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

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Stellan,

Thank you very much for an extremely swift and comprehensive reply to my query.

I have not been aware that there were both Danish and Finnish contingents in addition to the Swedish one.

You referred me to your earlier posting on the armoured forum.

I saw the photos, but was insufficiently sure of my information to venture a reply as to the type of armoured cars that they were.

However I beleive them to be Pierce Arrow armoured cars.

Locker Lampson and his RNAS Squadron operated several very similar cars in Russia during the First World War.

They had however a armoured half cab which protected the driver only. On the rear deck was an armoured rotating turret.

At least two of these were heavily modified in Russia with added rear bodies in lieu of turrets. Some sort of a small ships gun was added looking a bit like a Hotchkiss or similar gun.

I don't know if the British sent other Pierce Arrow armoured trucks to Russia, or what became of Locker Lampson's armoured cars after his unit left Russia.

It is quite possible that the vehicles shown are much modified RNAS trucks, taken into Red Army service and then captured by the Estonian's.

These 1918 and 1919 Campaigns fascinate me, but are virtually unknown in the West these days.

Yet carrier borne air power from HMS Furious was operating in support of armoured trains and tanks in a prototype Blitzkreig two decades before Poland and Sedan.

Are you aware of Scandinavian or Baltic websites about these events?

Thank you very much.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Stellan,

The book I referred to above by Dobsob & Miller says that Britain agreed in May 1919 to send an initial consignment of arms & equipment sufficient to equip 7,500 men.

This included 8 no. 6 inch howitzers and 16 no. 18 pounders.

20 lorries were also supplied.

There were further shipments until September, although they do not specify what these were.

I know that the White Russians were supplied with old British uniforms so it is quite possible that the Estonians were too.

I expect the 18 pounder in your photo is one of the 16 supplied to Estonia.

Very few troops were sent to Russia after early 1919, partly because the troops awaiting demobilsation in France and the UK threatened to mutiny when Winston Churchill suggested that British troops be sent in large numbers to Russia.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally posted by 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?

Hi Nick;

I don't know if this helps or not, but the following is taken from:

" The Tanks, The History of the Royal Tank Regiment and its predecessors Heavy Branch Machine-Gun Corps, Tank Corps & Royal Tank Corps 1914-1945, Volume One 1914-1919"; by Captain B.H. Liddell Hart.

(pages 211 to 213)

"In 1919 three small tank detachments were despatched to aid the 'White' Russian forces that were trying, very ineffectually, to overthrow the Bolshevik regime. Machines were available, but the difficulty was to find men for them, as the call was confined to those who volunteered. The first detachment was sent to join General Denikin's forces in South Russia. Major N. McMicking with ten other officers and fifty-five other ranks sailed from France in March and disembarked at Batum, on the Black Sea, on April 13. A shipment of six Mark V and six Whippet tanks followed, under Captain R.W. Walsh. The combined detachment, under Major E.M. Bruce, was then moved to Ekaterinodar, in the Kuban peninsula, where it established a school and started to train Russian personnel - a heart-breaking attempt, as the latter showed little mechanical sense and even less will to fight. Their opponents were not much better, however, and the advent of a handful of tanks had a terrific effect. When a few of them first went into action, on May 8 and 10, 'the mere sight of the tanks threw the enemy's ranks into confusion and he fled, panic-stricken, abandoning rifles, ammunition, and clothing'.

Towards the end of May, Denikin placed a force of thirty cavalry regiments under General Wrangel for an advance on Tsaritsin, the Soviet base on the Volga - a city now more famous under the name of Stalingrad. After being twice repulsed, Wrangel decided to wait for reinforcements. An infantry division was sent up, and also six tanks - three Mark Vs and three Whippets. One of the Mark Vs was manned by a British crew, under Captain Walsh - this was done on Bruce's initiative, contrary to War Office instructions that the British personnel were only to train Russians, and not to take part in fighting.

On June 29 the third advance on Tsaritsin was launched. It opened with the advance of the tanks - now reduced to four by the breakdown of two of the Russian-manned ones. The remaining two Mark Vs burst through the wire entanglements and crossed the outer trenchline, whereupon the defenders bolted. Walsh's Mark V, after sweeping a wide strech of the line, drove north to the edge of the inner trenchline - while three Russian-manned machines cruised in the offing, and the Russian cavalry came forward to occupy the conquered ground. As no petrol had come up, there was now a pause. Two days later, suffcient petrol was collected to fill the one British-manned tank. Bruce took command of it himself, and drove into Tsaritsin, the defenders surrendering or fleeing northward. The Russian cavalry were useful in rounding up the prisoners - of whom, according to Wrangel, a total of 40,000 were taken. But the fall of that now historic city was due to the determined advance of seven Britons in one tank. It may well rank as one of the most remarkable feats in the whole story of the Tank Corps. The date was July 1, the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, but by the Russian calender June 18, the aniversary of Waterloo.

