the centuries past.

The dragon was about to devour civilization.

And the historian will shake his head sadly and say, "Too bad they fell

for all that propaganda. Poor Germans. Poor Britishers. Poor Frenchmen.

Poor Russians. Poor Americans. Too bad. What a mess that propaganda was.

Propaganda and propaganda and--well, there are three kinds of propaganda

just as there are three kinds of lies; lies and lies and d--- lies."

In this volume we are historically interested in the propaganda as it

was presented and as it affected us in the campaign fighting the

Bolsheviki in North Russia in 1918-19. We write this chapter with great

hesitation and with consciousness that it is subject to error in

investigation and sifting of evidences and subject to error of bias on

the part of the writer. However, no attempt has been made to compel the

parts of this volume to be consistent with one another. Facts have been

stated and comments have been written as they occurred to the writers.

If they were forced to be consistent with one another it would be using

the method of the propagandizer. We prefer to appear inconsistent and

possibly illogical rather than to hold back or frame anything to suit

the general prejudices of the readers. Take this chapter then with fair

warning.

Keenly disappointed we were to be told in England that we were not to

join our American comrades who were starting "Fritz" backward in

Northern France. We were to go to Archangel for guard duty. The expert

propagandists in England were busy at once working upon the American

soldiers going to North Russia. The bare truth of the matter would not

be sufficient. Oh no! All the truth must not be told at once either.

It's not done, you know. Certainly not. Soldiers and the soldiers'

government might ask questions. British War Office experts must hand out

the news to feed the troops. And they did.

Guard duty in Archangel, as we have seen, speedily became a fall

offensive campaign under British military command. And right from the

jump off at the Bolshevik rearguard forces, British propaganda began

coming out. Does anyone recall a general order that came out from our

American Commanding officer of the Expedition? Is there a veteran of the

American Expeditionary force in North Russia who does not recall having

read or hearing published the general orders of the British G. H. Q.

referring to the objects of the expedition and to the character of the

enemy, the Bolsheviki?

"The enemy. Bolsheviks. These are soldiers and sailors who, in the

majority of cases are criminals," says General Poole's published order,

"Their natural, vicious brutality enabled them to assume leadership. The

Bolshevik is now fighting desperately, firstly, because the restoration

of law and order means an end to his reign, and secondly, because he

sees a rope round his neck for his past misdeeds if he is caught.

Germans. The Bolsheviks have no capacity for organization but this is

supplied by Germany and her lesser Allies. The Germans usually appear in

Russian uniform and are impossible to distinguish." Why was that last

sentence added? Sure enough we did not distinguish them, not enough to

justify the propaganda.

Immediately upon arrival of the Americans in the Archangel area they had

found the French soldiers wildly aflame with the idea that a man

captured by the Bolsheviks was bound to suffer torture and mutilation.

And one wicked day when the Reds were left in possession of the field

the French soldiers came back reporting that they had mercifully put

their mortally wounded men, those whom they could not carry away, out of

danger of torture by the Red Guards by themselves ending their ebbing

lives. Charge that sad episode up to propaganda. To be sure, we know

that there were evidences in a few cases, of mutilation of our own

American dead. But it was not one-tenth as prevalent a practice by the

Bolos as charged, and as they became more disciplined, their warfare

took on a character which will bear safe comparison with our own.

The writer remembers the sense of shame that seized him as he

reluctantly read a general order to his troops, a British piece of

propaganda, that recited gruesome atrocities by the Bolsheviks, a

recital that was supposed to make the American soldiers both fear and

hate the enemy. Brave men do not need to be fed such stuff. Distortion

of facts only disgusts the man when he finally becomes undeceived.

"There seems to be among the troops a very indistinct idea of what we

are fighting for here in North Russia." This is the opening statement of

another one of General Poole's pieces of propaganda. "This can be

explained in a very few words. We are up against Bolshevism, which means

anarchy pure and simple." Yet in another statement he said: "The

Bolshevik government is entirely in the hands of Germans who have backed

this party against all others in Russia owing to the simplicity of

maintaining anarchy in a totally disorganized country. Therefore we are

opposed to the Bolshevik-cum-German party. In regard to other parties we

express no criticism and will accept them as we find them provided they

are for Russia and therefore for 'out with the Boche.' Briefly we do not

meddle in internal affairs. It must be realized that we are not invaders

but guests and that we have not any intention of attempting to occupy

any Russian territory."

That was not enough. Distortion must be added. "The power is in the

hands of a few men, mostly Jews" (an appeal to race hatred), "who have

succeeded in bringing the country to such a state that order is

non-existent. The posts and railways do not run properly, every man who

wants something that some one else has got, just kills his opponent only

to be killed himself when the next man comes along. Human life is not

safe, you can buy justice at so much for each object. Prices of

necessities have so risen that nothing is procurable. In fact the man

with a gun is cock of the walk provided he does not meet another man who

is a better shot."

Was not that fine stuff? Of course there were elements of truth in it.

It would not have been propaganda unless it had some. But its falsities

of statement became known later and the soldiers bitterly resented the

attempt to propagandize them.

The effect of this line of propaganda was at last made the subject of an

informal protest by Major J. Brooks Nichols, one of our most influential

and level-headed American officers, in a letter to General Ironside,

whose sympathetic letter of reply did credit to his respect for other

brave men and credit to his judgment. He ordered that the propaganda

should not be further circulated among the American soldiers. It must be

admitted that the French soldiers also suffered revulsion of feeling

when the facts became better known. The British War Office methods of

stimulating enthusiasm in the campaign against the Bolsheviki was a

miserable failure. Distortion and deception will fail in the end. You

can't fool all the soldiers all the while. Truth will always win in the

end. The soldier has right to it. He fights for truth; he should have

its help.

Our own military and government authorities missed the main chance to

help the soldiers in North Russia and gain their most loyal service in

the expedition. Truth, not silence with its suspected acquiescence with

British propaganda and methods of dealing with Russians; truth not

rumors, truth, was needed; not vague promises, but truth.

In transmitting to us the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, our American

diplomatic representative in North Russia, Mr. Dewitt Poole, published

to the troops the following: "But so great a struggle cannot end so

abruptly. In the West the work of occupying German territory continues.

In the East German intrigue has delivered large portions of Russia into

unfriendly and undemocratic hands. The President has given our pledge of

friendship to Russia and will point the way to its fulfillment.

Confident in his leadership the American troops and officials in

Northern Russia will hold to their task to the end." This was a

statement made by our American Charge d' Affairs after the Armistice, it

will be noted.

The New Year's editorial in The Sentinel, our weekly paper, says, in

part: "We who are here in North Russia constitute concrete evidence that

there is something real and vital behind the words of President Wilson

and other allied statesmen who have pledged that 'we shall stand by

Russia.' Few of us, particularly few Americans, realize the debt which

the whole world owes to Russia for her part in this four years struggle

against German junkerism. Few of us now realize the significance that

will accrue as the years go by to the presence of allied soldiers in

Russia during this period of her greatest suffering. The battle for

world peace, for democracy, for free representative government, has not

yet been fought to a finish in Russia."

With the sentiment of those two expressions, the American soldier might

well be in accord. But he was dubious about the fighting; he was

learning things about the Bolsheviks; he was hoping for statement of

purposes by his government. But as the weeks dragged by he did not get

the truth from his own government. Neither from Colonel Stewart,

military head of the expedition, nor from the diplomatic and other

United States' agencies who were in Archangel, did he get satisfying

facts. They allowed him to be propagandized, instead, both by the

British press and news despatches and by the American press and

political partisanships of various shades of color that came freely into

North Russia to plague the already over-propagandized soldier.

Of the Bolshevik propaganda mention has been made in one or two other

connections. We may add that the Bolos must have known something of our

unwarlike and dissatisfied state of mind, for they left bundles of

propaganda along the patrol paths, some of it in undecipherable

characters of the Russian alphabet; but there was a publication in

English, The Call, composed in Moscow by a Bolshevik from Milwaukee or

Seattle or some other well known Soviet center on the home shore of the

Atlantic.

These are some of the extracts. The reader may judge for himself:

"Do you British working-men know what your capitalists expect you to

do about the war? They expect you to go home and pay in taxes figured

into the price of your food and clothing, eight thousand millions of

English pounds or forty thousand millions of American dollars. If you

have any manhood, don't you think it would be fair to call all these

debts off? If you think this is fair, then join the Russian Bolsheviks

in repudiating all war debts.

"Do you realize that the principle reason the British-American

financiers have sent you to fight us for, is because we were sensible

enough to repudiate the war debts of the bloody, corrupt old Czar?

"You soldiers are fighting on the side of the employers against us,

the working people of Russia. All this talk about intervention to

'save' Russia amounts to this, that the capitalists of your countries,

are trying to take back from us what we won from their fellow

capitalists in Russia. Can't you realize that this is the same war

that you have been carrying on in England and America against the

master class? You hold the rifles, you work the guns to shoot us

with, and you are playing the contemptible part of the scab. Comrade,

don't do it!

"You are kidding yourself that you are fighting for your country. The

capitalist class places arms in your hands. Let the workers cease

using these weapons against each other, and turn them on their

sweaters. The capitalists themselves have given you the means to

overthrow them, if you had but the sense and the courage to use them.

There is only one thing that you can do: arrest your officers. Send a

commission of your common soldiers to meet our own workingmen, and

find out yourselves what we stand for."

All of which sounds like the peroration of an eloquent address at a

meeting of America's own I. W. W. in solemn conclave assembled. Needless

to say this was not taken seriously. Soldiers were quick to punch holes

in any propaganda, or at any rate if they could not discern its

falsities, could clench their fists at those whom they believed to be

seeking to "work them." Fair words and explosive bullets did not match

any more than "guard duty" and "offensive movements" matched.

Lt. Costello, in his volume, "Why Did We Go To Russia.", says: "The

preponderant reason why Americans would never be swayed by this

propaganda drive, lay in their hatred of laziness and their love of

industry. If the Bolsheviki were wasting their time, however, in their

propaganda efforts directed at effects in the field, it must be a source

of great comfort to Lenin and Trotsky, Tchitcherin and Peters and others

of their ilk, to know that their able, and in some case, unwitting

allies in America, who condone Bolshevist atrocities, apologize for

Soviet shortcomings, appear before Congressional committees and other

agencies and contribute weak attempts at defense of this Red curse are

all serving them so well."

"Seeing red," we see Red in many things that are really harmless. In

Russia, as in America, many false accusations and false assumptions are

made. We now know that of certainty the Bolshevik, or Communistic party

of Russia was aided by like-minded people in America and vice versa, but

we became rather hysterical in 1919 over those I.W.W.-Red outbursts, and

very nearly let the conflict between Red propaganda and anti-Red

propaganda upset our best traditions of toleration, of free speech, and

of free press. Now we are seeing more clearly. Justice and toleration

and real information are desired. Propaganda to the American people is

becoming as detested as it was to the soldiers. Experience of the

veterans of the North Russian campaign has taught them the foolishness

of propaganda and the wisdom of truth-telling. The Germans, the

Bolsheviks, the British War Office, Our War Department and self-seeking

individuals who passed out propaganda, failed miserably in the end.

XXX

REAL FACTS ABOUT ALLEGED MUTINY

Mail Bags And Morale--Imaginative Scoop Reporters And Alarmists--Few Men

Lost Heads Or Hearts--Colonel Stewart Cables To Allay Needless

Fears--But War Department Had Lost Confidence Of People--Too Bad Mutiny

Allegations Got Started--Maliciously Utilized--Officially Investigated

And Denied--Secretary Baker's Letter Here Included--Facts Which Afforded

Flimsy Foundation Here Related--Alleged Mutinous Company Next Day

Gallantly Fighting--Harsh Term Mutiny Not Applied By Unbiased Judges.

Four weeks to nine or twelve weeks elapsed between mailing and

receiving. It is known that both ignorance and indifference were

contributing causes. We know there is in existence a file of courteous

correspondence between American and British G. H. Q. over some bags of

American mail that was left lying for a time at Murmansk when it might

just as well have been forwarded to Archangel for there were no

Americans at that time on the Murmansk.

Many slips between the arrival of mail at Archangel and its distribution

to the troops. How indignant a line officer at the front was one day to

hear a visitor from the American G. H. Q. say that he had forgotten to

bring the mail bags down on his train. Sometimes delivery by airplane

resulted in dropping the sacks in the deep woods to be object of

curiosity only to foxes and wolves and white-breasted crows, but of no

comfort to the lonesome, disappointed soldiers.

Ships foundered off the coast of Norway with tons of mail. Sleds in the

winter were captured by the Bolos on the lines of communication. These

troubles in getting mail into Russia led the soldiers to think that

there might be equal difficulty in their letters reaching home. And it

certainly looked that way when cablegrams began insistently inquiring

for many and many a soldier whose letters had either not been written,

or destroyed by the censor, or lost in transit.

And that leads to the discussion of what were to the soldier rather

terrifying rules of censorship. Intended to contribute to his safety and

to the comfort and peace of mind of his home folks the way in which the

rules were administered worked on the minds of the soldiers. Let it be

said right here that the American soldier heartily complied in most

cases with the rules. He did not try to break the rules about giving

information that might be of value to the enemy. And when during the

winter there began to come into North Russia clippings from American and

British newspapers which bore more or less very accurate and descriptive

accounts of the locations and operations, even down to the strategy, of

the various scattered units, they wondered why they were not permitted

after the Armistice especially, to write such things home.

And if as happened far too frequently, a man's batch of ancient letters

that came after weeks of waiting, contained a brace of scented but

whining epistles from the girl he had left behind him and perhaps a

third one from a man friend who told how that same girl was running

about with a slacker who had a fifteen-dollar a day job, the man had to

be a jewel and a philosopher not to become bitter. And a bitter man

deteriorates as a soldier.

To the credit of our veterans who were in North Russia let it be said

that comparatively very few of them wrote sob-stuff home. They knew it

was hard enough for the folks anyway, and it did themselves no good

either. The imaginative "Scoops" among the cub reporters and the

violently inflamed imaginations and utterances of partisan politicians

seeking to puff their political sails with stories of hardships of our

men in North Russia, all these and many other very well-meaning people

were doing much to aggravate the fears and sufferings of the people at

home. Many a doughboy at the front sighed wearily and shook his head

doubtfully over the mess of sob-stuff that came uncensored from the

States. He sent costly cablegrams to his loved ones at home to assure

them that he was safe and not "sleeping in water forty degrees below

zero" and so forth.

Not only did the screeching press articles and the roars of certain

congressmen keep the homefolks in perpetual agony over the soldiers in

Russia, but the reports of the same that filtered in through the mails

to our front line campfires and Archangel comfortable billets caused

trouble and heart-burnings among the men. It seems incredible how much

of it the men fell for. But seeing it in their own home paper, many of

the men actually believed tales that when told in camp were laughed off

as plain scandalous rumor.

War is not fought in a comfortable parlor or club-room, but some of the

tales which slipped through the censor from spineless cry-babies in our

ranks of high and low rank, and were published in the States and then in

clippings found their way back to North Russia, lamented the fact of the

hardship of war in such insidious manner as to furnish the most

formidable foe to morale with which the troops had to cope while in

Russia. The Americans only laughed at Bolshevik propaganda which they

clearly saw through. To the statement that the Reds would bring a

million rifles against Archangel they only replied, "Let 'em come, the

thicker grass the heavier the swath."

But when a man's own home paper printed the same story of the million

men advancing on Archangel with bloody bayonets fixed, and told of the

horrible hardships the soldier endured--and many of them were indeed

severe hardships although most of the news stories were over-drawn and

untruthful, and coupled with these stories were shrieks at the war

department to get the boys out of Russia, together with stories of

earnest and intended-to-help petitions of the best people of the land,

asking and pleading the war department to get the boys out of Russia,

then the doughboy's spirit was depressed.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Pioneer Platoon Has Fire at 455.

U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO  (158856)

310th Engineers Near Bolsheozerki.

U.S. OFFICIAL

Hospital "K. P.'s"

U.S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Red Cross Nurses.

U.S. OFFICIAL

Bartering.

U.S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Mascots.

U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Col. Dupont (French) at Verst 455, Bestows Many Croix de Guerre Medals.

U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Polish Artillery and Mascot.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO (158870)

Russian Artillery, Verst 18.

Suffer he did occasionally. Many of his comrades had a lot of suffering

from cold. But aside from the execrable boot that Sir Shakleton had

dreamed into existence, he himself possessed more warm clothing than he

liked to carry around with him. But not a few soldiers forgot to look

around and take sober stock of their actual situation and fell prey to

this sob-stuff. Fortunately for the great majority of them, and this

goes for every company, the great rank and file of officers and men

never lost their heads and their stout hearts.

And now we may as well deal with the actual facts in regard to the

alleged mutiny of American troops in North Russia. There was no mutiny.

In February Colonel Stewart had cabled to the War Department that "The

alarmist reports of condition of troops in North Russia as published in

press end of December are not warranted by facts. Troops have been well

taken care of in every way and my officers resent these highly

exaggerated reports, feeling that slur is cast upon the regiment and its

wonderful record. Request that this be given to the press and especially

to Detroit and Chicago papers to allay any unnecessary anxiety."

He was approximately correct in his statements. His intent was a

perfectly worthy one. But it was not believed by the wildly excited

people back home. Perhaps if the war department had been entirely frank

with the people in cases, say, like the publication of casualty reports

and reports of engagements, then its well-meant censorship and its

attempts to allay fear might have done some good.

As it was the day, March 31st, 1919, came when a not unwilling British

cable was scandalled and a fearsome press and people was startled with

the story of an alleged mutiny of a company of American troops in North

Russia. The "I-told-you-so's" and the "wish-they-would's" of the States

were gratified. The British War Office was, too, and made the most of

the story to propagandize its tired veterans and its late-drafted youths

who had been denied part in war by the sudden Armistice. Those were

urged to volunteer for service in North Russia, where it was alleged

their English comrades had been left unsupported by the mutinous Yanks.

Yes, there was a pretty mess made of the story by our own War

Department, too, who first was credulous of this really incredulous

affair, tried to explain it in its usually stupid and ignorant way of

explaining affairs in North Russia, only made a bad matter worse, and

then finally as they should have done at first, gave the American Forces

in North Russia a Commanding General, whose report as quoted from the

Army and Navy Journal of April 1920, will say:

"The incident was greatly exaggerated, but while greatly regretting

that any insubordination took place, he praised the general conduct of

the 339th Infantry. Colonel Richardson states that the troops were

serving under very trying conditions, and that much more serious

disaffections appeared among troops of the Allies on duty in North

Russia. He further says the disaffection in the company of the 339th

Infantry, U. S. A., was handled by the regimental commander with

discretion and good judgment."

Colonel Stewart, himself, stated to the press when he led his troops

home the following July:

"I did not have to take any disciplinary action against either an

officer or soldier of the regiment in connection with the matter, so

you may judge that the reports that have appeared have been very, very

greatly exaggerated. Every soldier connected with the incident

performed his duty as a soldier. And as far as I am concerned, I think

the matter should be closed."

In a letter to a member of Congress from Michigan, Secretary Baker

refers to the alleged mutiny as follows:

"A cablegram, dated March 31, 1919, received from the American Military

Attache at Archangel, read in part as follows:

" 'Yesterday morning, March 30th, a company of infantry, having

received orders to the railroad front, was ordered out of the barracks

for the purpose of packing sleds for the trip across the river to the

railroad station. The non-commissioned officer that was in charge of

the packing soon reported to the officers that the men refused to

obey. At this some of the officers took charge, and all except one man

began reluctantly to pack after a considerable delay. The soldier who

continued to refuse was placed in confinement. Colonel Stewart, having

been sent for, arrived and had the men assembled to talk with them.

Upon the condition that the prisoner above mentioned was released, the

men agreed to go. This was done, and the company then proceeded to the

railway station and entrained there for the front. That they would not

go to the front line positions was openly stated by the men, however,

and they would only go to Obozerskaya. They also stated that general

mutiny would soon come if there was not some definite movement

forthcoming from Washington with regard to the removal of American

troops from Russia at the earliest possible date.'

"The War Department on April 10, 1919, authorized the publication of

this cablegram, and on April 12, 1919, authorized the statement that the

report from Murmansk was to the effect that the organization which was

referred to was Company "I" of the 339th Infantry, and that the dispatch

stated:

" 'It is worthy to note that the questions that were put to the

officers by the men were identical with those that the Bolshevik

propaganda leaflets advised them to put to them.'

"If reports differing from the above appeared in the newspapers, they

were secured from sources other than the War Department and published

without its authority.

"On March 16, 1920, Brigadier General Wilds P. Richardson, U. S. Army,

was ordered by the Commanding General, American Expeditionary Forces, to

proceed to North Russia and to assume command of the American Forces in

that locality. General Richardson arrived at Murmansk on April 8, 1920,

where it was reported to him that a company of American troops at

Archangel had mutinied and that his presence there was urgently needed.

He arrived at Archangel on April 17, 1920, and found that conditions had

been somewhat exaggerated, especially in respect to the alleged mutiny

of the company of the 339th Infantry. General Richardson directed an

investigation of this matter by the Acting Inspector General, American

Forces in North Russia. This officer states the facts to be as follows:

" 'Company "I", 339th Infantry, was in rest area at Smallney Barracks,

in the outskirts of Archangel, Russia, when orders were received to go

to the railroad point and relieve another company. The following

morning the first sergeant ordered the company to turn out and load

sleds. He reported to the captain that the men did not respond as

directed. The captain then went to the barracks and demanded of the

men standing around the stove: "Who refuses to turn out and load

sleds?" No reply from the men. The captain then asked the trumpeter,

who was standing nearby, if he refused to turn out and load the sleds,

and the trumpeter replied he was ready if the balance were, but that

he was not going out and load packs of others on the sleds by himself,

or words to that effect. The captain then went to the phone and

reported the trouble as "mutiny" to Col. Stewart, the Commanding

Officer, American Forces in North Russia. Col. Stewart directed him to

have the men assemble in Y. M. C. A. hut and he would be out at once

and talk to them. The colonel arrived and read the Article of War as

to mutiny and talked to the men a few minutes. He then said he was

ready to answer any questions the men cared to ask. Some one wanted to

know 'What are we here for and what are the intentions of the U. S.

Government?' The colonel answered this as well as he could. He then

asked if there was anyone of the company who would not obey the order

to load the sleds; if so, step up to the front. No one moved. The

colonel then directed the men to load the sleds without delay, which

was done.

" 'The testimony showed that the captain commanding Company "I", 339th

Infantry, did not order his company formed nor did he ever give a direct

order for the sleds to be loaded. He did not report this trouble to the

commanding officer (a field officer) of Smallney Barracks, but

hastened to phone his troubles to the Commanding Officer, American

Forces in North Russia.'

"The inspector further states that the company was at the front when the

investigation was being made (May, 1919) and that the service of all

concerned, at that time, was considered satisfactory by the battalion

commander.

"The conclusions of the inspector were that from such evidence as could

be obtained the alleged mutiny was nothing like as serious as had been

reported, but that it was of such a nature that it could have been

handled by a company officer of force.

"The inspector recommended to the Commanding General, American Forces,

North Russia, that the matter be dropped and considered closed. The

Commanding General, American Forces, North Russia, concurred in this

recommendation.

"General Richardson, in his report of operations on the American Forces

in North Russia, referring to this matter states:

" 'MORALE. Archangel and North Russia reflected in high degree during

the past winter the disturbed state of the civilized world after four

years of devastating war. The military situation was difficult and at

times menacing.

" 'Our troops in this surrounding, facing entirely new experiences and

uncertain as to the future, bore themselves as a whole with courageous

and creditable spirit. It was inevitable that there should be unrest,

with some criticism and complaint, which represented the normal per

cent chargeable to the human equation under such conditions. This

culminated, shortly before my arrival, in a temporary disaffection of

one of the companies. This appears not to have extended beyond the

privates in ranks, and was handled by the regimental commander with

discretion and good judgment.

" 'This incident was given wide circulation in the States, and I am

satisfied from my investigation that an exaggerated impression was

created as to its seriousness. It is regrettable that it should have

happened at all, to mar in any degree the record of heroic and valiant

service performed by this regiment under very trying conditions.' "The

above are the facts in regard to this matter, and it is hoped that

this information may meet your requirements.

"Very sincerely yours,

"NEWTON D. BAKER,

"Secretary of War."

However, as a matter of history the facts must be told in this volume.

"I" Company of the 339th Infantry, commanded by Captain Horatio G.

Winslow, was on the 30th of March stationed at Smolny Barracks,

Archangel, Russia. It had been resting for a few days there after a long

period of service on the front. The spirit of the men had been high for

the most part, although as usual in any large group of soldiers at rest

there was some of what Frazier Hunt, the noted war correspondent, calls

"good, healthy grousing." The men had the night before given a fine

minstrel entertainment in the Central Y. M. C. A.

Group psychology and atmospheric conditions have to be taken into

consideration at this point. By atmospheric conditions we mean the

half-truths and rumors and expressions of feeling that were in the air.

A sergeant of the company questioned carefully by the writer states

positively that the expressions of ugliness were confined to

comparatively few members of the company. The feeling seemed to spread

through the company that morning that some of the men were going to

speak their minds.

Here another fact must be introduced. A few nights before this there had

been a fire in camp that spread to their barracks and burned the company

out, resulting in the splitting of the company into two separated parts,

and in giving the little first sergeant and commanding officer

inconvenience in conveying orders and directions to the men. And it was

rumored in the morning in one barracks that the men of the other

barracks were starting something. The platoon officer in command there

had gone to the front to make arrangements for the billeting and

transportation of troops, who were to start that day for the front some

several miles south of Obozerskaya. Now the psychology began to work.

Why hurry the loading, let's see what the men of that platoon now will

do.

The captain notices the delay in proceedings. He has heard a little

something of what is in the air. It is nothing serious, yet he is

nervous about it. His first sergeant, a nervous and a nervy little man

too, for Detroit has seen the Croix de Guerre he won, showed anxiety

over the dilatoriness of the men in loading the sleighs. And the men

were only just human in wanting to see what the captain was going to do

about that other platoon that was rumored to be starting something. Of

course in the psychology of the thing it was not in their minds that

they would be called upon to express themselves. The others were going

to do that.

But when the captain went directly to the men and asked them what they

were thinking and feeling they found themselves talking to him. Here and

there a man spoke bitterly about the Russian regiments in Archangel not

doing anything but drill in Archangel. Of course he had only half-truth.

