Russian Sideshow

by Robert L Willett

  There were four graves, three of which were about fifteen feet long and ten wide each, the other, a smaller one, was completely covered with dirt, the other three only a thin layer of dirt covered the bodies. In one there were three or four bodies exposed and from the position of the bodies it seemed as though they were dumped in. One particular thing I noticed was that all of the feet were gone of the bodies exposed, with the exception of one, and only one foot remained on that body, the privates of another man gone. In my opinion the prisoners were tortured before they were killed, which is the custom of Semenov’s guards.42

  The people of the Baikal district were terrified of Semenov, “[I]t means death if you are found expressing your opinion, regarding Semenov or his officers.”43 It was painful for the men of the Twenty-seventh Infantry to accept that these were the men they were sent five thousand miles to support, but sadly they realized that they were now being identified as among Kolchak’s defenders, atrocious as those defenders were.

  These railroad guards remained in their locations with relatively little action until the chaos and confusion of the expedition’s final days. However, the smoldering embers of the Suchan Mine unrest were already bursting into a consuming flame.

  22

  The Battles Begin

  I reached the passenger train first and told the train guard that Company “A” was getting massacred.

  —Cpl. William Heinzman

  FROM the very beginning, the Suchan Mine area, located north and east of Vladivostok, had been troublesome to the Americans.

  In September 1918, General Graves sent Company M of the Thirty-first Infantry with a Japanese company, a Chinese unit, and a few White Russians to the mine area under the command of Lt. Col. Sylvester Loring.1 Colonel Robinson accompanied the units to judge the reception they might get. He also distributed Graves’s notice, which said:

  To the Citizens of the Suchan Mine District

  The Allied nations have come to Russia to help the Russian citizens and help win the war against Germany. In the prosecution of this mission they have found it necessary to operate the mines temporarily in order to increase the production of coal, thus making possible the distribution of supplies from one section to another, to keep the Russian people from starving and Russian women and children warm this winter.2

  Graves offered a few more details in his notice:

  1. He reinstated Mr. Egroff, former mine superintendent (who was highly unpopular when he was relieved earlier), because he was most familiar with the mines.

  2. The citizens did not need arms, since they were now being protected by the Allies. Mr. Egroff would issue permits for any weapons deemed necessary for hunting.

  3. Machine guns must be turned in.

  4. The local government was still in charge.3

  Robinson left confident that the situation was well in hand.

  During the winter months, life remained relatively quiet; the Americans even thought they had established friendships with the locals, although there were undercurrents of unrest. Springtime, however, brought significant changes; signs of trouble appeared as the trees began to bloom. Many of the miners were definitely anti-Kolchak, even if not pro-Bolshevik. The mine managers were Whites, and there had been tensions for some time between managers and workers.

  The scene in Suchan was confusing. There were villagers who tended to their businesses; there were partisans who could at times be moved by impassioned leaders to take action against enemies; there were Bolsheviks who were determined to keep some pressure against the Whites recruiting in the area; and now there were Allies. The Suchan Russians were primarily Bolshevik sympathizers. They were very disorganized, but constituted a significant force when aroused. The Bolshevik leaders made it their job to keep anti-Kolchak feelings at fever pitch; the White Army’s current recruiting tactics played perfectly into the Bolshevik leaders’ plans.

  After the Railroad Agreement, Allies guarded the spur railroad, which left the Trans-Siberian at Ugolnaya and turned east to the rugged hills of Suchan. From Ugolnaya, the line passed through a number of towns and villages, including Shkotova, Romanovka, Novo Nezhino, and Kangaus, as it wound toward the Suchan Mines. From Kangaus the rails turned to a cable car, which went through Tigrovia, then a narrow gauge which ran from Fanza through Sitsa, ending at the mines. The cable cars were used to climb the steep mountain grades and to transport the coal to the railroad cars. Since coal was critical to the operation of the locomotives of the all-important Trans-Siberian system, operating the coal mines was considered a logical addition to the Allied assignments along the main line. One observer described the passengers’ experience getting to the mines: “We went into this area by a very unique method. First by regular train then by coal train on a narrow gage rail then by bucket line, two men to a bucket.”4

