walks amongst the long-booted and heavily bewhiskered
men. Well-dressed men with shaven faces and marks of culture studied the
Americans speculatively. Russian children began making acquaintance and
offering their flattering Americanski Dobra.

At Solombola, Smolny, Bakaritza, sounds of firing were heard daily, but
the populace were quieted when told that it was not riot or Bolo attack
but the Americans practising up with their ordnance. In fact the
Americans, hearing of actions at the fronts, were desperately striving
to learn how to use the Lewis guns and the Vickers machine guns. At Camp
Custer they had perfected themselves in handling the Colt and the
Brownings but in England had been obliged to relinquish them with the
dubious prospect of re-equipping with the Russian automatic rifles and
machine gun equipment at Archangel. Now they were feverishly at work on
the new guns for reports were coming back from the front that the enemy
was well equipped with such weapons and held the Americans at great
disadvantage.

Here let it be said that the American doughboy in the North Russian
campaign mastered every kind of weapon that was placed in his hands or
came by fortune of war to his hand. He learned to use the Lewis gun and
the Vickers machine gun of the British and Russian armies, also the
one-pounder, or pom pom. He became proficient in the use of the French
Chauchat automatic rifle and the French machine gun, and their rifle
grenade guns. He learned to use the Stokes mortars with deadly effect on
many a hard-fought line. And during the winter two platoons of "Hq."
Company prided themselves on the mastery of a battery of Russian
artillery patterned after the famous, in fact, the same famous French 75
gun.

While the 2nd Battalion under Major Nichols was establishing itself in
quarters at Smolny, where was a great compound of freshly unloaded
supplies of food, herring and whiskey (do not forget the hard stuff)
and, becoming responsible for the safety of the pumping station and the
electric power station and the ships in the harbor, Captain Taylor
established the big Headquarters Company at Olga barracks at the other
end of the city on September seventh where he could train his men for
the handling of new weapons and could co-operate with Captain Kenyon's
machine gun men. They on the same day took up quarters in Solombola
Barracks and were charged with the duty of not only learning how to use
the new machine guns but