That is the way misunderstandings and bad feelings feed. At that moment

a company of the Archangel Regiment was at a desperate front,

Bolsheozerki, standing shoulder to shoulder with "M" Company out of "I"

Company's own battalion. But these American soldiers at that moment with

their feelings growing warmer with expression of them, thought only of

the drilling Russian soldiers in Archangel and of the S. B. A. L.

soldiers who had mutinied earlier in the winter and been subdued by

American soldiers in Archangel. And so if the truth be told, those

soldiers spoke boldly enough to their captain to alarm him. He thought

that he really had a serious condition before him.

From remarks by the men he judged that for the sake of the men and the

chief commanding officer, Colonel Stewart, it would be well to have a

meeting in the Y. M. C. A. where they could be properly informed, where

they could see ALL that was going on and not be deluded by the rumors

that other groups of the company were doing something else, and where

the common sense of the great, great majority of the men would show them

the foolishness of the whole thing. And he invited the colonel to

appear.

Meanwhile the senior first lieutenant of the company, Lieut. Albert E.

May, one of the levelest-headed officers in the regiment, had put the

first and only man who showed signs of insubordination to an officer

under arrest. It developed afterward that the lieutenant was a little

severe with the man as he really had not understood the command, he

being a man who spoke little English and in the excitement was puzzled

by the order and showed the "hesitation" of which so much was made in

the wild accounts that were published. This arrest was afterward

corrected when three sergeants of the platoon assured the officer that

the man had not really intended insubordination.

It is regrettable that the War Department was so nervous about this

affair that it would be fooled into making the explanation of this

"hesitation" on the ground of the man's Slavic genesis and the pamphlet

propaganda of the Reds. The first three men who died in action were

Slavs. The Slavs who went from Hamtramck and Detroit to Europe made

themselves proud records as fighters. Hundreds of them who had not been

naturalized were citizens before they took off the O. D. uniform in

which they had fought. It was a cruel slur upon the manhood of the

American soldier to make such explanations upon such slight evidences.

It would seem as though the War Department could have borne the outcry

of the people till the Commanding Officer of those troops could send

detailed report. And as for the Red pamphlets, every soldier in North

Russia was disgusted with General March's explanations and comments.

To return to the account, let it be said, Colonel Stewart, when he

appeared at the Y. M. C. A. saw no murmurous, mutinous, wildly excited

men, such as the mob psychology of a mutiny would necessarily call for.

Instead, he saw men seated orderly and respectfully. And they listened

to his remarks that cleared up the situation and to his proud

declaration that American soldiers on duty never quit till the job is

done or they are relieved. Questions were allowed and were answered

squarely and plainly.

While the colonel had been coming from his headquarters the remainder of

the loading had been done under direction of Lieut. May as referred to

before, and at the conclusion of the colonel's address, Captain Winslow

moved his men off across the frozen Dvina, proceeded as per schedule to

Obozerskaya, put them on a troop train, and as related elsewhere took

over the front line at a critical time, under heavy attack, and there

the very next day after the little disaffection and apparent

insubordination, which was magnified into a "mutiny," his company added

a bright page to its already shining record as fighters. The editors

have commented upon this at another place in the narrative. We wish here

to state that we do not see how an unbiased person could apply so harsh

a term as mutiny to this incident.

The allegation has been proved to be false. There was no mutiny. Any

further repetition of the allegation will be a cruel slander upon the

good name of the heroic men who were killed in action or died of wounds

received in action in that desperate winter campaign in the snows of

Russia. And further repetition of the allegation will be insult to the

brave men who survived that campaign and now as citizens have a right to

enjoy the commendations of their folks and friends and fellow citizens

because of the remarkably good record they made in North Russia as

soldiers and men.

XXXI

OUR ALLIES, FRENCH, BRITISH AND RUSSIANS

Kaleidoscopic Picture And Chop Suey Talk In Archangel--Poilu

Comrades--Captain Boyer--Dupayet, Reval And Major Alabernarde--"Ze

French Sarzhont, She Say"--Scots And British Marines Fine

Soldiers--Canadians Popular--Yorks Stand Shoulder To Shoulder--Tribute

To General Ironside--Daredevil "Bob" Graham Of "Australian Light

Horse"--Commander Young Of Armored Train--Slavo-British Allied

Legion--French Legion--White Guards--Archangel

Regiments--Chinese--Deliktorsky, Mozalevski, Akutin.

What a kaleidoscopic recollection of uniforms and faces we have when one

asks us about our allies in North Russia. What a mixture of voices, of

gutturals and spluttering and yeekings and chatterings, combined with

pursing of lips, eyebrow-twistings, bugging eyes, whiskers and long

hair, and common hand signs of distress or delight or urgency or

decisiveness: Nitchevo, bonny braw, tres bien, khorashaw, finish, oi

soiy, beaucoup, cheerio, spitzka, mozhnya barishna, c'mon kid,

parlezvous, douse th' glim, yah ocean, dobra czechinski, amia spigetam,

ei geh ha wa yang wa, lubloo, howse th' chow, pardonne, pawrdun, scuse,

eesveneets,--all these and more too, strike the ear of memory as we

tread again the board sidewalks of far off smelly Archangel.

What antics we witnessed, good humored miscues and errors of form in

meeting our friends of different lands all gathered there in the strange

potpourri. Soldiers and "civies" of high and low rank, cultured and

ignorant, and rich and poor, hearty and well, and halting and lame,

mingled in Archangel, the half-shabby, half-neat, half-modern,

half-ancient, summer-time port on the far northern sea. Rags and red

herrings, and broadcloth and books, and O. D. and Khaki, and horizon

blue, crowded the dinky ding-ding tramway and counted out kopecs to the

woman conductor.

And many are the anecdotes that are told of men and occasions in North

Russia where some one of our allies or bunch of them figures

prominently, either in deed of daring, or deviltry, or simply good

humor. Chiefly of our own buddies we recall such stories to be sure, but

in justice to the memory of some of the many fine men of other lands who

served with us we print a page or two of anecdotes about them. And we

hope that some day we may show them Detroit or some other good old

American burg, or honk-honk them cross country through farm lands we now

better appreciate than before we saw Europe, by woods, lake and stream

to camp in the warm summer, or spend winter nights in a land with us as

hosts, a land where life is really worth living.

Those "mah-sheen" gunners in blue on the railroad who stroked their

field pets with pride and poured steady lines of fire into the pine

woods where lay the Reds who were encircling the Americans with rifle

and machine gun fire. How the Yankee soldiers liked them. And many a

pleasant draught they had from the big pinaud canteen that always came

fresh from the huge cask. How courteously they taught the doughboy

machine gunner the little arts of digging in and rejoiced at the rapid

progress of the American.

How now, Paul, my poilu comrade, bon ami, why don't you add the house

itself to the pack on your back? Sure, you'll scramble along somehow to

the rest of the camp in the rear, and on your way you will pass bright

remarks that we non compree but enjoy just the same, for we know you are

wishing the doughboy good luck. How droll your antics when hard luck

surprises. We swear and you grimace or paw wildly the air. And we share

a common dislike for the asperity shown by the untactful, inefficient,

bulldozing old Jack.

Here is a good story that "Buck" Carlson used to tell in his inimitable

way. Scene is laid in the headquarters of the British Colonel who is

having a little difficulty with his mixed command that contains soldiers

of America, France, Poland, China, where not, but very few from England

at that time. A French sergeant with an interpreter enters the room and

salutes are exchanged. The sergeant then orders his comrade to convey

his request to the colonel.

"Ker-nell, par-don," says the little interpreter after a snappy French

salute which is recognized by a slight motion of the colonel's thumb in

the general direction of his ear. "Ze sarzhont, she say, zat ze French

man will please to have ze tobak, ze masheen gun am-mu-nish-own and ze

soap."

"But, my man," says the colonel reddening, "I told you to tell the

sergeant he should go on as ordered and these things will come later, I

have none of these things now to give him, but they will soon arrive and

he shall be supplied. But now he must hurry out with his detachment of

machine gunners to help the Americans. Go, my man." More salutes and

another conversation between the two French soldiers with arms and spit

flying furiously.

"Ker-nell, sir, par-don, again, but ze sar-zhont, she say, zat wiz-out

ze to-bak, ze am-mu-nish-own and ze soap, he weel not go, par-don,

ker-nell!"

This time the colonel was angered to popping point and he smote the

table with a thump that woke every bedbug and cockroach in the building

and the poor French interpreter looked wildly from the angry British

colonel to his tough old French sergeant who now leaped quickly to his

side and barked Celtic rejoinder to the colonel's fist thumping

language. No type could tell the story of the critical next moment.

Suffice it to say that after the storm had cleared the colonel was heard

reporting the disobedience to a French officer miles in the rear. The

officer had evidently heard quickly from his sergeant and was inclined

to back him up, for in substance he said to the offended British

officer: "Wee, pardon, mon ker-nell, it eez bad," meaning I am sorry,

"but will ze gallant ker-nell please to remember zat consequently zare

eez no French offitzair wiz ze French de-tach-mont, ze sar-zhont will be

treated wiz ze courtesy due to ze offitzair."

And it was true that the sergeant, backed up by his French officer,

refused to go as ordered till his men had been supplied with the

necessary ammunition and "ze to-bak and ze soap." The incident

illustrates the fact that the French officer's relation to his enlisted

men is one of cordial sympathy. He sees no great gulf between officer

and enlisted man which the British service persists to set up between

officers and enlisted men.

Hop to it, now Frenchie, you surely can sling 'em. We need a whole lot

from your 75's. We are guarding your guns, do not fear for the flanks.

Just send that barrage to the Yanks at the front. And how they do send

it. And we remember that the French artillery officers taught the

Russians how to handle the guns well and imbued them with the same

spirit of service to the infantry. And many a Red raid in force and

well-planned attack was discouraged by the prompt and well-put shrapnel

from our French artillery.

And there was Boyer. First we saw him mud-spattered and grimy crawling

from a dugout at Obozerskaya, day after his men had won the

"po-zee-shown." His animation he seems to communicate to his leg-wearied

men who crowd round him to hear that the Yanks are come to relieve them.

With great show of fun but serious intent, too, he "marries the squads"

of Americans and Frenchies as they amalgamate for the joint attack.

"Kat-tsank-awn-tsank" comes to mean 455 as he talks first in French to

his poilus and then through our Detroit doughboy French interpreter to

the doughboys. Captain he is of a Colonial regiment, veteran of Africa

and every front in Europe, with palm-leafed war cross, highest his

country can give him, Boyer. He relies on his soldiers and they on him.

"Fires on your outposts, captain?" "Oui, oui, nitchevo, not ever mind,

oui, comrade," he said laughingly. His soldiers built the fires so as to

show the Reds where they dare not come. Truth was he knew his men must

dry their socks and have a warm spot to sit by and clean their rifles.

He trusted to their good sense in concealing the fire and to know when

to run it very low with only the glowing coals, to which the resting

soldier might present the soles of his snoozing shoes. Captain Boyer, to

you, and to your men.

It is not easy to pass over the names of Dupayet and Reval and

Alebernarde. For dynamic energy the first one stands. For linguistic aid

the second. How friendly and clear his interpretation of the orders of

the French command, given written or oral. Soldier of many climes he.

With songs of nations on his lips and the sparkle of mirth in his eye.

"God Save the King," he uttered to the guard as password when he

supposed the outguard to be a post of Tommies, and laughingly repeated

to the American officer the quick response of the Yank sentry man who

said: "To hell with any king, but pass on French lieutenant, we know you

are a friend."

And Alabernarde, sad-faced old Major du Battalion, often we see you

passing among the French and American soldiers along with Major Nichols.

Your eyes are crow-tracked with experiences on a hundred fields and your

bronzed cheek hollowed from consuming service in the World War. We see

the affectionate glances of poilus that leap out at sight of you. You

hastened the equipment of American soldiers with the automatics they so

much needed and helped them to French ordnance stores generously. Fate

treated you cruelly that winter and left you in a wretched dilemma with

your men in March on the railroad. We would forget that episode in which

your men figured, and remember rather the comradery of the fall days

with them and the inspiration of your soldierly excellence. To you,

Major Alabernarde.

On the various fronts in the fall the doughboy's acquaintance with the

British allies was limited quite largely, and quite unfortunately we

might say, to the shoulder strappers. And all too many of those

out-ranked and seemed to lord it over the doughboy's own officers, much

to his disgust and indignation. What few units of Scots and English

Marines and Liverpools got into action with the Americans soon won the

respect and regard of the doughboys in spite of their natural antipathy,

which was edged by their prejudice against the whole show which was

commonly thought to be one of British conception. Tommie and Scot were

often found at Kodish and Toulgas and on the Onega sharing privations

and meagre luxuries of tobacco and food with their recently made friends

among the Yanks.

And in the winter the Yorks at several places stood shoulder to shoulder

with doughboys on hard-fought lines. Friendships were started between

Yanks and Yorks as in the fall they had grown between Frenchies and

Americans, Scots and Yanks, and Liverpools and Detroiters. Bitter

fighting on a back-to-the-wall defense had brought the English and

American officers together also. Arrogance and antipathy had both

dissolved largely in the months of joint military operations and better

judgment and kinder feelings prevailed. Grievances there are many to be

recalled. And they were not all on one side. But except as they form

part of the military narrative with its exposure of causes and effects

in the fall and winter and spring campaigns, those grievances may mostly

be buried. Rather may we remember the not infrequent incidents of

comradeship on the field or in lonely garrison that brightened the

relationships between Scots and Yorks and Marines and Liverpools in

Khaki on the one hand and the O. D. cousins from over the sea who were

after all not so bad a lot, and were willing to acknowledge merit in the

British cousin.

It must be said that Canadians, Scots, Yorks and Tommies stood in about

this order in the affections of the Yankee soldiers. The boys who fought

with support of the Canadian artillery up the rivers know them for hard

fighters and true comrades. And on the railroad detachment American

doughboys one day in November were glad to give the Canadian officer

complimentary present-arms when he received his ribbon on his chest,

evidence of his election to the D. S. O., for gallantry in action.

Loyally on many a field the Canadians stood to their guns till they were

exhausted, but kept working them because they knew their Yankee comrades

needed their support.

One of the pictures in this volume shows a Yank and a Scot together

standing guard over a bunch of Bolshevik prisoners at a point up the

Dvina River. American doughboys risked their lives in rescuing wounded

Scots and the writer has a vivid remembrance of seeing a fine expression

of comradeship between Yanks and Scots and American sailors starting off

on a long, dangerous march.

Mention has been made in another connection of the friendship and

admiration of the American soldiers for the men of the battalion of

Yorks. In the three day's battle at Verst 18 a York sergeant over and

over assured the American officer that he would at all times have a

responsible York standing beside the Russki machine gunner and prevent

the green soldiers from firing wildly without order in case the

Bolshevik should gain some slight advantage and a necessary shift of

American soldiers might be interpreted by the green Russian machine

gunners as a movement of the enemy. And those machine guns which were

stationed at a second line, in rear of the Americans, never went off.

The Yorks were on the job. And after the crisis was past an American

corporal asked his company commander to report favorably upon the

gallant conduct of a York corporal who had stood by him with six men all

through the fight.

Of the King's Liverpools and other Tommies mention has been made in

these pages. Sometimes we have to fight ourselves into favor with one

another. Really there is more in common between Yank and Tommie than

there is of divergence. Hardship and danger, tolerance and observation,

these brought the somewhat hostile and easily irritated Yank and Tommie

together. Down underneath the rough slams and cutting sarcasm there

exists after all a real feeling of respect for the other.

This volume would not be complete without some mention of that man who

acted as commanding general of the Allied expedition, William Edmund

Ironside. He was every inch a soldier and a man. American soldiers will

remember their first sight of him. They had heard that a big man up at

Archangel who had taken Gen. Poole's job was cleaning house among the

incompetents and the "John Walkerites" that had surrounded G. H. Q. in

Poole's time. He was putting pep into G. H. Q. and reorganizing the

various departments.

When he came, he more than came up to promises. Six foot-four and built

accordingly, with a bluff, open countenance and a blue eye that spoke

honesty and demanded truth. Hearty of voice and breathing cheer and

optimism, General Ironside inspired confidence in the American troops

who had become very much disgruntled. He was seen on every front at some

time and often seen at certain points. By boat or sledge or plane he

made his way through. He was the soldier's type of commanding officer.

Never dependent on an interpreter whether with Russian, Pole, or French,

or Serbian, or Italian, he travelled light and never was seen with a

pistol, even for protection. Master of fourteen languages it was said of

him, holder of an Iron Cross bestowed on him by the Kaiser in an African

war when he acted as an ox driver but in fact was observing for the

British artillery, on whose staff he had been a captain though he was

only a youth, he was a giant intellectually as well as physically.

When British fighting troops could not be spared from the Western Front

in the fall of 1918 and the British War Office gambled on sending

category B men to Archangel--men not considered fit to undergo active

warfare, a good healthy general had to be found. Ironside, lover of

forlorn hopes, master of the Russian language, a good mixer, and

experienced in dealing with amalgamated forces, was the obvious man. Of

course, there were some British officers who bemoaned the fact, in range

of American ears too, that some titled high ranking officers were passed

over to reach out to this Major of Artillery to act as Major-General.

And he was on the youthful side of forty, too.

Edmund Ironside ought to have been born in the days of Drake, Raleigh,

and Cromwell. He would have a bust in Westminster and his picture in the

history books. But in his twenty years of army life he has done some big

things and it can be imagined with what gusto he received his orders to

relieve Poole and undertook to redeem the expedition, to make something

of the perilous, forlorn hope under the Arctic winter skies.

In The American Sentinel issue of December 10th, which was the first

issue of our soldier paper, we read:

"It is a great honor for me to be able to address the first words in

the first Archangel paper for American soldiers. I have now served in

close contact with the U. S. Army for eighteen months and I am proud

to have a regiment of the U. S. Army under my command in Russia.

"I wish all the American soldiers the best wishes for the coming

Christmas and New Year and I want them to understand that the Allied

High Command takes the very greatest interest in their welfare at all

times."

EDMUND IRONSIDE, Major-General.

Without doubt the General was sincere in his efforts to bring about

harmony and put punch and strength into the high command sections as

well as into the line troops. But what a bag Poole left him to hold.

Vexed to death must that big man's heart have been to spend so much time

setting Allies to rights who had come to cross purposes with one another

and were blinded to their own best interests. British thought he was too

lenient with the willful Americans. Americans thought he was pampering

the French. British, French and Americans thought he was letting the

Russkis slip something over on the whole Allied expedition. Green-eyed

jealousy, provincial jealousy, just plain foolish jealousy tormented the

man who was soon disillusioned as to the glories to be won in that

forlorn expedition but who never exhibited anything but an undaunted

optimistic spirit. He was human. When he was among the soldiers and

talking to them it was not hard for them to believe the tale that after

all he was an American himself, a Western Canadian who had started his

career as a military man with the Northwest Mounted Police.

An American corporal for several weeks had been in the field hospital

near the famous Kodish Front. One day General Ironside leaned over his

bunk and said: "What's the trouble, corporal?" The reply was,

"Rheumatism, sir." At which the British hospital surgeon asserted that

he thought the rheumatism was a matter of the American soldier's

imagination. But he regretted the remark, for the general, looking

sternly at the officer, said: "Don't talk to me that way about a

soldier. I know, if you do not, that many a young man, with less

exposure than these men have had in these swamps, contracts rheumatism.

Do not confuse the aged man's gout with the young man's muscular

rheumatism." Then he turned his back on the surgeon and said heartily to

the corporal: "You look like a man with lots of grit. Cheer up, maybe

the worst is over and you will be up and around soon. I hope so."

And there was many a British officer who went out there to Russia who

won the warm friendship of Americans. Of course, those were short

friendships. But men live a lot in a small space in war. One day a young

second lieutenant--and those were rare in the British uniforms, for the

British War Office had given the commanding general generous leeway in

adding local rank to the under officers--had come out to a distant

sector to estimate the actual needs in signal equipment. He rode a

Russian horse to visit the outpost line of the city. He rode in a

reindeer sled to the lines which the Russian partisan forces were

holding. He sat down in the evening to that old Russian merchant

trader's piano, in our headquarters, and rambled from chords and airs to

humoresque and rhapsodies. And the American and Russian officers and the

orderlies and batmen each in his own place in the spacious rooms melted

into a tender hearing that feared to move lest the spell be broken and

the artist leave the instrument. Men who did not know how lonesome they

had been and who had missed the refinements of home more than they knew,

blessed the player with their pensive listening, thanked fortune they

were still alive and had chances of fighting through to get home again.

And after playing ceased the British officer talked quietly of his home

and the home folks and Americans thought and talked of theirs. And it

was good. It was an event.

In sharp contrast is the vivid memory of that picturesque Lt. Bob Graham

of the Australian Light Horse. He could have had anything the doughboy

had in camp and they would have risked their lives for him, too, after

the day he ran his Russian lone engine across the bridge at Verst 458

into No Man's Land and leaped from the engine into a marsh covered by

the Bolo machine guns and brought out in his own arms an American

doughboy. Starting merely a daredevil ride into No Man's Land, his

roving eye had spied the doughboy delirious and nearly dead flopping

feebly in the swamp.

Hero of Gallipoli's ill-fated attempt, scarred with more than a score of

wounds; with a dead man's shin bone in the place of his left upper arm

bone that a Hun shell carried off; with a silver plate in his

head-shell; victim of as tragic an occurrence as might befall any man,

when as a sergeant in the Flying Squadron in France he saw a young

officer's head blown off in a trench, and it was his own son, Bob

Graham, "Australian Force" on the Railroad Detachment, was missed by the

doughboys when he was ordered to report to Archangel.

There the heroic Bob went to the bad. He participated in the shooting

out of all the lights in the Paris cafe of the city in regular wild

western style; he was sent up the river for his health; he fell in with

an American corporal whose acquaintance he had made in a sunnier clime,

when the American doughboy had been one of the Marines in Panama and Bob

Graham was an agent of the United Fruit Company. They stole the British

officer's bottled goods and trafficked unlawfully with the natives for

fowls and vegetables to take to the American hospital, rounded up a

dangerous band of seven spies operating behind our lines, but made such

nuisances of themselves, especially the wild Australian "second looie,"

that he was ordered back to Archangel. There the old general, who knew

of his wonderful fighting record, at last brought him on to the big

carpet. And the conversation was something like this:

"Graham, what is the matter? You have gone mad. I had the order to strip

you of your rank as an officer to see if that would sober you. But an

order from the King today by cable raises you one rank and now no one

but the King himself can change your rank. You deserved the promotion

but as you are going now it is no good to you. All I can do is to send

you back to England. But I do not mean it as a disgrace to you. I could

wish that you would give me your word that you would stop this madness

of yours." And the general looked kindly at Bob.

"Sir, you have been white with me. You have a right to know why I have

been misbehaving these last weeks. Here, sir, is a letter that came to

me the day I helped shoot up the cafe. In Belgium I married an American

Red Cross nurse. This is a picture of her and the new-born son come to

take the place of the grown-up son who fell mortally wounded in my arms

in France. To her and the baby I was bound to go if I had to drink

Russia dry of all the shipped-in Scotch and get myself reduced to the

ranks for insubordination and deviltry. Sir, I'm fed up on war. I thank

you for sending me back to England."

And Corporal Aldrich tells us that his old friend Bob Graham's present

address is First National Bank, Mobile, Alabama. His father, an

immigrant via Canada from old Dundee in Scotland, was elected governor

of Alabama on the dry issue. And officers and doughboys who knew the

wild Australian in North Russia know that his father might have had some

help if Bob were at home. With a genial word for every man, with a

tender heart that winced to see a child cry, with a nimble wit and a

brilliant daring, Lt. Bob Graham won a place in the hearts of Americans

that memory keeps warm.

And other British officers might be mentioned. There was, for example,

the grizzled naval officer, Commander Young, whose left sleeve had been

emptied at Zeebrugge, running our first armored train. We missed his

cheery countenance and courteous way of meeting American soldiers and

officers when he left us to return to England to take a seat in

Parliament which the Socialists had elected him to. We can see him again

in memory with his Polish gunners, his Russian Lewis gun men, standing

in his car surrounded by sand bags and barbed wire, knocking hot wood

cinders from his neck, which the Russki locomotive floated back to him.

And many a time we were moved to bless him when his guns far in our rear

spoke cheeringly to our ears as they sent whining shells curving over us

to fall upon the enemy. It is no discredit to say that many a time the

doughboy's eye was filled with a glistening drop of emotion when his own

artillery had sprung to action and sent that first booming retort. And

some of those moments are bound in memory with the blue-coated figure of

the gallant Commander Young.

The Russian Army of the North was non-existent when the Allies landed.

All the soldiery previously in evidence had moved southward with the

last of the lootings of Archangel and joined the armies of the soviet at

Vologda, or were forming up the rear guard to dispute the entrance of

the Allies to North Russia. The Allied Supreme Command in North Russia,

true to its dream of raising over night a million men opened recruiting

offices in Archangel and various outlying points, thinking that the

population would rally to the banners (and the ration carts) in droves.

But the large number of British officers waited in vain for months and

months for the pupils to arrive to learn all over the arts of war. At

last after six months two thousand five hundred recruits had been

assembled by dint of advertising and coaxing and pressure. They were

called the Slavo-British Allied Legion, S. B. A. L. for short.

These Slavo-Brits as they were called never distinguished themselves

except in the slow goose step--much admired by Colonel Stewart, who

pointed them out to one of his captains as wonders of precision, and

also distinguished themselves in eating. They failed several times under

fire, once they caused a riffle of real excitement in Archangel when

they started a mutiny, and finally they were used chiefly as labor units

and as valets and batmen for officers and horses. They were charged with

having a mutinous spirit and with plotting to go over to the Bolsheviks.

They did in small numbers at times. It is interesting to note that they

were trained under British officers who enlisted them from among

renegades, prisoners and deserters from ranks of the Bolsheviks,

refugees and hungry willies, and, that once enlisted they were not fed

the standard British ration of food or tobacco, the which they held as a

grievance. It never made the American soldier feel comfortable to see

the prisoners he had taken in action parading later in the S, B. A. L.

uniform, and especially in the case of Russians who came over from the

Bolo lines and gave up with suspiciously strong protestations of dislike

for their late commanders.

