New Britain herald., 1916-02-05
FIST FLYING COLUMN ! OF SIBERIAN CORPS
ExSeCretary of Russian Embassy
 Here Tells of Its Work

sA - FO iIoI, Jan. Z4.-lnc 1O1lOWIIS N story of the Twenty-first Flying H column of the First Siberian Corps ~ related by Andrew Nalpascnnikoff R former secretary of Russian embassy @at Washington. Kalpaschnikoff #oItered his services to his country at the outbreak of the war and as- A signed to the Red Cross He @ became identified with the Twenty B1lrst Flying Column and soon was @placed in command of that body. N fThe reckless daring of the First N Siberian corps" said Kalpaschnikoff, Sfis well known throughout Russia. NThe flying column attached to such a N11ghting organization has no easy @task. In the first days of the war @several columns, attracted by the M Mbrilliant achievements of that corps Win the defense of Warsaw, strove for @5the honor of working with it, and aAespecially with the famous first @division; but they found the work too @hard, or the conditions too danger Sa GUS, and after brief periods aban- 8Goned the task.
 # Proven Iss Worth.
 N ''The Twenty first Flying Column @Which had been with the corps since fhe end of November, 1914, has SIroven it's worth. tI was organized at the expense of a rich patroness, Countess Tolstoy, already famed for the work she has done in the found ing of hospitals and feeding points fer the sick and wounded. Early in October it did it's first work with one Rc1 the European corps sent to the relief of Lovitch At critical moment, when the enemy had broken gtIrough the Russian lines in two places, the column took up it's task 8oE its own initiative. The com &mander, at that time Bashkiroff, dis patched two sections to a neighboring village in charge of Terotinin, son of Ythe Emperor's physician, and myself. "A diplomat and a student neither of whom had even been in war be- fore, could not judge of the danger and we rode boldly into the village, half of which had already been occu- pied by the Germans. The latter opened fire on our sanitary carriages with rapid fire guns. Part of the carriages were destroyed. We re- called our men and started back as fast as we could. The Germans shelled the road over which we rode to our headquarters. but found that | the road from Lovitch had been cut l With the wounded we had picked up | we had to make a retreat of thirty 1 five miles in one night, most Of the 1 way under the shell fire of the Ger mans, to Skiernivitze. 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 pro- gress outside the city. At the last | moment Russian success on one of the Hanks saved the city and enabled the Russians to repulse the Germans. Being the only Red Cross unit on the grounds, as the result of a mere chance, we bound and fed, in two days, 3,017 wounded.
 With Cossack Raiders.
 We were ordered to move on with the corps of the famous General Mjshenko, known as the Cossack raider of the Japanese war. We took UP our work in his advance lines just at the time the Germans made their second 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
 
 our experiences. In one night seven hundred wounded were found and cared for, the greater part in the trenches under heavy artillery fire. several sanitars were wounded.
 When new corps came to the res cde the CaucasianS were ordered to make a rapid move back to join fresh troops and begin an advance together. The move was executed so suddenly and rapidly that the military aide had no time to take out the wounded lying in several villages near by. The last section of the column volunteered to creep into the village and rescue the wounded who otherwise were threatened with being burned fire having broken out in several places. Through the blackness of the night, lit only by the bursting shells, we made our way into the village and removed eighty men from the danger zone. The staff considered them lost and upon learning of their rescue General Mishenko called Ou the heroes of that night, thanked them for their work and made them the subject of a fattering order to his regiment. I'm
 mediately after that the commander
 of the column fell ill and I was left
 in command
 First Serbian Corps.
 Among the troops whose gallantry
 stopped the Germans a second time from coming to Warsaw were those
 of the First Siberian Corps.
 For the first time having seen the
 magnetic Siberian officers said Kal-
 paschinkof, 1T decided to offer the services of the column to that bril-