ANZACs in Arkhangel Read online

  24 Poole was later sent to South Russia to investigate and report on the White army there under the command of General Anton Denikin. See Ch. 7, note 14.

  25 American Ambassador Francis, quoted in Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, p. 74.

  26 Fraser, The House by the Dvina, p. 253, remembers him inspecting a Girl Guide jamboree. He was a ‘tall, imposing if slightly arrogant figure’ who stopped and spoke a few words to some of them in his ‘broken Russian’.

  27 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 82.

  28 Kelly Memoir, p. 26.

  29 Perry Diary, 11 November 1918.

  30 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, pp. 68–70.

  31 Kelly Memoir, pp. 20–1.

  32 Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, pp. 95–6.

  33 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 141.

  34 Robert Jackson, At War with the Bolsheviks, Tom Stacey, London, 1972, p. 78.

  Chapter 4 The winter campaign—December 1918 – March 1919

  1 Allan Brown, letter dated 5 December 1918.

  2 Perry Diary, 24 December 1918.

  3 The Bolsheviks had adopted the Western (Gregorian) calendar in January 1918. In Arkhangel there was some dissension over whether Christmas should be celebrated according to the new calendar or the old, by which Christmas now fell on 7 January. Tchaikovsky resolved the issue by declaring both days holidays!

  4 Kelly Memoir, p. 32.

  5 The boots gave no grip in the snow because they were designed for use with skis. See Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, pp. 119–21.

  6 Perry Diary, 12 January 1919.

  7 Details of blockhouses and gun pits and their construction are given by Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, pp. 114–15, 121. Additional information is contained in captions to the US Army Signal Corps photographs on the Polar Bear Expedition site at www.polarbears.si.umich.edu. Building work and other fascinating footage of the Americans’ participation can be seen on the 339th US Infantry Regiment film, In North Russia 1918–1919, Military History Videos, Escondido, CA.

  8 Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 122.

  9 Diary of HNB Watson, quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, p. 60.

  10 Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 125.

  11 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 122.

  12 George Stewart, The White Armies of Russia, Macmillan, London, 1933, p. 186. (This author is not the George E Stewart who commanded the Americans.) The numbers and disposition of Allied forces in December 1918 are given in Leonid Strakhovsky, Intervention at Arkhangel: The Story of Allied Intervention and Russian Counter-Revolution in North Russia 1918–1920, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1944, Appendix 5.

  13 Kenneth Van der Spuy, Chasing the Wind, Books of Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, 1966, p. 112.

  14 For an ambassador, Francis was outrageously indiscreet. In Petrograd, in the absence of his wife, he conducted a scandalous liaison with a Mme Matilda de Cram who was almost certainly a German spy. Claiming to be taking French lessons from her, he even gave her access to the embassy code room! He also speculated in Russian currency and misused the diplomatic pouch for personal business transactions. Meanwhile, his loyal valet, Philip Jordan, wrote home saying the ambassador spent much of his time dodging Bolshevik bullets, adding: ‘These people over here kill each other just like we swat flies in America’. Quoted in Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 7.

  15 Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 13; Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, pp. 10, 23. Kennan, Soviet-American Relations, 1917– 1920, usually the most thorough authority, does not mention the incident.

  16 Joel R Moore, Harry H Mead & Lewis E Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, Polar Bear Publishing Company, Detroit, MI, 1920, p. 221.

  17 British general RG Finlayson, quoted in Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 26. Finlayson was a well-regarded general whom Ironside appointed to command the Dvina Front over the winter.

  18 British Army sheet ‘Information of general interest to troops arriving in Russia’, quoted in Moore, Mead & Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, p. 219.

  19 Undated proclamation issued in Ironside’s name soon after his arrival in October 1918. The English and Russian versions are reproduced in the Kelly Memoir, pp. 23–4.

  20 Moore, Mead & Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, p. 220.

  21 Kelly Memoir, p. 21.

  22 Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, pp. 138–9. They also mention pencilled notes on the back of Ironside’s maps about ‘insidious Bolshevik propaganda … broadcast by the polyglot Jews and renegade journalists on the other side’.

  23 US Naval Intelligence report, dated 20 December 1918, quoted in Strakhovsky, Intervention at Arkhangel, Appendix 6, p. 298.

  24 General Finlayson, quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, p. 57.

  25 Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, p. 132.