The Russians who were recruited and trained by the French in the

so-called French Legion, under the leadership of the old veteran Boyer

who is mentioned elsewhere were found usually with a better record. The

Courier du Bois on skiis in white clothing did remarkably valuable

scouting and patrolling work and at times as at Kodish and Bolsheozerki

hung off on the flanks of the encircling Bolo hordes and worried the

attackers with great effectiveness.

The French also had better luck in training the Russian artillery

officers and personnel than did the British although some of the latter

units did good work. It seemed to be a better class of Russian recruit

that chose the artillery. Doughboys who were caught on an isolated road

like rats in a trap will remember with favor the Russian artillery men

who with their five field pieces on that isolated road ate, slept and

shivered around their guns for eight days without relief, springing to

action in a few seconds at any call. By their effective action they

contributed quite largely to the defense, active fighting of which fell

upon two hundred Yanks facing more than ten times the number. Why should

it surprise one to find an occasional Yank returned from Archangel who

will say a good word for a Russian soldier. There were cordial relations

between Americans and more than a few Russian units.

In certain localities in the interior where the peasants had organized

to resist the rapacious Red Guard looters, there were little companies

of good fighters, in their own way. These were usually referred to as

Partisans or White Guards depending upon the degree to which they were

authorized and organized by the local county governments. They always at

first strongly co-operated with the Allied troops, which they looked

upon as friends sent in to help them against the Bolsheviki. Toward the

Americans they maintained their cordial relations throughout, but after

the first months seemed to cool toward the other Allied troops. This

sounds conceited, and possibly is, but the explanation seems to be that

the Russian understood American candor and cordial democracy, the actual

sympathetic assistance offered by the doughboy to the Russian soldier or

laborer and took it at par value.

Further explanation of the cooling of the ardor of the local partisans

toward the British in particular may be found in the fact that the

British field commanders often found it convenient and really necessary

to send the local troops far distant from their own areas. There they

lost the urge of defending their firesides and their families. They were

in districts which they quite simply and honestly thought should

themselves be aiding the British to keep off the Bolsheviki. They could

not understand the military necessities that had perhaps called these

local partisans off to some other part of the fighting line on those

long forest fronts. He lacked the broader sense of nationality or even

of sectionalism. And as demands for military action repeatedly came to

him the justice of which he saw only darkly he became a poorer and

poorer source of dependence. He would not put his spirit into fighting,

he was quite likely to hit through the woods for home.

When the Allies early in the fall found they could not forge through to

the south, rolling up a bigger and bigger Russian force to crush the

Bolsheviki, who were apparently, as told us, fighting up to keep us from

going a thousand miles or so to hit the Germans a belt--a fly-weight

buffet as it were--and when we heard of the Armistice and began digging

in on a real defensive in the late fall and early winter, the

Provisional Government at Archangel under Tchaikowsky had already made

some progress in assembling an army. In the winter small units of this

Archangel army began co-operating in various places, and as the winter

wore on, began to take over small portions of the line, as at Toulgas,

Shred Mekrenga, Bolsheozerki, usually however with a few British

officers and some Allied soldiers to stiffen them. Although many of

these men had been drafted by the Archangel government and as we have

seen by such local county governments as Pinega, they were fairly well

trained under old Russian officers who crept out to serve when they saw

the new government meant business. And many capable young officers came

from the British-Russian officers' school at Bakaritsa.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Canadian Artillery--Americans Were Strong for Them.

ROZANSKEY

Making "Khleba"--Black Bread.

WAGNER

Stout Defense of Kitsa.

Needless to say, these troops were at their best when they were in

active work on the lines. Rest camp and security from attack quickly

reduced their morale. And the next time they were sent up to the forward

posts they were likely to prove undependable.

In doing the ordinary drudgery of camp life the Russian soldier as the

doughboy saw him was very unsatisfactory. Many a Yank has itched to get

his hands on the Russian Archangelite soldier, especially some of our

hard old sergeants who wanted to put them on police and scavenger

details to see them work. In this reluctance to work, their refusal

sometimes even when the doughboy pitched into the hateful job and set

them a good example, they were only like the civilian males whose

aversion to certain kinds of work has been mentioned before. When some

extensive piece of work had to be done for the Allies like policing a

town, that is, cleaning it up for sake of health of the soldiers or

smoothing off a landing place for airplanes, it was a problem to get the

labor.

In the erection of large buildings or bridges the Russian man's axe and

saw and mallet and plane worked swiftly and skillfully and unceasingly

and willingly. Those tools were to him as playthings. Not so with an

American-made long-handled shovel in his hands. Then it was necessary to

hire both women and men. The men thought they themselves were earning

their pay, but as the women in Russia do most of the back-breaking,

stooping work anyway, they just caught on to those American shovels and

to the astonishment of the American doughboy who superintended the work

they did twice as much as the men for just half the pay and with half

the bossing.

It is not a matter of false pride on the part of the Slavic male that

keeps him from vying with his better half in doing praiseworthy work. It

is lack of education. He has never learned. He is so constituted that he

cannot learn quickly. He will work himself to exhaustion day after day

in raising a house, cradling grain, playing an accordeon, or performing

a folk dance. His earliest known ancestors did those things with fervor

and it is doubtful if the modus operandi has changed much since the

beginning, since Adam was a Russian.

The "H" Company boys could tell you stories of the Chinese outfit of  S.

B. A. L. under the British officer, the likable Capt. Card, who later

lost his life in the forlorn hope drive on Karpogora in March. One day

he was approached by a Chinese soldier who begged the loan of a machine

gun for a little while. It seems that the Chinese had gotten into

argument with a company of Russian S. B. A. L. men as to the relative

staying qualities of Russians and Chinese under fire. And they had

agreed upon a machine gun duel as a fair test. The writer one night at

four in the morning woke when his Russian sleigh stopped in a village

and rubbed his sleepy eyes open to find himself looking up into the

questioning face of a burly sentry of the Chinese race. And he obeyed

the sentry's directions with alacrity. He was not taking any chances on

a misunderstanding that might arise out of an attempted explanation in a

three-cornered Russo-Chino-English conversation.

Captain Odjard's men might tell stories about the redoubtable Russian

Colonel Deliktorsky, who was in the push up the rivers in September.

Impetuous to a fault he flung himself and his men into the offensive

movement. "In twelve minutes we take Toulgas," was his simple battle

order to the Americans. No matter to him that ammunition reserves were

not ordered up. Sufficient to him that he showed his men the place to be

battled for. And he was a favorite.

On the railroad in the fall a young Bolshevik officer surrendered his

men to the French. Next time the American officer saw him he was

reporting in American headquarters at Pinega that he had conducted his

men to safety and dug in. Afterwards Bolshevik assassins or spies shot

him in ambush and succeeded only in angering him and he went into battle

two days later with a bandage covering three wounds in his neck and

scalp. "G" and "M" Company men will remember this fiery Mozalevski.

Then there was the studious Capt. Akutin, a three-year veteran of a

Russian machine gun battalion, a graduate student of science in a

Russian university, a man of new army and political ideals in keeping

with the principles of the Russian Revolution. His great success with

the Pinega Valley volunteers and drafted men was due quite largely to

his strength of character, his adherence to his principles. The people

did not fear the restoration of the old monarchist regime even though he

was an officer of the Czar's old army. American soldiers in Pinega

gained a genuine respect and admiration for this Russian officer, Capt.

Akutin, and he once expressed great pleasure in the fact that they

exchanged salutes with him cordially.

XXXII

FELCHERS, PRIESTS AND ICONS

Felcher Is Student Of Medicine--Or Pill Passer Of Army Experience

--Sanitation And Ventilation--Priests Strange Looking To Soldiers

--Duties And Responsibilities--Effect Of Bolshevism On Peasant's

Religious Devotions--The Icons--Interesting Stories--Doughboys Buried

By Russian Priests--Respect For Russian Religion.

During the fall of 1918 when the influenza epidemic was wreaking such

great havoc among the soldiers and natives in the Archangel Province,

our medical corps as heretofore explained were put to almost superhuman

efforts in combating the spread of this terrible disease. There were

very few native doctors in the region, and it was, therefore, well nigh

impossible to enlist outside aid. In some of the villages we received

word that there were men called felchers who could possibly be of some

assistance. We were at once curious to ascertain just what kind of

persons these individuals were and upon investigation found that the

Russian Company located in our sector had a young officer who was also a

felcher and who was giving certain medical attention to his troops. We

immediately sent for him and in answer to our inquiries he explained as

nearly as possible just what a felcher was.

It seems that in Russia, outside the large cities and communities, there

is a great scarcity of regularly licensed medical practitioners, many of

these latter upon graduation enter the army where the pay is fairly good

and the work comparatively easy, the rest of them enter the cities

where, of course, practice is larger and the remuneration much better

than would be possible in a small community. These facts developed in

the smaller communities the use of certain second-rate students of

medicine or anyone having a smattering of medical knowledge, called

felchers.

In many cases the felcher is an old soldier who has traveled around the

world a bit; and from his association in the army hospitals with doctors

and students has picked up the technique of dressing wounds, setting

broken bones and administering physic. Very often they are, of course,

unable to properly diagnose the ailments or conditions of their

patients. They, however, are shrewd enough to follow out the customary

army method of treating patients and regardless of the disease promptly

administer vile doses of medicine, usually a physic, knowing full well

that to the average patient, the stronger the medicine and the more of

it he gets, the better the treatment is, and a large percentage of the

recoveries effected by these felchers is more or less a matter of faith

rather than physic or medicine.

The regularly licensed practitioners as a rule have great contempt for

these felchers, but the fact remains that in the small communities where

they practice the felcher accomplishes a great amount of good, for

having traveled considerably and devoted some time to the study of

medicine he is at least superior in intelligence to the average peasant,

and, therefore, better qualified to meet such emergencies as may arise.

This lack of medical practitioners, coupled with the apathy of the

peasants regarding sanitary precautions and their unsanitary methods of

living accounts to some extent for the violence and spread of plagues,

so common throughout Russia.

Regarding the spread of disease and plagues through Russia caused as

above stated by lack of sanitary conditions, a word or two further would

not be amiss. In the province of Archangel, for example, a great

majority of houses are entirely of log construction, built and modelled

throughout by the owner, and perhaps some of his good neighbors. They

are really a remarkable example of what may be done in the way of

construction without the use of nails and of the modern improved methods

of house construction. It is an actual fact that these simple peasants,

equipped only with their short hand axes, with the use of which they are

adepts, can cut down trees, hew the logs and build their homes

practically without the use of any nails whatever. The logs, of course,

are first well seasoned before they are put into the house itself and

when they are joined together they are practically air tight, but to

make sure of this fact the cracks are sealed tight with moss hammered

into the chinks. Next the windows of these houses are always double,

that is, there is one window on the outside of the frame and another

window on the inside. Needless to say, during the winter these windows

are practically never opened.

During the winter months the entire family--and families in this country

are always large--eat, sleep, and live in one room of the house in which

the huge brick home-made stove is located. In addition to the human

beings living in the room there are often a half dozen or more chickens

concealed beneath the stove, sometimes several sheep, and outside the

door may be located the stable for the cattle. Nevertheless, the

peasants are remarkably healthy, and in this region of the world

epidemics are rather uncommon which may perhaps be explained by the fact

that the peasants are out of doors a large part of the time and in

addition thereto the air is very pure and healthful. Sewerage systems

and such means of drainage are entirely unknown, even in the city of

Archangel, which at the time we were there, contained some hundred

thousand inhabitants. The only sewerage there was an open sewer that ran

through the streets of the city. Small wonder it is under such

conditions that when an epidemic does break out that it spreads so far

and so rapidly.

One of the most familiar characters seen in every town, large or small,

was the Batushka. This character is usually attired in a long, black or

gray smock and his hair reaches in long curls to his shoulders. At first

sight to the Yankee soldiers he resembled very much the members of the

House of David or so-called "Holy Roller" sect in this country. This

mysterious individual, commonly called Batushka, as we later discovered,

was the village priest. The priest of course belonged to the Russian

Orthodox Church and whose head in the old days was the Czar. The priests

differ very greatly from the ministers of the gospel and priests in the

English-speaking world. They have certain religious functions to perform

in certain set ways, outside of which they never venture to stray.  The

Russian priest is merely expected to conform to certain observances and

to perform the rites and ceremonies prescribed by the Church. He rarely

preaches or exhorts, and neither has nor seeks to have a moral control

over his flock. Marriage among the priests is not prohibited but is

limited, that is to say, the priest is allowed to marry but once, and

consequently, in choosing the wife he usually picks one of the strongest

and healthiest women in the community. This selection is in all

seriousness an important matter in the priest's life because he draws

practically no salary from his position and must own a share of the

community land, till and cultivate the same in exactly the same manner

as the rest of the community, consequently his wife must be strong and

healthy in order to assist him in the many details of managing his small

holdings. In case she were such a strong and healthy person, the loss of

the wife would be a calamity in more ways than one to the priest as is

apparent by the above statements.

While the religious beliefs and doctrines of the average peasant is only

used by him as a practical means toward an end, yet it must be admitted

that the Russian people are in a certain sense religious. They regularly

go to church on Sundays and Holy Days, of which there are countless

numbers, cross themselves repeatedly when they pass a church or Icon,

take the holy communion at stated seasons, rigorously abstain from

animal food, not only on Wednesdays and Fridays but also during Lent and

the other long fasts, make occasional pilgrimages to the holy shrines

and in a word fulfill carefully the ceremonial observance which they

suppose necessary for their salvation.

Of theology in its deeper sense the peasant has no intelligent

comprehension. For him the ceremonial part of religion suffices and he

has the most unbounded childlike confidence in the saving efficacy of

the rites which he practices.

Men of education and of great influence among the people were these

sad-faced priests, until the Bolsheviks came to undermine their power;

for the Bolsheviks have spared not the old Imperial government. The

church had been a potent organization for the Czar to strengthen his

sway throughout his far-reaching dominions and every priest was an

enlisted crusader of the Little Father. So the Bolsheviki, sweeping over

the country, have seized, first of all, upon these priests of Romanoff,

torturing them to death with hideous cruelty, if there be any truth in

stories, and finding vindictive delight in deriding sacred things and

violating holy places.

The moujik, ever susceptible to influence, has been quick to become

infected with this bacillus of agnosticism, and while he still professes

the faith and observes many of the forms as by habit, his fervor is

cooling and already is grown luke-warm. Now on Sundays, despite all of

the execrations of the priest, and the terrible threats of eternal

damnation, he often dozes the Sabbath away unperturbed on the stove; and

lets the women attend to the church going. Under Bolshevik rule Holy

Russia will be Agnostic Russia; and it is a pity, for religious teaching

was the guiding star of these poor people, and religious precepts, hard,

gloomy and dismal though they were, the foundation of the best in their

character.

Icons are pictorial, usually half length representations of the Saviour

or the Madonna or some patron saint, finished in a very archaic

Byzantine style on a yellow or gold background, and vary in size from a

square inch to several square feet. Very often the whole picture is

covered with various ornaments, ofttimes with precious stones. In

respect to their religious significance icons are of two classes, simple

or miracle-working. The former are manufactured in enormous quantities

and are to be found in every Russian house, from the lowest peasant to

the highest official. They are generally placed high up in a corner of

the living room facing the door, and every good Orthodox peasant on

entering the door bows in the direction of the icon and crosses himself

repeatedly. Before and after meals the same ceremony is always performed

and on holiday or fete days a small taper or candle is kept burning

before the icon throughout the day.

An amusing incident is related which took place in the allied hospital

in Shenkursk. A young medical officer had just arrived from Archangel

and was sitting in the living room or entrance-way of the hospital

directly underneath one of these icons. One of the village ladies,

having occasion to call at the hospital, entered the front door and as

usual stepped toward the center of the room facing the icon, bowed very

low and started crossing herself. The young officer who was unacquainted

with the Russian custom, believing that she was saluting him, quickly

stepped forward and stretched forth his hand to shake hands with her

while she was still in the act of crossing herself. Great was his

consternation when he was later informed by his interpreter of the

significance of this operation.

Doughboys on the Railroad front at Obozerskaya will recall the fact that

when the first three Americans killed in action in North Russia were

buried, it was impossible to get one of our chaplains from Archangel to

come to Obozerskaya to bury them. The American officer in command

engaged the local Russian priest to perform the religious service. By

some trick of fate it had happened that these first Americans who fell

in action were of Slavic blood, so the strange funeral which the

doughboys witnessed was not so incongruous after all.

With the long-haired, wonderfully-robed priest came his choir and many

villagers, who occupied one side of the square made by the soldiers

standing there in the dusk to do last honors to their dead comrades.

With chantings and doleful chorus the choir answered his solemn oratory

and devotional intercessions. He swung his sacred censer pot over each

body and though we understood no word we knew he was doing reverence to

the spirit of sacrifice shown by our fallen comrades. There in the

darkness by the edge of the forest, the priest and his ceremony, the

firing squad's volley, and the bugler's last call, all united to make

that an allied funeral. The American soldier and the priest and his

pitiful people had really begun to spin out threads of sympathy which

were to be woven later into a fabric of friendliness. The doughboy

always respected the honest peasant's religious customs.

XXXIII

BOLSHEVISM

Why Chapter Is Written--Venerable Kropotkin's Message Direct From

Central Russia--Official Report Of United States Department Of State

--Conclusions Of Study Prepared For National Chamber Of Commerce

--Authoritative Comment By Men Who Are In Position To Know--A Cartoon

And Comment Which Speak For Veterans.

The writers have an idea that the veterans of the North Russian

Expedition would like a short, up-to-date chapter on Bolshevism. We used

to wonder why it was that John Bolo was so willing to fight us and the

White Guards. We would not wish to emphasize the word willing for we

remember the fact that many a time when he was beaten back from our

defenses we knew by the sound that he was being welcomed back to his

camp by machine guns. And the prisoners and wounded whom we captured

were not always enthusiastic about the Bolshevism under whose banner

they fought. To be fair, however, we must remark that we captured some

men and officers who were sure enough believers in their cause.

And the general reader will probably like a chapter presented by men who

were over in that civil war-torn north country and who might be expected

to gather the very best materials available on the subject of

Bolshevism. And what we have gathered we present with not much comment

except that we ourselves are trying to keep a tolerant but wary eye upon

those who profess to believe in Bolshevism. We say candidly that we

think Bolshevism is a failure. But we do not condemn everyone else who

differs with us. Let there be fair play and justice to all, freedom of

thought and speech, with decent respect for the rights of all.

The first article is adapted from an article in The New York Times of

recent date, according to which Margaret Bondfield, a member of the

British Labor Delegation which recently visited Russia, went to see

Peter Kropotkin, the celebrated Russian economist and anarchist, at his

home at Dimitroff, near Moscow. The old man gave her a message to the

workers of Great Britain and the western world:

"In the first place, the workers of the civilized world and their

friends among other classes should persuade their governments to give up

completely the policy of armed intervention in the affairs of Russia,

whether that intervention is open or disguised, military, or under the

form of subventions by different nations.

"Russia is passing through a revolution of the same significance and of

equal importance that England passed through in 1639-1648 and France in

1789-1794. The nations of today should refuse to play the shameful role

to which England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia sank during the French

Revolution.

"Moreover, it is necessary to consider that the Russian

Revolution--which seeks to erect a society in which the full production

of the combined efforts of labor, technical skill and scientific

knowledge shall go to the community itself--is not a mere accident in

the struggle of parties. The revolution has been in preparation for

nearly a century by Socialist and Communist propaganda, since the times

of Robert Owen, Saint-Simon, and Fourier. And although the attempt to

introduce the new society by the dictatorship of a party apparently

seems condemned to defeat, it must be admitted that the revolution has

already introduced into our life new conceptions of the rights of labor,

its true position in society, and the duties of each citizen.

Not only the workers, but all progressive elements in the civilized

nations should bring to an end the support so far given to the

adversaries of the revolution. This does not mean that there is nothing

to oppose in the methods of the Bolshevist government. Far from it! But

all armed intervention by a foreign power necessarily results in an

increase of the dictatorial tendencies of the rulers and paralyzes the

efforts of those Russians who are ready to aid Russia, independent of

her government, in the restoration of her life.

"The evils inherent in the party dictatorship have grown because of the

war conditions in which this party has maintained itself. The state of

war has been the pretext for increasing the dictatorial methods of the

party as well as the reason for the tendency to centralize each detail

of life in the hands of the government, which has resulted in the

cessation of many branches of the nation's usual activities. The natural

evils of state Communism have been multiplied tenfold under the pretext

that the distress of our existence is due to the intervention of

foreigners.

"It is my firm opinion that if the military intervention of the Allies

is continued it will certainly develop in Russia a bitter sentiment with

respect to the western nations, a sentiment that will be utilized some

day in future conflicts. This bitter feeling is already growing.

"So far as our present economic and political situation is concerned,

the Russian revolution, being the continuation of the two great

revolutions in England and France, undertakes to progress beyond the

point where France stopped when she perceived that actual equality

consists in economic equality.

"Unfortunately, this attempt has been made in Russia under the strongly

centralized dictatorship of a party, the Maximalist Social Democrats.

The Baboeuf conspiracy, extremely centralized and jacobinistic, tried to

apply a similar policy. I am compelled frankly to admit that, in my

opinion, this attempt to construct a communist republic with a strongly

centralized state communism as its base, under the iron law of the

dictatorship of a party, is bound to end in a fiasco. We are learning in

Russia how communism should not be introduced, even by a people weary of

the ancient regime and making no active resistance to the experimental

projects of the new rulers.

"The Soviet idea--that is to say, councils of workers and peasants,

first developed during the revolutionary uprisings of 1905 and

definitely realized during the revolution of February, 1917--the idea of

these councils controlling the economic and political life of the

country, is a great conception. Especially so because it necessarily

implies that the councils should be composed of all those who take a

real part in the production of national wealth by their own personal

efforts.

"But as long as a country is governed by the dictatorship of a party,

the workers' and peasants' councils evidently lose all significance.

They are reduced to the passive role formerly performed by the states

generals and the parliaments when they were convened by the king and had

to combat an all-powerful royal council.

"A labor council ceases to be a free council when there is no liberty of

the press in the country, and we have been in this situation for nearly

two years--under the pretext that we are in a state of war. But that is

not all. The workers' and peasants' councils lose all their significance

unless the elections are preceded by a free electoral campaign and when

the elections are conducted under the pressure of the dictatorship of a

party. Naturally, the stock excuse is that the dictatorship is

inevitable as a method to fight the ancient regime. But such a

dictatorship evidently becomes a barrier from the moment when the

revolution undertakes the construction of a new society on a new

economic basis. The dictatorship condemns the new structure to death.

"The methods resorted to in overthrowing governments already tottering

are well known to history, ancient and modern. But when it is necessary

to create new forms of life--especially new forms of production and

exchange--without examples to follow, when everything must be

constructed from the ground up, when a government that undertakes to

supply even lamp chimneys to every inhabitant demonstrates that it is

absolutely unable to perform this function with all its employees,

however limitless their number may be, when this condition is reached

such a government becomes a nuisance. It develops a bureaucracy so

formidable that the French bureaucratic system, which imposes the

intervention of 40 functionaries to sell a tree blown across a national

road by a storm, becomes a bagatelle in comparison. This is what you,

the workers in the occidental countries, should and must avoid by all

possible means since you have at heart the success of a social

reconstruction. Send your delegates here to see how a social revolution

works in actual life.

"The prodigious amount of constructive labor necessary under a social

revolution cannot be accomplished by a central government, even though

it may be guided by something more substantial than a collection of

Socialist and anarchistic manuals. It requires all the brain power

available and the voluntary collaboration of specialized and local

forces, which alone can attack with success the diversity of the

economic problems in their local aspects. To reject this collaboration

and to rely on the genius of a party dictatorship is to destroy the

independent nucleus, such as the trade unions and the local co-operative

societies by changing them into party bureaucratic organs, as is

actually the case at present. It is the method not to accomplish the

revolution. It is the method to make the realization of the revolution

impossible. And this is the reason why I consider it my duty to warn you

against adopting such methods.

It must be evident to the reader that Russia is at present being ruled

by a system of pyramided majorities, many of which are doubtful popular

majorities. In the name of the Red Party Lenin and Trotsky rule. They

themselves admit it. The dictatorship of the proletariat, and similar

terms are used by them in referring to their highly centralized control.

We Americans are in the habit of overturning state and national

administrations when we think one party has ruled long enough. Even a

popular war president at the pinnacle of his power found the American

people resenting, so it has been positively affirmed, his plea for the

return of his party to continued control in 1918. Can we as a

self-governing people look with anything but wonder at the occasional

American who fails to see that the perpetual rule of one party year

after year which we as Americans have always doubted the wisdom of, is

the very thing that Lenin and Trotsky have fastened upon Russia. Russia,

that wanted to be freed from the Romanoff rule and its bureaucratic

system of fraud, waste, and cruelty, today groans under a system of

despotism which is just as, if not more, wasteful, fraudulent and cruel.

There are sincere people who might think that because the Bolsheviks

have kept themselves in power, that they must be right. We can not agree

with the reasoning. Even if we knew nothing about the bayonets and

machine guns and firing squads and prisons, we would not agree to the

reasoning that the Bolshevik government is right just because it is in

power. We prefer the reasoning of the greatest man whom America has

produced, Abraham Lincoln, whose words, which we quote, seem to us to

exactly fit the present Russian situation:

"A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and

limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of

popular opinions and sentiments, is the only free sovereign of a free

people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to

despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a

permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the

majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is

left."--Abraham Lincoln.

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States has, through Frederic J.

Haskin, Washington, D. C., distributed an admirable pamphlet, temperate

and judicial, which compares the Soviet system with the American

constitutional system. This pamphlet written by Hon. Burton L. French,

of Idaho, concludes his discussion as follows:

"In a government that has been heralded so widely as being the most

profound experiment in democracy that has ever been undertaken, we would

naturally expect that the franchise would be along lines that would

recognize all mankind embraced within the citizenship of the nation as

standing upon an equal footing. The United States has for many years

adhered to that principle. It was that principle largely for which our

fathers died when they established our government, and yet that

principle seems foreign to the way of thinking of Lenin and Trotsky as

they shaped the Russian constitution.

PARALLEL 8--THOSE WHO MAY VOTE

RUSSIA   1. The franchise extends to all over 18 years of age who have

acquired the means of living through manual labor, and also persons

engaged in housekeeping for the former.

