When the Russian women's battalion, known officially as the "Command
of Death," went into action against the Germans near Smorgon, July 25,
they captured a number of German women who also were fighting on the
battle front in western Russia.
Ten wounded heroines of the women's battalion arrived in Petrograd
leaving their commander, Vera Butchkareff and Marya Skrydloff, a
daughter of Admiral Skrydloff, former commander of the Baltic fleet,
and minister of marine, in a hospital at Vitebsk.
The women said it was reported that of the 200 of the command who
reached the front only fifty remained. Twenty were killed, eight were
taken prisoners and all the rest were wounded.
"Several times," said one wounded girl, "we attacked the Germans.
Especially memorable was our attack at Novospassky wood, near Smorgon,
where the enemy, hearing the voices of girls, lost their nerve. The
result was that the prisoners were a few women, from whom we learned
for the first time that German women also were fighting.
"We did not feel the slightest fear for our personal safety. Our
passion was to serve the fatherland. We advanced gaily against the foe
with laughter and song, our only unpleasant sentiments being when we
first came to the corpses. Once when replying to the enemy's severe
rifle and machine gun fire, we discovered to our amazement that all
our men comrades in the neighboring trenches had treacherously fled,
leaving us--a handful of women--to face the enemy alone."
The Russian women's battalion underwent the greatest hardships, not
only in the actual fighting, but on their way to the front, according
to stories told by wounded girls who have been brought back from the
fighting lines to be placed in hospitals. Their heroism under fire was
wonderful. Their dash and elan and their fearlessness under fire make
a new chapter of the war.
The girls were sent to the front after they had demanded of Premier
Kerensky that they be allowed to go.
They had boarded a train of long striped cars. The wooden bunks had
been placed along the walls. The journey had been long and tiresome.
Word of the women soldiers' coming had preceded them and they were
greeted by jeering and hooting crowds at every station along the route.
The girls had their answers ready to the cries of the station crowds.
"What do you think you're going to do?" the jeers would go.
"Why are you fighting?"
Back would come the answer hot with scorn:
"Because you men are afraid to fight. All Russians are not cowards."
The women were sent to a camp back of the lines on the northern front.
On their arrival there they were hooted by the male soldiers, who later
tried to force themselves into the women's camp. It was plain that the
men had no idea the women really expected to fight; they believed them
to be merely camp followers and their cries showed as much. It was only
when a band of male soldiers had been driven from the women's quarters
at the bayonet point that they changed their view.
The girls drilled every day, rain or shine, and bathed in a river near
the camp. While half of the battalion bathed the others had to maintain
a strict guard to keep the male soldiers away.
Then came weary days of waiting. The commanders would not let the girls
go to the front. It was only after great influence had been used that
the order sending them to the trenches was given. They greeted the
order with cheers and in their first action advanced singing songs of
home. Their voices reached the German trenches and the sound of women
singing so surprised the defenders that they were beaten back before
they could regain their composure. As a result a number of prisoners
were taken.
The women of the "Command of Death" came from every branch and class
of society. University students, girls from some of the most noted
families of Russia, professional women, working women and peasants, all
were included in the membership.
"All we wanted was to help save the fatherland," said a wounded girl.
"Women have as much right at the front as men. It is our country, too."