North Russia intervention
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2015) |
North Russia intervention | ||||||||
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Part of Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War | ||||||||
Red Army prisoners in the custody of U.S. Army troops in Arkhangelsk | ||||||||
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Belligerents | ||||||||
Allied Powers: Russian State United Kingdom France United States | Russian SFSR |
Germany White Finns | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
Evgeny Miller |
Dmitry Nadyozhny | Rüdiger von der Goltz | ||||||
Strength | ||||||||
Total: 32,614 7,881 troops[4] 4,971 soldiers[4] 1,520 troops[5] 2,000 troops[6] 1,000 field artillerymen[7] 864 troops[8][a] | 45,500[4] | 55,000-70,000 troops[9] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | ||||||||
526+ killed[10] 194 dead, 359 wounded[11] | 2,150 (Allied estimate)[citation needed] | <1,000[citation needed] |
The North Russia intervention, also known as the Northern Russian expedition, the Archangel campaign, and the Murman deployment, was part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The intervention brought about the involvement of foreign troops in the Russian Civil War on the side of the White movement. The movement was ultimately defeated, while the British-led Allied forces withdrew from Northern Russia after fighting a number of defensive actions against the Bolsheviks, such as the Battle of Bolshie Ozerki. The campaign lasted from March 1918, during the final months of World War I, to October 1919.
Reasons behind the campaign
In March 1917,
The
The
Coincidental with the Treaty, Lenin personally pledged that if the
Faced with these events, the leaders of the British and French governments decided the western Allied Powers needed to begin a military intervention in
Severely short of troops to spare, the British and French requested that US President
International contingent
Lieutenant General
The international force included:
British Empire
- Royal Navy:
- a flotilla of over 20 ships including the seaplane carriers HMS Pegasus and HMS Nairana
- 6th Battalion Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI),[b]
- a flotilla of over 20 ships including the
- British Army:
- Headquarters elements,[14]
- 2/10th (Cyclist) Battalion, Royal Scots,[15]
- 2/7th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry,[16]
- 548th (Dundee) Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers,[17]
- 253rd Company, Machine Gun Corps,
- Canadian Malamute company of experienced sled dogmen [18]
- 236th Infantry Brigade,[14]
- 17th (Service) Battalion (1st City), King's (Liverpool) Regiment [19]
- 6th (Service) Battalion, Green Howards [20]
- 13th (Service) Battalion, Green Howards[20]
- 11th (Service) Battalion (1st South Down), Royal Sussex Regiment[21]
- 17th (Service) Battalion (1st City),
- Headquarters elements,[14]
- 238th Infantry Brigade,[22]
- "Finnish Legion" of Red Finns, commanded by British officers.[22]
- Infantry company from 29th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment,[22]
- Two detached sections from 253rd Company, Machine Gun Corps,[22]
- Two detached sections from 548th (Dundee) Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers,[22]
- 238th Trench Mortar Battery
- "Finnish Legion" of Red Finns, commanded by British officers.[22]
- 238th Infantry Brigade,[22]
- 52nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment,[citation needed]
- and elements of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.[citation needed]
- Slavo-British Allied Legion (SBAL): a British-trained and led contingent composed mostly of anti-Bolshevik Russian volunteers (including Dyer's Battalion).
- Canadian Field Artillery)[24]
- contingent comprising Airco DH.4 bombers, Fairey Campania and Sopwith Baby seaplanes along with a single Sopwith Camel fighter.[25][26]
1919 reinforcements
In late May 1919, the British North Russia Relief Force (British Army) arrived to cover the withdrawal of British, US and other anti-Bolshevik forces. It was made up primarily of:
- the 45th Battalion and 46th Battalions, Royal Fusiliers, [c]
- 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment,[27]
- 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.[27]
- two companies of the 201st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps,
- an armed company of the Chinese Labour Corps[28]
- 55th Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
- 240th Light Trench Mortar Battery,
- 241st Light Trench Mortar Battery,
- 250th Signal Company, Royal Engineers
- and the 385th Field Company, Royal Engineers.[29]
United States
- North Russia Expeditionary Force (also known as the US Army,[30]including the:
- 310th Engineers,
- 339th Infantry,
- 337th Field Hospital,
- and 337th Ambulance Company.
