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.