work that was given the
Yankee doughboys to do 'on the other side.'

"The scraps mentioned here were the tougher part of the actions at the
front. In between the line should be read first the cold as it was felt
only out in the Arctic woods, away from the villages and their warm
houses. Then, too, everything was one ceaseless and endless repetition
of patrolling and scouting. Many were the miles covered by these lads
from Detroit and other cities and towns of America among the soft snow
and the evergreens. Many a time did these small parties have their own
little battles way out in the woods. Much has been said here and there
of the influence of Bolshevik propaganda upon the American forces. It is
true that these soldiers got a lot of it, and it is true that these
soldiers read nearly all that they got. But it is true also that there
was not a single incident of the whole campaign which could with honesty
be attributed to this propaganda. On the Kodish Front it is quite safe
to say that there was more of this ludicrous literature--not ludicrous
to the Russian peasant, but very much so to the average American--taken
in than on any other. Scarce a patrol went out which did not bring back
something with which to while away a free hour or so, or with which to
start a fire. It was always welcome.

"But it was seriously treated in the same spirit that moved a corporal
of Ballard's machine gun platoon who felt strongly the discrepancy
between the remarks of the Bolshevik speaker on the bridge to the effect
that his fellows were moved by brotherly love for the Yanks and the FACT
that nine out of every ten Bolshevik cartridges captured had the bullets
clipped. The corporal reciprocated later with a machine gun, not for the
love but for the bullets.

"So they stuck and fought, suffering through the bitter months of winter
just below the Arctic Circle, where the winter day is in minutes and the
night seems a week. And there is not one who is not proud that he was
once a "side kicker" and a "buddy" to some of those fine fellows of the
various units who unselfishly and gladly gave the last that a man has to
give for any cause at all."

XVI

UST PADENGA

Positions Near Ust Padenga In January--Bolo Patrols--Overwhelming
Assault By Bolos January Nineteenth--Through Valley Of Death--Canadian
Artillery And Machine Gun Fire Punishes Enemy Frightfully When He Takes
Ust Padenga--Death Of Powers--Enemy Artillery Makes American Po