health, which had suffered from the
starvation period. Nelka put on some forty pounds and I came back to
normal after having been bloated from hunger, like some starved Hindu
child.

However, we soon felt that this easy and restful life was not right
morally. The Bolsheviks were still in power, wrecking Russia and a
civil war was raging between the Bolsheviks and the White Russians:
We decided that it was our duty to go back and help. So I went to
Washington and offered my services at the Russian mission to join one
of the volunteer armies. We first planned to go to Siberia but then
decided we would join the army of General Denikin in the South of
Russia, and I was given an assignment there.

Before sailing for Europe we went to New Orleans to visit Nelka's
cousin and then sailed from there for Liverpool, and then to London
and Paris. Once in Paris we were advised that things were not going
well in the south with the army of General Denikin and that we better
wait before going on. So we stayed in France and I joined the French
airplane factory of Louis Breguet near Paris where I worked for about
8 months. Then things got better in the Southern Army and we once
again decided to go on to the Army reorganized now by General
Wrangel.

Just at that time the Breguet factory received an order for night
bombers for the Russian Army and it was arranged that I escort that
shipment to the Crimea. So once again I put on the uniform of a
Russian lieutenant, Nelka put on the uniform of a Russian Red Cross
nurse and we set out.

The planes were boxed and sent to Marseilles where they were loaded
on a French freighter, the Saint Basil, and we left for
Constantinople. As the planes were bulky but light, the boat was
light and high in the water. Because of that the propeller was but
halfway in the water and our progress was very slow. It took us 17
days to get to Constantinople. Hardly had we dropped anchor in the
Bosphorus as a launch drew up and a French officer came aboard and
asked who was in charge of the shipment. He informed me that we could
not proceed any further because news had just been received that the
Army of General Wrangel had started the evacuation of the Crimea.

So we had to go ashore. The planes, having come from France, were
unloaded and left with the French Army of occupation. So, came to an
end our trip and our efforts to join the White Russian Army. We
landed in Constantinople and in the next few days the