Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-10-22

sent forward as soon as they were
ready.
The women spent much time cleaning
and learning their guns. They seemed to
love their firearms. one girl always al
How can you love gun?" I asked
her.
II love anything that brings death to
the Germans" she answered grimly. This
girl a highly educated. wellbred young
woman, was in Germany when the war
broke out. She was arrested and charged
know. may have been true 1t was not
proved, of course, or she would have
been shot. On the more suspicion. how
ever. she was kept In prison for a year
and must have suffered pretty severely.
She looked forward to the coming fight
with keen zest. 1 asked her one day what
she would do If she was taken prisoner
again.
She pulled from under her blouse a
slender gold chain, on the end of which
was capsule in a chamois bag. Il shall
never be taken prisoner she said. None
of us will"
Those women went into battle after
less than two months training, as it
turned out. for the evening Of the ninth
day the nachainik came back from
headquarters with orders to march the
next morning at 5. What an uproar
followed! Cheers, laughter. singing.
You would have thought they were go
ing anywhere except to battlefield.
where death waited for some and cruel
suffering for many.
1 wanted to go with them. and would
have insisted on going had l known
that they were soon to fight. But
orders were merely to advance for
further drill under gunfire. l would
have been frightfully in the way In the
but only dog tents just enough. to go
around. Nothing on earth except the
knowledge that I would be depriving
some one of those brave women from
the comfort of dry and sheltered bed
persuaded me to leave them.
Five days later, in Petrograd, I read
in the dispatches that they had been
sent almost directly into action, leading
men who had previously refused to ad-
vance and turning a defeat into vic
STA is thankful for even small victories
these days.
A short note from Skridlova prepared
me for the story of losses l knew was
coming. She wrote in French. which
she knows better than English. You
have heard already perhaps that we
have been in action. I do not know
yet how many were killed or have died
of wounds. but two of those you knew
well were killed. Catherine and Olga,
of St. George. Eighteen girls are
wounded badly, Nina among them"
Nina was the girl who called her gun
sweetheart and who had been a
prisoner in Germany.
Skridlova was badly commissioned in
the head. shoulders and knees, but she
remained in command of the remnant
of the battalion because the nachainik
had suffered SO severely from shell
shock that she had to be sent to a
hospital in Petrograd. She was nearly
deaf when l saw her, and her heart
was badly affected.
1T was a good fight" she whispered
smiling from her pillow. Not a woman
faltered. not one. The Russian men
hid in a little wood while the officers
swore at them and begged them to adj
vance. Then they sent us forward. and
we called to the men that we would
lead them il they would only follow.
Some of them said they would follow.
and we went forward on a run. still
shouting to the men. About two-thirds
of them went with u.s. and we easily
put the Germans to flight. We killed a
lot of Germans and took almost hun
bred prisoners, including two officers"
In another hospital found more than
twenty of the battalion, some slightly
and others seriously wounded. The
worst cases were kept In base hospitals
near the battle front, and l never saw
Nina again.