ANZACs in Arkhangel Page 21

  The grenades delight the Russians, even though back at camp Alexey already has two jars of them, looking like Easter eggs and immersed in kerosene. With his latest finds, he and Alexandr get the shifting spanner to work. Alexandr tries to hold one grenade steady while Alexey wrestles with the spanner to take the thing apart. They don’t succeed but they do scratch away the rust to reveal its date of manufacture as 1917.

  The author cleans up some British grenades. Washed in kerosene, they prove to be No 23, Mk II Mills bombs, a type that could be fired from a rifle by means of a rod inserted into the base plug. The year of manufacture, 1917, is clearly legible. (Oliver Challinger)

  Both men are alarmingly casual about all this stuff. Alexandr breaks open a rifle cartridge and lights the powder. ‘Look how dry it is after so long,’ he exclaims, holding the cartridge at arm’s length as it flares like a Roman candle. No matter what we unearth, the Russians shrug it off as ‘not dangerous’ and before long my son and I are equally nonchalant. The only find that disconcerts the Russians at all is an unexploded mortar round, which even they treat with respect.

  My son discovers a strange, metal object the size of a small can, but very heavy. Alexey identifies it as a French rifle grenade.4 Crudely ingenious, it fitted into a cup-shaped discharger, a ‘tromblon’, which was fastened to the rifle muzzle and was discharged when the rifle was fired. The French supplied these to the Americans too, as well as the Chauchat rifles to fire them.5 Either group could have lost this one. We take it with us.

  Our Russian companions were disconcertingly casual about live ammunition. This French 75 mm shell was the only find they pronounced dangerous. Protruding from it is an instantaneous fuse, used where the ground was soft and a falling shell might bury itself too deeply before exploding. The percussion head was set to detonate the shell at the split second of impact. This one has been fired but failed to explode. (Michael Challinger)

  Alexey Suhanovsky unearths a Russian anti-personnel mine, one of ten we found close to the camp site. Buried just below the surface, it was designed to be triggered by a trip wire. An initial charge would then blow the device upward before the main charge blasted shrapnel at waist level. (Michael Challinger)

  That evening the Russians make another fire about 70 metres from the camp and toss the grenade onto it. We all keep well away. Alexandr predicts it will explode within three minutes, but it doesn’t. He’s busy anyway, preparing a drink from a bottle of wine, a flask of vodka and a melted bar of chocolate. The concoction is almost on the boil when an almighty bang rends the air. Alexandr looks at his watch and notes it took seven minutes.

  Near the camp Alexey unearths an anti-personnel mine, about the size and weight of a can of paint. As he digs it out the bottom disintegrates, crumbling into powder and shards of rusted steel. Then he finds another, in better condition, then a third. It turns out the area to the right of our camp was a regular minefield and in the end Alexey digs out ten of the things.

  The next night a couple of British grenades go onto the fire, though one is a fizzer and doesn’t explode. And on our last day, Alexey scatters cartridges on the embers of the campfire, so as we head off along the railway line there is a short fusillade of farewell.

  Back in Arkhangel, I visit the cemetery one last time. Since I was there the year before, the place has been spruced up. The inscriptions have been whited in and the stones now are easy to read. Pearse’s stone, and Brown’s, are legible again. So someone cares. This strange military adventure and the men who took part are not forgotten after all.

  Appendix 1

  CITATIONS FOR THE VICTORIA CROSS

  The London Gazette, 29 September 1919

  133003 Corporal Arthur Percy Sullivan, 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Crystal Brook, South Australia)

  For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the 10th August, 1919, at the Sheika River, North Russia. The platoon to which he belonged, after fighting a rearguard covering action, had to cross the river by means of a narrow plank and during the passage an officer and three men fell into a deep swamp. Without hesitation, under intense fire, Corporal Sullivan jumped into the river and rescued all four, bringing them out singly. But for this gallant action his comrades would undoubtedly have been drowned. It was a splendid example of heroism, as all ranks were on the point of exhaustion, and the enemy less than 100 yards distant.