- Also the 167th and 168th Railroad Companies, which were sent to Murmansk to operate the Murmansk to Petrograd line. US Navy: the cruiser USS Olympia during August and September 1918 (including 53 personnel attached to British naval units)
France
- Predominantly the 21st Provisional Colonial Infantry Battalion,[31] a company of ski troops,[32] and engineers. Three artillery batteries (61st, 62nd, 63rd) of the 2nd Colonial Artillery Regiment provided supporting firepower.[33] This was supplemented with a North Russian battalion of the French Foreign Legion composed of anti-Bolshevik Russian volunteers who, like the SBAL, were recruited locally. For their bravery, they were awarded one Distinguished Service Cross (United States)[34] and six Military Medals from the Americans and British respectively.[35]
Italy
1,350 men in the it:Corpo di spedizione italiano in Murmania commanded by Colonel Sifola.
Russia
"
Other countries
- 1,000 Serbian and Kolchak's forces in the north (as distinct from his Siberian forces, which included the Czechoslovak Legion).
- 30 Czechoslovak volunteers, part of them serving directly in British Army and part of them detached from the Czechoslovak Legion and attached to British Army.
Opposing forces
Opposing these international forces were the Bolshevik Sixth and Seventh Red Army, combined in the Northern Front (RSFSR), which was poorly prepared for battle in May 1918.
Landing at Murmansk
The First British involvement in the war was the landing in Murmansk in early March 1918. Ironically, the first British landing in Russia came at the request of a local Soviet council. Fearing a German attack on the town, the Murmansk Soviet requested that the Allies landed troops for protection. Leon Trotsky had ordered the soviet to accept Allied aid after the German invasion of Russia in February–March 1918.[1] 170 British troops arrived on 4 March 1918, the day after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Germany and the Bolshevik government.[36][1]
On 2 May, British troops took part in their first military engagement. A party of White Finns who had crossed the border during the Finnish Civil War had captured the Russian town of Pechenga, and it was feared that the Whites would hand over the town to the Germans who would then use the bay as a submarine base. The Germans were the Allies of the White Finns as they had been assisting them militarily during their Civil War. British marines fought alongside Red Guards to capture the area by 10 May with several casualties. In this first engagement, British troops had fought against a White force in support of the Red Army. In the following months, British forces in the area were largely engaged in small battles and skirmishes with White Finns.[36] Command of the British forces in the area was given to Major General Sir Charles Maynard.[37] In late June, 600 British reinforcements arrived. By this time, Soviet–Allied relations were passing from distrust to open hostility. A Bolshevik force was sent to take control of the town up the Murmansk-Petrograd railway, but in a series of skirmishes the Allied forces repelled the attack. This was the first real fighting between the troops of the Allies and the reds.[1] A trainload of Bolshevik troops was also found at Kandalaksha heading north, but Maynard managed to convince them to stop, before Serb reinforcements arrived and took over the train.[38]
In September, the British forces, who had so far mainly only engaged White Finns in small battles and skirmishes, were reinforced by the arrival of a force of 1,200 Italians as well as small Canadian and French battalions. By early Autumn, British forces under Maynard in the Murmansk region were also 6,000 strong.[39] However, on 11 November, the armistice between Germany and the Allies was signed, ending the First World War, meaning that the primary objective of re-establishing the Eastern Front was now irrelevant. However, the British forces did not leave. From this point onwards, the sole objectives of the British were to restore a White government and to remove the Bolsheviks from power.[40]
Landing at Archangelsk
On 2 August 1918, anti-Bolshevik forces, led by Tsarist Captain Georgi Chaplin, staged a coup against the local Soviet government at
It was reported in the British press in early August that the Allied Powers had occupied Arkhangelsk, although not officially confirmed by the British authorities at the time.[46] By 17 August it was being reported that the Allies had advanced to the shores of Onega Bay.[47]
The lines of communications south from Arkhangelsk were the
As soon as Archangel had been captured, preparations were made for a push southwards along the Archangel-Vologda railway.[48] An armoured train was commissioned to support the advance, and a battle took place between Allied and Bolshevik armoured trains on 18 August.[48]
In September 1918, the Allied Powers took Obozerskaya, around 100 miles (160 km) south of Archangel. During the attack, the RAF provided air support to the advancing Allied infantry, conducting bombing and strafing runs.[26]
On 4 September 1918 the promised American forces arrived. Three battalions of troops, supported by engineers and under the command of Colonel George Stewart, landed in Archangel. This force numbered 4,500 troops.[49] In early September also an RAF squadron was set up specifically for service at Archangel, equipped with obsolete RE8 reconnaissance-bomber aircraft.[50]
Advance along the Northern Dvina
A British River Force of 11
The Allied troops, led by Lionel Sadleir-Jackson, were soon combined with Poles and White Guard forces. Fighting was heavy along both banks of the Northern Dvina. The River Force outflanked the enemy land positions with amphibious assaults led by Royal Marines, together with coordinated artillery support from land and river. Their Lewis guns proved to be an effective weapon, since both sides were only armed with bolt-action rifles.
