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Australia in the North Russia Relief 1919

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Date: 1918 to 1919
Location: North Russiamap
Surnames/tags: australia military_and_war
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Contents

Australia in the North Russia intervention 1918-1919

Background

The Eastern Front, the battle lines between the Russians and the Germans, collapsed in mid-1917 over the severe losses and the desire of the Russian peasant and working classes to no longer support the Tsar and their desire to simply 'go home'. The Russian Civil War had commenced in March that year in St Petersburg and provisional government was installed by Aleksander Kerensky. In the November, Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks, a far-left faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, removed Kerensky, proclaimed an end to hostilities with Germany and repudiated all foreign debts. Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks in March 1918. For Russia, there was no turning back to the previous system.

In their treaty with Germany, Russia was made to pay in March 1918: acceding Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Riga, Byelorussia and Ukraine to Germany and Caucasus, Kars, Barum and Ardahan to Turkey - 27% of their agricultural land, 26% of their population, 26% of their railways, 75% of their iron and steel, plus three billion rubles in compensation for waging war. To the Allies, there was great fear that Germany would advance east from Finland and capture the year-round ice-free port of Murmansk and use it to menace shipping in the Atlantic. Britain especially, was concerned about the millions of pounds owed her for weaponry and other military supplies.


North Russia Expeditionary Force

An Allied expeditionary force raised in the United Kingdom (UK), the North Russian Expeditionary Force (NREF), including some Australian volunteers, was landed at Murmansk, North Russia, in June 1918 to intervene in the civil war by both protecting the harbour and Petrograd railway from German incursion through Finland, and to prevent seizure by the Bolsheviks of tons of war stores provided by Britain and France to Imperial Russia for which Lenin's government was refusing to pay and was under threat of falling into German hands. In supporting the Tsarists (White Russians), the force became involved in operations against the Bolsheviks (Red Russians).

Command of the NREF was given to Major General Frederick Cuthbert Poole. The force consisted of two missions: Syren, led by Major General (Sir) Charles Maynard, and Elope, led by Brigadier General Robert Gordon Finlayson. The force comprised six British, US, French and Italian battalions. The NREF, at that time still unaware of their destination, embarked aboard the SS Porto and SS Stephen in late May 1918 (arrived at Murmansk Harbour 5th June) and the SS City of Marseilles during the evening of 17th June 1918 (arrived 22nd June). Maynard's Syren Force immediately entrained to establish a front to the south. Elope Force initially deployed in Murmansk. The US contingent, under the command of Colonel George Evans Stewart MOH, landed separately, at Archangel, in August.

Members of Elope Force, 1918

Experienced volunteers of the rank of Sergeant and above for Elope Force included 16 Canadians, nine Australians, four New Zealanders and three South Africans, as well as British. Another Australian served in Syren Force.


North Russia Relief Force

To extract the NREF after the Armistice and after the Russian winter, the British North Russia Relief Force (NRRF) was raised in the UK, again including some 150 Australian volunteers, arriving in Murmansk on 5th June 1919. In order to join this body Australians had first to obtain their discharges from the Australian Imperial Force whilst in the UK. They were then enlisted in the British Army, with the majority allotted to the 45th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers and the 201st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps. Other units, as well as the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force contingents, included isolated Aussies. General Sir Henry Seymour Rawlinson, Baronet (later Baron Rawlinson of Trent) arrived in-country on 10th September and commenced the evacuation of all Allied forces, firstly by withdrawing all to Archangelsk (Archangel). The troops embarked for Britain on 28th September and Murmansk was abandoned by 12th October.

Two Australians, both serving with the 45th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers, were awarded the Victoria Cross for actions in North Russia:

  1. Corporal Arthur Sullivan, on 10th August, for saving a group of drowning men while under fire; and,
  2. Sergeant Samuel Pearse, on 29th August, after cutting his way through barbed wire entanglements under heavy enemy fire, clearing a way for others to enter, and then charging blockhouses single-handedly with his Lewis gun, killing the occupants with bombs before being killed by machine-gun fire himself.

