SAVAGE SQUADRONS
By Sergei Kournakoff
Lieutenant Kournakoff has the blood of Tatars and Cos- sacks in his veins, and inherited an unbroken family tradition of soldiering. In the first part of Savage Squadrons (Harrap, 8s. 6d.) he tells of his childhood days in St: Petersburg, where, at military tournaments and reviews—his father was a Cossack officer—he acquired a taste for military life. His family had other ideas for him, but the outbreak of the War in 1914 gave him his opportunity, and he eventually became a lieuten- ant in the Circassian regiment of the Caucasian Native Cavalry —known as the Savages, for reasons which are soon made obvious. Recruited from the Mohammedan tribes of the Russian Caucasus, they were all brilliant horsemen, crack shots and swordsmen, and with a natural lust for lighting. The author fought with them on the Austro-Russian front until the revolution of 191,7, and helms written a vivid account of their eamp-life and thek engagements. His book is not in any sense a serious contribution to War history, though it does give' a picture—rather too highly-coloured—of a part of the War about which little has been written. Its main purpose is to thrill and amuse, and it does this with some success. Some of its more lurid descriptive passages are executed with a sadistic relish that will offend the squeamish reader. The author admits to finding on one occasion " an intense, painful pleasure " in "the sight of writhing, falling, crawling human bodies, torn by bullets . . ." Ile was shocked at his feelings. Those who are prepared for similar shocks will enjoy this book.
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