The 2/10th Royal Scots cleared the triangle between the Dvina and Vaga and took a number of villages and prisoners. The strongly fortified village of Pless could not be attacked frontally, so 'A' Company, less one platoon, attempted a flanking movement through the marshes. The following morning the company reached Kargonin, behind Pless, and the defenders – thinking themselves cut off by a large force – evacuated both villages. The regimental historian describes this as 'a quite remarkable march by predominantly B1 troops'.[51]
In mid-September, Allied troops were driven out of
The Allied troops were mainly inactive in the winter of 1918, building blockhouses with only winter patrols sent out.[51]
On the first occasion that White Russian troops were sent into the line of combat during the North Russian campaign, on 11 December 1918, the White Russian troops
Increasing conflict with the Bolsheviks and setbacks
Within four months the Allied Powers' gains had shrunk by 30–50 kilometres (19–31 mi) along the
The Bolsheviks had an advantage in artillery in 1919 and renewed their offensive while the Vaga River was hurriedly evacuated. 'A' Company of 2/10th Royal Scots had to be sent to reinforce a heavily pressed force on the Vaga, marching with sledges over 50 miles (80 km) in temperatures 40–60 degrees below freezing.
On the Dvina front, Tulgas was attacked by the Reds on 26 January.[62] The Bolsheviks originally drove back the American and Scots defenders but the following morning saw the Allied forces retake the settlement after a determined counter-attack.[62] The Bolsheviks continued to attack for the next three days until the Allies decided to withdraw, setting fire to the settlement as they evacuated four days later.[62] The Allied troops then reoccupied the town soon after.[62] By early 1919 the Bolshevik attacks along the Dvina were becoming more substantial.[62]
The River Force monitors made a final successful engagement with the Bolshevik
, unable to sail downstream when the river's levels dropped, were scuttled on 16 September 1919 to prevent their capture by Bolshevik forces.In the Murmansk sector, the British decided that the only way to achieve success in ejecting the Bolsheviks from power was by raising, training and equipping a large White Russian Army. However, recruitment and conscription attempts failed to provide a sizable enough force. It was therefore decided to move south to capture more populated areas from which recruits could be conscripted.[20] During February 1919, as the British fought defensively against attacking Bolshevik forces, the British decided to launch an offensive, aiming to capture extra territory from which locals could be conscripted. This would be the first significant action on the Murmansk front between the Allies and the Bolsheviks. With a force of only 600 men, most of whom were Canadians, the attack was launched in mid-February. Met with stiff opposition, the town of Segeja was captured and half the Red Army garrison was killed, wounded or taken prisoner. A Bolshevik train carrying reinforcements was intentionally derailed when the line was cut, and any escaping men were cut down by machine-gun fire. During the February offensive, the British forces pushed the Red Army beyond Soroko and as far south as Olimpi.[63] Despite an attempted Bolshevik counter-attack, by 20 February 3,000 square miles of territory had been taken.[64]
On 22 September, with the Allied withdrawal already ongoing, a British detachment from the Royal Scots was sent by river to Kandalaksha on four fishing boats to stop sabotage operations carried out by Finnish Bolsheviks against the railway there. The British party was ambushed even before landing and suffered heavy casualties, with 13 men killed and 4 wounded. Consequently, the unopposed Bolsheviks destroyed a number of bridges, delaying the evacuation for a time.[65][66] One of the fatalities, a Private from Ormesby, Yorkshire, who succumbed to his injuries on 26 September, was the last British servicemen to die in action in Northern Russia.[66]
The furthest advance south on the northern front in early 1919 was an Allied Mission in
On the railway front south of Archangel, the Allied forces were gradually advancing.[73]On 23 March, British and American troops attacked the village of Bolshie Ozerki, but the first wave of attackers were pushed back. Orders were made to resume the attack the next morning, but some of the British troops protested as they had not had a hot meal for some time.[74] Another assault was repulsed on 2 April.[75] The next day, 500 Bolsheviks attacked Shred Mekhrenga but were eventually repelled, with over 100 Red troops being killed despite the British suffering no fatal casualties.[75] Another Bolshevik attack was launched on Seltskoe, but that attack also failed. In total, the Bolsheviks lost 500 men in one day in the two attacks.[76]
Many of the British and foreign troops often refused to fight, and Bolshevik attacks were launched with the belief that some British troops may even defect to their side once their commanders had been killed. The numerous White mutinies demoralised Allied soldiers and affected morale.