  Third Supplement to the London Gazette, 21 October 1919 (published 23 October 1919)

  The late 133002 Serjeant Samuel George Pearse MM, 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Mildura, Australia)

  For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty and self-sacrifice during the operation against the enemy battery position north of Emtsa (North Russia) on the 29th August 1919. Serjeant Pearse cut his way through the enemy barbed-wire under very heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and cleared a way for the troops to enter the battery position. Seeing that a blockhouse was harassing our advance and causing us casualties, he charged the blockhouse single-handed, killing the occupants with bombs. This gallant non-commissioned officer met his death a minute later, and it was due to him that the position was carried with so few casualties. His magnificent bravery and utter disregard for personal danger won for him the admiration of all troops.

  CITATIONS FOR THE DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL

  Second Supplement to the London Gazette, 20 January 1920 (published 21 January 1920)

  133025 Private O. C. Anderson [sic], 45th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Copenhagen, Denmark)

  For conspicuous gallantry and initiative on 15th September 1919, at Tulgas. He formed one of a flanking party which was held up by wire and heavy machine-gun fire. He rushed the wire, and with one other man attacked a machine gun which was holding up the attack, and killed the crew. He then proceeded alone, and only ceased to fight when wounded three times. He set a fine example of courage and determination.

  133029 Private N M Brooke, 45th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (Canterbury, Melbourne)

  During the attack on Kochamika and Sludka, 10th August 1919, he showed great gallantry and skill in ascertaining the enemy’s positions, and under heavy fire came back with reliable information, enabling his platoon to advance without casualties. He materially contributed to the success of a difficult operation.

  130525 Serjeant H.F. Gascoigne-Roy, 46th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (North Sydney, Australia)

  During the attack on Gorodok on the 10th August 1919, he displayed great gallantry and able leadership under very heavy fire. He captured, with the aid of one section, 85 of the enemy. During the whole attack he did splendid work.

  133028 Corporal H. B. Gipps, 45th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (St. Kildon) [sic]

  For marked courage and dash during the attack on an enemy battery on 29th August 1919. Directly the wire was cut he dashed forward and bombed enemy pill-boxes and also put out of action a machine gun, killing the crew, which enabled the two platoons behind him to advance in safety.

  133005 Lance Corporal A. Lutherborrow, 45th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (New South Wales)

  For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the operations of 24th–25th July. He was seriously wounded in the head and both thighs during the operation, and suffered great pain; notwithstanding that he remained at his gun, and directed his fire at the enemy until he became exhausted. The courage and determination of this N.C.O. without a doubt greatly assisted the operation.

  133059 Private W. F. Quarrell, 45th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (Manyanupp, W. Australia)

  For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in the attack on two Bolo armoured trains. In the face of very heavy fire he rushed one of the armoured trains, and threw two bombs into the truck, which contained the naval gun and gunners, and killed the whole team, thereby placing the gun out of action. Throughout he did excellent work.

  133001 Serjeant W. J. Robinson, 5th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (Larne Harbour)

  For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He ably assisted his platoon commander in the capture of three villages,
and brought fire to bear on enemy gunboats and barges, thus enabling the line to advance. Again, while the enemy was fighting a rearguard action, he saved a critical situation by helping to form a line and drive the enemy off.

  Fifth Supplement to the London Gazette, 9 July 1920 (published 13 July 1920)

  133007 Private J. Purdue, 45th Bn, Royal Fusiliers (Victoria, Australia)

  For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during operations, August 7th to 11th 1919. He carried a wounded officer for four hours through marsh and forest, and, when the enemy attacked, he showed great coolness while helping to repel the attack.

  Appendix 2

  NOMINAL ROLL OF AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS

  WHO SERVED IN NORTH RUSSIA

  1 Names, ranks and numbers should enable readers to trace particular men. The other details help indicate their background and geographical origins.

