The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-11-08
FIGHTING WAY 1900 MILES.
Czecho-Slovaks Are Writing Wonderful
Page in History.

Vladivostok, Nov. S.-tCorrespondenee
Of the Associated Press General
Gaide's Czecho- Sloyaks fighting their
way through 1900 miles Of hostile ter.
ritory furnishes a tale no less thrilling
than that related of Cortez' drive from
Vera Cruz TO the ancient Aztec capital
in the sixteenth century Like his sue
cess, also like those of the adventurous
Spaniard, were due to his mfagging
courage and ingenious tactics and to the
loyalty OF his men.
When the order came from petrograd
countermanding the permission given for
the free movement Of the Czecho- Slovaks
toward Nladiyostok. it found them
strung out in thin line from the Volga
to Vladiyostok. A l2-day truce, follow
ing the first serious clash at irkutsk
when the bolshevik undertook to disarm
a trainlpad of Czecks applied only to
eastern Siberia and was utilized by
Gaide's men to get running start for
the plunge through the thickest OF the
struggle. Thereafter his policy appears
to have been to constantly prepare and
execute some new surprise until the en-
envy was in such a state of nerves that
the approach of body of Czecho-Slo-
yaks, no matter how small, was likely
to throw him into a panic.
Assisted by Cossacks and by Czechs
from Chiliabinsk, Colonel Kadlets, then
commander of the Czechs forces west of
Irkutsk, fought his way west to omsk,
taking towns en- route He improved
the time during the armistice to clean
u pthe line westward to the Trails.
Meantime, with resumption Of hostili-
ties to the eastward the Geek .Sloyak
forces between Kransonyarsk and
Irkutsk found themselves hard pressed
and near TO the end of their resources.
Kadlets doubled back eastward and bv
a series of hanking movements, falling
upon the bolsheyiki in the night.
stampeded them time after time. In
this way he pushed through to the re-
lief of his countrymen at Krasnoyarsk
and Irkutsk
From Irkutsk to the southernmost
point of Lake Baikal there are Al tun-
nels. 1t was the Czechs' aim TO clear out
the bolsheviki without giving them time
to blow up these tunnels, and to that
end they started a small contingent
overland to surprise the bolsheviki be.
yond the series of tunnels. These men
marched four days under greatest diff.
culties. They became so pressed for food
supplies that they had to eat their
horses. But they accomplished their OBJ
jeet. They attacked the bolsheviki in
the middle of the night, captured their
machine guns and started them north
ward in disorder The bolsheviki sue
ceeded in blowing up one tunnel, the last
one in the series.
The Czechs and their Rusian allies
now had a clear track to the southern
extremity of the lake, to a village
named Slujianka, where the blocked tun-
mel presented serious obstacle to fur
ther progress, They dragged few light
guns over the ridge and marched several
eontingents of troops around the OBJ
struction, only to find the bolsheviki
massed in force some 20 miles beyond.
The Czechs and Russians suffered heavy
losses in the fighting here and were
forced back to within a few miles of
the tunnel
Meantime the Czechs had cleared the
tunnel sufficiently to pass troops through
on foot. General Gaida, who had sue
ceeded Colonel Kadlets in command,
caused deeoy messages to fall into the
enemy's hands, begging for help and de-
elaring that the tunnel was hopelessly
blocked and he in desperate straits, sur
rounded and at the end of his resources
The bolsheviki thereupon moved south
ward in high spirits, throwing aside all
naut;nr, Rpnda pla xyad and fhntr yNrDuraaa
was in the nature of a triumphal march.
A few miles from the tunnel they ran
into an ambush which completely de-
moralized them. Machine guns raked
them from the hillsides and field guns
shelled them front and rear. A tattered
remnant of the bolshevik army fed
northward with the few trains they
were able to save.