2. Soldiers of the army and navy.

3. The former two classes when incapacitated.

UNITED STATES

All men (and women in many states, and soon in all) who are citizens and

over 21 years of age, excepting those disfranchised on account of

illiteracy, mental ailment or criminal record.

"Bear in mind the liberal franchise with which the American Nation meets

her citizens and let me ask you to contemplate the franchise that is

handed out to the people of Russia who are; 18 years of age or over who

have acquired the means of living through labor that is productive and

useful to society and persons engaged in housekeeping in behalf of the

former are entitled to the franchise. Who else? The soldiers of the army

and navy. Who else? Any of the former two classes who have become

incapacitated.

"Now turn to the next sections of the Russian constitution and see who

are disfranchised.

"The merchant is disfranchised; ministers of all denominations are

disfranchised; and then, while condemning the Czar for tyranny, the

soviet constitution solemnly declares that those who were in the employ

of the Czar or had been members of the families of those who had ruled

in Russia for many generations shall be denied suffrage.

"Persons who have income from capital or from property that is theirs by

reason of years of frugality, industry, and thrift are penalized by

being denied the right to vote. They are placed in the class with

criminals, while the profligate, the tramp who works enough to obtain

the means by which he can hold body and soul together, is able to

qualify under the constitution of Russia and is entitled to a vote.

Under that system in the United States the loyal men and women who

bought Liberty Bonds, in their country's peril would be disfranchised

while the slacker would have the right of suffrage.

"Persons who employ hired labor in order to obtain from it an increase

in profits may not vote or hold office. Under that system the

manufacturer who furnishes employment for a thousand men would be denied

the ballot, while those in his employ could freely exercise the right of

franchise. Under that system the farmer who hires a crew of men to help

him harvest his crop is denied the franchise. Under that system the

dairyman who hires a boy to milk his cows or to deliver milk is denied

the franchise.

"The constitution of Russia adopts the declaration of rights as part of

the organic act to the extent that changes have not been made, by the

constitution. Examine them--the constitution and the declaration of

rights--we find other most astounding doctrines in the soviet

fundamental law. I shall not discuss but merely mention a few of them.

They do not pertain so much to the structure of government as they do to

the economic and social conditions surrounding the people under the

soviet system:

"First. Private ownership of land is abolished. (No compensation, open

or secret, is paid to the former owner.)

"Second. Civil marriage alone is legal. By act of the All-Russian

Congress of Soviets a marriage may be accomplished by the contracting

parties declaring the fact orally, or by writing to the department of

registry of marriage. Divorce is granted by petition of both or either

party upon proof alone that divorce is desired.

"Third. The teaching of religious doctrines is forbidden in private

schools, as well as in schools that are public.

"Fourth. No church or religious society has the right to own property.

(The soviet leaders boldly proclaim the home and the church as the

enemies of their system, and from the foregoing it would seem that they

are trying to destroy them.)

"Fifth. Under the general authority granted to the soviets by the

constitution inheritance of property by law or will has been abolished.

"These amazing features of the constitution and laws enacted under the

constitution speak more eloquently than any words that could be used to

amplify them in portraying the hideousness of a system of government

that, if permitted to continue, must inevitably crush out the home in

large part by the flippancy with which marriage and divorce are

regarded, by the refusal of permitting the land to be held in private

ownership, and by refusing the parent the right at death to pass on to

his wife or to his children the fruits of years of toil.

"What, then, is my arraignment of sovietism according to the soviet

constitution?

"1. The people have no direct vote or voice in government, except the

farmers in their local rural soviets and the city dwellers in their

urban soviets.

"2. The rural, county, provincial, regional, and All-Russian soviets are

elected indirectly, and the people have no direct vote in the election.

"3. The people have no voice in the election of executive officers of

the highest or lowest degrees.

"4. There is no mention of independent judicial officers in the

constitution.

"5. The people are very largely disfranchised.

"6. The farmer of Russia is discriminated against.

"7. The system raises class against class; the voters vote by trade and

craft groups instead of on the basis of thought units.

"8. The system strikes a blow at the church and the home.

"9. The system is pyramidal and means highly centralized and autocratic

power.

"The soviet system of government can not be defended. It is against the

interests of the very men for whom it is supposed to have been

established--the laboring man. He is the man most of all who must suffer

under any kind of government or system that is wrong. He is the man who

would be out of bread within the shortest time. He is the man whose

family would be destitute of clothing in the shortest time. He is the

man whose family will suffer through disease, famine, and pestilence in

the shortest time.

"As it is against the best interest of the laboring man, so it is

against the best interest of all the people, and, as a matter of fact,

the overwhelming mass of people of this country and all countries is

made up of laboring people.

"Finally, the soviet government, as foreshadowed in its constitution, is

obviously unjust, unfair and discriminatory. This fact will appear at

once to any mind trained to the American manner of thought, which takes

the trouble to investigate sovietism, and whatever tendency there may be

to approve will disappear with better understanding."

"Men in high places who have had opportunity to get the facts," says Mr.

Burton, "give their impressions of the experiment:

"WOODROW WILSON, President of the United States.--'There is a closer

monopoly of power in Moscow and Petrograd than there ever was in

Berlin.'

"SAMUEL GOMPERS, President of the American Federation of Labor.--

'Bolshevism is as great an attempt to disrupt the trade unions as it is

to overturn the government of the United States. It means the decadence

or perversion of the civilization of our time. To me, the story of the

desperate Samson who pulled the temple down on his head is an example of

what is meant by bolshevism.'

"MORRIS HILLQUIT, International Secretary of the Socialist Party.--'The

Socialists of the United States would have no hesitancy whatsoever in

joining forces with the rest of their countrymen to repel the Bolsheviki

who would try to invade our country and force a form of government upon

our people which our people were not ready for, and did not desire.'

"HERBERT HOOVER, Former United States Food Administrator.--'The United

States has been for one hundred and fifty years steadily developing a

social philosophy of its own. This philosophy has stood this test in the

fire of common sense. We have a willingness to abide by the will of the

majority. For all I know it may be necessary to have revolutions in some

places in Europe in order to bring about these things, but it does not

follow that such philosophies have any place with us.'

"WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, Former President of the United States.--'I do not

fear bolshevism in this country. I do not mean that in congested centers

foreigners and agitators will not have influence. But Americans as a

whole have a deep love for America. It is a vital love that the

sensational appeals of bolshevists and agitators cannot weaken'."

A yellowed and tattered cartoon that hung on a Company bulletin board at

466 when the snow was slipping away.

"America Looks Mighty. Good After You've Seen Europe" is the title.

On the right stands the Bolshevik orator on a soap box. His satchel

bursting out with propaganda and pamphlets on Bolshevism from Europe. In

his hand he holds a pamphlet that has a message for the returning

doughboys. The agitator's hair and whiskers bristle with hatred and

envy. His yellow teeth look hideous between his snarling lips. And he

points a long skinny finger for the doughboy to see his message, which

is, "Down with America, it's all Wrong." So much for the man who came

from Europe to wreck America.

Now look at the Man Who Went to Europe to Save America and is now back

on the west side of the Statue of Liberty. Does he look interested in

Bolshevism Or downhearted over America? No. In his figure a manful

contrast to the scraggly agitator. In his face no hate, no malice. He

does not even hate the self-deluded agitator.

His clean-brushed teeth are exposed by a good-humored smile of assurance

and confidence. He does not extend a fist but he waves off the fool

Bolshevik orator with a good-natured but nevertheless final answer. And

here it is: "Go on--Take That Stuff Back to Where You Got it--I Wouldn't

Trade a Log Hut on a Swamp in America for the Whole of Europe!"

We are thinking that the cartoon just about says it for all returned

soldiers from North Russia. We want nothing to do with the Bolo agitator

in this country who would make another Russia of the United States. We

let them blow off steam, are patient with their vagaries, are willing to

give every man a fair hearing if he has a grievance, but we don't fall

for their wild ideas about tearing things up by the roots.

Soldier standing erect on the left says "Go on--Take That Stuff Back to

Where You Got it--I Wouldn't Trade a Log Hut on a Swamp in America for

the Whole of Europe!"

Orator is holding a paper saying "Down with America! It's all wrong!"

Papers in orator's sack: "Bolshevism from Europe" "East side of New York

propaganda."

AMERICA LOOKS MIGHTY GOOD AFTER YOU'VE SEEN EUROPE.

--COLUMBUS EVENING DISPATCH.

XXXIV

Y. M. C. A. AND Y. W. C. A. WITH TROOPS

Justice Where Justice Is Due--Summary Of Work Of "Y" Men--"Y" Women And

Hostess House--Seen Near Front--Devoted Women Stay In Russia When We

Leave--Christian Associations Point Way To Help Russia.

The editors have felt that "justice where justice is due" demands a few

pages in this volume about the service of our Y. M. C. A. with us in

North Russia. We know that there is a great deal of bitterness against

the "Y." Much of it was engendered by the few selfish and crooked and

cowardly men who crept into the "Y" service, and the really great

service of the Y. M. C. A. is badly discounted and its war record sadly

sullied. We know that here and there in North Russia a "Y" man failed to

"measure up" but we know that on the whole our Y. M. C. A. in North

Russia with us, did great service.

To get a fair and succinct story, we wrote to Mr. Crawford Wheeler,

whose statement follows. He was the Chief Secretary in the North Russia

area. The first paragraph is really a letter of transmissal, but we

approve its sentiment and commend its manly straightforwardness to our

comrades and the general reader:

"This is written purely from memory. I haven't a scrap of material at

hand and I have hurried in order that you might have the stuff promptly.

Please indicate, in case you use this material, that it is not based on

records,--for I cannot vouch for all the figures. However, in the main,

the outline is right. I wish the "Y" might have a really good chapter in

your book, for I always have felt, with many of the other boys in our

service, that we are condemned back here for the sins of others. If the

"Y" in North Russia was not a fairly effective organization which went

right to the front and stayed there, then a lot of officers and men in

the 339th poured slush in my ears. Were it not for the rather

unfortunate place which a "Y" man occupies back here, none of us would

seek even an iota of praise, for in comparison with the rest of you, we

deserve none; but I'm sure you understand the circumstances which impel

me to insert the foregoing plea, 'Justice where justice is due.' That's

all.

"The Y. M. C. A. shared the lot of the American North Russian

Expeditionary Force as an isolated fighting command from the day it

landed until the last soldier left Archangel. It shared in the successes

and the failures of the expedition. It contributed something now and

then to the welfare and comfort and even to the lives of the American

and Allied troops both at the front and in the base camps. It made a

record which only the testimony of those who were part of the expedition

is qualified to estimate.

"When the American soldiers of the 339th Infantry landed in Archangel on

September 5th, 1918, they found a "Y" in town ahead of them. The day

after the port was captured by allied forces early in August, Allen

Craig of the American Y. M. C. A. had secured a spacious building in the

heart of the city for use as a "Y" hut. With very little equipment he

managed to set up a cocoa and biscuit stand and a reading and writing

room and the hall of the building was opened for band concerts and

athletic nights. It really was little more than a barn until the arrival

of secretaries and supplies in October made improvements possible.

"A party of ten secretaries, who had spent the previous year in Central

Russia under the Bolshevik regime, landed in the first week of October,

having come around from Sweden and Norway. Two weeks later another ten

secretaries arrived from the same starting point. These men formed the

nucleus of the "Y" personnel which was to serve the American troops

through the winter and spring. They were sent to points at the front

immediately after their arrival, and more than a few doughboys will

remember the first trip of the big railroad car to the front south of

Obozerskaya, with Frank Olmstead in charge.

"The British Y. M. C. A. sent a party of twenty-five secretaries to

Archangel early in the fall and considerations of practical policy made

it advisable to combine operations under the title of the Allied Y. M.

C. A. To the credit of the British secretaries, it must be said that

they turned over all their supplies to the American management. These

supplies constituted practically all the stock of biscuit and canteen

products used until Christmas time, and British secretaries took their

places under the direction of the American headquarters.

"The "Y" was fortunate to have secured several trucks and Ford cars in a

shipment before the Allied landing, and they became part of the

expeditionary transport system at once. The Supply Company of the 339th

used one truck, and the British transport staff borrowed the other one.

Major Ely, Quartermaster of the American forces, got one of the Fords,

and another one went to the American Red Cross.

"By the middle of November the "Y" had secretaries on the river fronts

near Seletskoe and Beresnik at the railroad front and with the Pinega

detachment. Supplies dribbled through to them in pitifully small

amounts, usually half of the stuff stolen before it reached the front.

The British N. A. B. C. sold considerable quantities of biscuit and

cigarettes to the "Y," both at the front bases and from the Archangel

depot. On the railroad front a really respectable service was

maintained, because transport was not so difficult. One secretary made

the trip around the blockhouses and outposts daily with a couple of

packsacks filled with gum, candy and cigarettes, which were distributed

as generously as the small capacity of the sacks permitted. Two cars

equipped with tables for reading and writing and with a big cocoa urn

were stationed at Verst 455, where the headquarters train and reserve

units stood. These cars were moved to points north and south on the line

twice weekly for small detachments to get their ration of biscuit and

sweets, small as it was.

RED CROSS PHOTO

Christmas Dinner, Convalescent Hospital.

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

"Come and Get It" at Verst 455.

WAGNER

Doughboys Drubbed Sailors.

Brig. Gen. Richardson and Adm. McMully at Army-Navy Game.

WAGNER

Yank and Scot Guarding Prisoners.

"Another row of cars was maintained at Obozerskaya, where the first

outpost entertainment hut was opened about Christmas time with a program

of moving pictures, athletic stunts and feeds. Shipments were made from

this base to the secretaries at Seletskoe, who did their best to make

the winter less monotonous and miserable for the second battalion men

stationed on that front. The "Y" opened a hut in Pinega in early

November, and by the middle of December had established a point for the

"H" Company men west of Emtsa on, the Onega River line.

"Meanwhile, the Central "Y" hut at Archangel had been remodelled and

fully equipped for handling large crowds, and it served several hundred

allied soldiers daily. Whenever a company of Americans came in from the

front, a special night was arranged for them to have a program in the

theatre hall, with movies, songs, stunts and eats on the bill. A series

of basketball games was carried on between the base unit companies and

other commands which were in Archangel for a week or more awaiting

transfer to another point. Huts were opened in the Smolny base camp at

Solombola, both of them barely large enough to afford room for a cocoa

and biscuit counter, a piano, and a reading room. Shortly after

Christmas another "Y" station was put in commission across the river at

the Preestin railroad terminal, where detachments and individuals often

endured a long wait in the cold or arrived chilled to the bone from a

trip on the heatless cars.

"About Christmas time twenty-five more secretaries arrived from the

American Y. M. C. A. headquarters in England, and with this addition to

personnel, it was possible to make headquarters something more than a

table and a telephone. A fairly efficient supply and office staff was

built up and with the landing of two or three belated cargoes, "Y" folk

began to see a rosier period ahead. But transport difficulties made it

almost impossible to get stuff moved to the front, where the men needed

it most. 'When there are neither guns nor ammunition enough,' said the

British headquarters, 'how can we afford to take sleds for sending up

biscuits and cigarettes?'

"Nevertheless, by hook or crook, several convoys were pushed through to

Bereznik, each time reviving the hopes of the men in the outposts, who

thought at last they might get some regular service. Tom Cotton and

"Husky" Merrill, two football stars from Dartmouth, were in charge of

the "Y" points on the Dvina advanced front, and whatever success the "Y"

attained in that vicinity belongs primarily to their credit. They ended

an eventful career in the spring of 1919 by getting captured when the

Bolsheviks and Russian mutineers staged a coup d'etat at Toulgas and

captured the village. Their escape was more a matter of luck than of

planning. They paddled down the river in a boat. In their hasty exit

from the village, they left behind all their personal belongings.

"At Shenkursk the "Y" hut and stock also fell to the Bolos, but the

secretaries got out with the troops. The column which made the terrible

retreat from Shenkursk found the "Y" waiting for it at Shegovari, with

hot cocoa and biscuit. Despite the congested transport, the service on

this line was kept up all through the winter and spring, "Dad"

Albertson, "Ken" Hollinshead and Brackett Lewis making themselves mighty

effective in their service to the men on this sector. Albertson has

written a book, "Fighting Without a War," which embodies his experiences

and observations with the doughboys at the front.

"One of the best pieces of service performed by the "Y" during the whole

campaign was carried on at the time of the fierce Bolshevik drive for

Obozerskaya from the west in February and March. This drive cost the "Y"

two of its best secretaries, but service was maintained without a break

from the first day until the end when the Bolos retreated. Merle Arnold

was in the village running a "Y" post when the attack occurred and was

captured along with six American soldiers. Bryant Ryall, who ran the "Y"

tent in the woods at Verst 18, next fell a victim to the Bolos, while on

the way to Obozerskaya for more supplies. Olmstead, who came from 455 to

help in this desperate place, remained, and as a result of his work at

this front, received the French Croix de Guerre and the Russian St.

George Cross.

"Other decorations were awarded to Ernest Rand on the Pinega sector and

to "Dad" Albertson on the Dvina front, both of them receiving the St.

George Cross. The British military medal was to have been given

Albertson, but technicalities made it impossible. Several other

secretaries were mentioned in despatches by the American and British

commands, all of them for service at the fighting front. It was the

policy of the "Y" from the start to send the best men to the front, rush

the best supplies to the front, give the men from the front the best

service while at the base camps, and do it without thought of payment.

It is a fact that the Archangel 'show' cost the "Y" more per capita

served than any other piece of front service rendered overseas. The

heavy cost was accentuated by the immense loss to supplies in the supply

ships, warehouses and cars or convoys, from theft and breakage and

freezing. The totals of the business done by the "Y" up in the Russian

Arctic area are astounding, when the difficulties of transport are

considered More than $1,000,000 worth of supplies were received and

distributed before the American troops left Archangel. This included

twenty-five motion picture outfits, everyone of which was in use by late

spring, a million and a half feet of film, fairly large shipments of

athletic goods, baseball equipment and phonographs, and thousands of

books and magazines, which filled a most important part in the program.

Until early spring the "Y" bought most of its canteen supplies from the

British N. A. C. B., through a credit established in London. These

stocks were sold to the "Y" virtually at the British retail prices and

were resold at the same figures, with a resulting loss to the "Y," as

the loss and damage mounted up to forty per cent at times. In May,

several shipments of American canteen stocks arrived at Archangel, which

enabled the secretaries to cut loose the strings on 'ration plans'

before the troops started home.

"A hut was opened at the embarkation point, Economia, in the early

spring, and troops quartered there had a complete red triangle service

ready for them when sailing time arrived. A secretary or two went with

each transport, equipped with a small stock of sweets and cigarettes to

distribute on the voyage. Most of the American secretaries did not

leave, however, until after the troops departed. Some of them remained

until the closing act of the show in August. Two more were captured when

the Bolos staged their mutiny at Onega. All these men eventually were

released from captivity in Moscow and reached America safely.

"The Y. M. C. A. received hearty co-operation from the American Red

Cross, from the American Embassy, and from the American headquarters

units. Sugar and cocoa were turned over frequently by the Red Cross when

the "Y" ran completely out of stocks and an unstinted use of Red Cross

facilities was open at all times to the "Y" men. The embassy and

consulate transmitted the "Y" cables through their offices to England

and America and co-operated with urgent pleas for aid at times when such

pleas were essential to the adoption of policies to better the "Y"

service. The headquarters of the 339th Infantry and the 310th Engineers

responded to every reasonable request made by the "Y" for assignments of

helpers, huts or other facilities in the different areas where work was

carried on. The naval command showed special courtesies in forwarding

supplies on cruisers and despatch boats from England and Murmansk and in

permitting the "Y" men to travel on their ships.

"Altogether more than sixty American secretaries took part in the North

Russian show. About eight or ten of them, however, were on the Murmansk

line, and were said by the American command to have done good work with

the engineers and sailors in that area. Whatever record the American "Y"

made in North Russia, it can in truth be said of the secretarial force

that with few exceptions they gave the best that was in them and they

never felt satisfied with their work. The service which Olmstead and

Cotton and Arnold and Albertson and Beekman and a dozen others rendered,

ranks with the best work done by the Y. M. C. A. men in any part of the

world. Correspondents from the front in France and members of the

American command who arrived late in the day, expressed their surprise

and gratification at the spirit which animated the "Y" workers up in the

Russian Arctic region. But the best test is the record which lives in

the hearts of American soldiers, and on their fairminded testimony the

"Y" men wish to secure their verdict for whatever they deserve for their

service in North Russia with the American soldiers fighting the

Bolsheviki."

TO OUR Y. W. C. A. AMERICAN GIRLS

In that old school reader of ours we used to read with wet eyes and

tight throat the story of the soldier who lay dying at Bingen on the

Rhine and told his buddie to tell his sister to be kind to all the

comrades. How he yearned for the touch of his mother's or sister's hand

in that last hour, how the voice of woman and her liquid eye of love

could soothe his dying moments. And the veterans of the World War now

understand that poetic sentiment better than they did when as barefooted

boys they tried to conceal their emotions behind the covers of the book,

for in the unlovely grime and grind of war the soldier came to long for

the sight of his own women kind. They will now miss no opportunity to

sing the praises of their war time friends, the Salvation Army Lassies

and the girls of the Y. W. C. A.

In North Russia we were out of luck in the lack of Salvation Army

Lassies enough to reach around to our front, but in that isolated war

area we were fortunate to receive several representatives of the

American Y. W. C. A. Some were girls who had already been in Russia for

several years in the regular mission work among the Russian people, and

two of them we hasten to add right here, were brave enough to stay

behind when we cut loose from the country. Miss Dunham and Miss Taylor

were to turn back into the interior of the country and seek to help the

pitiful people of Russia. We take our hats off to them.

What doughboy will forget the first sight he caught of an American "Y"

girl in North Russia? He gave her his eyes and ears and his heart all in

a minute. Was he in the hospital? Her smile was a memory for days

afterward. If a convalescent who could dance, the touch of her arm and

hand and the happy swing of the steps swayed him into forgetfulness of

the pain of his wounds. If he were off outpost duty on a sector near the

front line and seeking sweets at a Y. M. C. A. his sweets were doubled

in value to him as he took them from the hand of the "Y" girl behind the

counter. Or at church service in Archangel her voice added a heavenly

note to the hymn. In the Hostess House, he watched her pass among the

men showering graciousness and pleasantries upon the whole lonesome lot

of doughboys. One of the boys wrote a little poem for The American

Sentinel which may be introduced here in prose garb a la Walt Mason.

"There's a place in old Archangel,

That we never will forget,

And of all the cozy places,

It's the soldier's one best bet.

It's the place where lonely Sammies

Hit the trail for on the run,

There they serve you cake and coffee,

'Till the cake and coffee's done.

And they know that after eating,

There's another pleasure yet,--

So to show how they are thoughtful,

They include a cigarette.

There's a place back in the corner,

Where you get your clothing checked,

And the place is yours, They tell you,

--well--Or words to that effect.

There are magazines a-plenty,

From the good old U. S. A.

There's a cheery home-like welcome

for you any time of day.

Will we, can we e'er forget them,

In the future golden years,

And the kindness that was rendered,

By these Lady Volunteers?

Just as soon as work is finished,

Don't you brush your hair and blouse,

And go double-double timing,

To the cordial Hostess House?"

One of the pretty weddings in Archangel that winter was that celebrated

by the boys when Miss Childs became home-maker for Bryant Ryal, the "Y"

man who was later taken prisoner by the Bolsheviki. She was within

twelve miles of him the day he was captured. Doughboys were quick to

offer her comforting assurances that he would be treated well because

American "Y" men had done so much in Russia for the Russian soldiers

before the Bolshevik debacle. And when they heard that he was actually

on his way to Moscow with fair chance of liberation, they crowded the

taplooska Ryal home and made it shine radiantly with their

congratulations.

But it was not the institutional service such as the Hostess House or

the Huts or the box car canteen, such as it was, which endeared the "Y"

girls to the doughboys as a lot. It was the genuine womanly friendliness

of those girls.

The writer will never forget the scene at Archangel when the American

soldiers left for Economia where the ship was to take them to America.

Genuine were the affectionate farewells of the people--men, women and

children; and genuine were the responses of the soldiers to those

pitiable people. Our Miss Dickerson, of the Y. W. C. A. Hostess House,

was surrounded by a tearful group of Russian High School girls who had

been receiving instruction in health, sanitation and other social

betterments and catching the American Young Women's Christian

Association vision of usefulness to the sick, ignorant and unhappy ones

of the community. Around her they gathered, a beautiful picture of

feminine grief in its sweet purity of girlish tears, and at the same

time a beautiful picture of promising hope for the future of Russia when

all of that long-suffering people may be reached by our tactful

Christian women.

In this connection now I think of the conversation with our Miss Taylor

the last Sunday we were in Economia. She and Miss Dunham were staying on

in Archangel hoping to get permission to go into the interior of the

country again. And it is reported that they did. She said to me:

"Wherever you can, back home among Christian people, tell them that

these poor people here in Russia have had their religious life so torn

up by this strife that now they long for teachers to come and help them

to regain a religious expression."

A prominent worker among the College Y. M. C. A.'s in America, "Ken"

Hollinshead, who was a "Y" secretary far up on the Dvina River in the

long, cold, desperate winter, also caught the vision of the needs of the

Russian people who had been Rasputinized and Leninized out of the faith

of their fathers and were pitifully like sheep without a shepherd. He

remarked to the writer that when the Bolshevist nightmare is over in

Russia, he would like to go back over there and help them to revive what

was vital and essential in their old faith and to improve it by showing

them the American way of combining cleanliness with godliness, education

with creed-holding, work with piety.

Can the Russians be educated? The soldiers know that many a veteran

comrade of theirs in the war was an Americanized citizen. He had in a

very few years in America gained a fine education. The general reader of

this page may look about him and discover examples for himself. Last

winter in a little church in Michigan the writer found the people

subscribing to the support of a citizen of the city who, a Russian by

birth, came to this country to find work and opportunity. He was drawn

into the so-called mission church in the foreign settlement of the city,

learned to speak and read English, caught a desire for education, is

well-educated and now with his American bride goes to Russia on a

Christian mission, to labor for the improvement of his own nation. He is

to be supported by that little congregation of American people who have

a vision of the kind of help Russia needs from our people.

