KUBAN COSSACKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 307, 29 December 1942, Page 4

KUBAN COSSACKS

NATURAL FIGHTERS

HEAVY TOLL OF GERMANS

(By PETER PAVLENKO)

MOSCOW. When the Soviet Government decorated a large group of Cossacks and conferred the title of "Guards Corps" on Lieutenant-General Kirichenko's 17th Cavalry Corps, it honoured the corps which bore the main brunt of the German blows in the Krasnodar region of the Caucasus and inflicted upon the Nazis immense losses.

General Kirichenko's corps is in a way unique. It is formed mainly of Cossack volunteers and represented in it are two and sometimes even three generations of the same lamily—a father who followed Brusilov across the Carpathians in 1915, ?m S o n f° u ght the Germans in 1918, and a grandson who has just left school, all fighting side by side. A young Cossack girl, Lida tiusack, who serves in the same regiment as her father and brother now is famous throughout the Cossack villages. Yet when I saw her last April she was crying. She had volunteered for military service and had been rejected.

I can ride better than my father and can wield a sabre better than my brother," she said. "Why then have they refused me?" But a short time later Cossack riding contests took place. These contests included the famous Cossack "Djigitovk"—riding erect in the saddle, riding beneath the horse's belly, shooting and sabre play at a gallop. Lida Gusack won a first prize in the contests, and after that, of course, there was nothing to do but to accept her for military service. Now she is a non-commissioned officer in charge of a score of Cossacks. She is spoken of with respect and esteem in the Cossack country.

When the Germans swarmed into Southern Russia the Cossack ranks swelled. There were battles in which the Cossack units suffered casualties, but instead of diminishing they increased in numbers as more recruits joined. Always, fresh men came to replace the fallen, for, after all, they were fighting in their native territory with their home villages, friends and relatives in sight. Such armies never become depleted, and Cossack saddles never remained empty for very long. Riderless horses found their way back to their home villages or farms, and new riders were found to take the place in the saddle before the blood had time to dry on it. The swamps of the River Koban is a regular jungle nearly 200 miles long and many miles wide with countless islands and creeks. These swamps now swarm with Cossack guerillas, and every mile Hitler's legions penetrate into the swamps takes a heavy toll of Nazi lives. The German advance in this sector is measured in yards, but their losses are counted in thousands.

The Nazis apparently have selected a long, drawn-out death for themselves. It would be easier and cheaper for them to die at home. They are scared enough of the Russian forests, but they are much more scared of the Caucasian mountains And they still are only in the foothills. The worst is yet to come.— Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.