Next morning, August 7, with my interpreter, Lieutenant Bolsaar, I
visited Kraevesk, and had a long consultation with the commander at the
front, Captain Pomerensiv. I personally examined the line right up to
the outposts, and eventually it was decided that I would send forward
243 men with four maxims to take up a position towards what I considered
to be the threatened part of our right flank. As I was senior officer,
Captain Pomerensiv handed the command of this front over to me,
promising all help.

Once in the saddle I asked for intelligence reports from all directions,
and found it impossible for the enemy to make a frontal attack down the
narrow space of the railway, flanked as it was on both sides by
impassable marshes. The enemy centre was at Shmakovka, the place from
which the Czechs had been forced to retire: that day, however, he had
been observed moving a company of about 180 men with three machine guns
along the road towards Uspenkie, a small town situated on our extreme
right front. After consultation with Captain Stephan, Czech commander,
and Ataman Kalmakoff, commanding the Cossacks, I decided to take the
necessary steps to destroy this recently formed outpost. Ataman
Kalmakoff had that morning announced to me his intention to leave my
front and make a wide detour on the right behind the hills, and join his
Cossack friends at Iman. I discovered that he was dissatisfied with the
lack of enterprise hitherto shown on this front, and had decided to make
a raid "on his own" on the rear of the enemy. But the moment I stated my
intention to mop up Uspenkie he fell into line, and forgot all about his
previous ill-humour. He took up an advanced position at Olhanka,
reconnoitred the Uspenkie position the next day, and unmasked the
Bolshevik formation, with a loss of two horses and a Cossack badly
wounded. I formed my plans on his observations.