  At the time of the Railroad Agreement, Graves increased the troops in the Suchan area by sending Company E under American major Emile Cutrer to establish a base at Shkotova on the Suchan main rail line. In mid-March, he sent Company H to relieve Company M at the mines, but once they arrived, it was decided to keep both companies there. As more Americans came to guard the railroads and their presence increased, the friendship of the locals soon vanished. Animosity was increased by a number of White Army troops recruiting in the mine area, killing and torturing anyone trying to evade conscription. On his exploratory trip in April, Colonel Eichelberger had witnessed firsthand the belligerence of the Kolchak men when he was captured and later released.

  Colonel Eichelberger returned to Suchan again in April to try to determine what could be done to keep conflicts in check. Earlier, Graves had reported to Washington that Cossacks under Ivanoff-Rinoff conscripting White Army recruits had executed ten men in Gordievka. His comment was, “The actions of these punitive Cossack expeditions is a disgrace to present day civilization and in my judgment the history of atrocities committed by the Bolsheviks will not be much worse than the history of those being committed by these Cossacks.”5 The White Army presence had left strong resentment against anything connected to the Kolchak regime. Eichelberger saw for himself the results of some of their methods when he asked for some evidence. “I had some bodies dug up, took photographs of the men who had been tortured—fingernails off and hundreds of burns with red hot irons.”6 Repeatedly, the locals pleaded with the Americans for help, but, in spite of their sympathy, the Americans obeyed their orders to stay neutral. Graves told Ivanoff-Rinoff to curtail his troops or the Americans would withdraw, so Ivanoff-Rinoff agreed to keep his men out of Suchan.7

  There were several changes in command in the Mine Guard during the winter and early spring. On February 12, Colonel Loring was replaced by Lt. Col. L. L. Pendleton, who in turn was replaced by Maj. F. B. Allderdice on May 30.

  On April 23, two Japanese soldiers were murdered and mutilated near Mine #10. “Their men were very nervous and would only leave their barracks in armed parties.”8 As the tensions mounted, on May 17 Graves ordered a full battalion from Vladivostok to Shkotova in an effort to stabilize the situation. The First Provisional Battalion, under Maj. William H. Joiner, consisted of four companies, plus one platoon of machine gunners and its 37mm cannon. This brought the number of companies in Shkotova to five: A, C, D, E, and I. Graves himself went to Shkotova and was there on May 21.9 That same spring, a new Bolshevik figure appeared in the area, A. N. Iaremenko, who provided partisan leadership, as well as close contact with Bolshevik circles in other areas. A proven Bolshevik and partisan leader, he was joined by a more fanatical Bolshevik, Yakov Triapitsyn; together, they were able to pull the various factions together and begin a series of organized raids on the Suchan rail line.10 They arrived in Suchan in time to witness the virtually complete blockade of the area by the Kolchak government. Believing that the White army’s recruiting and terror methods had failed, the government stopped shipment of goods to Suchan. But far from forcing people to abandon the partisan movement, it only strengthened their numbers and their resolve
.11 By spring, no coal was being produced and even as the Allies deployed, the partisans began their campaign.

  The campaign opened with a series of attacks on the Suchan trains carrying various Allied troops, supplies, and Russian troops and civilians. On May 18, a train was fired on between Ugolnaya and Shkotova, wounding five civilians and killing a Russian major. The same day a train was ambushed near Romanovka. Four days later a general strike of the miners was declared. The next day the revolutionary headquarters of the Olga district demanded the withdrawal of Allied troops, threatening to use force if necessary to make them leave.12 Headquarters had become uneasy, and Major Cutrer had issued a blunt order to Lt. H. Krieger at Romanovka on May 23: “[Y]ou will disarm or kill every Red Guard in Romanovka. Don’t parlay with them one minute longer.”13

  Because of the threats and demands of the partisans, on May 21, Company E under Capt. Laird Richards was sent from Shkotova to attack the village of Maihe. General Graves said:

  [T]here was nothing left for us to do but to take the field and break up these small bands which were getting together and rapidly forming into larger groups under the leadership of men who were reported as being extremely radical and who would not hesitate to resort to hostile measures.14

  The orders to Company E stated that these overt acts justified the use of troops.

