dead, but there were twelve or more brave men left behind in
that fatal village whose fate was never known and still remains unknown
to the present day, though long since reported by the United States War
Department as killed in action. Many others were picked up dead in that
valley of death later in the day and others died on their way back to
hospitals. These brave lads made the supreme sacrifice, fighting bravely
to the last against hopeless odds. Through prisoners later captured by
us, we learned that the attacking party that morning numbered about nine
hundred picked troops--so the reader will readily appreciate what chance
our small force had.

All that day and far into the night the enemy's guns continued hammering
away at our positions. Under cover of darkness the Russians and Cossacks
in the village of Ust Padenga withdrew to our lines--a move which the
enemy least suspected. The following days were just a repetition of this
day's action. The enemy shelled and shelled our position and then sent
forward wave after wave of infantry. The Canadian Artillery under
command of Lieut. Douglas Winslow rejoined us and, running their guns
out in the open sight, simply poured muzzle burst of shrapnel into the
enemy ranks, thus breaking up attack after attack. Two days later after
a violent artillery preparation, the enemy, still believing our Russian
comrades located in the village of Ust Padenga, started an open attack
upon this deserted position over part of the same ground where so many
of our brave comrades had lost their lives on the nineteenth. They
advanced in open order squarely in the face of our artillery, machine
gun, and rifle fire, but by the time they had gained this useless and
undefended village, hundreds of their number lay wounded and dying in
the snow. The carnage and slaughter this day in the enemy's ranks was
terrific, resulting from a most stupid military blunder, but it atoned
slightly for our losses previous thereto. The valley below us was dotted
with pile after pile of enemy dead, the carnage here being almost equal
to the terrific fighting later at Vistavka. When he discovered his
mistake and useless sacrifice of men, and seeing it was hopeless to
drive our troops from this position by his infantry, the enemy then
resorted to more violent use of his artillery. Shells were raining into
our position now by the thousands, but our artillery could not respond
as it was completely outranged. By the pro