The Cordele dispatch., 1919-05-16
RUSSIAN WARFARE
HAS SOME THRILLS

dence of The Associated Press.)-
The tabloid warfare that the Ameri-
can doughboys and miscellaneous
| collection of Allies have been waging
against the Bolsheviki up in Aurora
Borealis land since the landing of an
Allied corporaIs guard at Archangel
on August 3, has had most Of the
thrills of the big war in France, with
few pet perils all of its own.
In the summer, it was game of
bushwacking, boy scouting, hide and
seek and Indian fighting in the
swamps, with the added attractions
of airplanes, sharpnel, high explosiv-
es, trench mortars, gunboats and
armored trains. In winter when the
| thermometer registers around 80 de-
grees, below zero, it is something
like an Eskimo tribal feud, the
| Eskcmies being equipped with all
| modern devices for putting their
opponents out of the combat.
The Allied North Russian Expedi-
! tionary Force whose backbone is the
Yank doughboy, has been fighting
during the winter against double,
! or triple or quadruple odds. These
Yanks and Tommies and poilus and
half dozen varieties of Russians
| and Poles have been scattered out in
| thin columns operating over territors
about as large as Germany and cold
er than Medicine Hat or Moose Jaw.
There were seven Or eight of these
columns and tney branched out like
d pam leaf fan from it handle, which
is Archangel, stretching far and wide
from the wastes of the Pechora row
er on the shores of the Artic ocean
boundary to the scarcely less frozen
country CT Omega boy, west of Ar
lhangel, where they connect with the
| Murmansk, or Kola force.
Each of these columns has pene-
trated inland, along railroad, high
road, river or forest trail, into the
territory of the Boisneviki and, on
| most of them. Yanks have been at
the far-front, where the trouble is
tlickest. And, as most of the Ameri-
cans who have met John Bolsheviki
lace to face will tell you, as trouble
| mol ic al
he has one out numbered and out
gunned.
Back in the early days of summer,
before they really knew very much
about it, the pOWers-that-were who
planned this expedition had a very
poor opinion of the Bolsheviki's
fighting qualities When the original
Archangel eXpeditiOnary force which
set sail from Murmansk, on Kola Bay,
this corporaPs guard that was to sue
cessfully invade the largest country
in the world consisted of 1,400 men.
Fifty American blue jackets from the
| U. S. S. Olympia who were among
! these Russian "Old Contemptibles"
were the first to set their feet upon
| the dock at Archangel. When the AL
| lies landed the BoIsheviki had gone.
This original expedition of 1,4OO in
Cluded British sailors and marines,
French soldiers and sailors, Ameri-
can sailors, Russians. Poles and a
| scattering representation of six other
nationalities, eleven in all. 1t was all
cluttered Iup with officers. There were
two British generals, colonels and
Of majors and great flCcks of cap
! tains-the idea being that one would
need plenty of officers to direct the
Russian forces which were eagerly
awaiting to spring to arms. Most of
these officer are quite busy at other
| jobs, while they are still waiting for
the Russians tC spring. And the Rus
slams do not seem at all eager to do so
This force split itself up into two
| UT IuTt6 Columns tlldl SET OUT 10 take
Vologda, on the railroad and Katless,
On the Dvina. The Bolshe'viki, it
seems, were expecting much larger
landing force, and they, scurried very
fast at first In the past six months
of hard fighting in the swamps and
snow the entire North Russian ex-
peditionary force hasn't gone much
farther than this little expedition of
"Old Contemptibles" went in two
weeks, and at times it has been a hard
fight to hold what the originals took
IN ii wolk army.
| When the Bolsheviki started re-
treating, they expected to make d
stand at Vologda. Instead. when they
found the Allies were only hand
full, and inadequately equipped they
just turned around and fought us.
they've been fighting us ever since.
and probably will keep on fighting
until we get force of somewhere
nearly equal numbers.