Swedes fighting alongside Royal Tank Corps

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Stellan,

Seeing your interesting post about the Swedes who fought alongside the Allies in World War II made me recall a book I had read several years ago which mentions an earlier occasion when Swedes fought alongside the Royal Tank Corps in Estonia during September & October 1919.

Do you, or anybody else on the list know any thing about this period, or have any photographs?

On page 262 to 265 of "The Day We Almost Bombed Moscow" by Christopher Dobson and John Miller published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1986, is a long passage, the gist of which is as follows..

In August 1919 Lt Col Hope Carson and three Mark V Composite tanks were landed at Revel. These tanks were to support the White Russians under General Yudenich.

Two of the tanks were loaded onto a train on August 21st and set to the front south of Pskov. The train was shelled and the train had to retreat with the tanks still on board.

On the 13th of September they made an attack outside Gdov attacking and routing a Bolshevik force in a series of fortified villages.

The White Russian attack went through Yamburg and Gatchina in subsequent days, reaching the suburbs of Petrograd.

Dobson & Miller say that amongst the troops involved was a unit of Swedes fighting in their national uniforms. In one battle 12 out of 14 Swedes supporting the tanks became casualties.

Apparently several were rescued by Matart Kurkinen, a redoubtable Swedish nursing sister.

Carson wrote "Where the Swedish troops went she went. If they were front line infantry, as on this occasion, she walked with the front line. She carried a heavy load of hospital stores and must have been the saviour of many a man... I am glad to say that later she was given a British decoration".

Regards

Nick Balmer