Imperial Valley press., 1919-05-19
WARFARE TRIALS
OF AMERICANS in
SIBE ERIA TOLD
(ByAssociated Press)

The tabloid warfare that the Ameri- |
can doughboys and a miscellaneous
collection Of Allies have been waging |
against the Bolsheviki up in Aurora
Borealis land since the land of an
Allied corporaPs guard at Archan- !
gel, on August 3, has had most of |
the thrills Of the big war in France,
with a few pet perils all of its own
In the summer, it was game of |
hushwhacking, boy scouting. hide and
seek and Indian fighting in the |
swamps, with the added attraction of
airplanes, shrapnel, high explosives,
trench mortals, gunboats and armored
trains. In winter, when the ther-
mometer registers around 30 degrees
below zero, it is something like an
Eskimo tribual feud, the Eskimos be-
ing equipped with all modern devices
tor putting their opponents out of
the combat.
The Allied North Russian Expe-
ditionary 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 territory
about as large as Germany and cold
er than Medicine Hat or Moose Jaw
There were seven or eight of these
columns and thew branched out like
palm leaf fan from its handle, which
is Archangel, stretching far and wide
from the wastes of the Pechora river
on the shores of the Arctic ocean
not very far from the Siberian boun-
Diary to the scarcely less frozen coun-
try of Omega Bay, west of Archangel,
where they connect with the Muir
mansk, or Kola force.
Each of these columns has pene-
trated inland, along railroad, high
road, river or forest trail, into the
territory OF the Bolsheviki and, on
most of them, Yanks have been at
the far-front, where the trouble is
thickest. And as most of the Amer
leans who have met John Bolsheviki
face to face will tell you, as a trou-
hlemaker John is active, especially
when he has one outnumbered and
outgunned.
Back in the early days of summer,
before they really knew very much
about it, the nowers- that-Were who
planned this expedition had a very
poor opinion of the Bolsheviki's fight.
ing qualities. When the original
Archangel eXpeditionary force which
set sail from Murmansk, on Kola
Bay, this corpOral's guard that was
to successfully invade the largest
country in the world consisted of 400
men, Fifty American bluejackets
from the U. S. S. Olympia, who were
among these Russian "Old Contempti
| 4 ! h. 10 Oh +lon,x fOn
upon the dock at Archangel. When
the Allies landed the Bolsheviki had
gone.
The original expedition of 400 in
cluded British sailors and marines,
lean sailors. Russians, Pole and a
nationalities, eleven in all. 1t was
were two British generals, colonels
and lieutenant colonels galore, a
horde Cf majors and great flocks of
captains idea being that one
would need plenty of officers to di-
rect the Russian forces which were
| eagerly awaiting to spring to arms.
Most of these officers are quite busy
at other jobs. while they are still
waiting for the Russians to spring.
And the Russians do not seem at tall
eager to do so.
This force split itself up into two
or three columns, set out to take Vol
ogda, on the railroad, and Katlass
on the Divine. The Bolsheviki, it
seems, We're expecting a much larger
landing force, and the scrried away
very fast at first In the past six
months of hard fighting in the
swamps and snow the entire North
Russian eXpedtionary 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 walkaway.
When the Bolsheviki started re-
treating, they expected to make a
stand at Vologda. Instead, when they
found the Allies were only hand
full, and inadequately equipped, they
lust turned around and fought us.
They've been fighting us ever since,
and probably will keep on fighting