After the May offensive, there was a considerable amount of aerial activity around Lake Onega. The British constructed an airfield at Lumbushi, and seaplanes were brought in to add to the force of 6 R.E.8 planes.[81] The seaplanes bombed Bolshevik vessels, sinking four and causing the capture of three, including an armoured destroyer.[82]
In April, public recruiting began at home in Britain for the newly created 'North Russian Relief Force', a voluntary force which had the claimed sole purpose of defending the existing British positions in Russia.[83] By the end of April 3,500 men had enlisted, and they were then sent to North Russia.[83] Public opinion regarding the formation of the force was mixed, with some newspapers being more supportive than others.[84] The relief force eventually arrived in North Russia in late May–June.[85]
On 25 April a White Russian battalion mutinied, and, after 300 men went over to the Bolsheviks, they turned and attacked the Allied troops at Tulgas.[86] The Canadian defenders had to withdraw six miles to the next village, where attacks were eventually beaten off after heavy casualties. The capture of Tulgas by the Bolsheviks meant that the Reds now held the left bank of the Dvina 10 miles behind the Allied line.[87] On 30 April the Bolshevik flotilla appeared – 29 river craft – and, together with 5,500 troops, attacked the 550 total Allied troops in three area.[86] Only superior artillery saved the Allied forces, with the river flotilla eventually withdrawing. Tulgas was then eventually recaptured.[86]
In May and June, the units of the original British force which had arrived in Archangel in August and September 1918 finally received orders for home.[88] In early June the French troops were withdrawn and the Royal Marines detachment was also sent home, followed by all Canadian troops after it was requested that they be repatriated. All remaining American troops also left for home.[89] The Serbian troops (perhaps Maynard's best infantry fighters) became unreliable as others withdrew around them.[90] By 3 July, the Italian company was on the verge of mutiny as its men were seriously disaffected with their continued presence in Russia so long after the Armistice. In mid July, the two companies of American railway troops were also withdrawn. The Royal Marines unit had been expressing its dissatisfaction with being forced to stay in Russia after the Armistice since February, and had been openly demanding to their commanding officers that they be sent home. Threatening letters were sent to their officers stating that if they were not repatriated, the men would commandeer the first train going to Murmansk. The men became increasingly unwilling to participate in serious military action throughout 1919.[91] The French and American troops stationed in the north were similarly reluctant to fight, and French troops in Archangel refused to take part in any action that was not merely defensive.[92] During June, small naval battles occurred on Lake Onega between Allied and Bolshevik ships. The Bolshevik forces were completely taken by surprise when British seaplanes emerged and attacked. The settlement of Kartashi was captured during the month.[93] Despite being told when volunteering that they were only to be used for defensive purposes, plans were made in June to use the men of the North Russian Relief Force in a new offensive aimed at capturing the key city of Kotlas and linking up with Kolchak's White forces in Siberia.[94] The villages of Topsa and Troitsa were captured in anticipation of this action, with 150 Bolsheviks being killed and 450 being captured.[95] However, with Kolchak's forces being pushed back rapidly, the Kotlas offensive was cancelled.[96]
In early July 1919 another White unit under British command mutinied and killed its British officers, with 100 men then deserting to the Bolsheviks.[97] Another White mutiny was foiled later in the month by Australian troops.[98] On 20 July, 3,000 White troops in the key city of Onega mutinied and handed over the city to the Bolsheviks. The loss of the city was a significant blow to the Allied forces as it was the only overland route available for the transfer of supplies and men between the Murmansk and Arkhangel theatres, a particularly vital line of communication during the months of the year when the White Sea froze over rendering Arkhangel inaccessible to maritime traffic.[99] This event led to the British losing all remaining trust for the Whites and contributed to the desire to withdraw.[99] Attempts were soon made to retake the city, but in a failed attack in late July the British had to force detachments of White forces to land at gunpoint in the city, since they were adamant that they would not take part in any fighting.[100] On one Allied ship, 5 Bolshevik prisoners captured in battle even managed to temporarily subdue the 200 White Russians on board and take control of the ship with little resistance.[101] Despite the Allied setbacks, a battalion of marines, the 6th Royal Marine Light Infantry, was sent to assist the British at the end of July.[102]
Final offensives
The final two months on the Dvina front, August and September 1919, would see some of the fiercest fighting between British and Red Army troops of the Civil War., unable to sail downstream when the river's levels dropped, were scuttled on 16 September 1919 to prevent their capture by Bolshevik forces.