  26 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 113.

  27 Major Leslie Bunce, quoted in Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 127.

  28 Halliday, The Ignorant Armies, p. 103.

  29 Ironside, letter to the War Office, dated 19 February 1919. Quoted in Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, p. 130.

  30 The letter was discovered by military censors and is quoted by Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 69.

  31 US General Richardson’s report to the Adjutant General of the Army, dated 27 July 1919, quoted in Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 107.

  32 Diary of Major Gilmore, quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, p. 57.

  33 Kelly Memoir, pp. 18–19.

  34 Quoted in Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, p. 61.

  35 Kelly Memoir, p. 35.

  36 Keith Attiwill, unpublished memoir, in his family’s possession, p. 151.

  37 Perry Diary, 28 February 1919.

  38 William Kelly, letter to Army Base Records, dated 4 June 1919, on Kelly’s personal service record, p. 25, NAA.

  39 Brown, letter to his sister, dated 13 April 1918, AWM DRL/0158.

  40 Kelly Memoir, pp. 27–9.

  41 Moore, Mead & Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, pp. 237–8.

  42 Kelly Memoir, p. 28.

  43 Allan Brown, letter to his sister, dated 13 April 1919.

  44 Maynard, The Murmansk Venture, p. 94.

  45 According to Perry’s diary entry of 24 February 1919, Hickey (‘lucky devil’) was leaving for England about that time.

  Chapter 5 The decision for the Relief Force—March 1919

  1 Great Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, Finland, Germany, Austria–Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, China and Japan.

  2 Churchill, The Aftermath, pp. 240–1.

  3 Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty, Andre Deutsch, London, 1975, p. 157.

  4 The ‘Principal Allied and Associated Powers’ were stated to be the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan. The other ‘High Contracting Parties’ to the Treaty were Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, the Hedjaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, Siam, Czecho-Slovakia and Uruguay. Brazil and Siam sent some troops; the other non-European countries merely declared war late in the piece.

  5 Speech made in February 1919, quoted in Stewart, The White Armies of Russia, p. 195.

  6 Rhodes, The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919, pp. 101–3.

  7 Speech to the Aldwych Club, reported in The Times, 12 April 1919, p. 10.

  8 Richard H Ullman, Britain and the Russian Civil War, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1968, p. 153.

  9 Speech to his constituents at Dundee on 26 N
ovember 1918, quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia, p. 35.

  10 Lord Riddell’s diary, 11 April 1919, quoted in Ullman, Britain and the Russian Civil War, p. 153.

  11 Hudson, Intervention in Russia, p. 66.

  12 The Times, 4 April 1919.

  13 Command Paper No. 8 (Russia No. 1), A Collection of Reports on Bolshevism in Russia, HMSO, London, 1919.

  14 John Silverlight, The Victors’ Dilemma, Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1970, p. 191.

  15 Speech to the House of Lords, reported in The Times, 9 April 1919, p. 13.

  16 Churchill, letter to Lloyd George, 8 March 1919, quoted in Ullman, Britain and the Russian Civil War, p. 178.

  17 Michael Kettle, Churchill and the Archangel Fiasco, Routledge, London, 1992, p. 274.

  Chapter 6 Those who signed up—April 1919

  1 Quoted in Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 197.

  2 Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. 6, p. 1061.

  3 Australians were singled out by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, by Sir Edward Geddes, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and by Sir Nevil Macready, London’s Police Commissioner. ‘Mr Long, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, added that it was important to get the Australians out of London as soon as possible’, Cabinet minute, 14 November 1918, War Cabinet 502, PRO.

  4 William Baverstock, letter to his mother, dated 16 May 1919, AWM 3DRL/6371.

  5 Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. 6, pp. 1061–5.

  6 Baverstock, letter to his mother, dated 16 May 1919, p. 1.

  7 Attiwill Memoir, p. 141.

  8 Ernest Heathcote, ‘Aussies in North Russia’, AWM PR 89/140.

  9 Examples on NAA personal service records: Theodore Hanke, p. 43; Edward Rawlins, p. 80.

  10 Baverstock, letter to his mother, dated 16 May 1919.

  11 Baverstock, ‘Death for every tenth’, People, 26 December 1956, p. 24.

  12 AIF, Records of discharges overseas, AWM 41 9 1357411.

  13 Muirden, The Diggers Who Signed On for More, Wakefield Press, Kent Town SA, 1990, p. 69.

  14 General Birdwood, letter to Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, dated 13 March 1919, Munro Ferguson Papers, AWM 3DRL/2574.