In July, more tanks arrived rom England, bringing the total to fifty-seven Mark Vs and seventeen Whippets. But their value was vitiated by the defeiciencies of the Russians who manned them, and they also came too late. For Denikin was so exhilarated by the capture of Tsaritsin that he had at once issued order for a general advance on Moscow. At first this made some progress, but the troops put no heart in the effort, while the various commanders wrangled among themselves. Meantime the Bolsheviks had been raising fresh and larger forces that were better organized than before. The tide turned, and Denikin's 'armies' began to flow back, while also melting away through desertion. Small handfuls of tanks, however, helped to keep the Bolsheviks at bay at a number of places - among them, Kharkov, Taganrog, and Ekaterinodar - during the withdrawal. Finally, two British-manned Mark Vs covered the evacuation of the British Military Mission from Novorossisk. The 'South Russian Tank Detachment' was then moved to the Crimea, along with what remained of Denikin's forces. But the British Government then decided to withdraw its help, and on June 28, 1920, the detachment sailed for home, from Sevastopol.

Another tank detachment of volunteers had been formed in July 1919 for service with General Yudenitch's forces in north-west Russia. It consisted of twenty-two officers and twenty-six other ranks, with six tanks, under Lieut-Colonel E. Hope-Carson. Disembarking on August 5 at Reval, in Estonia, it was thence moved to Narva - another place that became famous in World War II. After Russian crews had been given training, three of the tanks were used in an attempted advance on Petrograd (later Leningrad) in October. They were not backed up by infantry, however, while the clamour for their help led to them being over-used. In November, the British training detachment returned home.

A third detachment went to north Russia - in August 1919. It consisted of nine officers and sixty other ranks, with six tanks, under Major J.N. Lewis Bryan. It was sent out to cover the withdrawal of the British forces fron Archangel. When that was accomplished, the detachment returned to Wareham, in October."

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Mark,

I have always rather enjoyed the story of the capture of the city that became Stalingrad by the RTC tank and its commander who I beleive was a Sergeant.

However its many years since I read that, and I could well have been wrong.

Thanks for a very interesting post, much of which is new to me.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Stellan,

Thank you very much indeed for the fascinating information on the Estonian campaigns and the foreign troops who took part in them.

The Farrier General sounds quite a character.

I had not realised that the Swedes had taken such an active part in these battles.

There seem to have been quite a few Swedish Officers active in Persia at around this time too. I beleive that they ran the Shah's army, or a large section of it.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Bill Murray]

Nick, Stellan and others:

Thanks for starting this thread on a very little covered part of modern military history. I was generally aware of this conflict, and cannot for the life of me remember what exactly it was called, but you have provided some really useful information. I am somewhat of a buff of these smaller conflicts that rarely get mentioned in the general history books.

I was particularly impressed by the short biography of Herr Ekstroem who was a true "Soldier of Fortune" that would put to shame today's mercenaries that claim that title. If I wrote it down correctly, he served in the Armed Forces of Sweden, Persia, Turkey, Germany, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. That, gentlemen is impressive, especially so as he was an officer and in some cases a high ranking officer. I wondered for a while what language he used in all of these various places and finally settled on German as Germany had been active on the military scene in most of the countries he served in. Any ideas, Stellan.

To return to the White Russian/Bolshevik conflict, my only immediate connection to that part of history is as follows.

I have written here before that I was born in Pekin China in 1940 the son of American parents, my Dad was stationed in Shanghai and then Pekin from 1937-1940 Shanghai at the time and I suppose today, was the most internationalized and cosmopolitan city in probably the entire Far East. A number of Western countries, including Britain, Germany and France, had obtained what were then called "Concessions" which were essentially extraterritorial areas of the city that were ceded to those countries by the Chinese government of the time and were pretty much owned by those countries. Rather like Hong Kong but not quite the same. I am not entirely clear on the situation vis a vis the US and Russia but they had some sort of similar rights as far as I recall.

In any case, many thousands of White Russians fled to Shanghai after the conflict was over in Russia. They were a mixture of the aristocracy, business people and politicians whose lives were at obvious risk had they remained in Russia.

Many of the women were forced to become mistresses of wealthy Chinese or European men who lived in Shanghai, and some suffered a bit worse fate. Others, however got lucky or whatever you wish to call it and married either Chinese or westerners.

Two of these lucky ladies married contemporaries of my father and have remained friends of mine to this day. In fact one of them was well enough to attend my fathe's funeral.

