The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-12
.31ST INFANTRY LOSES 19 MEN IN RED BATTLE Attack Small Guard At q Romanovka At
 Dawn. TANKS FOUGHT
 FROM AMBUSH Total Casualties In the Engagement Are
 Forty one.

Romanovka, Siberia. July (de- layed)-It was in this little village 50 miles northeast of Vladivostok, that at dawn on June 25 a force of 800 Bolsheviki attacked an American camp in which were 74 men of Com pany 3, 31st Infantry, killing 19 of the Americans and wounding 27 oth- CTS, two of whom died of their wounds. A Washington despatch on June 30 carried the official report of this engagement)
 The men of Company A were guarding the railway from Vladivos- tok, occupying a row of tents pitched near the railroad. The Bolsheviki crept up and hid in the dense under brush fence corners and woodpiles near the camp. At 5 o'clock they fired a volley which killed several of the sleeping Americans. Others, who had been wounded by the first dis charge, staggered outside and were shot down as they left the tents.
 Of those who escaped the first vol ley unscathed some pulled on only light garment or two, clapped on their steel helmets and organized a centre of resistance in a fog cabin, firing thence at puffs of smoke from the bushes.
 Then for three hours the Americans fought as in an Indian batte of the frontier days, relief finally coming to them when r men rolled in on a train after an American volunteer had run from the besieged cabin to Novonez- hino, the nearest American camp, five miles distant.
 The Bolshevikt, thinking large rein- forcements were arriving, then with drew toward the hills dragging their wounded and some of their dead with them, but leaving behind eight of their number who had been killed.
 The Romanovka attack was the first of a series that evidently had been planned by the Bolsheviki to be carried out along the Suchan railway. On the following day a Bolshevik station on the road, using the same methods as those employed on the 25th, firing on the tents at dawn. This time the Americans were ready, however. They were not sleeping in their tents but in log huts from which they poured in a hot fianking fire and inflicted severe losses on the attack ing party.
 Again on the 27th 200 BoIsheviki at tackled an American supply train near Sftza. Two Americans were wounded, DolB OIl l4le olLeI 70 bOlSn6V1kl were killed, one American marksman with an automatic rifle killing Il cf the attackers.
 Intermittent sniping and minor at- taclks, with the destruction here and there of railway bridges and tele- graph lines, has continued between Shkotova and Suchan for a week, communication with the American forces having been cut, except for service by native couriers.
 The Associated Press correspon- dent, making the trip from Vladivo- stok to the Kangaus river, where the last American detachment in the di- rection of Suchan is stationed, slept two nights with the soldiers in their nuts and marched from Novonezhino to the kangaus with the troops. This close touch with the American sol diers revealed the bitterness among the magainst the Bolsheviki virtu- ally the only subject of converse ton being their desire to avenge their companions who had been killed l. During these three days not a sin gle conversation about going home was heard among the men, although this until recently, had been the main topic.
 The Americans are closely co-op- eratlng With the kolchak forces in the Suchan district where the small numbers of the anti-Bolshevik forces make the work of protecting the rail-
 way lines adequately an impossible one.
 The Russian civilians in this dis
 trict appear to be just about as great ly dislfked by the Americans as the lighting Bolsheviki, because it Is known that many villagers who lfa d been believed to be friendly took part in the Romanovka attack. One eld- erly man who was acting as a sniper and was killed close to the American ! camp was identified as a man whose
 professed friendship for the Ameri- cans had Been much in evidence Active measures against the Bolshe-
 vik depredations and attacks are be- ing taken by the American com mand.