The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-07
AS BRAVE AS men
Captain Thompson Tells OF
Battalion of Death.
Women Fooled Germans When
They Went Over Top.
ENDURED ALL HARDSHIPS
"COOties," However, Were Toe
Much for Them.
Many Suffered Horrors Worse
Than Death When Captured.

J
that visited the Battalion of Death,
according to Donald Thompson, ia
nous war photographer, recently re-
turned from Russia, they found
| nothing SO disturbing to them as the
Coolies What are coolies? Just
plain Iice-body lice-that make tn :
! lives of soldiers miserable. These
wonderful women fighters of Russia
endured their wounds and their
marches and their battles with the
most Wonderful fortitude. but their
patience gave way under the assaults
of the cooties.'
Donald Thompson spent the most
exciting months of the recent Russian
excitements and changes of front and
administration in the very midst of the
fray. He has such a keen sense of
pending events that he manages al
ways to be on hand when the crisis
comes. So well known has he become
for that faculty abroad that the
French soldiers who know him say,
when he appears on their fighting line.
Here comes Monsieur Thompson.
Something dreadful is about to hap
PEN" And it always does happen just
in time for Thompson's camera to
record it.
] Modern Joan of Arc.
I Thus Thompson was in Russia
when the modern Joan of Arc of the
north, Marie Botchkareva, led her
| 10000 women soldiers lover the top"
| The story of these women sprang be-
| fore the public as the most dramatic
/ episode of the most spectacular event
| the world has ever witnessed. Incl
dents of women fighters have ap-
| peared from time to time in history
| the ancient AmaZonS, Queen Boadicea,
Joan of Arc, and even in the civil
war in America-but it is something
| new for 10000 women to storm
| of
| chinery of death, and take 100 prison
ers, including officers.
| Marie Botchkareva,'' Thompson
says, lis just plain peasant woman,
who can neither read nor write But
she is filled with consuming ambi-
ton to save Russia from German
| dominion. Her battalion was organ
lied originally, or permitted to be or
ganized, as an object lesson to the
men who were throwing down their
| arms No one dreamed that they
would see actual fighting. When a
| trench was deserted by a bunch of
Russian men the women were allowed
to go to hold it. The Germans learned
to see the fun of their scrambling out
! of the trenches and running back
screaming, the boche turned in a
heavy fire on their trenches
| They Really Fought.
Instead of fulfilling the expectations
| of the enemy, they climbed out, and
| took the German position If thew
had not been fired upon by a body of
retreating Russians, they would have
held on, too, even tho they lost, killed
and wounded, 70 per cent of their
number" That is briefly the story of
| the battalion, with the tragic ending
when they guarded the Winter Palace.
and the Bolsheviki broke thru their
/ guard, pitched some of the women
out into the street from upper story
win RI
malnder of the number, apportioning
them among the men for a fate worse
than thousand deaths.
That" said Thompson, lis the last
that has been heard of them" Joan
of Arc got off easy She died one
death at the stake The modern spirit
of feminine courage in Russia suf-
fered worse than death in the persons
OF all the survivors after the battle
ftd saw these women in hospitals
said. 'and no men in any army could
bear their hardships in a drawer fash
ion. They did no grumbling, out play
ed the true soldier part When they
suffered they likely called for Gig
aret, and puffed it with every appear
ance of contentment There was
very little drinking amorg them, and
altho many of the number were re-
cruited from the street women of the
cities, saw no signs of fmrn orality in
! their ranks. They were Drumming
with life and energy
Danced After Drills.
After two hours of rifle practice
and ten hours of drilling, these wo-
men would finish out thei.- day dane
ing, singing and Llaying N the liveliest
| fashion"
Along with the pictures of The bat
talon. Thompson got photogra phss OF
Mrs. Pankhurst. who was sent from
England to try to arouse the Russian
women. 1T was not however, the
Russian women who ne >ded rousing =
it was the men," Thompson COM
mented.
Mr.. and Mrs. Thompson will leave
Friday for California. Later Thomp-
son will go abroad again. to Japan, il
J the Siberian trouble becomes serious
otherwise, to Jerusalem.