rs to report at Chinova
to Col. Lucas, the French officer in command of the Vologda Force.
Travelling all night, he reached Col. Lucas in the morning and the
latter determined to push on under escort of the Americans and attempt
to reach Bolsheozerki and Oborzerskaya, being at that time ignorant of
the real strength of the force of Reds that had interrupted the
communications.

About noon, March 18th, the detachment in escort formation left Chinova
and proceeded without signs of enemy till within four versts of
Bolsheozerki, where they were met by sudden burst of a battery of
machine guns. Luckily the range was wrong. The horses bolted upsetting
the sleighs and throwing Col. Lucas into the neck-deep snow. The
Americans returned the fire and slowly retired with the loss of but one
man killed. Crawling in the snow for a great distance gave many of them
severe frost bites, one of the most acute sufferers being the French
Col. Lucas. The detachment returned to Chinova to report by telephone to
Chekuevo and to organize a defensive position in case the enemy should
advance toward Chekuevo. The enemy did not pursue. He was crafty. That
would have indicated his great strength.

By order of Col. Lawrie, British O. C. Onega Det., Lt. Phillips was sent
with about forty "H" Company men to reinforce Lt. Collins. It was the
British Colonel's idea that only a large raiding party of Bolos were at
Bolsheozerki for the purpose of raiding the supply trains of food that
were coming from Archangel to Chekuevo. Phillips reached Chinova before
daybreak of the twentieth. Lt. Collins was joined at the little village
of Chinova by three companies of Yorks, enroute from Murmansk to
Obozerskaya, a U. S. Medical corps officer, Lt. Springer, and four men
joined the force and an attack was ordered on Bolsheozerki by these
seventy Americans and three hundred Yorks. They did not know that they
were going up against ten times their number.

At 2:00 a. m. the movement started and at nine in the morning the
American advance guard drew fire from the enemy. Deploying as planned on
the left of the road the "H" men moved forward in line of battle. One
company of Yorks moved off to the right to attack from the woods and one
on the left of the Americans. One York company was in reserve. After
advancing over five hundred yards in face of the enemy machine gun fire,
the Americans were exhausted by the deep snow and held on to a line
within one hundred yards of