Napoleonic - Song of Drums & Shakos : Russians v Turks

To His Excellency General P.A. Oblomov

7th Brigade Headquarters
11th Infantry Division
Varna

Excellency,

Your pardon for troubling you again but I feel I have to bring to your attention yet two more discreditable incidents in our regiment which can only be laid at the door of liberal elements in the officer corps. I refer in particular to that group of 'reformers' in the brigade headed by my regimental commander Col. G. V. Asimov and your own brigade major, Maj. R.T. Vyshinsky. Following our recent setback where our regiment was ignominiously pushed out of the village of Smirna by a crowd of rascally Turks I strongly recommended in the regimental mess that every soldier below the rank of sergeant be given a round dozen with the knout to bring them back to a sense of their duty to his Imperial Majesty.

At this, Col. Asimov and several of his senior officers made game of me and affected to believe that I was in liquor, asking me if the knout should be applied to the wounded while they were recumbent or could I wait until they were ambulant once more. Furthermore, Captain Berzov and Snr. Lt Abramovich dared to suggest that the defensive failure was entirely due to our lack of powder, musket & artillery ammunition and attempted to blame my own commissariat department for the defeat!

I, of course, refuted this for the piffling argument that it was and reminded them that a lack of ammunition would not have stopped the great Suvorov. These mere bravos are totally unaware of the clerical complexities of supply and transport in such an inhospitable region and that the issuance of ammunition on the simple verbal demand of regimental officers would be opening the door to mere anarchy and a howling democracy.

Luckily, there is a nucleus of fine young officers in the regiment who are of my way of thinking and administer their platoons with an admirable firmness worthy of Draco himself and it is of two these that I wish to speak of.

Company commander Senior Lt. L.V. Debrosky and his adjutant Junior Lt. F.S. Arkady have kept splendid discipline within the regiment's 2nd company(with sentences of 50 or even 100 lashes commonplace for offences of dress) and even Col. Asimov has acknowledged this by encouraging these two company officers to lead regimental attacks and frequently to form the rearguard.

However, during a recent engagement Lt. Debrosky was detached with his 1st platoon to drive in some Turkish pickets near the village of Ulna and during the engagement was leading the attack from the front when an unusually defiant Turkish outpost put up a strong resistance and the gallant Debrosky fell, defiant to the last and facing the embattled foe.

Upon this, instead of plunging forward to avenge their fallen leader his followers turned, and as one man, fled the battlefield, shamefully casting aside their weapons and calling loudly for quarter.

Lt. Arkady, whose 2nd platoon was in support at the time witnessed the debacle and upon return to the regimental lines requested an interview with the regimental commander suggesting that the Roman practice of decimation should be visited on the hapless dastards. After some typical shilly-shallying the Colonel said he would consider the matter, allocated 2nd company to one of his liberal cronies, and upon the pickets being driven in by 4th company, ordered Lt. Arkady and his 2nd platoon to hold the village of Ulna while the regt. moved onwards.

Hardly had a day gone past before Lt Arkady's small command was attacked by the heathen Turk and within a few dismal miles of the previous encounter. Lt Arkady fell wounded before the foe and was ignominiously captured while his troops, with a fallen chief to rescue a few yards before their eyes, turned and fled once more while the dervish troops celebrated on the ramparts. Speaking to witnesses since I have been informed that although the usually pusillanimous Turk fought with more skill and courage than of late there seems to be a recurrent rumour within the regiment that Lts. Debrosky & Arkady had been shot by their own cowardly and rebellious men!

This is the state to which the once proud Kotschokova Regt. has been reduced by liberalism and defeatism in her senior officers.

Obediently, yr. servt.,

Regt. Quartermaster L.V. Konev  

Lt Debrosky urges his men forward



Lt Debrosky leads from the front and pays the price

 

The Turks press on through the Russian fire

The Turks storm the Russian position