  15 Andrew Moore, Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist, Australian Legend, Federation Press, Sydney, 2005, pp. 39–41.

  16 EM Allfrey Diary, quoted in Quinlivian, Forgotten Valour, New Holland, Sydney, 2006, p. 107.

  17 Heathcote, ‘Aussies in North Russia’, p. 3.

  18 Leslie Lee, personal service record, p. 22, NAA.

  19 Pearse, letter to his wife, dated 10 July 1919, in the possession of the Pearse family.

  20 Paul Kirvalidze. See Chap. 7.

  21 Robert Meerin, personal service record, p. 50, NAA.

  22 Attiwill Memoir, p. 186.

  23 The Soldier, 6 June 1919. Quoted in Quinlivian, Forgotten Valour, p. 122.

  24 Yeaman Diary, 25 & 26 May 1919, AWM PR91/126.

  25 Baverstock, letter to his mother, dated 16 May 1919.

  26 Attiwill Memoir, p. 147.

  27 Often wrongly referred to as the 201st Battalion.

  28 HC O’Neill, The Royal Fusiliers in the Great War, Naval & Military Press, Dallington, East Sussex, UK, 2002, pp. 2–7.

  Chapter 7 Aussie strays

  1 Jeffrey Grey asserts this in ‘A “pathetic sideshow”’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, no. 7, October 1985, but the Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum has not been able to identify the man.

  2 JL Turner (ed.), The War Diaries of Captain Percy Lay, B & H, Ballarat, Vic., 1983, pp. 128, 130.

  3 ibid., p. 139.

  4 John Coates, An Atlas of Australia’s Wars, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001, p. 112.

  5 LC Dunsterville, The Adventures of Dunsterforce, Edward Arnold, London, 1932, p. 237.

  6 ibid., p. 317.

  7 Ernest Latchford, ‘With the White Russians’, Reveille, vol. 6, no. 12 – vol. 7, no. 8, August 1933 – April 1934. The present account is drawn from the version available at www.argo.net.au/andre/latchfordENFIN.htm

  8 Kalmykov was subsidised by the Japanese and notorious for his atrocities. He was eventually arrested and shot by the Chinese in February 1920. See Stewart, The White Armies of Russia.

  9 Quoted by Bruce Muirden, ‘An Australian in Russia–1919’, Sabretache, vol. 32, April/June 1991, p. 27.

  10 Latchford, ‘With the White Russians’, www.argo.net.au/andre/latchfordENFIN.htm

  11 ibid.

  12 Commander Bond’s report is at the British National Archives, FO 371/3977, PRO, and is quoted in Kettle, Churchill and the Archangel Fiasco, pp. 38–40.

  13 Engineer Lieutenant Commander GW Bloomfield of Brisbane, Lieutenant JG Boyd and Paymaster Sub Lieutenant D Munro, both of Sydney.

  14 General Poole, formerly of Arkhangel and now in South Russia, thought differently of Krasnov. He visited the ataman soon after Bond and was treated to a tremendous orgy with plenty of drink and gypsy girls. He pronounced the Don Cossacks the best troops in Russia and Krasnov a commander of ‘ability and capacity far above any Russian officer’! Kettle, Churchill and the Archangel Fiasco, p. 39.

  15 John Harris (ed.), Farewell to the Don: The Journal of H.N.H. Williamson, Collins, London, 1970, Ch. 17.

  16 Elena Govor, Russian Anzacs, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2005, pp. 175–6.

  Chapter 8 The Aussies arrive—June 1919

  1 Quinlivian, Forgotten Valour, pp. 106–7. Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 147, writes: ‘He talked away to me quite unabashed while he curled his moustache with a pair of tongs’. The phrase ‘dandified ways’ is from Attiwill’s memoir, p. 248.

  2 Quinlivian, Forgotten Valour, p. 106.

  3 Quoted in Quinlivian, Forgotten Valour, p. 136. Allfrey’s criticism may not have been directed at Davies as he writes admiringly of him elsewhere. The sergeant major may have been the intended target.

  4 ibid., p. 126.

