Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-01-23
FLYING COLUMN
AsTON|SHES ALL
BY ITS DARING
Remarkable Body Of Siberian
Troops, Organized by Rich
Patroness, Is Making Rec
ord in Present War;

uead uarters of the Russian Army
=, the Center, Dec. 31.-The follow
;rg story of the Twenty-first flying
nolumn of the First Siberian corps
vas related by Andrew kalpaschni-
koff. former secretary of the Russian
embassy at Washington. Kalpasch-
nkoff offered his service to his coun-
FRY at the outbreak of the war and
was assigned to service with the Red
cross He became identified with the
Twenty-first flying column and soon
was placed in command of that body.
"The reckless daring of the First
Siberian corps" said talpaschnikoff
"is we'll known throughout Russia.
The flying column attached to such a
fighting organization has no easy
task. In the first days of the war
several columns, attracted by the
brilliant achievements of that corps
in the defence of Warsaw, strove for
the honor Of working with it, and
especially with the famous first di-
vision: but they found the work too
hard, or the conditions too dangerous.
and after brief periods abandoned tho
task
"The Twenty-first flying column
which had been with the corps since
the end of November, 1914, has prov
en- its worth. 1t was organized at the
expense of rich patroness, Countess
Tolstoy, already famed for the work
she has done in the founding of hos
pitfalls and feeding points for the sick
and wounded. Early in October ii
did its first work with one of the
European corps sent to the relief Of
Lovitch. At a critical moment, when
the enemy had broken through the
Russian lines in two places the col
umn took up its task on its own in
itative The commander at that
time. Bashkiroff, dispatched two Sec
tons to a neighboring village in
charge Of Terotinin, son of the en-
peror's physician. and myself.
Danger Not Realized.
"a diplomat and student neither
of whom had ever been in war before,
could not judge of the danger and we
rode boldly into the village half of
which had already been occupied by
the Germans. The latter opened
fire on our sanitary carriages with
rapid fire guns. Part of the car
riages were destroyed. We recalled
our men and started back as fast as
We could. The Germans sheled the
road over which we rode to our head
quarters, but found that the road
from Lovitch had been cut. With
the wounded We had picked up we
had to make a retreat of thirty-five
miles in one night, most of the way
under the she'll fire of the Germans
TO Skiernixitze. There We found that
the town had been ordered evacuated
by the Russian troops and We were
practically the only ones left there. A
hot fight was in progress outside the
city. At the last moment a Russian
success on one of the flanks saved
the city and enabled the Russians to
repulse the Germans. Being the only
Red Cross unit on the grounds, as the
result of mere chance, We bound
and fed, in two days 3,017 wounded
We were ordered then to move on
with the corps of the famous General
Mlshenko known as the Cossack raid
err of the Japanese war We took up
our work in his advance lines just at
the time the Germans made their sec
ond dash on Warsaw. Our corps
stood firm for nine days, repulsing
attack after attack. This nine days
among the Caucasian heroes was the
most trying and dangerous, but at the
same time the most instructive. of
our experiences. In one night seven
hundred wounded We're found and
cared for, the greater part in the
trenches under heavy artillery fire.
several santars We're wounded.
Caucasians Ordered Back.
When new corps came to the res
cue the Caucasians were ordered to
make rapid move back to join fresh
troops and begin an advance together.
me move was executed so suddenly
ana rapidly that the military aide mad
no time to take out the wounded u