  2 Some omissions and discrepancies in this roll have been unavoidable. Ranks given are generally those held when the men left the AIF, not the highest substantive or acting rank they attained. AIF units shown are not necessarily the last in which they served.

  3 The following men are thought to have fought in North Russia, but cannot be confirmed: HL Cooper, LA Fry, H Hall, (?) Moran and LM Morris. EV Woodyard joined the NRRF but for some reason did not proceed to North Russia.

  4 Three putative Australians have appeared on earlier compilations but do not appear here; EVH Cresswell-George and (?) McCabe are now known to have been South Africans; ES Strangen was a Canadian.

  Abbreviations

  AIF Australian Imperial Force

  Bn Battalion

  Capt Captain

  Coy Company

  Cpl Corporal

  Dvr Driver

  Gnr Gunner

  L/Cpl Lance Corporal

  Lieut Lieutenant

  MGC Machine Gun Corps

  NRRF North Russia Relief Force

  NZEF New Zealand Expeditionary Force

  Pte Private

  RF Royal Fusiliers

  RSM Regimental Sergeant Major

  Sgt Sergeant

  Spr Sapper

  WO Warrant Officer

  Notes

  Chapter 1 That first shot

  1 Sidney Bradshaw Fay, The Origins of the World War, vol. 2, 2nd edn, Macmillan, New York, 1930, pp. 219–23.

  2 AJP Taylor, The First World War: An Illustrated History, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK, 1966, pp. 16–22. My summary of the outbreak of the war generally follows Taylor’s account.

  3 CEW Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. 1, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1921–1942, p. 2.

  4 Andrew Fisher, Leader of the Labor Opposition, during the election campaign, Colac, Vic., 31 July 1914.

  5 The phrase is Alfred Deakin’s, quoted in the editor’s title chapter in Joan Beaumont (ed.), Australia’s War 1914–1918, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1995, p. 3.

  6 Christopher Dobson & John Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, Atheneum, New York, 1986, p. 41.

  7 Bruce Muirden, The Diggers Who Signed On for More, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 1990, p. 36.

  8 Konstantin Paustovsky, In That Dawn, trans. Manya Harari & Michael Duncan, Harvill Press, London, 1967, pp. 11–12. Of Kerensky, Paustovsky wrote: ‘I saw him many times, with his puffy, sallow face, red eyelids and sparse, greying crew-cut … In a barking, staccato voice he flung short sentences at the crowd and gasped … I soon realised he was merely a sick man with a strong streak of Dostoyevsky in his make-up, an actor … who was rushing headlong to disaster.’

  9 Nicholas N Golovine, The Russian Army in the World War, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1931, pp. 257–60.

  10 Winston S Churchill, The Aftermath, Thornton Butterworth, London, 1929, p. 63. He mentions in passing, p. 67, that it was Canadian authorities who allowed Trotsky to return to Russia from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he had been intercepted.

  11 John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, Modern Library, New York, 1935, p. 132.

  12 Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, Pimlico, London, 1996, p. 541.

  13 Trotsky made another significant misjudgement. The United States had declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 and Trotsky thought the Germans would be extremely anxious to conclude a peace in the east before American troops started arriving in Europe in large numbers. He overestimated their anxiety.

  14 Baron von Kuhlmann (actually the Austrian Foreign Minister), quoted in Alan Moorehead, The Russian Revolution, Collins, London, 1958, p. 299.

  15 Clifford Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia, 1918–1920, Hambledon Continuum, London, 2006, p. 8. He gives Reichsarkhiv (German National Archives) figures of fifty-one divisions between November 1917 and March 1918.

  16 George F Kennan, Soviet-American Relations 1917–1920, vol. 2, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1958, Ch. 11.

  17 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, pp. 40–1.