A final offensive on the Murmansk front was launched by the Allied forces in September, aimed at destroying the Bolshevik forces to leave the White forces in a good position after the planned withdrawal.[110] On 28 August 1918 the British 6th Royal Marine Light Infantry Battalion was ordered to seize the village of Koikori (Койкары) from the Bolsheviks as part of a wide offensive into East Karelia to secure the British withdrawal to Murmansk. Serbian forces supported the British as they attempted to push on to the Bolshevik village.[110] The attack on the village was disorganized and resulted in three Marines killed and 18 wounded, including the battalion commander who had ineffectually led the attack himself.[111] A week later, B and C companies, led this time by an army major, made a second attempt to take Koikori, while D company was involved in an attack on the village of Ussuna. The British were again repulsed at Koikori; the army major was killed and both Marine company commanders wounded. D company was also beaten off by Bolshevik forces around Ussuna, with the death of the battalion adjutant, killed by sniper fire.[111]
The next morning, faced with the prospect of another attack on the village, one Marine company refused to obey orders and withdrew themselves to a nearby friendly village. As a result, 93 men from the battalion were court-martialled; 13 were sentenced to death and others received substantial sentences of hard labour. In December 1919, the Government, under pressure from several MPs, revoked the sentence of death and considerably reduced the sentences of all the convicted men.[112]
The Serbs and White Russian forces attacked again on 11 and 14 September, but these attacks also failed.[65] However, the British did manage to reach the Nurmis river by 18 September, with 9,000 troops, including 6,000 White Russians, participating in this final offensive.[65]
On 6 September, the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Sherwood-Kelly, published an open letter in the Daily Express lambasting the North Russia campaign, stating that the volunteer British troops were being used for offensive actions (despite being told that they wouldn't be) and that the regional White "puppet" government "rested on no basis of public confidence and support".[113] The letter contributed to the British public and soldiers' desire for a withdrawal from North Russia.[114] During September, a couple of Bolshevik attacks were launched on Bolshie Ozerki, and although the first was repelled, 750 Red troops advanced on the village on 15 September and attacked from all sides, inflicting heavy casualties on the British and Allied defenders.[115] On 22 September, with the Allied withdrawal already ongoing, a British detachment from the Royal Scots was sent by river to Kandalaksha on four fishing boats to stop sabotage operations carried out by Finnish Bolsheviks against the railway there. The British party was ambushed even before landing and suffered heavy casualties, with 13 men killed and 4 wounded. Consequently, the unopposed Bolsheviks destroyed a number of bridges, delaying the evacuation for a time.[65][66] One of the fatalities, a Private from Ormesby, Yorkshire, who succumbed to his injuries on 26 September, was the last British servicemen to die in action in Northern Russia.[66]
Withdrawal of British troops
An international policy to support the White Russians and, in newly appointed Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill's words, "to strangle at birth the Bolshevik State" became increasingly unpopular in Britain. In January 1919 the Daily Express was echoing public opinion when, paraphrasing Bismarck, it exclaimed, "the frozen plains of Eastern Europe are not worth the bones of a single grenadier".
