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.
[Illustration: PRIMM
_View of Archangel in Summer._]
[Illustration: U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO
_General Ironside Inspecting Doughboys._]
[Illustration: 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.’ “