. Baltimore and Ohio employees magazine . set days of 1918, scenes wereenacted that would give the flightiestscenario writer pause. For four hundred years the Czecho-Slavs have, both directly and indirecth^fought for their independence from Aus-trian control. At the beginning of theGerman war, Bohemia was called uponto furnish her complement of soldiers forthe Austrian army and, under forceddraft, thousands of Czechs were enlisted in the armies of the Central Powers,fighting against Russia. As opportunityoffered, large numbers of the Czechsrefused to fight longer with Austria, andwhole compani
. Baltimore and Ohio employees magazine . set days of 1918, scenes wereenacted that would give the flightiestscenario writer pause. For four hundred years the Czecho-Slavs have, both directly and indirecth^fought for their independence from Aus-trian control. At the beginning of theGerman war, Bohemia was called uponto furnish her complement of soldiers forthe Austrian army and, under forceddraft, thousands of Czechs were enlisted in the armies of the Central Powers,fighting against Russia. As opportunityoffered, large numbers of the Czechsrefused to fight longer with Austria, andwhole companies, and even regimentswent over to the Russian side. Then followed the collapse of the Rus-sian army under Kerensky, and theCzechs offered their services to theFrench government for the fighting onthe western front. The Czechs gatheredtogether in the early part of 1917, pro-claimed their independence and organ-ized an army which was promised by theAllies safe conduct out of Russia by wayof Archangel and across the Trans-Siberian The Red Cross sanitary train which brought the Czechs from Chelyabinsk on the western front, mere than4,100 miles, to Vladivostok, seen in the distance 27 28 THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO EMPLOYES MAGAZINE Here began the rough stuff of thereel. The group assigned to be sent byway of Archangel was promptly blockedby the Bolsheviks at Moscow, and thewhole 70,000 men had to leave Russiavia the Trans-Siberian Railway andVladivostok. It became increasingly dif-ficult to get transportation, and as aresult, the little army was strung alongthe Trans-Siberian Railway from Kievto Irkutsk. At this critical stage, several thousandCzechs were forced to disarm before theywere allowed to proceed further, and thetreacherous Bolsheviki also fired upon afew thousand of them, en route to Vladi-vostok. These Czechs, with a few handgrenades and their bare fists, attackedseveral times their number of armedReds, and wresting their guns awayfrom them, captured a small stati
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbaltimo, bookyear1912