  Chapter 2 The Aussies of Elope Force

  1 Perry’s diary, held at the AWM, 3DRL/7709, provides the best record we have of this group of men.

  2 Perry Diary, 5 June 1918.

  3 Kelly Memoir, AWM PR 85/324. Though written in 1969 and somewhat coloured by later political events, the memoir is an important source. The present account draws heavily both on it and on Perry’s diary.

  4 British National Archives, WO 106/1161, PRO, quoted in Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, p. 23.

  5 Perry Moore, Stamping Out the Virus: Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918–1920, Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA, 2002, p. 11.

  6 Medical note, Tarrant’s personal service record, p. 12, NAA.

  7 This was nothing to do with the Digger term ‘Rainbow’, meaning a reinforcement who arrived in Europe after fighting was over—that is, like a rainbow after a storm.

  8 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 48.

  9 The opinion of a younger officer, quoted in Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, p. 22.

  10 Kelly Memoir, p. 5.

  11 Nick Baron, The King of Karelia, Col. P.J. Woods and the British Intervention in North Russia 1918–1919, Francis Boutle Publishers, London, 2007, p. 150.

  12 Quoted in Richard H Ullman, Intervention and the War, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1961, p. 242.

  13 Baron, The King of Karelia, p. 152.

  14 Bill Gammage, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974, makes this point, pp. 276–7.

  15 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 42.

  16 Sir C Maynard, The Murmansk Venture, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1928, p. 23.

  17 Ira Jones, An Air Fighter’s Scrapbook, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK, 1942, pp. 87–8.

  18 Kelly Memoir, unnumbered page between pp. 12 & 13.

  19 Perry Diary, 1–22 July 1918.

  20 ibid., 27 June 1918.

  Chapter 3 The takeover of Arkhangel—August 1918

  1 EM Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 1961, recounts the political manoeuvring in Ch. 3.

  2 Kelly Memoir, p. 43.

  3 Captain Bion Bierer of the US cruiser Olympia, who accompanied General Poole to Arkhangel aboard his yacht. Poole was the British general then in command of all Allied forces in North Russia. Quoted in Benjamin D Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1988, p. 26.

  4 Lieutenant Tyler RN, quoted in Miles Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, Leo Cooper, Barnsley, UK, 2004, p. 54.

  5 Diary of AE Thompson, Royal Engineers, quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, p. 53.

  6 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 130.

  7 Major J Bryan, writing in the Tank Journal, August 1919, quoted in Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 265.

  8 Kelly Memoir, p. 13.

  9 ibid., p. 16.

 
10 Allan Brown, letter dated 30 September 1919, AWM DRL/0158.

  11 Allan Brown, letter to his sister, dated 13 April 1919, quoted in Jeffrey Grey, ‘Australian involvement in the North Russia campaign’, AWM MSS0986, p. 5.

  12 Kelly Memoir, p. 13.

  13 Sir Edmund Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, Constable, London, 1953, p. 44.

  14 Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, p. 40.

  15 Richard Goldhurst, The Midnight War: The American Intervention in Russia, 1918–1920, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978, p. 94.

  16 Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, says Stewart migrated to the United States at the age of nineteen, p. 62.

  17 Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, pp. 52–3, 97–8.

  18 General Wilds Richardson. See Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 62.

  19 Neil G Carey (ed.), Fighting the Bolsheviks, Presidio, Novato, CA, 1997, p. 55.

  20 The regimental brothel was known as ‘the house with the green roof’. It is mentioned in Eugenie Fraser, The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood, Corgi Books, London, 1986, p. 252. Fraser was a schoolgirl in Arkhangel at the time and was puzzled by the large numbers of troops getting off the tram at that stop.

  21 Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, p. 149.

  22 Perry Diary, 29 August 1918.

  23 Ironside gives the full text of this Order, p. 77, and of Order No. 100 concerning Maria Bochkarova, whom he found a pathetic figure, in Archangel 1918–1919, p. 78. After North Russia Bochkarova made her way to Siberia where she tried to set up a women’s medical detachment under Kolchak. She was captured by the Reds and shot by firing squad in May 1920.