RED CROSS PHOTO
Onega.
U. S. OFFICIAL PHOTO
Y M. C. A., Obozerskaya.
IX
“H” COMPANY PUSHES UP THE ONEGA VALLEY
Two Platoons Of “H” Company By Steamer To Onega—Occupation Of Chekuevo—Bolsheviki Give Battle—Big Order To Little Force—Kaska Too Strongly Defended—Doughboys’ Attack Fails—Cossacks Spread False Report—Successful Advance Up Valley—Digging In For Winter.
Meanwhile “H” Company was pushing up the Onega Valley. Stories had leaked out in Archangel of engagements up the Dvina and up the railroad where American soldiers had tasted first sweets of victory, and “H” men now piled excitedly into a steamer at Archangel on the 15th of September and after a 24-hour ride down the Dvina, across the Dvina Bay up an arm of the White Sea called Onega Bay and into the mouth of the Onega River, landed without any opposition and took possession. The enemy had been expelled a few days previously by a small detachment of American sailors from the “Olympia.”
The “H” force consisted of two platoons commanded by Lieuts. Phillips and Pellegrom, who reported to an English officer, Col. Clark.
The coming of Americans was none too soon. The British officer had not made much headway in organizing an effective force of the anti-Bolshevik Russians. The Red Guards were massing forces in the upper part of the valley and, German-like, had sent notice of their impending advance to recapture the city of Onega.