  When Company E attacked the partisan stronghold at Maihe, it was not a major battle as battles go, but it was the first action the Thirty-first Infantry had seen since the old days of the insurrection in the Philippines. On May 21, the rains were heavy as the company moved along the road to Maihe. To reach the village, the men had to cross an icy river. Pvt. Wilber Goreham slipped and fell as he crossed. Two of his squad pulled him out of the river, but he found later that the three hundred dollars he had in his wallet had became stuck together.15 Pvt. William Kislingburg was walking point, leading the advance; as they neared the village, he was sent on a flanking mission. The Americans drew some partisan fire, but had no casualties. He watched as the main body approached the bridge over the river, but had to deploy as the Reds opened fire. As the Browning automatic rifles fired back, the partisan fire slackened, then stopped.16

  Back at regimental headquarters in Vladivostok, Colonel Sargent reported that Company E met “vigorous resistance” in the attack, and withdrew to encamp on the river across from town. A machine gun section was supposed to support Company E in its assault, but communications were confused, so Captain Richards and Company E left without the machine guns. Reinforcements arrived the next day, parts of companies C, D, and I, with the missing machine gun section.

  The next day, May 22, the Americans launched a new assault, which successfully cleared the town of the partisans. Most of the attackers had to wade the frigid Maihe River, although some managed to cross on the bridge. They stayed in Maihe until 1:00 P.M., when they were ordered back to Shkotova. One of the machine gun company’s reports said it was a miserable march in the rain. The men of the weapons section, ordered to take a shortcut back to camp, found themselves in a sucking swamp; they had to turn around to find the main road. It took them seven hours to cover the five miles; they arrived mud-caked and soaked.17 American casualties were three wounded; Red casualties were unknown.18

  The third day, Major Joiner sent a column with units from companies C, D, and I farther north and west, where they encountered sporadic firing, but chased out the snipers. On May 25, Joiner sent Companies C and D with a machine gun section from Shkotova west on the railroad, riding the cars a few miles, then detraining to clear two tiny villages, Knevichi and Krolovets, where they ran into heavy fire. These companies attacked from the south; Company E, sent from Shkotova, attacked from the east. The Americans, returning fire with their automatic weapons, swept the entire area, suffering no casualties. Colonel Sargent reported, “These operations effectively cleared the country north of the Ugalnaya-Shkotova sector.”19

  Although the area may have been cleared, it was far from secure. Graves, recognizing this, sent detachments from both the Shkotova base and the Mine Guard base, stretched to cover important rail stations. Allderdice wired Graves on June 7 saying he had been informed of an attack to be staged on the mines and Mine Guard within the next ten days. He asked permission to launch an attack on the two Bolshevik centers, Frolovka and Kazanka, which he felt was “the only solution to the problem in my opinion.”20 In spite of recent fighting, the answer was no. Allderdice’s request might have had a bearing on the decision to relieve him on June 10, 1919; he was replaced by Col. Gideon H. Williams. On June 21, Major Joiner took Companies C and D from Shkotova to the Mine Guard base with a machine gun platoon and a section of heavy weapons, including a small one-pounder cannon.21 This left Major Cutrer in command at Shkotova, and Colonel Williams commanding the Mine Guard.

  Significant hostilities began on June 21 in an unexpected way. The fishing had been good along the Suchan River; three men from Company H walked the three miles to the river, took off their shoes, and began casting. Without warning, a group of partisan Red Guards surrounded and captured them. These three, Cpl. Harlan Daly, Pvt. Harold Bullard, and Pvt. Forrest Moore, were bound and taken across the river to Novitskaya, a partisan center. Early the next morning, two more American fishermen, Lt. Custer Fribley of the Quartermaster Corps and Cpl. Eastland Reed of Company H, were caught at almost the same spot, along with Lieutenant Fribley’s mule.22

  At 11:00 A.M. on June 22, the first three men were reported absent, and a patrol set out to find them. They learned that the three had been taken prisoner by the Red Guard and were now at Novitskaya. At about 2:00 P.M., Fribley and Reed were reported absent as well. The patrol returned to Suchan; Lt. Gilpin S. Rumans took out a larger expedition, following the mule tracks until they came to the Suchan River. Rumans’ orders were not to cross the river, so he called to partisans on the other bank, asking about the prisoners, but there was no response.

