Fighting Without a War: An Account of Military Intervention in North Russia — John Shaqi
Fighting Without a War: An Account of Military Intervention in North RussiaAlbertson, Ralph
History
Fighting Without a War: An Account of Military Intervention in North Russia
Albertson, Ralph
World War, 1914-1918 -- Soviet Union
I saw these American boys embark at Archangel and Economy—four great
liners loaded with them—for Brest. Archangel was busy welcoming an
incoming British army. There were no demonstrations here except those
of American joy; exuberant, selfish joy. For the war at last was over
in those last days of June for these five thousand men who for a year
had done the work of twenty-five thousand on a job that called for fifty
thousand or more. And the very last to leave were those who perhaps had
done the hardest work—Companies A, B, and C of the 310th Engineers.
These men embarked on a transport at Archangel on June twenty-sixth, and
the American expedition was at an end.
When these men were gone Archangel was a lonesome place for an American.
They were affectionately remembered by the Russians, and there certainly
were some among them to remember the love and gratitude and admiration
of old Russian eyes in wrinkled faces, and the simple, wonderful faith
of these backward and romantic peasants in the land that symbolized to
them freedom, education, and justice.
*X*
*THE NEW BRITISH ARMY*
In June a splendid new British army took over the fronts in North Russia
from the Americans and the Canadians and the old British "category" men.
They came to finish the job, to clean up North Russia, to take Kotlas by
July fifteenth, Viatka and Vologda in another thirty days, and Petrograd
before snowfall. This was quite on the cards. This new army had come
to Russia with much boasting and had been received in Archangel with
great ceremonial and flourish. They were "men from France" who "knew
how to fight," and they would "show the Yankees how to lick the Bolos."
This boastfulness was unlike that of the first Yankees to go to France
in that it was indulged in more by the officers than by the men. Many
small British officers had acquired with reason a feeling of resentment
toward the Yankee privates which during the spring found relief in big
brag about what the new army was going to do in comparison with what the
Yanks had done.
There were ex-colonels who came as corporals, and lords who came really
to fight. It was an army to be proud of, an army of which much could be
expected, an army which certainly would put across its program. It was
very much bigger than the army that had borne the winter’s campaign.
The equipment was better in every way. They had new rifles that would
not jam at every other shot as the old ones often did. They had more
and better artillery. They had a large air force with an abundance of
equipment. More than all they had the best time of the year in which to
conduct a campaign. Moreover, they had small Bolshevik forces to
contend with, as the Bolsheviki seemed to be busy just then elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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