ARCTIC CAMPAIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17658, 23 June 1919, Page 10

ARCTIC CAMPAIGN

HARDSHIPS OF HEROES. ON THE ARCHANGEL FRONT. SIR E. SHACKLETON AND THE BOLSHEVISTS. "To ono who hag lived with our troops on tho Archangel front, their present perilous position aunost looks to have been inevitable. _ But, as a brief retrospect will sliow their present position was unforeseeable Thus wrote Mr Arthur Copping m nud-April. H o was on tho Murman coast _as correspondent of tho London Chronicle. .To go back to the beginning is to review the origin of something { ur removed ™, tll J ! British filibustering expedition suggested by some speeches and articles, nlm,i;n° PP,n t f ex P lains - With reiterated pleadings that proved irresistible, responsiblo Russians besought tho Allies for help -lor such small contingent of officers and men as would bo needed to train and stiffen the promised new Russian drmy that w< s to end the Bolshevist class war and restore order in Russia. t' loUE and British, French, or Italians (afterwards strengthened by a few thousand Americans from Michigan) went to ? . A f" rn! ? n coa st and. as a commencement estobbshed order at Murmansk and Archa i with neighbouring regions And here note tho quaint fact that at Archangel as long ago as last August, realised how excellent was our chance when winter camo, of baing "pushed into *"p sea, —by Germans advancing through I'inland! For at that time the war of 'ions was raging in Europe. Wo recogniDod ourselves as but an obsvwe Wlnil _of internationals posted in Polar-Wir legions far removed from the limelight A current sentiment was this: "Well if they como after us, wo shall, at any rate have served as a useful bait to draw Huns tit l wstern front." Meanwhile, things happened according to " ° n ° TCS P ect > but in Bolshevists met on tho icefield proved a« black ae their compatriots had painted tiiom. On recovering corpses of such of %* ™<2 ™ fel l mto tho enemy's hands, we Fonnd theee corpses naked and grossly muti latea one Bolshevist -prisoner was identiear« , peasante as having lopped off the ears and nose of a dead colonel. When thiT fh* sdm5 dm , ittod guilt, but pleaded ordor, w eed u T l a t- done fa obe dience to orders. We shot him. As for the promised Russian army, hopo long pr OVO d to be chasing a will-o'-tho-hermV ;" our r , ran . ks w S,ro some gloriousk heroic young Rus S! an officers; but the Russian population ns a whole showed mor<Sl" Sth^S* 5 their foes ** ™ ds In the meantime the Allies—a good deal £°Wh n I°'°- 0 all , told been push! ing souths Again and again meeting supea n .™^ ers of Bolshevists, they defeated ■£iS ,! iL thffl !i> ti ™ terror had been driven from an area of country several times as large as Great Britain, so that in addition to concentratng adequate strength at the two chief spear-heads (known as "the river front" and the railway front"), General Poole and aiterwards General Ironsides, huel W hues of com rauJlJ cation to keep open, and a hundred points of possible attack to guard £ft P fl dso t0 be P° ste d "Jon" our right flank—some 400 miles of railwav tW connected Murmansk with Petrogra^ lolerably quiescent during the autumn this section of the Archangel front claims attention to-day because of the mixed ris h£ Karelins ' and Bolshevists that has just been mastered at Kandalaksha Situated about 150 miles south of Mur" mamk, Kandalaksha is an important poS on tho southern route to Archangel, travellers crossing tne ice in tho winter and About ISO miles further south is Kern Chrr^^% fc f [ ec l uented Archangel boa? ' Our right flank extends amid the lakes an,i marshes many miles to th e south o f Kern •vn t\ VO chlef s Pear-heads, the railHnn l°t morO P articu! «l.y claims attention at the moment. For the heavy Bolshevist attacks just repulsed occurred at Bolsheozerki, which is to the west of Obo-zerskaya-an important railway position captured last autumn by French kcW and afterwards held by Americans P ' Conditions in many western front trenches and dug-outs were bad, but condikonsalong- the Archangel front are worse Hot the peasants of Russia are astoundins'v verminous. ' - But this river front has provided our troops wita their severest trials. Seletskoe from which we have been driven back was for weeks a centre of picturesque animation, ihough that quaint wooden town occurs some 200 miles from Archangel, the Dvma there has a varying width to bo measured by miles, with wide stretches of clean, golden sand suggestive of a" seashore. My final experiences of Seletskoe were associated with pathetio incidents typical of North Russian warfare. By day the neighbourhood was systematically shelled, it boing fascinating to watch the constant recurrence of abrupt fountains either of water or sand. Looking up the river one could seo with the naked eye the Bolshevist fleet of 21 armoured steamers. Looking across I the river one knew of the heroic but dwindling garrison of "category" Scots, who wero having a strenuous time. Their commander signalled that he had a number of wounded he wished to send down. Some of us boarded a little steamer that was charged with the duty of slipping across at night to get them. Happily there was no moon. On the other hand, there was only ono landing stage, and tho Bolshevist gunners had the range to a nicety. Failure had attended earlier overtures for facilities to evacuate the wounded. With muliled paddles wo crept across to lind shells coming; over. On the following mgnt we tried a second time, but again wo were seen or heard, and tho effort had to be abandoned. On the third night we tried once more, with new quietude and caution. In tho pitch darkness our little steamer snuggled against tiie landing stage. Whispers came irom the shore. A. gangway was put out and noiseless figures went ashore. Presently the burdened bearers were groping their way on board. Stretcher succeeded stretcher very slowly. There were 32 of them. The x>roccss of embarkation occupied nearly.an hour. But we had succeeded. Anon tho little steamer glided away. Fifty minutes later we wero safely on the Seletskoe side. Sir Ernest Shackleton, who has just returned from Murmansk and Archangel, interviewed by Reuters, said the position of the Allied Northern Forces was undoubtedly an anxious one. The Bolshevists were well equipped, well organised, ably led, and largely outnumbered the Allies. Hence both the Murmansk and Archangel fronts were in danger. It was not merely a question of saving our own troops, for. half a million people had thrown in their lot with us. Consequently there was a moral obligation to take definite action. An announcement in this connection wculd be a spearpoint thrust at the heart of Bolshevism and an incentive to Russian mobilisation. A THREE MONTHS' TASK. Sir liiriiest; snaciuetou was comment that suincient volunteers could bo ODtained to meet the situation, and urged that the British had not yet realised wnat was at stake ii the peril was not instantly grappled with, whereas a three months' campaign by a volunteer army would break tni? .boisuevist, monster which was becoming far worse than German militarism. Grief, indignation, and bewilderment are the feeiings expressed by the -newspapers at the revelation of the position at Murmansk. It ia emphasised that no steps must be neglected to relieve tho force. "Tho limes suggested that the best form of relief might be an offensive against Petrograd or Moscow just as the .best way to defend Rumania would bo to iuvade Hungary from the west from the direction of Czecho-Slovakia. News.reached London that a detachment of Admiral Koltchak's Siberian force had succeeded in getting in touch with a detachment of Allied forces hi the neighbourhood of Archangel. The position of the latter was anxious, but the Allied troops command tho Murman railway, and, consequently tho western ports on tho White Sea, and it was believed there should be no difficulty in getting reinforcements there by tho middle of May. The revorsos to tho Bolshevists were held to have improved tho Allied prospects of holding out.