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.
[Illustration: RED CROSS PHOTO
_Flashlight of a Doughboy Outpost at Verst 455._]
[Illustration: U.S. Official Photo
_Bolo Commander’s Sword Taken in Battle of Bolsheozerki_]
[Illustration: U.S. Official Photo 158853
_After Eight Days—Near Bolsheozerki_]
[Illustration: U.S. Official Photo
_Wood Pile Strong Point—Verst 445_]
[Illustration: U.S. Official Photo 161108
_Verst 455—“Fort Nichols”_]
[Illustration: WAGNER
_Back from Patrol._]
[Illustration: U S. OFFICIAL PHOTO
_Our Shell Bursts Near Bolo Skirmish Line._]
[Illustration: 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.