The Australians were prominent in several actions, including:

  1. The Australians' first action of major importance was on 23rd July when 150 troops, under Major General (William) Edmund Ironside (later Baron Ironside of Archangel & Ironside), investigated a meeting of White Russian forces at Obozerskaya. They repulsed a Bolshevik attack on a railway in the area, surprising the enemy during a relief of their forward blockhouses, killed thirty with the bayonet, wounded many others and set fire to the blockhouses before withdrawing.
  2. Brigadier General Lionel Sadlier-Jackson launched an attack on the Dvina front on 10th August in which over 3,000 prisoners were taken and heavy losses inflicted. The objective of enveloping and destroying the enemy was attained, thus opening the way for the peaceful evacuation of British and Allied forces.
  3. Nineteen days later, 29th August, the two Australian companies of 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, were again employed in routing the Bolsheviks in a bayonet charge on the railway near Seleskoe.


Aftermath

Historian Damien Wright, in his 2024 book Australia's Lost Heroes, noted

'It is interesting to consider that although the matter of the intervention of the Allied Powers in the Russian Civil Wars remains controversial within Russia, it remains virtually unknown and ignored in the countries which sent troops.' [1]


List of Australians involved in the Russian Civil War intervention

Aussies in the NREF

The nine Australians in Elope Force were (alphabetically):

  • Captain Allan Brown, murdered by (Russian) men of the North Russian Rifles on 20th July 1919 when they mutinied and went over to the Bolsheviks.
  • Lieutenant Alfred Carey, having previously served with the AIF and then the Royal Naval Air Service, flying off HMS Ark Royal in the eastern Mediterranean.
  • Second Lieutenant Robert Graham DCM, having previously seen action in the Philippines, South Africa, China, Somaliland, Nicaragua, Guatemala, South Africa again and Mexico, had served with the AIF's 3rd Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. [2]
  • Sergeant Charles Hickey, having previously served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front with the 11th Infantry Battalion AIF.
  • Sergeant John Kelly, previously served in the AIF with the 30th Infantry Battalion.
  • Captain Paul Lohan, previously served in the AIF with the 37th and the 51st Infantry Battalions.
  • Sergeant Bertram Perry MM, previously served in the AIF with the 14th Infantry Battalion.
  • Captain Richard Tarrant, previously served in the AIF with the 2nd and 45th Infantry Battalions.
  • Sergeant Arthur von Duve MM, previously served in the AIF with the 10th Infantry Battalion.
Sergeants John Kelly (standing) & Bertram Perry

One of the New Zealand Sergeants with Elope Force was New South Welsh-born Robert McCready.

One Aussie served with Syren Force, in Murmansk:

The US battalion commander in Syren Force was Kiama, New South Wales-born Colonel George Evans Stewart MOH.


