was a one reel thriller. Kodish had been a repetition of
nightmares both for the Reds and the Yanks. Shenkursk had been a five
act drama the tragic end of which had been destined when the Americans
were ordered to dig in so far forward, isolated from the supporting
forces. This last front, Bolsheozerki, sprang suddenly into acute
importance in March just at the end of winter and was savagely fought.

The brilliant strategy of the Bolo Northern Army commander, General
Kuropatkin, in sending a Bolo general with a great flying wedge between
the Onega Force and the Railroad Force was executed with a surprisingly
swift flank movement that caught the French napping at the lightly held
Bolsheozerki position, March 16-17. Their force was annihilated, a
convoy was captured, and the old priest of the area came fleeing to
Obozerskaya with news of this enemy drive that would soon, unless
checked, capture Obozerskaya, and thus pierce a vital point of the whole
Archangel defense. The railroad front sectors would be cut off,
Seletskoe would be pinched, and the River Fronts taken in rear if
Obozerskaya with its stores, munitions and transportation fell into the
hands of the Bolsheviki.

General Ironside hastened to Obozerskaya to take personal command. The
French Colonel commanding there had himself been cut off at Chinova on
the west side of Bolsheozerki and had failed to fight his way through
the next day, March 18th, with an escort of "H" Company men, story of
which is related elsewhere. Ironside ordered up three Companies of Yorks
and a Polish Company, who had been on the road from Onega to
Bolsheozerki to join the Americans at Chinova for a smash at the
gathering Reds in Bolsheozerki. Their gallant but futile fight with its
hard losses on March 23rd, from the enemy fire and winter frost has been
told. Meanwhile General Ironside hurried out an American company from
Archangel together with an Archangel Regiment Company and eighty Yorks
and some of the French Legion Courier du Bois to make an attack on the
Reds at the same time on their other flank. But the Reds had their
artillery all set to command the road at Verst 19 and threw the Russian
troops into confusion with severe losses. "E" Company of Americans
resolutely floundered for hours through the five-foot snow to reach a
distant viewpoint of the village of Bolsheozerki where they could hear
the furious action between "H" and the Reds on the farther side, but by
field telephon