d ordered Kodish held. Could they hold on?
They did, with a display of fortitude that became known to the world and
which makes every soldier who was in the expedition thrill with honest
pride and admiration for them. The Americans held it till they were
relieved by a company of veteran fighters, the King's Liverpools,
supported by a half company of "Dyer's Battalion" of Russians.

In passing let it be remarked that the English officer, Captain Smerdon,
soon succeeded in convincing the British O. C. Seletskoe that Kodish was
no place for any body of soldiers to hold. He gallantly held it but only
temporarily, for soon he and the Canadians and trench mortar and machine
gun men and the Dyer's Battalion men were back under Major Donoghue
holding the old Emtsa river line and its two supporting blockhouse
lines.

Our badly shattered "E" Company and "K" Company went to reserve in
Seletskoe. The former company in the middle of January went to Archangel
for a ten day rest, and will be heard of later in the winter on another
desperate front. Old "K" Company was glad to just find warm bunks in
Seletskoe and regain their old fighting pep that had been exhausted in
the New Year's period of protracted fighting under desperate odds. Here
let us insert the story of a two-man detachment of those redoubtable
trench mortar men who rivaled their comrades' exploits with rifle and
bayonet or machine gun. Corp. Andriks and Pvt. Forthe of "Hq" Company
trench mortar platoon were loaned for a few days to the British officer
at Shred Makrenga to instruct his Russian troops in the use of the
Stokes mortars. But the two Yanks in the two months they were on that
hard-beset front spent most of their time in actually fighting their
guns rather than in teaching the Russians. This is only one of many
cases of the sort, where small detachments of American soldiers sent off
temporarily on a mission, were kept by the British officers on active
duty. They did such sterling service.

Ever hear of the "lost platoon of "D" Company?" Like vagabonds they
looked when finally their platoon leader, Lt. Wallace, cut loose from
the British officer and reported back to Lieut.-Col. Corbley on the
Vaga. But the erratic Reds would not settle down to winter quarters.
They had frustrated the great push on Plesetskaya with apparent ease.
They had the Allied warriors now ill at ease and nervous.

The trench mortar men and the machine gun men can tell many an
interesting