  5 The Times, 10 June 1919, p. 10.

  6 Jones, An Air Fighter’s Scrapbook, p. 81. He also mentions an (unidentified) Australian adjutant as ‘a nasty piece of work’!

  7 Keith Attiwill, ‘In Red Russia’, Part 1, Geelong Times, 29 May 1920. Attiwill, a cadet journalist, wrote an account of his time in Russia which appeared in four instalments in the Geelong Times on 29 May and 5, 12 & 19 June 1920. He also left a more personal narrative written, apparently, in 1957. In combination, they provide the best account we have of the doings of this group of Diggers.

  8 Moore, Mead & Jahns, The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki, p. 42.

  9 Attiwill, ‘In Red Russia’, Part 1.

  10 Attiwill Memoir, p. 146.

  11 Illustrated London News, 10 August 1919, p. 163.

  12 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 138.

  13 Ironside, telegram to Churchill, dated (approx.) 14 May 1919: ‘I regret to report I had to shoot 15 but the companies are back at duty’. Quoted in Dobson &Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, p. 201.

  14 This account of the events at Pinega relies on Attiwill, ‘In Red Russia’, Part 2, Geelong Times, 5 June 1920.

  15 The river flotilla is described in GR Singleton-Gates, Bolos and Barishynas, Gale & Polden, Aldershot, UK, 1920, Ch. 2. More details and a list of the vessels are contained in Smith, ‘North Russian expeditionary force’, at www.naval-history.net.

  16 Attiwill Memoir, p. 150.

  17 Andrew Soutar, With Ironside in North Russia, Hutchinson, London, 1940, p. 145.

  18 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 144.

  19 Hampshire Regiment Journal, July 1919. Quoted in Hudson, Intervention in Russia 1918–1920, p. 59.

  20 Knightley, The First Casualty, pp. 157–9, 169–70.

  21 Attiwill, ‘In Red Russia’, Part 2.

  22 Attiwill Memoir, p. 149.

  23 Jones, An Air Fighter’s Scrapbook, p. 99.

  24 I
ronside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 161.

  25 ibid., pp. 160–1.

  26 Allfrey, quoted in Dobson & Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow, pp. 211–12.

  27 ibid.

  28 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, pp. 161–2.

  29 Kelly Memoir, p. 15.

  30 No-one I met in Onega in October 2008, could offer any help, not even the kindly lady at the local museum. The civilian cemetery is very overgrown. The town itself is depressed and dismal in the extreme.

  Chapter 9 The main group—July 1919

  1 Baverstock, letter to his mother, dated 8 July 1919.

  2 ibid.

  3 Yeaman Diary, 7 July 1919.

  4 Baverstock, letter dated 8 July 1919.

  5 Fraser, The House by the Dvina, pp. 254–5.

  6 Attiwill Memoir, p. 228.

  7 Pearse, letter to his wife, dated 14 July 1919. Quoted in Mike Irwin, Victoria’s Cross: The Story of Sgt Samuel George Pearse VC MM from ANZAC to Archangel, Sunnyland Press, Mildura, Vic., 2003, p. 45.

  8 Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 125.

  9 Yeaman Diary, 16 July 1919.

  10 Unless otherwise stated, this account follows Yeaman’s diary.

  11 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, pp. 162–3.

  12 William Baverstock, ‘Death for every tenth’, People, 26 December 1956, p. 24.

  13 ibid.

  14 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, p. 164.

  15 Yeaman Diary, 22 July 1919.

  16 Singleton-Gates, Bolos and Barishynas, p. 145.

  17 Hill, letter to his brother, dated 1 August 1919. Quoted in Grey, ‘Australian involvement in the North Russia campaign 1917–1920’, p. 14.

  18 Ironside, Archangel 1918–1919, pp. 164–5.

  19 Yeaman Diary, 25 July 1919.

  20 Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, p. 128, with lengthy citations.

  21 Variant DA was the codename for diphenyl chlorasine, which caused violent irritation to the nose and throat, running of the eyes, nausea and vomiting. Variant DM, diphenylamine chlorasine, was lethal.

  22 Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, pp. 244–6.

  23 ibid., p. 258.

  24 ibid., pp. 245–6.

  25 British Intelligence report, quoted in Moore, Stamping Out the Virus, p. 101.