From April 1919, the inability to hold the flanks and mutinies in the ranks of the White Russian forces caused the Allied Powers to decide to leave. British officers at Shussuga had a lucky escape when their Russian gunners remained loyal. A number of western military advisers were killed by White mutineers who went over to the Bolsheviks.[116] The Bolsheviks had no intention of allowing the British to leave without a fight, and resumed their attacks on the British positions on 6 September.[117] Fighting took place in the villages of Kodema, Ivanovskaya, Puchega and Chudinova, where 81 Reds were killed and 99 taken prisoner.[117] In total, 163 Reds were killed in their offensive compared to one fatality on the side of the British.[118] Over the next week, the Bolsheviks continued attacking the British lines and moved forward very quickly, and there were clashes at Pless and Shushunga. The attackers were subsequently identified as a combined force of civilian partisans and deserters who had mutinied and gone over to the Bolsheviks from the British lines on 7 July.[119] By this point, British troops had started withdrawing to Archangel in order to prepare themselves for the evacuation of North Russia.[120]
The British War Office sent General Henry Rawlinson to North Russia to assume command of the evacuation out of both Archangelsk and Murmansk. General Rawlinson arrived on August 11.
On the morning of September 27, 1919, the last Allied troops departed from Archangelsk, and on October 12, Murmansk was abandoned.
Archangelsk Railway and withdrawal of US troops
Minor operations to keep open a line of withdrawal against the 7th Red Army as far south as
The US appointed Brigadier General Wilds P. Richardson as commander of US forces to organize the safe withdrawal from Arkhangelsk. Richardson and his staff arrived in Archangelsk on April 17, 1919. By the end of June, the majority of the US forces was heading home and by September 1919, the last US soldier of the Expedition had also left Northern Russia.
Aftermath
The White Russian Northern Army was left to face the Red Army alone. Poorly disciplined, they were no match for the Red Army, and quickly collapsed when the Bolsheviks launched a counter-offensive in December 1919.
Many soldiers capitulated and the remnants of the Army were evacuated from Arkhangelsk in February 1920. On February 21, 1920, the Bolsheviks entered Arkhangelsk and on March 13, 1920, they took Murmansk.[121] The White Northern Region Government ceased to exist. White Northern Russian commander Eugene Miller held out to the end, fleeing with a number of other White officers – including Grigory Chaplin – in an icebreaker when the Reds entered Archangel. They fled to France, and Miller was later captured by the Bolsheviks and executed in 1939.[122]
Legacy
In 1927, the Constructivist-styled Monument to the Victims of the Intervention was raised in Murmansk, on the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. It is still standing as of 2024.[123]
The campaign in fiction
- Two fictional television characters fought with the British Expeditionary Force: Jack Ford in When the Boat Comes In (as an intelligence officer in Murmansk) and Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son.
- The campaign features in the Alexander Fullerton novels Look to the Wolves and Bloody Sunset.
- The 1990 film Archangel is a surrealistic drama set in 1919 Archangel during the war.
- In John Lawton's novel, Then We Take Berlin (2013), Countess Rada Lyubova mentions (from the novel's present in post-WW II Britain) that she "had turned back at the British lines near Archangel ... 'such folly.'" and "had crossed Siberia with the remnants of the Czech Legion ... 'not many ever saw home again.'"
See also
- American Expeditionary Force Siberia
- Aunus expedition
- Australian contribution to the Allied Intervention in Russia 1918–1919
- British campaign in the Baltic (1918–1919)
- Estonian War of Independence
- Murmansk Legion
- Siberian intervention
- Southern Russia intervention
- Viena expedition
Notes
- ^ 590 in Murmansk sector, 274 in Archangel sector
- prisoners of war who had only recently returned from Germany and had no home leave. There was outrage when on short notice, the 6th Battalion was shipped to Murmansk, Russia, on the Arctic Ocean, to assist in the withdrawal of British forces. Still not expecting to have to fight, the battalion was ordered forward under army command to hold certain outposts.
- ^ Two companies of the 45th Battalion and one of the machine gun companies were composed mainly of Australian volunteers who were veterans of the Western Front: about 200–300 former members of the Australian Imperial Force.