Another story may be told. When the writer saw her first in Russia, she

was the centre of interest on the little community entertainment hall

dance floor. She had the manner of a lady trying to make everyone at

ease. American soldiers and Russian soldiers and civil populace had

gathered at the hall for a long program--a Russian drama, soldier

stunts, a raffle, a dance which consisted of simple ballet and folk

dances. The proceeds of the entertainment were to go toward furnishing

bed linen, etc., for the Red Cross Hospital being organized by the

school superintendent and his friends for the service of many wounded

men who were falling in the defense of their area.

She was trim of figure and animated of countenance. Her hair was dressed

as American women attractively do theirs. Her costume was dainty and her

feet shod in English or American shoes. We could not understand a word

of her Russian tongue but were charmed by its friendly and well-mannered

modulations. We made inquiries about her. She was the wife of a man who,

till the Bolsheviki drove the "intelligenza" out, had been a professor

in an agricultural school of a high order. Now they were far north,

seeking safety in their old peasant city and she was doing stenographer

duty in the county government office.

We often mused upon the transformation. Only a few years before she had

been as one of the countless peasant girls of the dull-faced,

ill-dressed, red-handed, coarse-voiced type which we had seen

everywhere with tools and implements of drudgery, never with things of

refinement, except, perhaps, when we had seen them spinning or weaving.

And here before us was one who had come out from among them, a sight for

weary eyes and a gladness to heavy ears. How had she accomplished the

metamorphosis? The school had done it, or rather helped her to the

opportunity to rise. She had come to the city-village high school and

completed the course and then with her ability to patter the keys of a

Russian typewriter's thirty-six lettered keyboard, had travelled from

Archangel to Moscow, to Petrograd, to Paris, to complete her education.

And she told the writer one time that she regretted she had not gone to

London and New York before she married the young Russian college

professor.

The school,--the common school and the high school--therein lies the

hope of Russia. What that woman has done, has been done by many another

ambitious Russian girl and will be done by many girls of Russia. Russian

boys and girls if given the advantages of the public school will develop

the Russian nation.

XXXV

"DOBRA" CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL

Description Of Hospital Building--Grateful Memories--Summary Of Medical

And Surgical Cases--Feeding The Convalescents--Care And Entertainment

--Captain Greenleaf Fine Manager.

The American Convalescent Hospital at Archangel, Russia (American

Expeditionary Forces, North Russia), was opened October 1, 1918, in a

building formerly used as a Naval School of Merchant Sailors. A two and

one-half story building, facing the Dvina River and surrounded by about

two acres of land, over one-half of which was covered with an attractive

growth of white birch trees. The entire building, with the exception of

one room, Chief Surgeon's Office, and two smaller rooms, for personnel

of the Chief Surgeon's Office and the Convalescent Hospital, was devoted

to the American convalescent patients and their care. The half story,

eighty-five by eighty-five feet square, over the main building, was used

for drying clothes and as a store room. The building proper was of wood

construction, with two wings (one story) constructed with 24-inch brick

and plaster walls. The floors were wood, the walls smoothly plastered

and the general appearance, inside and outside, attractive.

In addition to the inside latrines, an outside latrine with five seats

and a urinal was built by our men. This latrine contained a heater.

Nearly all the windows, throughout the building, were double sash and

glass and could be opened for sufficient air, dependent upon the outside

temperature. The first floor ceilings were fourteen feet in height,

those on the second floor were twelve feet high. No patient had less

than six hundred cubic feet of air space.

Large brick stoves, one in the smaller and two in the larger rooms,

heavily constructed and lined with fire brick, heated the building. A

wood fire was built in these stoves twice daily, with sufficient heat

being thrown off to produce a comfortable, uniform temperature at all

times. The building was lighted by electricity. The entire building was

rewired by American electricians and extra lights placed as necessary.

The beds were wooden frame with heavy canvas support. These beds were

made by American carpenters. Each patient was supplied with five

blankets.

During the first four months it was necessary for the men to use a

near-by Russian bath-house for bathing. This was done weekly and a

check kept upon the patients. February 1st, 1919, a wing was completed

with a Thresh Disinfector (for blankets and clothing), a wash room and

three showers. A large boiler furnished hot water at all hours. The

construction of this building was begun November 1st, 1918, but

inability to obtain a boiler and plumbing materials deferred its

completion. Three women were employed for washing and ironing, and clean

clothing was available at all times.

Water buckets were located on shelves in accessible places throughout

the building for use in case of fire. Each floor had a hose attachment.

Two fires from overheated stoves were successfully extinguished without

injury to patients or material damage to the building. The main floors

were scrubbed daily with a two per cent creosole solution, the entire

floor space every other day. All rooms contained sufficient box

cuspidors filled with sawdust.

The kitchen contained a large brick stove and ovens and this, in

conjunction with a smaller stove on the second floor, could be utilized

to prepare food for three hundred men. Bartering with the Russians was

permitted. By this means, as well as comforts supplied by the American

Red Cross, such as cocoa, chocolate, raisins, condensed milk, honey,

sugar, fruit (dried and canned), oatmeal, corn meal, rice, dates and egg

powder, a well balanced diet was maintained throughout the winter.

Semi-monthly reports of all exchanges, by bartering, were forwarded to

Headquarters. The usual mess kits and mess line were employed. The large

dining and recreation room had sufficient tables and benches to seat all

patients. Boiled drinking water was accessible at all times. During the

eight months the Hospital has been operating, over 3,872 pounds of

grease, 2,138 pounds of bones and 8,460 pounds of broken and stale bread

have been bartered with Russian peasants. In return, besides eggs, fish,

veal and other vegetables over 32,600 pounds (902 poods) of potatoes

have been received. Accompanying this report is a statement (a) of

British rations (one week issue), (b) a statement of food barter (17

days) and (c) the menu for one week.

The large room, facing the river, twenty-eight feet by sixty-one feet,

was available for mess hall, recreation and entertainments. The space,

twenty-eight feet by twenty-one feet, was separated by a projecting wall

and pillars and contained a victrola and records, a piano, a library

(one hundred fifty books furnished by the American Red Cross, exchanged

at intervals), a magazine rack, reading table, machine guns and rack, a

bulletin board and several comfortable chairs made by convalescents. A

portable stage for entertainments was placed in this space when

required. A complete set of scenery with flies and curtains was

presented by the American Red Cross. In the center of the room a

regulation boxing ring could be strung, the benches and tables being so

arranged as to form an amphitheatre. The entire room could be cleared

for dancing. At one end was a movie screen and in the adjoining room a

No. 6 Powers movie machine which was obtained from the American Y. M. C.

A. and installed December 5th, 1918.

During the winter the following entertainments were given:

Vaudeville              5

Boxing exhibitions      4

Lectures                4

Minstrel shows          2

Dances                 10

Musical entertainments  6

Russian                 3

English                 2

Band concert            1

Kangaroo court          1

A twelve-piece orchestra from the 339th Infantry band furnished music

for the dances as well as occasionally during Sunday dinners. Each

Wednesday and Sunday nights moving pictures were shown. These included a

number of war films showing operations on the Western Front and

productions of Fairbanks, Farnum, Billy Burke, Eltinge, Hart, Mary

Pickford, Kerrigan, Arbuckle, Bunny and Chaplin. During May baseballs,

gloves and bats have been supplied by the American Y. M. C. A. Sunday

afternoons religious services were conducted by chaplains of the

American Force.

Canteen supplies, consisting of chocolate, stick candy, gum, cigars,

cigarettes, smoking and chewing tobacco, toilet soap, tooth paste,

canned fruits (pineapple, pears, cherries, apricots, peaches) and canned

vegetables could be purchased from the Supply Company, 339th Infantry.

These supplies were drawn on the first of each month and furnished the

men at cost.

The personnel consisted of Capt. C. A. Greenleaf, Commanding Officer,

Medical Corps; an officer from the Supply Company, 339th Infantry

(charge of equipment); two Sergeants, Medical Corps; three Privates,

Medical Corps. With these exceptions all the details required for the

care and maintenance of the hospital were furnished by men selected from

the convalescent patients.

It took seventy-six men every day for the various kitchen, cleaning,

clerical and guard details and in addition other details from

convalescent patients were made as follows: Six patrols of ten men each,

each patrol in charge of a non-commissioned officer and three sections

of machine gunners were always prepared for an emergency. Guards were

furnished for Headquarters building. Two type-setters and one

proof-reader reported for work, daily, at the office of The American

Sentinel (a weekly publication for the American troops). Typists,

stenographers and clerks were furnished different departments at

Headquarters as required. Orderlies, kitchen police and cooks were

furnished to the American Red Cross Hospital and helpers to American Red

Cross Headquarters. This was light work always which was conducive to

the convalescence of the men.

Captain Greenleaf always managed to care for all patients. On January

18th, 1919, a ward was opened at Olga Barracks which accommodated

twenty-five patients. These patients were rationed by Headquarters

Company and reported for sick call at the infirmary located in the same

building.

On March 11th, 1919, an Annex was opened at Smolny Barracks with eighty

beds. For this purpose a barracks formerly occupied by enlisted men was

remodelled. New floors were put in, the entire building sheathed on the

inside, rooms constructed for office and sick call and a kitchen in

which a new stove and ovens were built. This Annex was operated from the

Convalescent Hospital, one Sergeant, Medical Corps, and two Privates,

Medical Corps, were detailed to this building. Details from the patients

operated the mess and took care of the building. Supplies were sent

daily from the hospital to the Annex and the mess was of the same

character.

On April 28th, 1919, three tents were erected in the yard of the

Hospital. Plank floors were built, elevated on logs and these

accommodated thirty-six patients. On April 28th, 1919, with the

Hospital, Annex and tents two hundred eight-two patients could be

accommodated. This number represents the maximum Convalescent Hospital

capacity, during its existence and was sufficient for the requirements

of the American Forces. The ward at Olga Barracks was only used for a

few weeks.

During April eighty-two patients were discharged from the Convalescent

Hospital and sent to Smolny Barracks for "Temporary Light Duty at Base."

The Convalescent Hospital was the best place, bar none, in Russia, to

eat in winter of 1918-19. The commanding officer was fortunate to have

as a patient the mess sergeant of Company "D." That resourceful doughboy

took the rations issued by the British and by systematic bartering with

the natives he built up a famous mess. Below is a verbatim extract from

Captain Greenleaf's report.

BARTER RETURN

Period: 17 days--from March 27th, 1919, to April 14th. 1919

COMMODITIES BARTERED

Bread, stale

372 lbs.

Bread, pieces of

403

Grease

365 lbs.

Bones

331 lbs.

Beans

425 lbs.

Peas

156 lbs.

Rice

746 lbs.

Dates

25 lbs.

Bacon

678 lbs.

Lard

960 lbs.

Sugar

274 lbs.

Jam

56 lbs.

Pea Soup

318 pkgs.

Limejuice

3 cases

COMMODITIES RECEIVED IN RETURN

Potatoes

5281 lbs.

Carrots

133 lbs.

Cabbage

339.5 lbs.

Turnips

851 lbs.

Onions

200 lbs.

Veal

938 lbs.

Liver

76.5 lbs.

Eggs

198

The menu for the week of April 20-26, inclusive, was as follows:

APRIL 20--SUNDAY

BREAKFAST

Boiled eggs

Fried bacon

Oatmeal and milk

Bread and butter Coffee.

DINNER

Roast veal and gravy

Mashed potatoes

Sage dressing

Stewed tomatoes

Apple pie

Mixed pickles

Bread and butter

Coffee.

SUPPER

Roast beef

Potato salad

Lemon cake

Bread and jam

Cocoa.

APRIL 21--MONDAY

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal and milk

Fried bacon

Wheatcakes and syrup

Bread and jam

Coffee.

DINNER

Steaks

Creamed potatoes

Cabbage, fried

Bread and butter

Peach pudding

Coffee.

SUPPER

Beef stew

Fried cakes

Bread and butter

Tea.

APRIL 22--TUESDAY

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal and milk

Fried bacon

Bread and jam

Coffee.

DINNER

Roast mutton

Baked potatoes

Mashed turnips

Bread and butter

Chocolate pudding

Coffee.

SUPPER

Hamburger steak

Boiled potatoes

Stewed dates

Bread and butter

Coffee.

APRIL 23--WEDNESDAY

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal and milk

Fried bacon

Bread and jam

Coffee.

DINNER

Roast beef

Mashed potatoes

Creamed peas

Bread and butter

Bread pudding

Coffee.

SUPPER

Mutton chops

Boiled potatoes

Bread and butter

Chocolate cake

Coffee.

APRIL 24--THURSDAY

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal and milk

Fried bacon

Bread and jam

Coffee.

DINNER

Roast beef

Escalloped potatoes

Baked turnips

Bread and butter

Rice pudding

Coffee.

SUPPER

Mutton stew

Rolls and jam

Tea.

APRIL 25--FRIDAY

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal and milk

Fried bacon

Wheatcakes and syrup

Bread and jam

Coffee.

DINNER

Steaks

Boiled potatoes

Creamed onions

Bread and butter

Fruit pudding, cherry

Coffee.

SUPPER

Hamburger steak

Boiled potatoes

Stewed apricots

Bread and butter

Coffee.

APRIL 26--SATURDAY

BREAKFAST

Rice and milk

Fried bacon

Bread and butter

Coffee.

DINNER

Roast beef

Creamed potatoes

Baked beans

Bread and butter

Chocolate pudding

Coffee.

SUPPER

Vegetable stew

Stewed prunes

Bread and butter

Tea.

To the doughboy, who that week in April was eating his bully and

hardtack in the forest at Kurgomin or Khalmogora or Bolsheozerki or

Chekuevo or Verst 448, this menu seems like a fairy tale, but he knows

that the boys who had fought on the line and fallen before Bolo fire or

fallen ill with the hardship strain, were entitled to every dainty and

luxury that was afforded by the dobra convalescent hospital.

From October 1st, 1918, to June 12th, 1919, this American Convalescent

Hospital served eleven hundred and eighty out of the fifty-five hundred

Americans of the expeditionary force. From Captain Greenleaf's official

report the following facts of interest are presented.

Of infectious and epidemic diseases there were two hundred and forty-six

cases of which four were mumps, one hundred and sixty-seven were

influenza and the remainder complications which resulted from influenza.

The pneumonia cases developed early. One man reported from guard duty,

developed a rapidly involving pneumonia which soon became general and

culminated in death within twenty-four hours. The best results followed

the use of Dovers powder and quinine,--alternation two and one-half

grains of Dovers with five grains of quinine every two hours, five to

ten grains of Dovers being given at bedtime. Expectorants were given as

required. Very little stimulation was necessary. Many of these cases,

after the acute symptoms subsided, showed a persistent tachycardia which

continued for some days and in a few cases (seven) became chronic. In

these cases medication proved of little benefit, rest and a proper diet

being the most efficacious treatment. Patients convalescing from

pneumonia were evacuated to England or given Base Duty.

Of tuberculosis there were only thirteen cases which were as far as

possible isolated. Of venereal cases there were only one hundred and

seventy-four. They had received treatment in British 53rd Stationary

Hospital, and came to the American Convalescent hospital simply for

re-equipment. Nearly all were immediately discharged to duty.

Of nervous diseases there were nineteen cases, all of which were

neuritis except two cases of paralysis. Of mental diseases and defects

there were only fourteen. This is a remarkable showing when we consider

the strain of the strange, long, dark winter campaign, and of these

fourteen cases six were mental deficiency that were not detected by the

experts at time of enlistment and induction, three were hysteria, two

neurasthenia, and three psychasthenia. Here let us add that there was

only one case of suicide and one case of attempted suicide.

There were eighteen eye cases and nineteen ear cases, three nose, and

eighteen of the throat. Of the circulatory system the total was

sixty-eight of which twenty-two were heart trouble and thirty-one

hemorrhoids brought on by exposure.

There were eighty respiratory cases, ninety-three digestive cases, of

which sixteen were appendicitis and thirty-two were hernia. Of

genito-urinary, which were non-venereal, there were twenty cases. Of

skin diseases there were thirty-nine. Scabies was the only skin lesion

which has been common among the troops. Warm baths and sulphur ointment

were used with excellent results.

From exposure there were one hundred and one cases of bones and

locomotion. Trench feet were bad to treat. From external causes there

were two hundred and fifty-five cases. Of these two were burns, two

dislocation, twenty-six severe frost bite cases, two exhaustion from

exposure, twenty-three fractures and sprains, and two hundred wound

cases. Many severely wounded were sent to Hospital ship "Kalyon," and

many were evacuated to Base Section Three in England and only the

convalescent wounded, of course, came to the dobra convalescent

hospital.

The following is Capt. Greenleaf's summary:

Patients

1180

Hospital days, actual

17048

Hospital days, per patient

14.45

Hospital days, awaiting evacuation

11196

Hospital days, per patient

9.49

Hospital days, special duty

7273

Hospital days, per patient

6.16

Hospital days, total

35517

Hospital days, per patient

30.10

NOTE--This table is made out in this manner for several reasons. In the

first place evacuation lists were submitted to the Chief Surgeon each

Friday, containing a list of those patients who were unfit for further

front line duty in Russia. Lack of transportation and the long delays in

completing the evacuations should not be charged to actual hospital

days. Again it was necessary, under the conditions and owing to the fact

that the hospital was dependent upon patients for its existence, that

men be selected who were competent to have charge of certain work. A

most efficient mess sergeant and competent cooks were selected. The men

to have charge of the heating system and boilers were chosen. Good

interpreters were held. And many cases in which a competent man entered

as a patient, who was skillful in certain work, that man was held

indefinitely, for the good of the service and the hospital. In this

summary these cases have been listed as hospital days, special duty.

DISPOSITION OF PATIENTS IN AMERICAN CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL

EVACUATED TO ENGLAND

October 27, 1918

46

December 6, 1918

56

December 27, 1918

10

January 24, 1919

7

February 24, 1919

15

June 1, 1919

183

Total

317

DISCHARGED TO AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL

For surgical attention   24

For medical attention    18

DISCHARGED TO BRITISH HOSPITALS

For special treatment    13

DISCHARGED TO DUTY      808

The medical care of our comrades was as well-looked after as possibly

could be in North Russia. All patients were examined, when they entered

the hospital and classified. They were marked,--no duty, light duty

inside, light duty outside, light duty sitting, or light duty not

involving the use of right (or left) arm. A record, showing their

organization, company, rank, duty, diagnosis, date of admission, source

of admission, room and bed, was made. Their business in private life was

considered and they were assigned to work compatible with their

training. Any medication they might need was prescribed. Owing to lack

of bottles patients reported for medicine four times daily and a record

was thus kept of dosage. Patients were examined weekly and

re-classified. Sick call was held, daily, at 8:30 a. m., at which time

patients requiring special attention, reported and also, surgical

dressings were applied.

The last patient was discharged to duty June 12th, 1919. We know that

the one thousand one hundred and eighty men who passed through that

hospital join the writers in saying that, considering conditions, the

convalescent hospital was a wonder.

XXXVI

AMERICAN RED CROSS IN NORTH RUSSIA

American Red Cross On Errands Of Mercy Precede Troops--Summary Of Aid

Given People--Aid And Comforts Freely Given American Troops

--Summary--Commendatory Words Of General Richardson--Our Weekly

"Sentinel" Put Out By Red Cross--Returned Men Strong For American Red

Cross Work In North Russia.

Even before the question of American participation in the Allied

expedition to North Russia had been decided upon, the American Red Cross

had dispatched a mission of thirteen persons, with four thousand two

hundred tons of food and medicine, for the relief of the civilian

population. When, shortly thereafter, a considerable detachment of

American doughboys, engineers and ambulance corps troops were landed,

the Red Cross had the nucleus of an organization to provide for the

needs of our soldiers as well as for the civilian population.

A report, made public here by the American Red Cross on its work in

North Russia, gives an interesting picture of conditions on our Arctic

battle front during the war. The food situation among the civilian

population was acute. With the city swollen in population through a

steady influx of refugees, few fresh supplies were coming in and hoarded

supplies were rapidly diminishing. Coarse bread and fish were staple

articles of food, and there was a grave shortage of clothing.

The desperate need for foodstuffs in the regions far north along the

Arctic shores was brought sharply to the attention of the Allied Food

Committee when delegates from Pechora arrived by reindeer teams and

camped at the doors of the committee urging assistance. They brought

samples of the bread they were forced to eat. It was made of a small

quantity of white flour mixed with ground-up dried fish. Other samples

which were shown were made from immature frostbitten rye grain, and a

third was composed of a small quantity of white flour mixed with

reindeer moss. A small quantity of rye flour mixed with chopped coarse

straw, was the basis of a fourth example.

Much attention was devoted by the Red Cross to caring for school

children and orphans. Over two million hot lunches were distributed,

during a period of a few months, to three hundred and thirty schools

with twenty thousand pupils. Every orphanage in the district was

outfitted with the things it needed and received a regular fortnightly

issue of food supplies. Over twenty thousand suits of underwear were

given out to refugees. To provide for the many persons separated from

their families or from employment on account of the war, the Red Cross

established a regular free employment agency.

The writer recalls having seen in Pinega in February men who had left

their Petchora homes eight months before to go to Archangel for the

precious flour provided by the American Red Cross. The civil war had

made transportation slow and extremely hazardous.

Expeditions were constantly sent out from Archangel to various points

with supplies of food, clothing, and medicaments. The most extensive of

the civilian relief enterprises undertaken by the Red Cross Mission to

Russia was the sending of a boat from Archangel to Kern with a cargo of

fifty-five tons. This was distributed either by the Red Cross officials

themselves or by responsible local authorities.

Food rations and clothing were given to three hundred destitute families

in Archangel which, upon careful investigation, were found to be

deserving. Housing conditions were improved and clothing, which had been

salvaged from sunken steamers and lay idle in the customs house, was

dried and distributed.

Besides supplying all Russian civilian hospitals in and around Archangel

regularly with medicine, sheets, blankets, pillows and food rations, the

Red Cross opened up a Red Cross hospital in Archangel, which was finally

turned over to the local government to be used as a base hospital for

the Russian army. Red Cross medicines are credited with having checked

the serious influenza epidemic and with having worked against its

recurrence.

Medicaments worth one million roubles were sent by the Red Cross to the

various district zemstvos. Russian prisoners of war, returning from

Germany through the Bolshevik lines to North Russia, were also taken

care of.

Work among the American soldiers in North Russia was thorough and

effective. The daily ration was supplemented and many American soldiers

received from the Red Cross quantities of rolled oats, sugar, milk, and

rice, besides all the regular Red Cross comforts, including cigarettes,

stationery, chewing gum, athletic goods, playing cards, toilet articles,

phonographs, sweaters, socks, blankets, etc.

Supplies were sent as regularly as possible to the troops on the line,

generally in the face of apparently insurmountable transportation

difficulties. Units of troops, even in the most inaccessible and out of

the way places, were visited by Red Cross workers, occasionally at great

danger to their lives.

With the assistance of the Red Cross The American Sentinel, a weekly

newspaper, was printed and distributed among the troops and did much to

keep up their morale. One of the last acts performed by the Red Cross

for the American Expeditionary Forces in Archangel was to help and speed

to their new homes eight war brides.

The veteran of the North Russian expedition will never look at his old

knit helmet or wristlets, scarf, or perhaps eat a rare dish of rolled

oats, or bite off a chew of plug, or listen to a certain piece on the

graphaphone, or look at a Red Cross Christmas Seal without a warm

feeling under his left breast pocket for the American Red Cross.

PRIMM

View of Archangel in Summer.

U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

General Ironside Inspecting Doughboys.

U S OFFICIAL PHOTO (159488)

Burial of Lieut. Clifford Phillips.

XXXVII

CAPTIVE DOUGHBOYS IN BOLSHEVIKDOM

Doughboy Captives Still Coming Out Of Red Russia--Red Cross Starts

Prisoner Exchange In Archangel Area--White Flag Incidents In No Man's

Land--Remarkable Picture Taken--Men Who Were Liberated--Sergeant

Leitzell's Gripping Story Of Their Captivity.

In August, 1920, came out of Bolshevik Russia, as startlingly as though

from the grave, Corp. Prince of "B" Company, who had been wounded and

captured at Toulgas, March 1, 1919. This leads to our story of the

captives in Bolshevikdom. One of the interesting incidents of the spring

defensive was the exchange of prisoners. It was brought about quite

largely through the efforts of the American Red Cross, which was very

anxious to try to get help to the Americans still in interior Russia,

especially the prisoners of war. When the Bolsheviki captured the Allied

men at Bolsheozerki in March they took a British chaplain, who pleaded

that he was a non-combatant and belonged to a fraternal order whose

principles were similar to the Soviet principles. Thinking they had a

convert, the Soviet Commissar gave Father Roach his freedom and sent him

through the lines at the railroad front in April.

News was brought back by Father Roach that many American and British and

French prisoners were at Moscow or on their way to Moscow.

Accordingly, the American Red Cross was instrumental in prevailing upon

the military authorities to open white flag conversations at the front

line in regard to a possible exchange of prisoners. A remarkable

photograph is included in this volume of that first meeting. One or two

other meetings were not quite so formal. At one time the excited Bolos

forgot their own men and the enemy who were parleying in the middle of

No Man's Land, and started a lively artillery duel with the French

artillery. At another time the Americans' Russian Archangel Allies got

excited and fired upon the Bolshevik soldiers who were sitting under a

white flag on the railroad track watching the American captain come

towards them. Happy to say, there were no casualties by this mistake.

But it sure was a ticklish undertaking for the Americans themselves

later in the day to walk out under a flag of truce to explain the

mistake and inquire about the progress of the prisoners exchange

conversations going on. At Vologda, American, British and French

officers were guests of the Bolshevik authorities. Their return was

expected and came during the first week of May.

One American soldier, Pvt. Earl Fulcher, of "H" Company, and one French

soldier were brought back and in exchange for them four former Bolshevik

officers were given. Report was brought that other soldiers were being

given their freedom by the Bolshevik government and were going out by

way of Petrograd and Viborg, Finland. It was learned that some American

soldiers were in hospital under care of the Bolshevik medical men. Every

effort was made by military authorities in North Russia to clear up the

fate of the many men who had been reported missing in action and missing

after ambush by the Reds who cut off an occasional patrol of Americans

or British or French soldiers.

