olsheozerki was an
important point on the government road which went from Obozerskaya to
Onega. It was thought wise to protect this village as in winter mail
would have to be sent out of Archangel by way of Obozerskaya, via Onega,
via Kem, via Kola, the open winter port on the Murmansk coast hundreds
of miles away to the west and north. And troops might be brought in,
too. A look at the map will discover the strategic value of this point
Bolsheozerki. American and French troops now began to alternate in the
occupation of that cluster of villages.

A sergeant of "M" Company might tell about the neat villages, about the
evidences of a higher type than usual of agriculture in the broad
clearing, about the fishing nets and wood cutters' tools, and last, but
not least about the big schoolhouse and the winsome barishna who taught
the primary room.

Nothing more than an occasional patrol or artillery exchange took place
on the railroad although there was an occasional flurry when the British
intelligence officers found out that the Reds were plotting a raid or a
general attack. It was known that they had begun to augment their forces
on our front. Sound of their axes had been as constant on the other side
of No Man's Land as it had on our side. They were erecting blockhouses
for the winter. Occasionally their airplanes exchanged visits with ours,
always dropping a present for us. No casualties resulted from their
bombs directed at us. Unfortunately one day our bombing plane mistook
our front line for the Red front line and dropped two big bombs on our
own position and caused one death and one severe wound.

The accident happened just as an American company was being relieved by
a French company. And it was a good thing the commander of the company
consumed the remainder of the day in getting his excited and enraged men
back to Obozerskaya because by that time the men were cooled off and the
nervous Royal Air Force had no occasion to use its rifles in
self-defense as it had prepared to do. They wisely stayed inside, as in
fact did the few other English sergeants and enlisted men at Obozerskaya
that ticklish night. The few wild Yanks who roamed the dark, without
pass, had all the room and road. There was a particularly good mission
at once found for this American company on another front, whether by
design or by coincidence. A board of officers whitewashed the Canadian
flyers of the Royal Air Force and the incident was closed.