Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-19
YANKEES WADE
TUNDRA T0TAKE
SOVIET TRENCH
american Soldiers Put BoIshe'
vik Guns Out Of Operation
by Attack Across Diff
fiCuIt Terrain.

With the American army on the
Dvina, Oct. 18.-(By Associated
Press,)-A trench from which an
annoying bolshevik pom-pom had
shelled our advanced positions for
a week was taken today in an as
sault by American troops after a
difficult march and a hot fight.
The Americans debarked at dawn
from a wheezy old river steamer
within sound of the bolshevik gun
boats Smelling villages upstream.
After trudging five miles over a
road deeper in mud than those in
Flanders, through struggling viii
lagos and past a roadside chapel,
near which are the graves of four
Americans killed month ago, the
troops halted at noon to rest in
the lower end of shell-sprinkled
village. The little garrison of the
hamlet had been holding off for a
week superior forces, aided by a
feet of gun-mounted river boats.
Here a runner directed the contin-
gent to slip directly through a
wooded swamp to the flank of the
enemy who was encircling the viii
lage.
Big Soft Pudding.
The guides led the water-soaked,
mud-coated soldiers single file mile
after mile through the tundra,
which one American soldier de-
scribed as big soft pudding. The
soldiers jumped from one moss
hunnmock to another, across clear,
cold puddles, but plunged in up to
their thighs where the hummocks
were infrequent.
The Americans spent hours in
this frigid everglade. The sun was
setting and the wind whipped the
moss-bearded trees as they reached
HE edge of the forest bordering the
lroadfon which stood the bolshevik
trenches and field guns.
The soldiers were picking blue
berries as they advanced silently.
The rife of one of the men caught
in the low-hanging limb of a tree
and was discharged. All the troops
Topped face down in the swamp
water and were not discovered.
Bolsheviki Laughing.
Then they rushed quietly across
clearing to the next forest strip.
They heard the bolsheviki talking
and laughing. Behind the trees
they formed a skirmish line within
a hundred feet of the enemy.
Suddenly they we're discovered.
The bolsheviki shouted, Shoot
them; they are behind u.s." There
were scattering shots and then came
a Gathering all along the line, the
Americans shooting hard and fast
as they lay fat, hugging the ground
they had cursed on the march, but
which now protected them from the
bullets whistling overhead.
Then the Americans again sprang
forward under fire to within 10 yards
Of the road. The bolsheviki attempt
ed to hush them. The Americans
fell back few yards, firing as they
went. One of the enemy ran into
the arms of the Americans and sur-
rendered, while another with arms
uplifted tottered queerly through
the swamp in their direction.
Forced to Fight.
Don't shoot. he's wounded" one
American soldier shouted. The boil
sheviki, who was an officer, STUN
bled over moss hummock and fell
into the water. The Russian guides
of the Americans questioned him,
out he begged all the time that the
Americans should not kill him. He
said he had been forced to fight by
the bolsheviki. The kind-hearted
Americans lifted the officer out of
the water and then dressed his
wounds.
Then an officer near by shouted:
AT them, men, they're scared of
u.s." A smashing and cracking of
musketry and machine guns fol-
lowed and the Americans were in
possession of the trench and the
pom-pom gun and other equipment
it contained.
Two riderless horses picked their
way between the bodies of the dead
bolsheviki in the road. One of the
bodies was that of the captain COM
handing the trench. Wounded boil
sheviki stood on the edge of the
forest mubling incoherently.
Others were fleeing into the woods
on the American right, firing as they
ran. They were pursued, but as
darkness approached they rallied
and the Americans fell back and
occupied the captured trench.
The American losses were slight.
Some who were lost in the swamps
wandered about under shrapnel fire
all night, but found their way back
to the American line in the morn
ing.