Freeing the Baltic, 1918–1920 by Geoffrey Bennett

Author:Geoffrey Bennett [Bennett, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War I, Naval
ISBN: 9781473893092
Google: 2PImDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2017-05-31T00:29:12+00:00

1 Later Sir Stephen Tallents, the distinguished Civil Servant.

1 Although a Baltic Confederation, to include Poland and Finland as well as the Baltic States, had been mooted at the beginning of the year, no progress had been made, because of the Polish-Lithuanian dispute. Indeed, for this reason no full meeting of the five countries was held until January 1920, when considerations outside the scope of this book helped to ensure that the concept would never come to fruition.

1 Cowan could not call on the few French warships in the Baltic because Brisson had tempered his desire to help with one reservation: “Admiral, I will do anything for you, but you must not ask me to fight the Russians.” He knew that the sympathies of his crews for Bolshevik Russia were too strong: for this reason the French fleet sent to the Black Sea mutinied and had to be withdrawn, to the embarrassment of the French Government, whose policy was more anti-Red than the British.

1 A less formal portrait of Pitka (also Cowan’s) must be quoted: “He had only two speeds, full ahead and stop, and wasted a lot of (fuel) in the process. His two destroyers rather went to his head. Always clad in a thick greatcoat (Lord knows what he had on underneath), despite the fact that it is sometimes almost as hot in the Gulf of Finland as I have been in the Sudan, with a pistol strapped round his middle and generally clutching a loaf of our bread, he was quite a figure, and a very clever and fearless fighter. His tactics were to get as near to the enemy as he could and then fling his very mixed bag against their flank. He often got away with it, more especially if we were able to back it with some shelling.” The prowess of this versatile warrior was subsequently recognised, on Cowan’s recommendation, by the award of the K.C.M.G., a British honour which Laidoner also received.

1 Baltiisky Flot.

2 Dr. Macnamara.

1 Whose guns were of 11-inch calibre (12-inch according to some authorities).

2 Later Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches early in the Second World War.

3 Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson.

1 Gough’s staff included Captain C. W. Bruton as naval adviser, Colonel du Parquet, who headed a number of French officers, and Major-General Alfred Burt who will long be remembered by the Letts for his work in Riga.

1 The World Crisis, 1911–1918.

1 The reader will soon realise that there are special reasons for quoting this evidence of “cloak and dagger” activity.

1 From Piat Let Krasnogo Flota.

1 Who at a later date was to be better known in Britain as a horseman and show jumper.

1 In 1928–31 the Soviet Navy salvaged and repaired the L55 which was then added to their fleet. See addendum.

1 Later Vice-Admiral Berwick Curtis.

1 It was through Dukes that the Admiralty obtained, early in 1919, details of the minefields protecting Kronstadt, which were of great value to Cowan.

2 Later Captain Augustus Agar.

1 From a lecture given by (then) Commander Agar at the Royal United Service Institution on 15th February, 1928.

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