I had never discussed at all their background or history in all of these years but your thread has prompted me to contact both of them and see if I can get a little bit of history out of them. If anything comes of it I will let you know.
Bill

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Bill & Stellan,

What fascinating tales.

The involvement of Finland was crucial to many of the covert British operations into Russia at this period.

Dobson & Miller's book gives a fascinating account of the operations by Admiral Cowan who operated off the coast in the cruiser Delhi.

He tried to broker co-operation between all the various White Russian and other anti Communist forces. Several British officers were landed to try to control and train these forces. Lt Col Alexander (Later Field Marshall) was one of these.

The Red Navy was considerably stronger on paper than the Royal Navy "task force" in the area.

Coastal Motor torpedo boats were sent to a secret base set up at Terriki in Finland just three miles from the border with Russia.

Under Lieutenant Agar these boats were used to carry agents into and out of Petrograd. After some weeks Agar decided to attack the Russia fleet in the anchorage, and in a daring night time raid (in controvention of his orders) sank the crusier Oleg.

He was later awarded the Victoria Cross.

HMS Vindictive landed Sopwith Camels, 1 1/2 Strutters and Short Seaplanes which were used to bomb the anchorage from an airfield at Bioko.

A second much larger torpedo boat attack was then made in which three Russian battleships were sunk or badly damaged. Dobson & Steele were awarded VC's.

One of these CMB boats is in the Imperial War Museum colection at Duxford. There is a fascinating video which plays repeatedly.

How anybody had the courage to take those tiny boats into a heavily protected anchorage is beyond me. And yet today hardly anybody remembers these events today.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Stellan,

Thank you very much indeed for the excellent photos of Paul Dukes. I have a couple of him, but certainly not so good as those. The certificates and documents are entirely new to me.

He was an extraordinary man to have survived. The Cheka official tasked with tracking him down found him in a doctors surgery, but Dukes put on such a good act of his having a fit that the official decided that he could not possibly be Duke's and left the "ill man" there. Eventually after Agar had tried to rescue Duke's by CMB, and failed because the rowing boat that Duke's was trying to go out in to reach the CMB sprung a leak, causing Duke's to have to swim ashore in Kronstadt harbour, he walked out to Estonia.

At this time there were an incredible set of spies operating in Russia with Crombie, Dukes, and Herbert.

Do you know anything about the history of John Pitka, the commander of the Estonian navy, who with a trawler boarded and captured two Bolshevik destroyers?

Later he became Sir John Pitka.

The following site has quite a lot about the CMB's including pictures of the Duxford CMB.

http://apma.org.au/reference/ships/cmb/cmb.html

This site has photos of CNB's and the other Royal Navy ships active off Murmansk.

http://www.naval-history.net/WW1z05NorthRussia.htm

This site is a modern Russian one with fantastic pictures of some of the Baltic forts. About midway down the page is a section called "Marine Fortresses, Forts and Batteries".

It has pictures of the Krasnaya Gora and Kronstadt forts.

There is a huge Vickers railgun preserved in the Krasnaya Gora fort.

Regards

Nick Balmer

http://www.nortfort.ru/index_e.html

[Stellan Bojerud (RIP)]

Since I have understood that we are only three interested in this subject (Which is not WW 2) I have deleted my posts in order to free computor space.

Cheers,

Stellan

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Stellan Bojerud
Since I have understood that we are only three interested in this subject (Which is not WW 2) I have deleted my posts in order to free computor space.

No, no! This is another subject I know nothing of. Please give me some time to read it all and let it sink in. If you still have them, please repost your messages.

Thank you!

Hanno

[Tony Smith]

There were also Australian volunteers supporting the White Russians in 1919. I do remember reading about them and the units involved, but can't lay my hands on the book at this time. Please continue, Stellan.

[Bill Murray]

Stellan:
May I add my request to the others that you reinstate and then continue your fascinating contributions to this thread.

Like the others, I was a bit overcome by all of the information and photos you have and it was a valuable addition to the other things we often discuss here. Also, I could not contribute too much as I have had to try to remember source materiel etc. and it is...after all... only a few days before Christmas and we are probably all really busy just now.

Please do continue.
Cheers
Bill

[Stellan Bojerud (RIP)]

I will make a reconstruction of the essence in my earlier posts. The old texts are vanished but I still have the pictures.

But first I have to drive downtown to buy christmas gifts (puh!) for my family.

But as a restart this photo.

Johan Laidoner became General and C-in-C Estonian Armed Forces in December 1918. He was 34 years old and ex-Colonel of the Czar Army. He remained in office until arrested by the Soviets in 1940. Died in house-arrest in the Soviet Union 1953.

Stellan