TROOP SHELTER, AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES IN SIBERIA

 

Following arrival in Vladivostok in August 1918, our troops were quartered in barracks which had been constructed for Russian soldiers and which dotted suburbs to the north and east of that city. These barracks were indescribably filthy; the floors were covered with human excreta, and the rooms were vermin infested: there were no provisions for the disposal of human wastes, nor were there running water, a sewerage system, or any provision for artificial light

All the barracks in the environs of Vladivostok conformed to a general n, measuring about 240 feet long and 45 feet wide. They were of brick construction and were trimmed with stone: usually they were of one story, but y had two stories. Within, the arrangement of the typical barrack was somewhat as follows: The two entrances to the barracks were at the ends, re there were four rooms, about 12 feet square. Two of these small rooms on either side of a dividing hallway which led from the entrance to the general squad room. When there was a second story it was a duplication in plan of the first story. The ceilings were usually 12 feet high. At one end of the building one of the small rooms referred to was used as a kitchen, where there was to be found the typical Russian stove. Ordinarily these kitchen stoves were about 4 feet broad, 3 feet high, and 6 to 8 feet long, and feet long, and immovable parts of each were two iron or copper caldrons which were heated by means of small fire boxes. As a rule, there was no provision for baking, nor apparently could food be cooked on the tops of the stoves. No evidence could be found in the kitchens of any provision for cleaning kitchen utensils. There was neither running water nor the kitchen sink to which our troops are accustomed; so far as could be determined, kitchen wastes and waste water were to be thrown through a hole in the floor. As there was no mess hall, it was evident that soldiers who formerly had occupied the barracks had to receive their food in the kitchens and to eat in the squad rooms.

Squad rooms were lighted by the conventional double windows, and with about the same proportion of natural light that one is accustomed to see in the United States.

The heating of the buildings was accomplished by means of large brick or cast-iron stoves lined with fire brick. These stoves were about 4 feet square and 10 feet high. The fire box in each instance was small, consequently several hours would elapse before newsy made fires could heat the stoves to the desired temperature. The stoves thus heated proved totally inadequate for heating the rooms of barracks when fresh air, in the amount customarily required in our Army barracks, was admitted to the rooms

On the arrival of the 27th United States Infantry at Habarovsk, September 17, 1918, the regiment was assigned quarters in Russian brick barracks to the east of the city. Prisoners of war had been quartered in these buildings for many months prior to the use of them by our troops, and some of the buildings had been appropriated by Russian civilians for shelter. This use of the barracks had resulted in their neglect not only from an upkeep standpoint but from a sanitary one as well. In fact, in so far as sanitation is concerned, our troops found from observation that the knowledge of sanitation possessed by the average native of eastern Siberia was practically nil.

What attracted the eye first, in going about the country, was the unkept and filthy condition of the streets of cities and villages; pigs and other domestic animals ran about loose, leaving their excreta anywhere and everywhere. The yards surrounding the peasants’ houses almost universally were littered with trash and wornout and useless articles of various sorts which served largely as a partial shelter for domestic animals and fowls, and the accumulation of large quantities of insanitary material. Within the yards was the conspicuous privy, usually of boards and rarely if ever cleaned of its contents. The habitual practice among the peasants was to allow the excreta to collect in privies; sometimes it was then buried, but usually it was scattered upon the surface of the ground not far from the dwelling from which it came. This indifference to environment and to the disposal of excreta was not confined to the peasant class; on the contrary, the public buildings in the cities in which our troops served were found to be equally at fault, especially such parts of them as ordinarily are hidden from public inspection, clubs and restaurants being no exceptions to the rule. Some of the more prosperous citizens had had constructed septic vaults in connection with their homes, and some public buildings likewise had septic vaults. Sewage from such buildings emptied into the cesspools, but since there was no such thing as a municipal sewerage system, the contents of the cesspools had to be emptied from time to time, when full or, more often than not overflowing.

With the facts given above in mind, it is relatively easy to appreciate the extreme degree of filth encountered in Russian barracks and their environs when the barracks were occupied by our troops in Habarovsk. The buildings were seemingly beyond repair; their concrete floors were broken up; window frames had been almost universally demolished, and if any remained the window panes had been broken; heating stoves had been either partially or completely destroyed; cooking stoves had been demolished, their caldrons in most cases missing; their walls were sooty from fires built on the barrack floors. The latrines were filthy, cesspools being full to overflowing. Domestic animals and fowls had domiciled themselves in some of the buildings, with an inevitable addition of filth. Rubbish, which seemingly had been collected for several years prior to our occupancy, could be seen in pile upon pile everywhere both within and surrounding the buildings.

A very few of the buildings had a running water system; for the most part, however, water was obtained from two public watering stations, the water of which came from the Ussuri River.

In making these buildings habitable, days and days of unceasing effort were required of the troops. The Russian stoves, both heating and cooking, were gradually renovated. Water was piped to the principal buildings such as the hospital building and the mess halls. To prevent the pipes from freezing, trenches 12 to 14 feet were dug by soldier labor. The windows of all the habitable buildings were repaired, window panes being replaced where necessary. The concrete and wooden floors were repaired. The cesspools were excavated and made ready for constant use, temporary trench latrines being used meanwhile. Some of the buildings were wired for electric lights, the current being obtained from the city of Habarovsk, and ultimately from a plant erected by our troops.