But the Bolshevik military authorities were unable to trace all of their

prisoners. In the chaos of their organization it is not surprising. We

know that our own War Department lost Comrade Anthony Konjura, Company

"A" 310th Engineers, while he was on his way home from Russia, wounded,

on the hospital ship which landed him in England. There his mother went

and found him in a hospital. An American sergeant whose story appears in

this volume, says that while he was in Moscow six British soldiers were

luckily discovered by the Red authorities in a foul prison where they

had been lost track of. Even as this book goes to press we are still

hoping that others of our own American comrades and of our allies will

yet come to life out of Russia and be restored to their own land and

loved ones.

Corporal Arthur Prince, of "B" Company, who was ambushed and wounded and

captured in March, 1919, at Toulgas was, finally in August, 1920,

released from hospital and prison in Russia and crippled and sick joined

American troops in Germany. His pluck and stamina must have been one

hundred per cent to stand it all those long seventeen months. His

comrade, Herbert Schroeder, of "B" Company, who was captured on the 21st

of September, has never been found. His comrades still hope that he was

the American printer whom the Reds declared was printing their

propaganda in English for them at Viatka.

Comrade George Albers, "I" Company, in November, 1918, was on a lone

observation post at the railroad front. A Bolo reconnaissance patrol

surprised and caught him. He was the American soldier who was shown to

the comrades at Kodish on the river bridge after Armistice Day. He was

afterward sent on to Moscow and went out with others to freedom. With

him went out Comrades Walter Huston and Mike Haurlik of "C" Company, who

had been taken prisoners in action on November 29th near Ust Padenga on

the same day that gallant Cuff and his ten men were trapped and all were

killed or captured. These two men survived. In this liberated party was

also Comrade Anton Vanis, of Company "D" who was lost in the desperate

rear guard action at Shegovari. Also came Comrade William R. Schuelke,

"H" Company, who had been given up for dead. And in the party was Merle

V. Arnold, American "Y" man, who had been captured in March at

Bolsheozerki. Six of our allied comrades, Royal Scots, came out with the

party. These men all owed their release chiefly to the efforts of Mr. L.

P. Penningroth, of Tipton, Iowa, Secretary of the Prisoners-of-War

Release Station in Copenhagen, who secured the release of the men by

going in person to Moscow.

With the return of Comrade Schuelke we learn that he was one of the "H"

Company patrol under Corporal Collins which was ambushed near

Bolsheozerki, March 17th. One of his comrades, August Peterson, died

April 12th in a Bolshevik hospital. His Corporal, Earl Collins, was in

the same hospital severely wounded. His fate is still unknown but

doubtless he is under the mossy tundra. His comrade, Josef Romatowski,

was killed in the ambush, comrade John Frucce was liberated via Finland

and his comrade, Earl Fulcher, as we have seen, was exchanged on the

railroad front in May.

On March 31st two other parties of Americans were caught in ambush by

the Reds who had surrounded the Verst 18 Force near Bolsheozerki.

Mechanic Jens Laursen of "M" Company was captured along with Father

Roach and the British airplane man wounded in the action which cost also

the life of Mechanic Dial of "M" Company. And at the same time another

party going from the camp toward Obozerskaya consisting of Supply

Sergeant Glenn Leitzell and Pvt. Freeman Hogan of "M" Company together

with Bryant Ryal, a "Y" man, going after supplies, were captured by the

Reds. These men were all taken to Moscow and later liberated. Their

story has been written up in an interesting way by Comrade Leitzell. It

fairly represents the conditions under which those prisoners of war in

Bolshevikdom suffered till they were liberated:

"On March 31st, 1919, at 8:30 a. m. I left the front lines with a

comrade, Freeman Hogan, and a Russian driver, on my way back to

Obozerskaya for supplies. About a quarter of a verst, 500 yards, from

our rear artillery, we were surprised by a patrol of Bolos, ten or

twelve in number, who leaped out of the snowbanks and held us up at the

point of pistols, grenades and rifles. Then they stripped us of our arms

and hurried us off the road and into the woods. To our great surprise we

were joined by Mr. Ryal, the Y. M. C. A. Secretary who had been just

ahead of us.

"At once they started us back to their lines with one guard in front,

three in the rear and three on snow skiis on each side of the freshly

cut trail in the deep snow. We knew from the signs and from the fire

fight that soon followed that a huge force of the Reds were in rear of

our force. After seven versts through the snow we reached the village of

Bolsheozerki. On our arrival we were met by a great many Bolsheviks who

occupied the villages in tremendous numbers. Some tried to beat us with

sticks and cursed and spat on us as we were shoved along to the

Bolshevik commander.

"One of the camp loiterer's scowling eyes caught sight of the sergeant's

gold teeth. His cupidity was aroused. Raising his brass-bound old

whipstock he struck at the prisoner's mouth to knock out the shining

prize. But the prisoner guard saved the American soldier from the blow

by shoving him so vigorously that he sprawled in the snow while the

heavy whip went whizzing harmlessly past the soldier's ear. The Bolo

sleigh driver swore and the prisoner guard scowled menacingly at the

brutal but baffled comrade. The American soldiers needed no admonitions

of skora skora to make them step lively toward the Red General's

headquarters.

"One of the first things we saw on our arrival was a Russian sentry who

had gone over from our lines. They demanded our blouses and fur caps,

also our watches and rings. In a little while we saw three others

arrive--Father Roach of the 17th King's Company of Liverpool and Private

Stringfellow of the Liverpools, also Mechanic Jens Laursen of our own

"M" Company who had escaped death in the machine gun ambush that had

killed his comrade Mechanic Dial and driver and horse. Later Lieut.

Tatham of the Royal Air Force came in with a shattered arm. His two

companions and the sleigh drivers had been mortally wounded and left by

the Bolsheviks on the road.

"After that we had our interview with a Bolshevik Intelligence Officer

who tried to get information from us. But he got no information from us

as we pleaded that we were soldiers of supply and were not familiar with

the details of the scheme of defense. And it worked. He sent us away

under guard, who escorted us in safety through the camp to a shack.

"Here we were billetted in a filthy room with a lot of Russian

prisoners, some the survivors of the defense of Bolsheozerki and some

the recalcitrants or suspected deserters from the Bolo ranks. We were

given half of a salt fish, a lump of sour black bread and some water for

our hunger. On the bread we had to use an ax as it was frozen. We

managed to thaw some of it out and wash it down with water. After this

we stretched in exhaustion on the floor and slept off the day and night

in spite of the constant roar of Bolo guns and the bursting of shells

that were coming from our camp at Verst 18. By that sign we knew the

Bolo had not overpowered our comrades by his day's fighting. It was the

only comforting thought we had as we pulled the dirty old rags about us

that the Reds had given us in exchange for our overcoats and blouses,

and went to sleep.

"We woke up in the morning midst the roar of a redoubled fight. A fine

April Fool's Day we thought. We were stiff and sore and desperately

hungry. But our breakfast was the remainder of the fish and sour bread.

Later the guard relieved us of some of our trinkets and pocket money,

after which they gave us our rations for the day, consisting of a half

can of horse meat, a salt fish, and twelve ounces of black bread.

"Then we were taken to see the General commanding this huge force. He

gave us a cigarette, which was very acceptable as we were quite

unnerved, not knowing what would happen to us afterwards if we gave no

more information than we had the day before. He tried to impress us by

taking his pistol and pointing out on a map of the area just where his

troops were that day surrounding our comrades in the beleagured camp in

the woods at Verst 18 on the road, as well as many versts beyond them

cutting a trail through the deep snow to the very railroad in rear of

Obozerskaya. He boasted that his forces that day would crush the

opposing force and he would move upon Obozerskaya and go up and down the

railroad and clear away every obstacle as he had done in the Upper Vaga

Valley, where he boasted he had driven the Allied troops from Shenkursk

and pursued them for over sixty miles. Then he informed us that we were

to be sent as prisoners to Moscow.

"Later in the morning we were started south toward Emtsa on foot. We

could hear the distant cannonading on the 445 front as we marched along

during the day on the winter trail which if it had been properly

patrolled by the French and Russians would not have permitted the

surprise flank march in force by this small army that menaced the whole

Vologda force. Our thirty-five verst march that day and night--for we

walked till 10:00 p. m.--was made more miserable by the thought that our

comrades were up against a far greater force than they dreamed, as was

evidenced to us by the hordes of men we had seen in Bolsheozerki and the

transportation that filled every verst of the trail from the south. We

made temporary camp in a log hut along the road, building a roaring fire

outside. We would sleep a half hour and then go outside the hut to thaw

out by the fire, and so on through the wretched night.

"At 4:00 a. m. we started again our footsore march, after a fragment of

black bread and a swallow of water, and walked twenty-seven versts to

Shelaxa, the Red concentration camp. Here we underwent a minute search.

All papers were taken for examination. Our American money was returned

to us, as was later a check on a London bank which one of my officers

had given me. I secreted it and some money so well in a waist belt that

later I had the satisfaction of cashing the check in Sweden into kronen

in King Gustave's Royal Bank in Stockholm. After a meal of salt fish and

black bread fried in fish oil, and some hot water to drink, we were

given an hour's rest and then started on the road again to Emtsa,

twenty-four versts away, reaching that railroad point at midnight. Here

we were brought before the camp commandant who roughly stripped us of

all our clothes except our breeches and gave us the Bolshevik underwear

and ragged outer garments that they had discarded. And buddies who have

seen Bolo prisoners come into our lines can imagine how bad a discarded

Bolo coat or undershirt must be. After this we were locked up in a box

car with no fire and three guards over us.

"Next morning, April 3rd, the car door was opened and the Bolshevik

soldiers made angry demonstrations toward us and were kept out only by

our guards' bayonets. We were fed some barley wash and the rye bread

which tasted wonderful after the previous food. I paid a British

two-shilling piece which I had concealed in my shoe to a guard to get me

a tin to put our food in, and we made wooden spoons. That night we were

lined up against the car and asked if we knew that we were going to be

shot. But this event, I am happy to say, never took place. We went by

train to Plesetskaya that day. Father Roach was taken to the

commandant's quarters and we did not see him till the next day, when he

told us he had enjoyed a fine night's sleep and expected to be sent back

across the lines and would take messages to our comrades to let them

know we were alive and on our way to Moscow."

It is interesting to note that the American Sergeant's insistence that

he and his companions be given bath and means to shave, won the respect

and assistance of the guard and the Bolshevik officer. Of course in

making the two day's march in prisoner convoy from Bolsheozerki to Emtsa

there had been severe hardship and privation and painful uncertainty and

mental agony over their possible fate. And they had not stopped long

enough in one place to enable them to make an appeal for fair treatment.

Imagine the three American soldiers and the "Y" man and the two British

soldiers sitting disconsolately in a filthy taplooshka, hands and faces

with three days and nights of grime and dirt, scratching themselves

under their dirty rags, cussing the active cooties that had come with

the shirts, and trying to soothe their itching bewhiskered faces. Here

the resourceful old sergeant keenly picked out the cleanest one of the

guards and approached him with signs and his limited Russki gavareet and

made his protest at being left dirty. He won out. The soldier horoshawed

several times and seechassed away to return a few minutes later with a

long Russian blade and a tiny green cake of soap and a tin of hot water.

Under the stimulation of a small silver coin from the sergeant's store

he assumed the role of barber and smoothed up the faces of the whole

crowd of prisoners. And then followed the trip under guard to the

steaming bath-house that is such a vivid memory to all soldiers who

soldiered up there under the Arctic Circle. In this connection it may be

related that later on at Moscow the obliging Commissar of the block in

which they were quartered hunted up for them razors and soap and even

found for them tooth brushes and tubes of toothpaste which had been made

in Detroit, U. S. A., and sold to Moscow merchants in a happier time.

"On April 5th we left Plesetskaya, after saying good-bye to the English

Chaplain who seemed greatly pleased that he was to get his freedom and

had his pockets full of Bolshevik propaganda. We reached Naundoma after

a night of terrible cold in the unheated car and during the next two

days on the railway journey to Vologda had nothing to eat. On April 7th

we reached that city and were locked up with about twenty Russians. Here

we got some black bread that seemed to have sand in it and some sour

cabbage soup which we all shared, Russians and all, from a single

bucket. Next day we thought it a real improvement to have a separate tin

and a single wooden spoon for the forlorn group of Americans and

British.

"At Plesetskaya we were questioned very thoroughly by a Russian officer

who spoke English very well and showed marked sympathy toward us and saw

to it that we were better treated, and later in Moscow saw to it that we

had some small favors. In three days' time we were again on the train

for Moscow, travelling in what seemed luxury after our late experience.

The trains to Moscow ran only once a week as there were no materials to

keep up the equipment.

"On our arrival we found the streets sloppy and muddy, with heaps of ice

and snow and dead horses among the rubbish. Few business places were

open, all stores having been looted. Here and there was a semi-illicit

stand where horsemeat, salt fish, carrots or cabbage and parsnips, and

sour milk could be bought on the sly if you had the price. But it was

very little at any price and exceedingly uncertain of appearance. We

were sent to join the other prisoners, French, English, Scotch and

Americans who had preceded us from the front to Moscow. They had tales

similar to ours to tell us.

"The next morning at 10:00 a. m. we were wondering when we would eat.

The answer was: Twelve noon. Cabbage soup headed the menu, then came

dead horse meat, or salt fish if you chose it, black bread and water.

Same menu for supper. We learned that the people of the city fared

scarcely better. All were rationed. The soldiers and officials of the

Bolsheviks fared better than the others. Children were favored to some

extent. But the 'intelligenza' and the former capitalists were in sore

straits. Many were almost starving. Death rate was high. The soldier got

a pound of bread, workmen half a pound, others a quarter of a pound. In

this way they maintained their army. Fight, work for the Red government

or starve. Some argument. Liberty is unknown under the Soviet rule.

Their motto as I saw it is: What is yours is mine.' "

Captivity with all its desperate hardships and baleful uncertainties,

had its occasional brighter thread. The American boys feel especially

grateful to Mr. Merle V. Arnold, of. Lincoln, Nebraska, the American Y.

M. C. A. man who had been captured by the Red Guards a few days

preceding their capture. He was able to do things for them when they

reached Moscow. And when he was almost immediately given his liberty and

allowed to go out through Finland, he did not forget the boys he left

behind. He carried their case to the British and Danish Red Cross and a

weekly allowance of 200 roubles found its way over the belligerent lines

to Moscow and was given to the boys, much to the grateful assistance of

the starving allied prisoners of war.

But they became resourceful as all American soldiers seem to become,

whether at Bakaritza, Smolny, Archangel, Kholmogora, Moscow or wherenot,

and they found ways of adding to their rations. Imagine one of them

lining up with the employees of a Bolo public soup kitchen and going

through ostensibly to do some work and playing

now-you-see-it-now-you-don't-see-it with a dish of salt or a head of

cabbage or a loaf of bread or a chunk of sugar, or when on friendly

terms with the Bolshevik public employees volunteering to help do some

work that led them to where a little money would buy something on the

side at inside employees' prices. Imagine them with their little brass

kettle, stewing it over their little Russian sheet-iron stove, stirring

in their birdseed substitute for rolled oats and potatoes and cabbage

and perhaps a few shreds of as clean a piece of meat as they could buy,

on the sly. See the big wooden spoons travelling happily from pot to

lips and hear the chorus of Dobra, dobra.

They will not ever forget the English Red Cross woman who constantly

looked out for the five Americans, the thirty-five British and fifteen

French prisoners, finding ways to get for them occasional morsels of

bacon and bread and small packages of tea and tobacco. On Easter day she

entertained them all in the old palace of Ivan the Terrible.

How good it was one day to meet an American woman who had eighteen years

before married a Russian in Chicago and come to Moscow to live. Her

husband was a grain buyer for the Bolshevik government but she was a

hater of the Red Rule and gave the boys all the comfort she could, which

was little owing to the surveillance of the Red authorities.

And one day the sergeant met an American dentist who had for many years

been the tooth mechanic for the old Czar and his family. He fixed up a

tooth as best he could for the American soldier. The Reds had about

stripped him but left him his tools and his shop so that he could serve

the Red rulers when their molars and canines needed attention.

The American boys gained the confidence of the Russians in Moscow just

as they had always done in North Russia. They were finally given

permission to participate in the privileges of one of the numerous clubs

that the Red officials furnished up lavishly for themselves in the

palatial quarters of old Moscow. Here they could find literature and

lectures and lounging room and for a few roubles often gained a hot

plate of good soup or a delicacy in the shape of a horse steak. Of

course the latter was always a little dubious to the American doughboy,

for in walking the street he too often saw the poor horse that dropped

dead from starvation or overdriving, approached by the butcher with the

long knife. He merely raised the horse's tail, slashed around the anal

opening of the animal with his blade, then reached in his great arm and

drew out the entrails and cast them to one side for the dogs to growl

and fight over. Later would come the sleigh with axes and other knives

to cut up the frozen carcass. On May day the boys nearly lost their

membership in the club, along with its soup and horse-steak privileges

because they would not march in the Red parade to the gaily decorated

square to hear Lenin speak to his subjects.

Was the Red government able to feed the people by commandeering, the

food? No. At last the peasants gained the sufferance of the Red rulers

to traffic their foodstuffs on the streets even as we have seen them

with handfuls of vegetables on the market streets of Archangel. Prices

were out of sight. Under a shawl in a tiny box, an old peasant woman on

Easter Day was offering covertly a few eggs at two hundred roubles

apiece.

Imagine the feelings of the boys when they walked about freely as they

did, being dressed in the regular Russian long coats and caps and being

treated with courtesy by all Russians who recognized them as Americans.

Here they found themselves looking at the great hotel built on American

lines of architecture to please the eye and shelter the American

travellers of the olden times before the great war, a building now used

by the Red Department of State. Here they were examined by one of

Tchicherin's men upon their arrival in the Red capital. Further they

could walk about the Kremlin, and visit a part of it on special

occasions. They could see the execution block and the huge space laid

out by Ivan the Terrible, where thousands of Russians bled this life

away at the behest of a cruel government.

Or they could stand before the St. Saveur cathedral, a noble structure

of solid marble with glorious murals within to remind the Slavic people

of their unconquerable resistance to the great Napoleon and of his

disastrous retreat from their beloved Moscow.

They cannot be blamed for coming out of Moscow convinced that the heart

of the Slavic people is not in this Bolshevik class hatred and class

dictatorship stuff of Lenin and Trotsky; equally convinced that the

heart of the Russian people is not unfearful of the attempted return of

the old royalist bureaucrats to their baleful power, and convinced that

the heart of this great, courteous, patient, longsuffering Slavic people

is groping for expression of self-government, and that America is their

ideal--a hazy ideal and one that they aspire toward only in general

outlines. Their ultimate self-government may not take the shape of

American constitutionalism, but Russian self-government must in time

come out of the very wrack of foreign and internecine war. And every

American soldier who fought the Bolshevik Russian in arms or stood on

the battle line beside the Archangel Republic anti-Bolshevik Russian,

might join these returned captives from Bolshevikdom in wishing that

there may soon come peace to that land, and that they may develop

self-government.

"We finally received our release. We had known of the liberation of Mr.

Arnold and several of our North Russian comrades and had been hoping for

our turn to come. Mr. Frank Taylor, an Associated Press correspondent,

was helpful to us, declaring to the Bolshevik rulers that American

troops were withdrawing from Archangel. We had been faithful (sic) to

the lectures, for a purpose of dissimulation, and the Red fanatics

really thought we were converted to the silly stuff called bolshevism.

It was plain to us also that they were playing for recognition of their

government by the United States. So we were given passports for Finland.

The propaganda did not deceive us.

"At the border a suspicious sailor on guard searched us. He turned many

back to Petrograd. The train pulled back carrying four hundred women and

children and babies disappointed at the very door to freedom, weeping,

penniless, and starving, starting back into Russia all to suit the whim

of an ignorant under officer. Under the influence of flattery he

softened toward us and after robbing us of everything that had been

provided us by our friends for the journey, taking even the official

papers sent by the Bolshevik government to our government which we were

to deliver to American representatives in Finland, he let us go.

"After he let us go we saw the soldiers in the house grabbing for the

American money which Mr. Taylor had given us. They had not thought it

worth while to take the Russian roubles away from us. Of course they

were of no value to us in Finland. After a two kilometer walk, carrying

a sick English soldier with us, my three comrades and I reached the

little bridge that gave us our freedom."--By Sgt. Glenn W. Leitzell, Co.

M, 339th Inf.

XXXVIII

MILITARY DECORATIONS

In the North Russian Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, American

officers and men fought at one time or another under the field standards

of four nations, American, British, French, and (North) Russian. And for

their valor and greatly meritorious conduct, mostly over and beyond the

call of duty, many soldiers were highly commended by their field

officers, American, French, British, and Russian, in their reports to

higher military authorities. Many, but not all, of these officers and

soldiers were later cited in orders and awarded decorations. Not every

deserving man received a citation. That is the luck of war.

It was a matter of keen regret to the British Commanding General that he

was so hedged by orders from England that his generous policy of

awarding decorations to American soldiers was abruptly ended in

mid-winter when it became apparent that the United States would not

continue the campaign against the Bolsheviki but would withdraw American

troops at the earliest possible moment.

The Russian military authorities were eager to show their appreciation

of their American soldier allies, but due to the indifference of Colonel

Stewart to this not many soldiers were decorated with Russian old army

decorations.

The French decorations were probably the sincerest marks of esteem and

admiration. They were bestowed by French officers who were close to the

doughboy in the field. And they are prized as tokens of the affection of

the French for Americans.

In speaking of American decorations we can hardly write without heat.

The doughboy did not get his just deserts. And he, without doubt, is

correct in placing the blame for the neglect at the door of the American

commanding officer, Colonel Stewart. Men and officers who died

heroically up there in that North Russian campaign, and others who carry

wound scars, and yet others who performed valiantly in that desperate

campaign, went unrewarded.

AMERICAN DECORATIONS

Distinguished Service Cross

BUGLER JAMES F. REVELS, "I" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

Sept. 16th, 1918, Obozerskaya, Russia.

LIEUT. CHARLES F. CHAPPEL, "K" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

Sept. 27th, 1918, Kodish, Russia. (Citation posthumous.)

SGT. MATHEW G. GRAHEK, "M" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

Sept. 29th, 1918, at Verst 458, Obozerskaya, Russia.

SGT. CORNELIUS T. MAHONEY, "K" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

October 16th, 1918, Kodish, Russia.

CORP. ROBERT M. PRATT, "M" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

October 17th, 1918, Verst 445, near Emtsa, Russia.

PVT. VICTOR STIER, "A" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action, January

19th, 1919, Ust Padenga, Russia. (Citation posthumous.)

PVT. LAWRENCE B. KILROY, 337th Ambulance Company, for gallantry in

action, Kodish, Russia.

PVT. HUBERT C. PAUL, 337th Ambulance Company, for gallantry in action,

Kodish, Russia.

LIEUT. CLIFFORD F. PHILLIPS, "H" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in

action, April 2nd, 1919, near Bolsheozerki. (Citation posthumous.)

CORP. THEODORE SIELOFF, "I" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

Nov. 4th, 1918, at Verst 445, near Emtsa, Russia.

PVT. CLARENCE H. ZECH, 337th Ambulance Company, for gallantry in action,

Kodish, Russia.

CORP. WILLIAM H. RUSSELL, "M" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in action,

April 1st, 1919, near Bolsheozerki, Russia. (Citation posthumous.)

PVT. CHESTER H. EVERHARD, 337th Ambulance Company, for gallantry in

action, April 2nd, 1919, near Bolsheozerki, Russia.

LIEUT. HOWARD H. PELLEGROM, "H" Co., 339th Inf., for gallantry in

action, April 2nd, 1919, near Bolsheozerki, Russia.

FRENCH DECORATIONS

Legion of Honor

MAJOR J. BROOKS NICHOLS, 339th Inf.

COL. GEORGE E. STEWART, 339th Inf.

Croix de Guerre

PVT. WALTER STREIT, "M" Co.

SGT. MATHEW G. GRAHEK, "M" Co.

PVT. JAMES DRISCOLL, "M.G." Co.

PVT. CLARENCE A. MILLER, "M" CO.

PVT. ARTHUR FRANK, "M.G." CO.

PVT. LEO R. ELLIS, "I" Co.

LIEUT. JAMES R. DONOVAN, "M" Co. 339th Inf.

SGT. FRANK GETZLOFF, "M" Co.

CORP. C. A. GROBBELL, "I" Co.

LIEUT. GEORGE W. STONER, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. JOHN H. ROMPINEN, "M" Co.

PVT. ALFRED FULLER, "K" Co.

MAJOR MICHAEL J. DONOGHUE, 339th Inf.

LIEUT. CLARENCE J. PRIMM, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. DWIGHT FISTLER, "I" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. CHARLES HEBNER, "M" Co.

PVT. OTTO GEORGIA, "K" Co.

LIEUT. PERCIVAL L. SMITH, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. WESLEY K. WRIGHT, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. GILBERT T. SHILLSON, "K" CO., 339th Inf.

SGT. HARVEY B. PETERSON, "M" Co.

PVT. HERMAN A. SODER, "I" Co.

PVT. THOMAS McELROY, "M" Co.

CORP. BENJAMIN JONDRO, "M" Co.

PVT. TOBIAS LePLANT, "K" Co.

PVT. FRANK RANK, "I" Co.

SGT. CHARLES V. RIHA, "M" Co.

LIEUT. ROBERT J. WIECZOREK, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. WOODHULL SPITLER, "M.G." Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. JOHN P. GRAY, "M" CO.

CAPT. JOSEPH ROSENFELD, 337th Amb.

SGT. JACOB KANTROWITZ, "M" Co.

LIEUT. JOHN J. BAKER, "E" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. CLYDE PETERSON, "K" Co.

CORP. THEODORE H. SIELOFF, "I" Co.

PVT. RAY LAWRENCE, "M" Co.

CAPT. HORATIO G. WINSLOW, "I" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. JOHN C. SMOLINSKI, "I" Co.

PVT. JOHN KUKORIS, "I" Co.

LIEUT. LEWIS E. JAHNS, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

MAJOR J. BROOKS NICHOLS, 339th Inf., Commanding officer Allied troops,

Railway Detachment.

PVT. SAMUEL H. DARRAH, "K" Co.

LIEUT. CHARLES B. RYAN, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. FRANK L. O'CONNOR, "M" Co.

MR. FRANK OLMSTEAD, Y. M. C. A.

PVT. OSCAR LIGHTER, "M" Co.

PVT. ALFRED STARIKOFF, "M" Co.

