Battle of Shenkursk

The Battle of Shenkursk was a battle of the Vaga River Front.

Day 1
In the morning of January 19th 1919 a heavy bombardment was unleashed on American positions at Nizhnyaya Gora by the Red Army. After an hour 1,000 reds attacked assaulted the village containing 47 Americans under Harry Mead with fixed bayonets. Harry Mead was ordered to delay them as long as possible. Soon American field artillery laid down a bombardment on the reds. To help a platoon of White Cossacks were sent to help from Ust-PAdenga, but their leader was injured so they were forced to retreat. Mead's men were also forced to retreat. They had to retreat under heavy machine gun fire and heavy snow. It was a open flat plain, but to stay would have been even more costly. By the time of this retreat his artillery support had stopped. Only 7 men made it to American lines at Vysokaya Gora including Mead. The red luckily halted their offensive. Only 19 men were still missing with 6 being confirmed dead. In the night 2 men had apparently hidden out in a log cabin and sneaked past red lines. Men of the Canadian Field Artillery came to take over the field artillery that had been left by the fleeing whites earlier that day. Finally the cossacks at Ust-Padenga were able to retreat without alerting the reds.

Days 2-4
On the morning of January 20th over 3,000 reds slammed the American positions. However the reds slowly realized the bayonet charges were not doing enough damage. They soon resorted to artillery bombardments and using snipers which proved more effective. Shrapnel and sniper fire killed many troops. On that day the reds occupied Ust-Padenga. Their attempted assaulted were constantly pushed back by the field artillery. On the evening of January 22nd the troops were ordered to retreat. As the allies begun their retreat a red incendiary round hit and caused a fire in the village. One of the field artillery fell in a ditch and was forced to be abandoned.

Day 5-7
By 7:00 the Americans had reached Sholosha and briefly rested until they continued to Spasskoe. They arrived later in the day and traded their artillery for a new one. Canadian officer Mowat and a small contingent of men also reinforced the Americans. On January 24th the red bombarded the town and in that bombardment Mowat (Who would later die in Shenkursk), Odjard (Commander of the Americans and moved to Shenkursk) and the artillery were injured with the artillery being put out of action. The Lieutenants decided to retreat due to these losses. The forces had arrived at Shenkursk by 16:00. Many men were so tired they fell asleep as soon as they arrived. However there was little time for sleep as the reds surrounded their positions. Odjard ask the British commander Edmund Ironside what to do and he ordered to retreat before they died. In the night they used an unoccupied logging trail to get past the red lines.

Aftermath
On January 25th not knowing the allies had withdrawn the reds bombarded Shenkursk only to find it abandoned. The allies retreated to Shegovary on January 26th then Vystavka on the 27th. For a month they withheld constant attacks from the reds. Until early marched when they further reached Kitsa. A few days after the reds concluded their offensive on the Vaga River.