References
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- ^ Wright 2017, p. 528.
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- ^ Wright 2017, p. 218.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 223–225.
- ^ a b c Kinvig 2006, p. 185.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 216.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 217.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 229.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, p. 178.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 67–70.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 129.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 77–79.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, pp. 191–192.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, p. 193.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, p. 198.
- ^ Balbirnie 2016, p. 136.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 174.
- ^ a b Balbirnie 2016, p. 142.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 170.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 171.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, p. 255.
- ^ a b Wright 2017, p. 253.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 256–257.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, pp. 241–242.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 264.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 278.
- ^ a b Wright 2017, p. 177.
- ^ Kinvig 2006, p. 247.
- ^ a b Kinvig 2006, pp. 258–259.
- ^ a b Kinvig 2006, p. 259–262.
- ^ Obituary: Brigadier Roy Smith-Hill, The Times, August 21, 1996
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 178–180.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 188–189.
- ISBN 0521644836.
- ^ a b Wright 2017, p. 286.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 287.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 288.
- ^ Wright 2017, pp. 291–292.
- ^ Mawdsley 2007, p. 255.
- ^ Wright 2017, p. 295.
- ^ Nikitin, Vadim (30 November 2017). "Diary". London Review of Books. 39 (23). Retrieved 2 December 2017.
Bibliography
- Balbirnie, Steven (2016-07-02). "'A Bad Business': British Responses to Mutinies Among Local Forces in Northern Russia". Revolutionary Russia. 29 (2): 129–148. S2CID 152050937.
- Baron, Nick (2007). The King of Karelia: Col. P.J. Woods and the British intervention in North Russia 1918-1919 a history and memoir. London: Francis Boutle Publishers. ISBN 978-1-90-342732-3.
- ISBN 978-1-474-61014-8.
- Brough, Ray (1991). White Russian awards to British & Commonwealth servicemen during the Allied intervention in Russia 1918-1920. London: Tom Donovan. ISBN 978-1-87-108508-2.
- Bujak, Philip (2008). Undefeated, The Extraordinary Life & Death of Lt. Col Jack Sherwood Kelly VC, DSO, CMG. Forster Books.
- Droulin, Laurent (2016) [2012]. Corps expéditionnaire français en Russie du Nord, 1918-1919 (ePUB) (in French). Auto-Édition. ISBN 978-2-9542358-0-6– via Fnac.
- House, John M., et al. The Russian Expeditions 1917-1920. 1st ed., vol. 10 10, Center of Military History, 2019.
- Jackson, Robert (1972). At War With The Bolsheviks. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Kinvig, Clifford (2006). Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920. London: Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 1-85285-477-4.
- Mawdsley, Evan (2007). The Russian Civil War. Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1-933648-15-6.
- Millman, Brock (1998). "The Problem with Generals: Military Observers and the Origins of the Intervention in Russia and Persia, 1917-18". Journal of Contemporary History. 33 (2): 291–320. S2CID 154104534– via Sage Publications.
- Munt, Franck (2015). Historique du 2e Régiment d'Artillerie Coloniale (PDF) (in French). Tapuscrit Ecole de l’Artillerie – Transcription intégrale – Association des officiers de réserve des Pyrénées-Orientales – via tableaudhonneur.free.fr.
- Quinlivian, Peter (2006). Forgotten Valour: The Story of )
- Willett Jr., Robert L (2005). Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918–1920. Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-706-8.
- Wright, Damien (2017). Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-20. Solihull: Helion. ISBN 978-1-911512-10-3.
External links
- American Polar Bears, the American Expeditionary Force, North Russia
- Polar Bear Memorial Association
- An account of a Royal Navy trip to North Russia on a hospital ship, June – October 1919
- Foreign Command of US Forces 1900–1993
- Russian Bolshevik Navy 1919_files
- North Russian Expeditionary Force 1919, The Journal and Photographs of Yeoman of Signals George Smith, Royal Navy
- The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki Campaigning in North Russia 1918–1919
- The Evacuation of Northern Russia, 1919 (1920)
- Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections Housed at the Bentley Historical Library. More than 50 individual collections of primary source material, including diaries, maps, correspondence, photos, ephemera, printed materials, and a film.
- Original movie clip of US Army Allied War in Russia, 1918-22