CORP. ROBERT M. PRATT, "M" Co.

PVT. ERNEST P. ROULEAU, "M" Co.

CAPT. JOEL R. MOORE, "M" Co., 339th Inf. (with silver star, divisional

citation).

BRITISH DECORATIONS

Distinguished Service Order

MAJOR J. BROOKS NICHOLS, 339th Inf.

Commanding officer American and Allied troops, Railway Detachment, fall

offensive and winter and spring defensive campaigns of Vologda Force.

MAJOR MICHAEL J. DONOGHUE, 339th Inf.

Commanding officer American and Allied troops, Kodish offensive in fall

and winter defensive campaigns of the Seletskoe Detachment of Vologda

Force.

CAPTAIN ROBERT P. BOYD, "B" CO., 339th Inf.

Commanding officer American and Allied troops left bank of Dvina, fall

offensive and winter defensive campaigns of Dvina-Kotlas Force.

LIEUT.-COL. P. S. MORRIS, JR., 310th Engineers.

Chief Engineer A. E. F., North Russia, during fall offensive and winter

and spring campaigns.

Military Cross

CAPT. OTTO A. ODJARD, Commanding Officer "A" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. ALBERT M. SMITH, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. LAWRENCE P. KEITH, "M.G." Co. 339th Inf.

LIEUT. GORDON B. REESE, "I" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. HARRY S. STEELE, "C" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. W. C. GIFFELS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. HARRY M. DENNIS, "B" Co. 339th Inf.

LIEUT. JOHN A. COMMONS, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. H. D. McPHAIL, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. CHARLES B. RYAN, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. H. T. KETCHAM, "H" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. HARRY J. COSTELLO, "M.G." Co., 339th Inf. (received his medal

from the hand of the Prince of Wales, in Washington, D. C.)

MAJOR CLARE S. McARDLE, Commanding officer 1st Battalion 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. EDWIN J. STEPHENSON, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. B. A. BURNS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

CAPT. W. O. AXTELL, "B" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. E. W. LEGIER, "C" Co., 310th Engrs.

Distinguished Conduct Medal

SGT. MATHEW G. GRAHEK, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. F. W. WOLFE, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. G. M. WALKER, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. CHAS. J. HAYDEN, "I" Co.,   339th Inf.

CORP. J. C. DOWNS, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. A. V. TIBBALS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

CORP. GEORGE R. YOHE, Signal Platoon, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. WALTER A. SPRINGSTEEN, Signal Platoon, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. JAMES MORROW, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. PETER CSATLOS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

SGT. FLOYD A. WALLACE, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

Military Medal

SGT. CARL W. VENABLE, "L" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. 1ST CLASS JAMES W. DRISCOLL, "M.G." Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. MICHAEL J. KENNEY, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. E. J. HERMAN, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

CORP. J. S. MANDERFIELD, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

SGT. E. P. TROMBLEY, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. H. T. DANIELSON, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. J. FRANCZAC, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

BUGLER C. J. CAMPUS, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

MECH. A. J. HORN, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. J. A. NEES, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. ARNOLD W. NOLF, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

SGT. H. H. HAMILTON, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

PVT. BERGER W. BERGSTROM, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

PVT. RUSSELL F. McGUIRE, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

PVT. MICHAEL KOWALSKI, "H" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. E. W. PAUSCH, "C" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. JOHN BENSON, "C" Co., 310th Engrs.

SGT. SILVER K. PARISH, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. CHARLES BELL, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. JOSEPH EDYINSON, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. L. E. STOVER, "B" Co., 310th Engrs.

CORP. W. C. BUTZ, "B" Co., 310th Engrs.

CORP. F. W. WILKIE, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

SGT. L. BARTELS, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. J. STEYSKAL, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. E. E. HELMAN, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

CORP. WILLIAM C. SHAUGHNESSEY, Signal Platoon, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. LOUIS L. HOPKINS, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. CHARLES E. GARRETT, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. GUY HINMAN, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. JAMES R. WAGGENER, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

PVT. CLARENCE A. MILLER, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

Meritorious Service Medal

SGT. EWALD T. BILLEAU

PVT. A. H. DITTBERNER

SGT. L. S. SCHNEIDER

SGT. DELBERT KRATZ

1ST. SGT. V. B. ROGERS

SGT. F. W. YATES

PVT. JERRY DAUBEK

CORP. A. N. ERICKSON

All of "A" Company, 310th Engineers

RUSSIAN DECORATIONS

St. Vladimir with Swords and Ribbons

REAR-ADMIRAL NEWTON A. McCULLY, Commanding U. S. Naval Forces.

MAJOR MICHAEL J. DONOGHUE, 339th Inf.

MAJOR J. BROOKS NICHOLS, 339th Inf.

COL. JAMES A. RUGGLES, Chief of American Military Mission, Military

Attache to Embassy in Russia.

St. Anne With Swords

CAPT. JOEL R. MOORE, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. J. R. DONOVAN; "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. ALBERT M. SMITH, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. GORDON B. REESE, "I" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. HARRY S. STEELE, "C" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. GEORGE W. STONER, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. CLARENCE J. PRIMM, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. F. B. LITTLE, Med. Corps, 339th Inf.

LIEUT. W. C. GIFFELLS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. E. W. LEGlER, "C" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. HARRY J. COSTELLO, "M.G." Co., 339th Inf.

CAPT. EUGENE PRINCE, Military Mission.

CAPT. HUGH S. MARTIN, Military Mission.

CAPT. J. A. HARTZFELD, Military Mission.

LIEUT. SERGIUS M. RIIS, Naval Attache to Embassy.

St. Stanislaus

CAPT. OTTO A. ODJARD, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

CAPT. ROBERT P. BOYD, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

MAJOR C. S. McARDLE, 310th Engrs.

CAPT. JOHN J. CONWAY, "G" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. LAWRENCE P. KEITH, "Hq." Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. WESLEY K. WRIGHT, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. JOHN A. COMMONS, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. H. T. KETCHAM, "H" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. HARRY M. DENNIS, "B" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. CHARLES B. RYAN, "K" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. H. D. McPHAIL, "A" Co., 339th Inf.

CAPT. WILLIAM KNIGHT, 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. ROBERT J. WIECZOREK, "M" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. DWIGHT FISTLER, "I" Co., 339th Inf.

LIEUT. B. A. BURNS, "A" Co., 310th Engrs.

LIEUT. A. W. KLIEFOTH, Military Mission.

LIEUT. M. B. ROGERS, Military Mission.

LIEUT. E. L. PACKER, Military Mission.

MAJOR D. O. LIVELY, American Red Cross.

CAPT. ROGER LEWIS, American Red Cross.

LIEUT. FRED MASON, American Red Cross.

LIEUT. GEORGE POLLATS, American Red Cross.

Cross of St. George

PVT. JOHN C. ADAMS

PVT. HARRISON BUSH

SGT. JOSEPH CURRY

PVT. FRED DeLANEY

1ST. SGT. W. DUNDON

BUGLER GEORGE GARTON

SGT. M. G. GRAHEK

PVT. GEO. HANRAHAN

SGT. CHAS. A. HEBNER

CORP. FRED HODGES

SGT. WM. R. HUSTON

SGT. JACOB KANTROWITZ

CORP. WM. NIEMAN

CORP. F. L. O'CONNOR

SGT. CHAS. W. PAGE

CORP. ROBT. M. PRATT

SGT. CHAS. V. RIHA

CORP. F. J. ROMANSKI

PVT. JOHN ROMPINEN

CORP. JOS. RYDUCHOWSKI

PVT. LEO SCHWABE

SGT. NORMAN ZAPFE

CORP. W. ZIMMERMAN

All of "M" Company, 339th Infantry.

Also MR. ERNEST RAND, and MR. FRANK OLMSTEAD, Y. M. C. A.

St. Anne Silver Medal

CORPORAL WALTER J. PICARD, "M" Company, 339th Inf.

St. Stanislaus Silver Medal

PVT. HAROLD METCALFE

PVT. ERNEST ROULEAU

PVT. FRANK STEPNAVSKI

COOK JOSEPH PAVLIN

COOK THEODORE ZECH

All of "M" Company, 339th Infantry

U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Major Nichols in His Railway Detachment Field Headquarters

LANMAN

Ready to Head Memorial Day Parade.

LANMAN

American Cemetery in Archangel.

LANMAN

Soldiers and Sailors of Six Nations Reverence Dead.

U, S. OFFICIAL PHOTO

Graves of First Three Americans Killed Fighting Bolsheviki--Obozerskaya,

Russia.

LANMAN

Sailors Parade on Memorial Day, Archangel.

LANMAN

Through Ice Floes in Arctic Homeward-Bound.

ROZANSKEY

Out of White Sea into Arctic Under Midnight Sun.

XXXIX

HOMEWARD BOUND

"At The Earliest Possible Date"--Work Of Detroit's Own Welfare

Association--"Getting The Troops Out Of Russia"--We Assemble At

Economia--Delousers And Ball Games--War Mascots--War Brides--Remarkable

Memorial Day Service In American Military Cemetery In Archangel--Tribute

To Our Comrades Who Could Not Go Home--Our Honored Dead.

"At the earliest possible moment" was the date set by the War Department

for the withdrawal of the troops from Russia. This was the promise made

the American people during the ice-bound winter, the promise made more

particularly to appease vigorous protests of "The Detroit's Own Welfare

Association," which under the leadership of Mr. D. P. Stafford, had been

untiring in its efforts to move the hand of the War Department.

Congressmen Doremus and Nichols and Townsend had also been very active

in "getting the Americans out of North Russia."

To us wearied veterans of that strange war, the nine months of guerrilla

war, always strenuous and at times taking on large proportions,--to us

the "earliest possible moment" could not arrive a minute too soon. We

had fought a grim fight against terrible odds, we had toiled to make the

defenses more and more impregnable so that those who relieved us might

not be handicapped as we had been. We hated to be thought of as

quitters, we suffered under the reproachful eyes of newly arriving

veteran Scots and Tommies who had been mendaciously deceived into

thinking we were quitters. We suffered from the thought that the

distortion, exaggeration and partisan outcry at home was making use of

half-statements of returned comrades or half-statements from uncensored

letters, in such a way as to make us appear cry-babies and quitters. But

down in our hearts we were conscious that our record, our morale, our

patriotism were sound. We believed we were entitled to a speedy getaway

for home. We accepted the promise with pleasure. We felt friendly toward

the Detroit's Own Welfare Association for its efforts and the efforts of

others. We could have wished that there had not been so much excitement

of needless fears and incitement of useless outcry. It cost us hard

earned money to cable home assurances to our loved ones that we were

well and safe, so that they need not believe the wild tales that we were

sleeping in water forty below zero, or thawing out the cows before we

milked them, or simply starving to death. We could have wished that

returned comrades who tried to tell the real facts and allay needless

fears--the actual facts were damnable enough--might not have been

treated as shamefully as some were by a populace fooled by a mixed

propaganda that was a strange combination, as it appears to us now, of

earnest, sympathetic attempts to do something for "Detroit's Own," of

bitter partisan invective, and of insidious pro-bolshevism.

For the cordial welcome home which was given to the Polar Bear veterans

in July, our heartfelt appreciation is due. Veterans who marched behind

Major J. Brooks Nichols between solid crowds of cheering home-folks on

July 4th at Belle Isle could not help feeling that the city of Detroit

was proud of the record of the men who had weathered that awful

campaign. It was a greeting that we had not dreamed of those days away

up there in the northland when we were watching the snow and ice melt

and waiting news of the approach of troopships.

At Economia we assembled for the purpose of preparing for our voyage

home. To the silt-sawdust island doughboys came from the various fronts.

By rail from Obozerskaya and Bolsheozerki, by barge from Beresnik and

Kholmogori and Onega, came the veterans of this late side show of the

great world war. With them they had their mascots and their War Brides,

their trophies and curios, their hopeful good humor and healthy play

spirit.

Who will not recall with pleasure the white canvass camp we made on the

"policed-up" sawdust field. Did soldiers ever police quite so willingly

as they did there on the improvised baseball diamond, where "M" Company

won the championship and the duffle-bagful of roubles when the first

detachment of the 339th was delousing and turning over Russian

equipment, and "F" Company won the port belt and roubles in the series

played while the remainder of the Polar Bears were getting ready to

sail.

Who will forget the day that the Cruiser "Des Moines" steamed in from

the Arctic? Every doughboy on the island rushed to the Dvina's edge.

They stood in great silent throat-aching groups, looking with blurred

eyes at the colors that grandly flew to the breeze. And then as the

jackies gave them a cheer those olive drab boys answered till their

throats were hoarse. That night they sat long in their tents--it was not

dusk even at midnight, and talked of home. A day or so later they spied

from the fire-house tower vessels that seemed to be jammed in a polar

ice floe which a north wind crowded into the throat of the White Sea.

Then to our joy a day or two later came the three transports, the long

deferred hope of a homeward voyage.

Everyone was merry those days. Even the daily practice march with

full-pack ordered by Colonel Stewart, five miles round and round on the

rough board walks of the sawdust port, was taken with good humor.

Preparations for departure included arrangements for carrying away our

brides and mascots.

Here and there in the Economia embarkation camp those days and nightless

nights in early June many a secret conclave of doughboys was held to

devise ways and means of getting their Russian mascots aboard ship. Of

these boys and youths they had become fond. They wanted to see them in

"civvies" in America and the mascots were anxiously waiting the outcome

at the gangplank.

At Chamova one winter night a little twelve-year old Russian boy

wandered into the "B" Company cook's quarters where he was fed and given

a blanket to sleep on. Welz, the cook, mothered him and taught him to

open bully cans and speak Amerikanski. This incident had its counterpart

everywhere. At Obozerskaya "M" Company picked up a boy whose father and

mother had been carried off by the Bolsheviks. He and his pony and

water-barrel cart became part of the company. At Pinega the "G" Company

boys adopted a former Russian Army youth who for weeks was the only man

who could handle their single Colt machine gun. In trying to get him on

board the "Von Stenben" in Brest--it had been simple in Economia--they

got their commanding officer into trouble. Lt. Birkett was arrested,

compelled to remain at Brest but later released and permitted to bring

the youth to America with him where he lives in Wisconsin. And out on a

ranch in Wyoming a Russian boy who unofficially enlisted with the

American doughboys to fight for his Archangel state is now learning to

ride the American range with Lt. Smith. Major Donoghue's "little

sergeant" is in America too and goes to school and his Massachusetts

school teacher calls him Michael Donoghue. And others came too.

In marked contrast to these passengers who came with the veterans from

North Russia via Brest, which they remember for its Bokoo Eats and its

lightning equipment-exchange mill, is the story of one of the fifty

general prisoners whom they guarded on the "Von Steuben." One of them

was a bad man, since become notorious. He was missing as the ship

dropped anchor that night in the dark harbor. It was feared by the

"second looie" and worried old sergeant that the man was trying to make

an escape. When they found him feigning slumber under a life boat on a

forbidden deck they chose opposite sides of the life boat and kicked him

fervently, first from one side then the other till he was submissive.

The name of the man at that time meant little to them--it was Lt. Smith.

But a few days afterward they could have kicked themselves for letting

Smith off so easy, for the press was full of the stories of the

brutalities of "Hardboiled" Smith. Lt. Wright and Sergeant Gray are not

yearning to do many events of the Russian campaign over but they would

like to have that little event of the homeward bound voyage to do over

so they could give complete justice to "Hardboiled" Smith.

In contrast with the stories of brutal prison camps of the World War we

like to think of our buddies making their best of hardships and trials

in North Russia. We have asked two well-known members of the expedition

to contribute reminiscences printed below.

"As ithers see us" is here shown by extract from a letter by a Red Cross

man who saw doughboys as even our Colonel commanding did not see. This

Red Cross officer, Major Williams, of Baltimore, saw doughboys on every

front and sector of the far-extended battle and blockhouse line. He may

speak with ample knowledge of conditions. In part he writes:

"Americans, as a rule, are more popular in Russia than any other

nationality. The American soldier in North Russia by his sympathetic

treatment of the villagers, his ability to mix and mingle in a homey

fashion with the Russian peasants in their family life and daily toil,

and particularly the American soldier's love of the little Russian

children, and the astonishing affection displayed by Russian children

toward the Americans furnishes one of the most illuminating examples of

what was and may be accomplished through measures of peaceful

intercourse. The American soldier demonstrated in North Russia that he

is a born mixer.

"I could write a book, giving concrete examples coming under my

observation, from voluminous notes in my possession. As I dictate this,

there is a vision of an American soldier who stopped by my sled, at some

remote village in a trackless forest, and urged me to visit with him a

starving family. This soldier, from his own rations, was helping to feed

thirteen Russians, and his joy was as great as theirs when the Red Cross

came to their relief."

The next contribution is from the pen of a man who, born in Kiev,

Russia, had in youth seen the Czar's old army, who had served years in

the U. S. army after coming to America, who was one of the finest

soldiers and best known men in the North Russian expedition.

"It is almost an axiom with the regular army of our own country and

those of foreign nations, that soldier and discipline are synonymous.

Meaning thereby the blind discipline of the Prussian type.

"That such an axiom is entirely wrong has been shown us by the National

Army. No one will affirm that the new-born army was a model to pass

inspection even before our own High Moguls of the regular army. And yet,

what splendid success has that sneered at, 'undisciplined,' army

achieved.

"And where is the cause of its success? The 'Uneducatedness' in the

sense of the regular army. The American citizen in a soldier uniform

acted like a free human being, possessing initiative, self-reliance, and

confidence, which qualities are entirely subdued by the so called

education of a soldier. It is not the proper salute or clicking of the

heels that makes the good soldier, but the spirit of the man and his

character. And these latter qualities has possessed our national army.

Fresh from civilian life with all the liberty-loving tendencies, our

boys have thrown themselves into the fight on their own accord, once

they realized the necessity of it. The whip of discipline could never

accomplish so much as the conscience of necessity. And that is what the

national army possessed. And that is the cause of its success. And

therefore I love it.

"So long as the United States remains a free country, there is no danger

for the American people. That spirit which has manifested itself in the

National Army is capable to accomplish everything. It is the free

institutions of the country that brought us victory, not the so called

'education' gotten in the barracks.

"I admired the national army man in fight, because I loved him as a

citizen. And unless he changes as a citizen, he will not change as a

fighter. To me the citizen and soldier are synonymous. A good citizen

makes a good soldier, and vice versa. Let the American citizen remain as

free-loving and self-reliant as he is now, and he will make one of the

best soldiers in the world. Let him lose that freedom loving spirit, and

he will have to be Prussianized.

"I have my greatest respect for the national army man, because I have

seen him at his best. In the moments of gravest danger he has exhibited

that courage which is only inborn in a free man. And when I saw that

courage, I said, He does not need any 'education.' Let him remain a free

man, and God help those who will try to take away his freedom."

SGT. J. KANT, Co. "M" 339th Inf.

From distant Morjagorskaya, hundreds of versts, walked a bright-eyed

Slavic village school teacher to say goodbye to her doughboy friend who

was soon to sail for home. But to her great joy and reward, Nina Rozova

found that her lover, George Geren, of Detroit, had found a way to make

her his wife at once. One certain sympathetic American Consul, Mr.

Shelby Strother, had told George he would help him get his bride to

America if he wanted to marry the pretty teacher.

Blessings on that warm-hearted Consul. He helped eight of the boys to

bring away their brides. In this volume is a picture of a

doughboy-barishna wedding party, Joe Chinzi and Elena Farizy. On a boat

from Brest to Hoboken, among one hundred sixty-seven war brides from

France, Belgium, England and Russia, Elena was voted third highest in

the judges' beauty list. And John Karouch saw his Russian bride,

Alexandra Kadrina, take the first beauty prize. The writer well

remembers the beautiful young Russian woman of Archangel who wore

mourning for an American corporal and went to see her former lover's

comrades go away on the tug for the last time. They had been to the

cemetery and they looked respectfully and affectionately at her for they

knew it was her hand that had made the corporal's grave there in the

American cemetery in Archangel the one most marked by evidences of

loving care.

One of the last duties of the veterans of this campaign was the paying

of honors to their dead comrades in the American cemetery which

Ambassador Francis had purchased for our dead. This was without doubt

the most remarkable Memorial Day service in American history. From The

American Sentinel is taken the following account:

"American Memorial Day was celebrated at Archangel yesterday. Headed by

the American Band, a company of American troops, and detachments of the

U. S. Navy, Russian troops, Russian Navy, British troops, British Navy,

French troops, French Navy, Italian and Polish troops, formed in parade

at Sabornaya at ten o'clock in the morning and marched to the cemetery.

"Here a short memorial service was held. Brief addresses were delivered

by General Richardson, General Miller, Charge D'Affaires Poole, and

General Ironside.

"In his introductory address General Richardson said:

"'Fellow Soldiers of America and Allied Nations: We are assembled here

on the soil of a great Ally and a traditional friend of our country, to

do what honor we may to the memory of America's dead here buried, who

responded to their country's call in the time of her need and have laid

down their lives in her defense. Throughout the world wherever may be

found American soldiers or civilians, are gathered others today for the

fulfillment of this sacred and loving duty. I ask you to permit your

thought to dwell at this time with deep reverence upon the fact that no

higher honor can come to a soldier than belongs to those who have made

this supreme sacrifice, and whose bodies lie here before us, but whose

spirits, we trust, are with us.'

"Before introducing General Miller, General Richardson thanked the

Allied representatives for their participation in the celebration of

Memorial Day.

"Mr. Poole said:

" 'This day was first instituted in memory of those who fell in the

American Civil War. It became the custom to place flowers on the graves

of soldiers and strew flowers on the water in memory of the sailor dead,

marking in this way one day in each year when the survivors of the war

might join with a later generation to revere the memory of those who had

made for the common good the supreme sacrifice of life. For Americans it

is an impressive thought that we are renewing this consecration today in

Russia, in the midst of a civic struggle which recalls the deep trials

of our own past and which is, moreover, inextricably bound up with the

World War which has been our common burden.

" 'This war, which was begun to put down imperial aggression upon the

political liberties, of certain peoples, has evolved into a profound

social upheaval, touching the most remote countries. We cannot yet see

definitely what the results of its later developments will be, but

already there lies before forward looking men the bright prospect of

peace and justice and liberty throughout the world such as we recently

dared hope for only within the narrow confines of particular countries.

To the soldiers of the great war--inspired from the outset by a dim

foresight of this stupendous result--we now pay honor; and in

particular, to the dead whose graves are before us.

" 'These men, like their comrades elsewhere in the most endless line of

battle, have struck their blow against the common enemy. They have had

the added privilege of assisting in the most tragic, and at the same

time the most hopeful, upheaval for which the war has been the occasion.

Autocracy in Russia is gone. A new democracy is in the struggle of its

birth. The graves before us are tangible evidence of the deep and

sympathetic concern of the older democracies. These men have given their

lives to help Russia. They have labored in an enterprise which is a

forecast of a new order in the world's affairs and have made of it a

prophecy of success. Here within this restricted northern area there has

been an acid test of the practicability of co-operation among nations

for the attainment of common ends. Nowhere could material and moral

conditions have been more difficult than we have seen them these past

months; under no circumstances could differences in national temperament

or the frailties and shortcomings of individuals be brought into

stronger relief. Yet the winter of our initial difficulties is given way

to a summer of maturing success. Co-operation begun in the most

haphazard fashion has developed after a few months of mutual adjustment

into concerted and harmonious action. It seems to me that herein lies

striking proof of the generous spirit of modern international

intercourse and proof of the most practical kind that, as nations

succeed to doing away with war, they will be able to apply the energies

thus released to common action in the beneficent field of world wide

social and political betterment.  If this ideal is to be measurably

attained, as I believe it is, these men have indeed made their sacrifice

to a great cause. They have given their lives to the progress of

civilization and their memory shall be cherished as long as civilization

lasts.'

"The Northern Morning, a Russian daily of Archangel, reported on the

Memorial Day Exercises as follows:

" 'In memory of the fallen during the Civil War in America, on the

initiative of President Lincoln, the 30th of May was fixed as a day to

remember the fallen heroes. In this year our American friends have to

pass this day far from their country, America, in our cold northland,

between the graves of those who are dear not only to our friends,

Allies, but also to us Russians; the sacred graves beneath which are

concealed those who, far from their own country, gave away their lives

to save us. These are now sacred and dear places, and the day of the

thirtieth of May as a day of memorial to them will always be to us a day

of mourning. This day will not be forgotten in the Russian soul. It has

to be kept in memory as long as the name of Russian manhood exists.

" 'After the speeches a military salute was fired. A heart-breaking call

of the trumpet over the graves of the fallen sounded the mourning notes.

Those who attended the meeting will never forget this moment of the

bugle call. The signal as it broke forth filled the air with sorrowness

and grief, as if it called the whole world to bow before those who,

loving their neighbors, without hesitation gave their lives away for the

sacred cause of humanity.'

"Honor be to the fallen: blessings and eternal rest to those protectors

of humanity who gave their lives away for the achievement of justice and

right. Sleep quietly now, sons of liberty and light. You won before the

world never-fading honor and eternal glory."

And so at last came the day to sail. We were going out. No Americans

were coming to take our place. We were going to leave the "show" in the

hands of the British--who themselves were to give it up before fall. The

derided Bolshevik bands of brigands whom we had set out to chase to

Vologda and Kotlas, had developed into a well-disciplined,

well-equipped fighting organization that responded to the will of Leon

Trotsky. Although we had seen an Archangel State military force also

develop behind our lines and come on to the active fighting sectors, we

knew that Archangel was in desperate danger from the Bolshevik Northern

Army of Red soldiers. They were out there just beyond the fringe of the

forest only waiting, perhaps, for us to start home.

We must admit that when we thought of those wound-chevroned Scots who

had remained on the lines with the new Archangel troops of uncertain

morale and recalled the looks in their eyes, we sensed a trace of bitter

in our cup of joy. Why if the job had been worth doing at all had it not

been worth while for our country to do it wholeheartedly with adequate

force and with determination to see it through to the desired end. We

thought of the many officers and men who had given their lives in this

now abandoned cause. And again arose the old question persistent,

demanding an answer: Why had we come at all? Was it just one of those

blunders military-political that are bound to happen in every great war?

The thought troubled us even as we embarked for home.

