British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19

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Baltic Naval War
Part of Russian Civil War
Date 1918 - 1919
Location Baltic Sea
Result Independence of Baltic States
Belligerents
British Empire Russian SFSR
Commanders
Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair
Walter Cowan
Augustus Agar
Casualties and losses
About 120 servicemen unknown
v • d • e
Baltic Sea 1914-1918
Swedish iron ore - Gotland - Gulf of Riga - Operation Albion - Moon Sound - Ice Cruise - British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19

The British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19 was a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and played a key role in enabling the establishment of the independent states of Estonia and Latvia.[1]

Contents

[edit] Context

The purposes of operation "Red Trek" in the wake of the Russian collapse and revolution of 1917 were to combat Bolshevism, protect Britain’s interests, to extend the freedom of the seas and support the independence of the new Baltic nations of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The situation in the Baltic states in the aftermath of World War I was chaotic. The Russian empire had collapsed and Bolshevik Red Army and White Russian forces were fighting across the region. Riga had been occupied by the German army in 1917 and German Freikorps and Baltic-German Landeswehr units were active in the area.

[edit] Naval Forces Involved

[edit] Russian Forces

The Russian Baltic Fleet was the key naval force available to the Bolsheviks and essential to the protection of Petrograd. The fleet was severely depleted after the First World War and Russian revolution but still formed a significant force. At least 1 Gangut class battleship, pre-Dreadnoughts, cruisers, destroyers and submarines were available. Many of the officer corps were on the White Russian side in the Civil War or had been murdered but some competent leaders remained.

[edit] British Forces

A naval squadron was sent under Rear-Admiral Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair. This force consisted of modern C class cruisers and V class destroyers. In December 1918, Sinclair sallied into Estonian and Latvian ports, sending in troops and supplies, and promising to attack the Bolsheviks "as far as my guns can reach". In January 1919 he was succeeded in command by Rear-Admiral Walter Cowan.

British forces denied the Bolsheviks the ability to move by sea, RN guns bombarded the Bolsheviks on land in support of Estonian and Latvian troops and provided supplies.

In December 1918 British ships captured the Bolshevik destroyers Avtroil and Spartak [2] which were presented to the Estonians and, as Lennuk and Wambola, formed the nucleus of their navy. Forty Bolshevik prisoners of war were executed by the Estonians on Nergen Island in February 1919 despite British protests[3]

In April 1919 Latvian President Kārlis Ulmanis was forced to seek refuge on board the Saratov under the protection of British ships.

In the summer of 1919 the Royal Navy bottled up the Red fleet in Kronstadt. Several sharp skirmishes were fought near Kotlin Island and British Coastal Motor Boats under the command of Lt Agar raided Kronstadt Harbour sinking the Cruiser Oleg and depot ship Pamiat Azova as well as damaging the battleships Petropavlovsk and Andrei Pervozvanny. There was also a significant mutiny at the Krasnaya Gorka fort in June 1919 which was suppressed by the Bolsheviks.

In the Autumn of 1919 British forces including the monitor HMS Erebus provided gunfire support to General Yudenich's White Russian army in its offensive against Petrograd. The Russians tried to disrupt these bombardments by laying mines using the Orfey class destroyers , Azard, Gavril, Konstantin and Svoboda. The later 3 ships were sunk in a British minefield on 21 October 1919. The white army's offensive failed to capture Petrograd and on 21 February 1920, the Republic of Estonia and Bolshevist Russia signed the Peace Treaty of Tartu which recognised Estonian independence. This resulted in British Naval withdrawal from the Baltic.

Significant unrest took place among British sailors in the Baltic[4]. This included small-scale mutinies amongst the crews of Vindictive, HMS Delhi (the latter due in part to the behaviour of Admiral Cowan) and other ships stationed in Björkö Sound. The causes were a general war weariness (many of the crews had fought in World War I), poor food and accommodation, a lack of leave and the effects of Bolshevik propaganda[5].

[edit] Ships Sunk

[edit] British

RN ships lost in the Baltic include:

About 120 British sailors and RAF personnel died. A memorial plaque to British servicemen lost in the operation was unveiled in 2005 at Portsmouth Cathedral[1] in England with similar memorials in churches in Tallinn and Riga.

[edit] Russian

  • Cruiser Oleg
  • Depot ship Pamiat Azova
  • Destroyers Spartak and Avtroil captured, Gavril, Konstantin and Svaboda (mined)

No figures for Russian casualties were available

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kinvig 2006, p.?
  2. ^ http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/redarmy/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/ch04.htm
  3. ^ Jackson 2007 page 9
  4. ^ Kinvig 2006, p.?
  5. ^ Kinvig 2006, p.?
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