Aussies in the NRRF

45th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers
  • Private Brian Abercrombie (real name Richard Urquhart) CStG, 2nd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Olaf Andersen DCM, 6th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private David Atkins (real name Karl Otto Buschmann), 37th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Keith Attiwill, 3rd GSR AIF
  • Corporal Edward Baker, 55th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Oscar Bauer, 11th Infantry Battalion AIF and POW 1917-18
  • Private Stanley Boreland, 56th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Norman Brooke DCM, 1st Pioneer Battalion
  • Sergeant William Burrow CStG, 4th Pioneer Battalion AIF
  • Private Joseph Cheeseman, 55th Infantry Battalion
  • Lance Corporal Joseph Collins MM CStG, 20th Infantry Battalion
  • Private Cornelius Cormack CStG, 10th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private John Dale, 4th Pioneer Battalion AIF
  • Lieutenant Colonel (Brigadier General) Charles Davies DSO CMG StA, 8th Infantry Brigade AIF
  • Private James Didsbury, 8th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Marcus Donlon, 52nd and 49th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private John Fagan, 20th and 18th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private James Francis, 16th Infantry Battalion AIF and POW
  • Private Ernest Gaffey, 53rd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Corporal Horace Gipps, 14th Field Artillery Brigade AIF; was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Ernest Goates, 10th GSR AIF
  • Private Avery Guhl, 2nd General Service Reinforcements and 11th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private John Guinea, 4th General Service Reinforcements and 9th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Major Harry Harcourt DSO & Bar MC, although a British Army officer at the time, he later migrated to Australia, joined the Australian Army and commanded a commando squadron at Papua and Borneo during the Second World War.
  • Private Stanley Hayes, 3rd GSR AIF
  • Lieutenant John Heney MC, Coldstream Guards
  • Private John Hickey, 4th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Sergeant Charles Godfrey 'Chilla' Hill, 14th NSW AIF; awarded Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private William Hodson or Hudson, 52nd Infantry Battalion and 4th Machine Gun Company AIF; was awarded the Military Medal (MM) and Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Archie Hooper, 10th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Corporal Arthur Jones, 27th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Joseph Jones, 19th and 18th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private Edward Kelly, 53rd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Patrick Kelly, 1st Tunnelling Company and 5th Pioneer Battalion AIF
  • Sergeant William Kennard, 31st Infantry Battalion AIF; was Mentioned in Despatches
  • Private John Kevan, 9th GSR AIF
  • Private Edgar Arnold King (alias Peter Douglas Spurway), Australian Army Medical Corps AIF; CStG
  • Lance Corporal Allan Lutherborrow, 3rd and 7th Infantry Battalions AIF; awarded Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and CStG
  • Private George Mabbot, 17th infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Norman Madden, 17th GSR AIF
  • Private William Maher, 41st Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Sydney McDonnell, 52nd and 49th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private James McLean, 9th GSR AIF
  • Private Samuel McLeod, 21st Howitzer Battery and Australian Army Service corps AIF
  • Corporal John Mercer, 13th Field Company AIF
  • Private Francis Metcalfe, 14th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Anthony Minkshlin MSM, 4th and 13th Light Horse Regiments AIF
  • Lance Corporal Frank Naveau, 27th Infantry Battalion and 5th DAC AIF
  • Private Peter O'Reilly, 19th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Sergeant Samuel Pearse, 7th Infantry Battalion and 1st Machine Gun Battalion AIF; awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) and Cross of St George (CStG) KIA
  • Private James Peden, 9th GSR AIF
  • Private Jack Petti, 11th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Edward Pioch, 4th Pioneer Battalion AIF
  • Private Ernest Porteous, 16th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Joseph Purdue, 7th Infantry Battalion AIF; awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
  • Private William Quarrell, 5th Field Artillery Brigade AIF; awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
  • Private Edward Bland Lionel Rawlins, 24th Infantry Battalion AIF; awarded Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Harry Rea, 15th GSR AIF
  • Private Edward Redmond, 3rd GSR AIF
  • Private John Reviere, 55th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Frederick Roberts, 5th Pioneer Battalion AIF
  • Private Wilfred Robinson, 11th GSR AIF
  • Sergeant William John Robinson, 11th Infantry Battalion AIF and POW; awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
  • Sergeant John Roche, 5th TMB AIF; awarded the Military Medal (MM) and Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Corporal Harold Spies MM, 20th Infantry Battalion AIF; awarded a Bar to his Military Medal
  • Private Alfred Stephenson, 20th GSR AIF
  • Corporal Arthur Sullivan, 3rd GSR AIF; awarded the Victoria Cross (VC)
  • Lance Corporal James Sutton, 19th and 18th Infantry Battalions AIF; awarded the Military Medal (MM)
  • Private James Thompson, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade AIF
  • Private Ernest Tiley, 7th GSR AIF
  • Private Bert Wade (aka Frederick Lonnergan), 4th GSR AIF
  • Private Bernard Watts, 11th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Benjamin Parry Williams, 14th GSR AIF; awarded the Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Cecil Woods, 18th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Roderick Wright, 5th Machine Gun Company and 18th Infantry Battalion AIF


46th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers


201st Machine Gun Company
  • Private Robert Allison, 60th Infantry Battalion and AIF Headquarters; Robert had reverted from WO1
  • Private Allan Bartlett, 4th GSR AIF
  • Private William Baverstock, 4th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Lance Corporal Albert Bennett MM, 36th Heavy Artillery Brigade AIF; awarded Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Stanley Boreland, 56th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Arthur Brewster, 23rd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Douglas Collier, 47th and 48th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private Harry Darby, 40th and 5th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private Harold Denville, 3rd Machine Gun Battalion AIF
  • Private James Flinton, 12th Infantry Battalion and 10th Field Artillery Brigade AIF
  • Lance Corporal Frank Francis, 11th GSR AIF
  • Private Frank Gooding, 19th and 20th Infantry Battalions AIF
  • Private Michael Greatorex, 2nd GSR AIF
  • Private Theodore Hanke, 15th GSR AIF
  • Private Claude Howard, 28th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Stanley James (real name S J Sumner, 22nd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Walter Jones MM, 18th Infantry Battalion AIF; awarded a Bar to his Military Medal and Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Lance Corporal Leslie Lee, 3rd Machine Gun Battalion AIF
  • Private Iva Odliff, 18th Infantry Battalion AIF; was born Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
  • Warrant Officer Class 1 Charles Oliver, 6th Infantry Battalion AIF; awarded Cross of St George (CStG)
  • Private Edward Olsen, 18th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Robert Osborne MM, 6th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Corporal James Parsons, 13th Light Horse Regiment and AAVC AIF
  • Private Leslie Quamby, 12th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Thomas Riordan, 4th Machine Gun Battalion AIF
  • Private John Russell, 1st and 53rd Infantry Battalions AIF; had lied about his age - had served in Second Boer War and was 55yo
  • Private Peter Smith MM, 23rd Infantry Battalion AIF; was awarded a Bar to his Military Medal
  • Private George Watson, 7th Light Horse Regiment and 4th Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Private Frederick Whatson, 6th GSR AIF
  • Private William Wilson, 9th GSR AIF
  • Private Wilfred Yeaman, 31st and 46th Infantry Battalions AIF


