On August 5 I attended the Allied commanders' council. There were many
matters of high policy discussed at this meeting, but one subject was of
intense interest. General Detriks, the G.O.C. of the Czech troops, gave
in reports as to the military situation on the Manchurian and Ussurie
fronts. The conditions on the Manchurian front were none too good, but
those on the Ussurie front could only be described as critical, and
unless immediate help could be given a further retirement would be
forced upon the commander, who had great difficulty with his small
forces in holding any position. The Ussurie force had recently
consisted of some 3,000 indifferently armed Czechs and Cossacks. The day
I landed a battle had been fought, which had proved disastrous, and
resulted in a hurried retirement to twelve versts to the rear of
Kraevesk. The Allied force, now reduced to about 2,000 men, could not
hope to hold up for long a combined Bolshevik, German and Magyar force
of from 18,000 to 20,000 men. The Bolshevik method of military
organisation,--namely, of "Battle Committees," which decided what
superior commands should be carried out or rejected--had been swept away
and replaced by the disciplined methods of the German and Austrian
officers, who had now assumed command. Should another retirement be
forced upon the Ussurie forces, it could be carried out only with great
loss, both of men and material.
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