That night scene with the lowering sun near midnight gleaming gold upon

the forest-shaded stretches of the Dvina River and casting its mellow,

melancholy light upon the wrecked church of a village, is an

ineffaceable picture of North Russia. For this is our Russia--a church;

a little cluster of log houses, encompassed by unending forests of

moaning spruce and pine; low brooding, sorrowful skies; and over all

oppressive stillness, sad, profound, mysterious, yet strangely lovable

to our memory.

Near the shell-gashed and mutilated church are two rows of unadorned

wooden crosses, simple memorials of a soldier burial ground. Come

vividly back into the scene the winter funerals in that yard of our

buddies, brave men who, loving life, had been laid away there, having

died soldier-like for a cause they had only dimly understood. And the

crosses now rise up, mute, eloquent testimony to the cost of this

strange, inexplicable war of North Russia.

We cast off from the dirty quay and steamed out to sea. On the deck was

many a reminiscent one who looked back bare-headed on the paling shores,

in his heart a tribute to those who, in the battle field's burial spot

or in the little Russian churchyards stayed behind while we departed

homeward bound.

This closes our narrative. It is imperfectly told. We could wish we had

time to add another volume of anecdotes and stories of heroic deeds. For

errors and omissions we beg the indulgence of our comrades. We trust

that the main facts have been clearly told. Here by way of further

dedication of this book to our honored dead, whose names appear at the

head of our lengthy casualty list of five hundred sixty-three, let us

add a few simple verses of sentiment, the first two of which were

written by "Dad" Hillman and the others added on by one of the writers.

THE HONOR ROLL

of the

AMERICAN EXPEDITION WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THE

BOLSHEVIKI IN NORTH RUSSIA

1918-1919

IN RUSSIA's FIELDS

(After Flanders Fields)

In Russia's fields no poppies grow

There are no crosses row on row

To mark the places where we lie,

No larks so gayly singing fly

As in the fields of Flanders.

We are the dead. Not long ag'o

We fought beside you in the snow

And gave our lives, and here we lie

Though scarcely knowing reason why

Like those who died in Flanders.

At Ust Padenga where we fell

On Railroad, Kodish, shot and shell

We faced, from just as fierce a foe

As those who sleep where poppies grow,

Our comrades brave in Flanders.

In Toulgas woods we scattered sleep,

Chekuevo and Kitsa's tangles creep

Across our lonely graves. At night

The doleful screech owl's dismal flight

Heart-breaking screams in Russia.

Near railroad bridge at Four-five-eight,

And Chamova's woods, our bitter fate

We met. We fell before the Reds

Where wolves now howl above our heads

In far off lonely Russia.

In Shegovari's desperate fight,

Vistavka's siege and Seltso's night,

In Bolsheozerki's hemmed-in wood,

In Karpogor, till death we stood

Like they who died in Flanders.

And some in Archangel are laid

'Neath rows of crosses Russian-made

With marker of the Stars and Stripes

Not minding bugle, drum or pipes

We sleep, the brave, in Russia.

And comrades as you gather far away

In God's own land on some bright day

And think of us who died and rest

Just tell our folks we did our best

In far off fields of Russia.

Our Roll of Honored Dead

KILLED IN ACTION

AGNEW, JOHN, Sgt. Co. K

Sept. 27, 1918, Belfast, Ireland.

ANDERSON, JAKE C., Pvt. 1st class Co. B

Nov. 11,1918, Cave City, Ky.

ANGOVE, JOHN P., Pvt. Co. B

Nov. 13, 1918, Painesdale, Mich.

ASSIRE, MYRON J., Co. A, 310th Engrs

Oct. 26,1918.

AUSLANDER, FLOYD R., Pvt. Co. H

April 2, 1919, Decker, Mich.

AUSTIN, FLOYD E., Pvt. 1st class Co. E

Dec. 30, 1918, Scottsburg, Ind.

AVERY, HARLEY, Pvt. Co. H

Oct. 1, 1918, Lexington, Mich.

BALLARD, CLIFFORD B., Second Lt. M. G. Co

Feb. 7, 1919, Cambridge, Mass.

BERGER, CARL G., Wag. Sup. Co

Jan. 19, 1919, Detroit.

BERGER, CARL H., Second Lt. Co. E

Dec. 31, 1918, Mayville, Wis.

BORESON, JOHN, Pvt. Co. H,

Oct. 1, 1918, Stephenson, Mich.

BOSEL, JOHN J., Corp. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Detroit.

CHAPPEL, CHARLES F., First Lt. Co. K

Sept. 27, 1918, Toledo, Ohio.

CHEENEY, Roy D., Corp. Co. C.

Nov. 29, 1918, Pueblo, Colo.

CHRISTIAN, ARTHUR, Pvt. Co. L.

Oct. 14, 1918, Atlanta, Mich.

CLARK, JOSHUA A., Pvt. Co. C.

Feb. 4, 1919, Woodville, Mich.

CLEMENS, RAYMOND C., Pvt. Co. C.

Nov. 29, 1918, St. Joseph, Mich.

COLE, ELMER B., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 23, 1919, Hamersluya, Pa.

CONRAD, REX H., Corp. Co. F

Mar. 26, 1919, Ponca, Mich.

CROOK, ALVA, Pvt. Co. M

April 1, 1919, Lakeview, Mich.

CRONIN, LOUIS, Pvt. Co. K

Oct. 13, 1918, Flushing, Mich.

CROWE, BERNARD C., Sgt. Co. K

Dec. 30, 1918, Detroit.

CUFF, FRANCIS W., First Lt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Rio, Wis.

DeAMICIS, GUISEPPE, Corp. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Detroit.

DIAL, CHARLES O., Mech. Co. M

Mar. 31, 1919, Carlisle, Ind.

DYMENT, SCHLIOMA, Pvt. Co. M

Sept. 30, 1918, Detroit.

ELLIS, LEO R, Pvt. Co. I.

Nov. 4,1918, Chicago, Ill.

FOLEY, MORRIS J., Corp. Co. B

Sept. 20, 1918, Detroit.

FULLER, ALFRED W., Pvt. 1st class Co. K

Dec. 30, 1918, Trenton, Mich.

GASPER, LEO, Pvt. Co. B

Nov. 11, 1918, Chesaning, Mich.

GAUCH, CHARLES D., Pvt. Hq. Co

Oct. 1, 1918, Kearney, N. J.

GOTTSCHALK, MILTON E., Corp. Co. A

Jan. 22, 1919, Detroit.

GRAHAM, CLAUS, Pvt. Co. H

Oct. 1, 1918, Toledo, Ohio.

HESTER, HARLEY H., Corp. M. G. Co

Sept. 27, 1918, Cave City, Ky.

KENNEY, MICHAEL J., Sgt. Co. K

Dec. 30, 1918, Detroit.

KENNY, BERNARD F., Corp. Co. A

Mar. 9, 1919, Hemlock, Mich.

KISSICK, THURMAN L., Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Ringos Mill, Ky.

KREIZINGER, EDWARD, Corp. Co. L.

Sept. 27, 1918, Detroit.

KUDZBA, PETER, Pvt. CO. B

Sept. 20, 1918, Chicago, Ill.

KWASNIEWSKI, IGNACY H., Mech. Co. I.

Sept. 16, 1918, Detroit.

LADOVICH, NIKODEM, Pvt. Co. C

Feb. 4, 1919, Pittsburgh, Pa.

MALM, CLARENCE A., Pvt. 1st class Co. G

Dec. 4, 1918, Battle Creek, Mich.

MARRIOTT, FRED R, Sgt. Co. B

Nov. 12, 1918, Port Huron, Mich.

McCONVILL, EDWARD, Pvt. Co. H

Mar. 23, 1919, Shawmut, Mass.

McLAUGHLIN, FRANK S., Pvt. Co. I

Oct. 16, 1918, Elks Rapids, Mich.

MERRICK, WALTER A., Pvt. Co. M

Oct. 14, 1918, Sandusky, Mich.

MERTENS, EDWARD L., Corp. Co. L

Sept. 27, 1918, Detroit.

MOORE, ALBERT E., Corp. Co. A

Mar. 7, 1919, Detroit.

MUELLER, FRANK J., Pvt. Co. E

Dec. 30, 1918, Marshfield, Wis.

OZDARSKI, JOSEPH S., Pvt. Co. L.

Oct. 14, 1918, Detroit.

PATRICK, RALPH M., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Long Lake, Mich.

PAWLAK, JOSEPH, Pvt. Co. B

Mar. 1, 1919, Detroit.

PILARSKI, ALEK, Pvt. Co. B

Nov. 11, 1918, Detroit.

PITTS, JAY B., Pvt. Co. G

Dec. 4, 1918, Kalamazoo, Mich.

RAMOTOWSKE, JOSEF, Pvt. 1st class Co. H

Mar. 22, 1919, Detroit.

REDMOND, NATHAN L., Corp. Co. H

Mar. 19, 1919, Detroit.

RICHARDSON, EUGENE E., Pvt. Co. H

Oct. 1, 1918, Detroit.

RICHEY, AUGUST K, Corp. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Dowagiac, Mich.

RITCHER, EDWARD, Pvt. Co. H

Oct. 1, 1918, Mishawaka, Ind.

ROBBINS, DANIEL, Pvt. Co. B

Mar. 1, 1919, Blaine, Mich.

ROGERS, YATES K, Sgt. Co. A

Jan. 22, 1919, Memphis, Tenn.

RUTH, FRANK J., Pvt. Co. B

Mar. 1, 1919, Detroit.

SAPP, FRANK E., Corp. Co. M

April 1, 1919, Rodney, Mich.

SAVADA, JOHN, Corp. Co. B

Nov. 13, 1918, Hamtramck, Mich.

SCHMANN, ADOLPH, Pvt. Co. C.

Nov. 13, 1918, Milwaukee, Wis.

SCRUGGS, FRANK W., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Bettelle, Ala.

SILKAITIS, FRANK, Pvt. Co. H

Oct. 1, 1918, Chicago, III.

SMITH, WILBUR B., Sgt. Co. C.

Jan. 20, 1919, Fort Williams, Canada.

SOCZKOSKI, ANTHONY, Pvt. Co. I

Sept. 16, 1918, Detroit.

SOKOL, PHILIP, Pvt. Co. L.

Sept. 16, 1913, Pittsburgh, Pa.

SPELCHER, ELMER E., Cook Co. C

Feb. 4, 1919, Akron, Ohio.

STALEY, GLENN P., Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 17, 1918, Whitemore, Mich.

SWEET, EARL D., Pvt. Co. A

Mar. 9, 1919, McGregor, Mich.

SYSKA, FRANK, Pvt. Co. D

Jan. 23, 1919, Detroit.

TAYLOR, OTTO V., Pvt. Co. K

Oct. 16, 1918, Alexandria, Ind.

TRAMMELL, DAUSIE W., Pvt. Co. A

Mar. 9, 1919, Clio, Ky.

VanDerMEER, JOHN, Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 20, 1918, Kalamazoo, Mich.

VanHERWYNEN, JOHN, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 20, 1918, Vriesland, Mich.

VOJTA, CHARLES J., Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 27, 1918, Chicago, III.

WAGNER, HAROLD H., Pvt. 1st class Co. E.

Dec. 30, 1918, Harlan, Mich.

WELSTEAD, WALTER J., Pvt. Co. A

Mar. 9, 1919, Chicago, III.

WENGER, IRVIN, Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, Grand Rapids, Mich.

ZAJACZKOWSKI, JOHN, Pvt. Co. B

Nov. 12, 1918, Detroit.

DEATH FROM OTHER CAUSES

BLOOM, ELMER, Sgt. Co. A., 310th Engrs.

(drowned)   Oct. 8, 1918.

CONNOR, LLOYD, Corp. Co. A., 310th Engrs.

(drowned)   Oct. 8, 1918.

DARGAN, ARTHUR, Pvt. Co. A., 310th Engrs.

(drowned)   Oct. 8, 1918.

HILL, C. B., Lt. Co. A., 310th Engrs.

(drowned)   Oct. 8, 1918.

LOVELL, ALBERT W., Pvt. Hq. Co

Aug. 10, 1918 (drowned), England.

MARCHLEWSKI, JOSEPH D., Pvt. Co. G

Oct. 28, 1918 (accident), Alpena, Mich.

MARTIN, J. C., Corp. Co. E.

Oct. 21, 1918 (accidentally shot), Portland, Mich.

RUSSELL, WM. H., Corp. Co. M

April 19, 1919 (accident by grenade), Detroit.

SAWICKIS, FRANK K, Pvt. Co. I

April 29,1919 (Bolo grenade), Racine, Wis.

SICKLES, FLOYD A., Pvt. Co. M

Dec. 6,1918 (accident), Deckerville, Mich.

SZYMANSKI, LOUIS A., Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 27, 1918 (accidentally shot), Detroit.

WILSON, DALE, Pvt. 1st class Co. B

April 3, 1919, Alexander, Mich.

WING, HOMER, Pvt. Co. A, 310th Engrs

May 31,1919 (rly. accident), Detroit.

YOUNG, EDWARD L., Sgt. Co. G

Mar. 14, 1919 (suicide), Moosie, Pa.

DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION

BALL, ELBERT, Pvt. 1st class Co. B

Nov. 14, 1918, Henderson, Ky.

BOWMAN, WILLIAM H., Sgt. Co. B

Mar. 1, 1919, Penn Laird, Va.

CLISH, FRANK, Pvt. Co. B

Mar. 1, 1919, Baraga, Mich.

COLLINS, EDMUND R., First Lt. Co. H

Mar. 24, 1919, Racine, Wis.

COOK, CLARENCE, Pvt. Co. A

Feb. 20, 1919, Stilton, Kan.

DETZLER, ALLICK F., Pvt. Co. B

Nov. 15, 1918, Prescott, Mich.

DUNAETZ, ISIADOR, Pvt. Co. C

Jan. 31, 1919, Sodus, Mich.

ETTER, FRANK M., Sgt. Co. C

Feb. 6, 1919, Marion, Ind.

FRANKLIN, WALTER E., Pvt. Co. E

Dec. 31, 1918, Bellevue, Mich.

GRAY, ALSON W., Corp. Co. K

Nov. 8, 1918, South Boston, Va.

KOSLOUSKY, MATTIOS, Pvt. Co. H

April 2, 1919, Chicago, Ill.

LEHMANN, WILLIAM J., Corp. Co. A

Jan. 23, 1919, Danville, III.

LENCIONI, SEBASTIANO, Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 22, 1919, Whitewater, Wis.

LYTTLE, ALFRED E., Corp. Co. A., 310th Engrs

Oct. 31, 1918.

MEISTER, EMANUEL A., Sgt. Co. C

Sept. 27, 1918, Detroit.

MORRIS, JOHN H. W., Pvt. Co. B, 310th Engrs

Oct. 18, 1918.

MYLON, JAMES J., Corp. Co. E

Dec. 31, 1918, Detroit.

NIEMI, MATTIE I, Pvt. Co. M

Sept. 30, 1918, Verona, Mich.

PETERSON, AUGUST B., Pvt. Co. H

Mar. 22, 1919, Whitehall, Mich.

PHILLIPS, CLIFFORD F., First Lt. Co. H

May 10,1919, Lincoln, Nebr.

POWERS, RALPH E., Lt. 337th Amb. Co

Jan. 22, 1919, Detroit.

ROSE, BENJAMIN, Pvt. Co. A

Mar. 11, 1919, Packard, Ky.

SKOSELAS, ANDREW, Pvt. Co. C

Feb. 4, 1919, Eastlake, Mich.

SMITH, GEORGE J., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Yale, Mich.

STIER, VICTOR, Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Cincinnati, Ohio.

TAMAS, STANLEY P., Pvt. Co. D

Oct. 29, 1918, Manistee, Mich.

ZIEGENBEIN, WILLIAM J., Corp. Co. A, 310th Engrs

Oct. 16, 1918.

MISSING IN ACTION

BABINGER, WILLIAM R., Corp. Hq. Co

Oct. 2, 1918, Detroit.

CARTER, JAMES, Pvt. Hd. Co.

Oct. 2, 1918, Cornwall, England.

CARTER, WILLIAM J., Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Detroit.

COLLINS, EARL W., Corp. Co. H

Mar. 18, 1919, Detroit.

CWENK, JOSEPH, Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Milan, Mich.

FRANK, ARTHUR, Pvt. M. G. Co

Sept. 29, 1918, Detroit.

GUTOWSKI, BOLESLAW, Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Wyandotte, Mich.

HODGE, ELMER W., Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Shelby, Mich.

HUTCHINSON, ALFRED G., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Plainwell, Mich.

JENKS, STILLMAN V., Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Shelby, Mich.

JONKER, NICHOLAS, Pvt. Co. C.

Nov. 29, 1918, Grand Rapids, Mich.

KEEFE, THOMAS H., Pvt. Co. C

Feb. 4, 1919, Chicago, Ill.

KIEFFER, SIMON P., Pvt. M. G. Co

Sept. 29, 1918, Detroit.

KOWALSKI, STANLEY, Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Lodz, Poland.

KUSSRATH, CHARLES AUG., JR., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Chicago, Ill.

KUROWSKI, MAX J., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Grand Rapids, Mich.

MANNOR, JOHN T., Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Menominee, Mich.

MARTIN, WILLIAM J., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Detroit.

McTAVISH, STEWART M., Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Stratford, Can.

PEYTON, EDWARD W., Corp. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Richmond, Ky.

POTH, RUSSELL A., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Brown City, Mich.

RAUSCHENBERGER, ALBERT, Corp. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Grand Rapids, Mich.

RETHERFORD, LINDSAY, Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Hustonville, Ky.

RUSSELL, ARCHIE E., Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19. 1919, Hesperia. Mich.

SAJNAJ, LEO, Pvt. 1st class Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Chicago, Ill.

SCHROEDER, HERBERT A., Corp. Co. B

Sept. 20, 1918, Detroit.

SCOTT, PERRY C, Corp. Hq. Co

Oct. 2, 1918, Detroit.

WEITZEL, HENRY R., Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918. Bay City, Mich.

WILLIAMS, EDSON A., Pvt. Co. A

Jan. 19, 1919, Minneapolis. Minn.

PRISONERS OF WAR

ALBERS, GEORGE, Pvt. 1st class Co. I

Nov. 3, 1918, Muskegon, Mich.

FRUCCE, JOHN, Pvt. Co. H

Mar. 22. 1919, Muskegon, Mich.

FULCHER, EARL W., Pvt. Co. H

Mar. 22, 1919, Tyre, Mich.

HAURILIK, MIKE M., Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Detroit.

HOGAN, FREEMAN, Pvt. Co. M

Mar. 31, 1919, Detroit.

HUSTON, WALTER L.. Pvt. Co. C.

Nov. 29. 1918. Muskegon, Mich.

LAURSEN, JENS C. Mech. Co. M

May 1, 1919. Marlette, Mich.

LEITZELL, GLENN W., Sgt. Co. M

Mar. 31. 1919, Mifflinburg. Pa.

PRINCE, ARTHUR, Corp. Co. B

Mar. 1. 1919, Onaway, Mich.

TRIPLETT, JOHNNIE, Pvt. Co. C

Nov. 29, 1918, Lackay, Ky.

SCHEULKE, WILLIAM R. Pvt. Co. H

Mar. 22, 1919, Stronach, Mich.

VANIS, ANTON J., Pvt. Co. D

Jan. 23, 1919, Chicago, Ill.

DIED OF DISEASE

BAYER, ARTHUR, Pvt. Co. G

Sept. 12, 1918, Kalamazoo, Mich.

BAYER, CHARLES, Pvt. Co. F

Sept. 12, 1918, Detroit.

BERRYHILL, CHESTER W., Pvt. Co. F

Sept. 11, 1918, Midland, Mich.

RICKERT, ALBERT F., Pvt. Co. c.

Sept. 5. 1918, Mt. Clemens, Mich.

BIGELOW, JOHN W., Pvt. Co. E

Sept. 10. 1918, Copefish, Mich.

BRIEVE, JOSEPH, Pvt. Co. E

Sept. 7. 1918, Holland, Mich.

BURDICK, ANDREW, Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 19, 1918, Manitou Island, Mich.

BYLES, JAMES B., Wag. Sup. Co

Feb. 21, 1919, Valdosta, Ga.

CANNIZZARO, RAYFIELD, Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 13, 1918. Edmore, Mich.

CASEY, MARCUS T., Second Lt. Co. C

Sept. 16. 1918, New Richmond, Wis.

CIESIELSKI, WALTER, Pvt. 1st class Co. E

Feb. 27, 1919, Detroit.

CLARK, CLYDE, Pvt. Co. L.

Sept. 18, 1918, Lansing. Mich.

DUSABLOM, WILLIAM H., Pvt. Co. I

Sept. 18, 1918, Trenton, Mich.

EASLEY, ALBERT H., Pvt. Co. L.

Sept. 13, 1918, Kewadin, Mich.

FARRAND, RAY, Pvt. Co. I.

Sept. 13, 1918, Armada, Mich.

FIELDS, CLARENCE, Pvt. Co. F

Sept. 19, 1918. Bay City. Mich.

FINNEGAN, LEO, Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 17, 1918, Grand Rapids, Mich.

GARIEPY, HENRY, Sergt. Co. B

Sept. 10, 1918. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

GRESSER, JOSEPH A., Pvt. Co. C.

Sept. 8, 1918. Wyandotte, Mich.

HENDY, ALFRED H., Pvt. Co. C.

Sept. 23, 1918, Grosse Ile, Mich.

HENLEY, JOHN T., Pvt. Co. I.

Sept. 11, 1918, Chicago. Ill.

HODGSON, FRED L., Pvt. Co. M

Sept. 14. 1918, Cassopolis, Mich.

HUNT, BERT, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 16, 1918, Hudsonville, Mich.

JACKSON, JESSE C, Pvt. 1st class Hq. Co

Sept. 15, 1918, Detroit.

JORDAN, CARL B., Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 10, 1918. Ferry, Mich.

KALASKA, JOSEPH. Pvt. Co. I

Sept. 18, 1918, Trenton, Mich.

KEICZ, ANDRZEI, Pvt. Co. C

Sept. 13, 1918, Detroit.

KISTLER, HERBERT B., Pvt. Co. I

Sept. 11, 1918, Lancaster Pa.

KROLL, JOHN, JR., Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 10, 1918, Holland, Mich.

KUKLA, VALENTINE, Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 12. 1918, Kawkawlin, Mich.

KULWICKI, ANDREW J., Pvt. Co. K

Jan. 28, 1918. Milwaukee, Wis.

LANTER, MARION F., Pvt. Co. I

April 26, 1919, Savoy, Ky.

LAUZON, HENRY, Pvt. Co. L

Sept. 28, 1918, Pinconning. Mich.

LINK, STEPHEN J., First Lt. Hq. Co

Sept. 20, 1918, Taylorville, Ill.

MALUSKY, JOSEPH, Pvt. Co. C

Sept. 10, 1919, Fountain, Mich.

MAYBAUM, HAROLD, Pvt. Co. E

Sept. 9, 1918, Ainsworth, Ind.

McDONALD, ANGUS, Pvt. Co. E

Sept. 12, 1918, Marilla, Mich.

MEAD, WILLIAM C, Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 14, 1918, Mayville, Mich.

MICHEL, LEWIS M., Pvt. Co. c.

Sept. 10, 1918, Parnassus, Pa.

NERI, VINCENT, Bug. Co. C

Sept. 11, 1918, Detroit.

NICHOLLS, CHARLES B., Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 12, 1918, Rose City, Mich.

NUNN, ARTHUR, Pvt. Co. M

Sept. 13,1918. Croswell, Mich.

O'BRIEN, RAYMOND, Pvt. Hq. Co

Sept. 12, 1918, Saginaw, Mich.

O'CONNOR, LAWRENCE S., Corp. Co. C

Sept. 8, 1918, Lancaster, Ohio.

PARROTT, JESSE F., Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 25, 1918, Mt. Clemens, Mich.

PASSOW, FERDINAND, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 11. 1918, Mosinee, Wis.

PETRASKA, OSCAR H., Pvt. Co. K

Sept. 10, 1918. Wyandotte, Mich.

PETULSKI, JOHN, Pvt. CO. K

Sept. 15, 1918, Detroit.

ROSE, FLOYD, Pvt. Co. I.

Sept. 10, 1918. Vicksburg, Mich.

ROWE, EZRA T., Pvt. M. G. Co

Sept. 16, 1918, Hart, Mich.

RYNBRANDT, RAYMOND R, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 11, 1918, Byron Center, Mich.

SCHEPEL, TIEMON, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 11, 1918, Holland, Mich.

SHAUGHNESSY, JOHN, Pvt. Hq. Co

Sept. 15, 1918, Missoula, Mont.

SHINGLEDECKER, DWIGHT, Pvt. Co. A

Sept. 11, 1918, Dowagiac, Mich.

STOCKEN, ORVILLE I., Pvt. Co. A

Sept. 13, 1918, Battle Creek, Mich.

SURRAN, HARRY H., Pvt. Co. A

Sept. 14, 1918, Culver, Ind.

TEGGUS, WILLIAM G., Corp. Hq. Co

Sept. 11, 1918, Pontiac, Mich.

THOMPSON, HENRY, Pvt. Co. A

Sept. 16, 1918, Elkhart, Ind.

VAN DEVENTER, GEORGE E., Pvt. Co. C

Sept. 11, 1918, Rupert, Idaho.

WADSWORTH, LAURENCE L., Pvt. Co. I

Sept. 20, 1918, Aurora, Ind.

WALDEYER, NORBERT C, Pvt. Co. D

Sept. 16, 1918, Detroit.

WAPRZYCKI, SYLVESTER, Pvt. 337th Amb. Co

Sept. 14. 1918.

WEAVER, LEWIS T., Pvt. Co. A

Sept. 15, 1918. Marlette, Mich.

WEESNER, CLIFFFORD E., Pvt. Co. F

Sept. 11. 1918, Jackson, Mich.

WETERSHOF, JOHN T., Pvt. Co. B

Sept. 11, 1918, Grand Rapids. Mich.

WHITFORD, JASON, Pvt. Co. C.

Sept. 19, 1918, Whitemore, Mich.

WITT, LOUIS C, Pvt. Hq. Co

Sept. 13. 1918, Detroit.

WOOD, STEWART W., Corp. Co. C

Sept. 7. 1918, Atlanta, Ga.

ZLOTCHA, MIKE, Pvt. Co. E

Sept. 23, 1918. Hamtramck, Mich.

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Table of Contents

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, by Lewis E. Jahns et al.

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