Middlesex Regiment
  • Acting Sergeant Alex Alexandroff, AVC and 4th Infantry Battalion AIF; interpreter; born Vladivostok, Russia
  • Captain Charles Ellis, London Regiment BEF; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE); born Sydney
  • Private Paul Kirvalidze, 2nd and 5th Infantry Battalions AIF; interpreter
  • Acting Sergeant Robert Merrin, 3rd Machine Gun Battalion; born Riga, Latvia; interpreter
  • Acting Sergeant Paul Smirnoff, 11th GSR AIF; born Vologda, Russia; interpreter


Royal Munster Fusiliers
  • Brevet Major Bernard French DSO, was New Zealand-born and raised in Australia from 3 years of age. Moved to England as a solicitor. Royal Munster Fusiliers BEF; awarded Orders of St Stanislaus and St Valentine


2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (2nd Hants)


Welsh Regiment
  • Captain James Morgan, 11th Infantry Battalion AIF


443rd Royal Field Artillery
  • Gunner Glen Barber, 7th Field Artillery Brigade AIF


Royal Horse Artillery
  • Captain Alan Sparke, RHA BEF


Royal Engineers
  • Major Thomas Davies DSO MC, Royal Engineers BEF
  • 2nd Lieutenant Harry Hart, KEH and Royal Engineers BEF; name appears in Sydney University Book of Remembrance
  • Major Arthur Saunders, Royal Engineers


Tank Corps
  • Captain Reginald Lumsden, AASC AIF; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) Mentioned in Despatches


KRRC
  • Captain Kenneth Ward, KRRC BEF


Railway Trans
  • Lieutenant Rowley Armstrong, Lab Corps BEF


Mercantile Marine Regiment
  • Steward Augustus Birch, born Melbourne
  • James Gray MM, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade AIF; Lake Onega Flotilla RN
  • Ernest Lloyd, 3rd Machine Gun Battalion; ex-RAN
  • Stanley Miller, 53rd Infantry Battalion AIF
  • Thomas Sleeman, 2nd DAC AIF; Lake Flotilla RN


1153rd Horse Transport Company
  • Private Edgar Douglas, 3rd Light Horse Regiment AIF


Red Cross
  • Nurse Louise Dorrington
  • Nurse Jane Handley


RAF
  • Lieutenant Alfred Carey, AASC AIF, RNAS; appointed OBE and awarded St Anna and the St S
  • Lieutenant Stanley Gardiner, 4th Field Artillery Brigade AIF and Royal Flying Corps; appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and awarded St Anna
  • Captain Edward Head, No.2 Squadron Australian Flying Corps and No.68 Squadron RAF; awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC)
  • Lieutenant Vernon Lamb, RAN AN&MEF and AASC AIF
  • Flight Lieutenant Norm Stewart-Dawson, RNAS; appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
  • Lieutenant Arthur Watson, 12th Field Ambulance AIF


RN
  • SBA Ernest Daish
  • Lieutenant Robert Drummond-Hay, Petty Officer in the RANBT; RNR on HMS Nairana and Mentioned in Despatches


Victor Newman, previously a Private in the 4th Infantry Battalion AIF was a member of the NRRF, however, unit unknown.

South Australian-born Sergeant (later Captain) Allan Burke served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli and on the Western Front and with the NRRF. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and awarded the Military Medal (MM).

Aussies in the British Military Mission to Siberia

Sources

  1. Wright, Damien. Australia's Lost Heroes: Anzacs in the Russian Civil War 1919. Big Sky Publishing, Newport NSW, 2024. ISBN 978-1-923144-06-4; accessed 7 Sep 2024
  2. Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Second Lieutenant Robert Louis Graham; accessed 31 May 2020

See also





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