  Certain that the men were in Novitskaya, and knowing of the partisans’ usual treatment of prisoners, Colonel Williams moved rapidly. He formed two platoons with 3 officers and 110 men and left on his mission at 5:40 P.M., leading the column personally. It was still raining and the roads were thick with mud, but the column moved rapidly, fording the river, arriving in Novitskaya at 8:00 P.M. They moved in quietly, even passing some Reds with rifles in their hands, but neither side made any move to open fire. Lieutenant Rumans led the advance party toward the center of the town. Colonel Williams demanded the release of the men, but as he did so, bells began to ring from the church steeple, and with that signal, the partisans opened fire.23 The doughboys spread out immediately and returned fire, moving slowly toward the town center to stop the snipers. Williams was in the midst of the fighting, “[H]e rode up and down the skirmish line to see if everything was all right and did not show the slightest fear,” one infantryman reported.24

  It was all over by 9:00 P.M., but the Americans had lost four killed. One was 2d Lt. Albert F. Ward from Chicago, a June 1918 graduate of West Point, the only Military Academy graduate killed in either Russian expedition. A report on the events of Ward’s death was written by Sgt. Herbert Reeves, who was with him when he died:

  The organization was marching to the town where the American soldiers were imprisoned and as we were not really at war with the Bolsheviki, it had been decided to first request the release of the Americans before we took them by force. Lieutenant Ward and his orderly rode into the town with a flag of truce, suddenly two shots rang out and Lieutenant Ward and his orderly both fell from their horses. The shots came thick and fast then but I managed to get to Lieutenant Ward and got him back to cover. He was shot through the head and I knew he was done for. I think he knew it too. As I picked him up, he said, “Don’t mind me, Sergeant, look after Jim he is hurt worse than I am.” He said no more and he died a couple of hours later, before we could get him to the hospital. But think of what a man he was, sir; his first thought was of the poor kid who was serving him and who was dead w
hen we picked him up.25

  Killed with him were his orderly Pfc. Dee Craig, Pvt. Jesse Reed, and Pvt. Charles Flake, who died of his wounds the next day. Lieutenant Ward and Pfc. Craig were from Company F, Reed and Flake from Company M. In addition to those killed, two men were wounded and two were missing, Pfc. Charles Alison and Pvt. Anthony Calcao. They were apparently left behind as Company M made its retreat back to Suchan Mine #1 at 1:00 A.M. in a pouring rain, soaked and depressed over their tragic introduction to Siberian combat.26

  It was ironic that the prisoners they had tried to rescue were held in Novitskaya only a few hours, then were moved some twenty miles to Frolovka, according to one of the prisoners. It is doubtful if they were even in town when the attack occurred. It was at Frolovka that the two groups of prisoners met.27 Five Americans were in enemy hands; however, the two missing men from Company M, Alison and Calcao, straggled in the morning of June 23.

  On June 23, Colonel Williams was handed a letter from the chairman of the temporary revolutionary headquarters of the Olga district, blaming the Mine Guard for interfering in internal affairs by arresting comrades Setti, Ivan Samuschenko, Iakovleff, and others. In retaliation, they had captured and were holding the five Americans. The message said that an exchange could be made if the Russians were released. They also asked that Vasily Shedko, who lived in the mines, be turned over to them for prosecution of a civil offense.28 Williams fired back a response saying that he was about to give Samuschenko back to him anyway, that he knew nothing of Iakovleff, and that he had explained somewhere else about Setti. He also said he could not turn Shedko over to the partisans.