Imperial Russian field artillery in combat training in the snow at Camp B.K.
Reverse:Russian artillery on combat training at camp B.K. (Translation courtesy Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.
"A strong, acrid tang was in the air; the Sisters on duty came to fetch their gas-masks. The soldiers had told them there had been more than one scare. The wounded were still being brought in in batches of a dozen or so at a time. Many very heavily wounded came about midday. We have heard that Alexander Alexandrovich has been killed, and Mischa and Mak, two of our transport-van officers, badly wounded. We postponed dinner until after 4 p.m., in order to finish the bandaging. Afterwards Mamasha and I walked a little way up the hill. All the western world was in tumult. Red, grey and yellow rockets glowed for a few seconds and then died away. The cracking and rapping of rifle-fire was still audible, with the crash and bang of shells. Volley after volley resounded through the hills. The most dreaded sound of all was the hollow thud of a heavy shell tearing into the earth. A shrill whistling above our heads — and a couple of shrapnel exploded between our camp and the road. We thought it wiser to return to shelter. The wounded continued to come . . ."
Excerpt from the entry for Monday, July 2, 1917 (June 19 Old Style) from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross and writing of the second day of the Kerensky Offensive, Russia's last offensive of World War I. Alexander Kerensky was Minister of War of the Russian Provisional Government formed after the February (March, New Style) Revolution. Farmborough and her unit were with the Russian 7th Army in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. The nurses were called Sestritsa, Sister. Mamasha, Mother, led Farmborough's Red Cross unit; Alexander Alexandrovich was one of its Transport Heads.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 276, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1917-07-02, 1917, July, Kerensky Offensive, Russian artillery, Russian field artillery
