July 31, 1917 report of the July 9 advance of the Russian Women's Battalion of Death

The following, an excerpt from an interview of a member of Russian Women's Death Battalion regarding their July 9th offensive, was published in the Chicago Daily Tribune, July 31, 1917. The journalist was Rheta Childe Dorr.

"We went into action a fortnight after our arrival at the front, under heavy German fire. Given the order to advance, we rushed out of our trenches. After the first attack I was attached to a machine gun, carrying ammunition to advanced position under the fire of hidden German machine guns. We were advancing and constantly in danger of capture by the Germans.

On one trip over newly captured ground I saw what I considered a wounded German officer lying on the ground. I went to help him with my gun in my right hand and the machine gun ammunition in my left. Seeing me he jumped to his knees and pulled out his revolver, but before he could shoot I dropped the ammunition and killed him.

How did I feel on taking a human life? I had no sensation, except to rid my country of an enemy. There was no sentimentality. We were trying to kill them and they were trying to kill us -- that is all. Any Russian girl or any American girl in the same position would have the same feeling.

No, I do not feel that I did anything exceptional. Any well girl can do the same."

From "Interview with Arno Dosch Fleurot" from Lines of Fire: Women Writers of World War I.  The story of the Russian Women's Battalion of Death is included in Women Heroes of World War I.