Royal Marines in Russia, 1919

Battling the Bolsheviks During the Intervention

Alastair Grant

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781399038805
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia militar y marítima

At the height of the Russian Civil War in 1919 Britain poured in thousands of troops and vast amounts of munitions to assist the White Russian opponents of Lenin's Communist forces. This was despite exhaustion following the Great War and the Spanish flu epidemic. One man involved was 23-year-old Royal Marines officer, Thomas Henry Jameson. His mission took him and his men on a journey of 5, 000 miles from Vladivostok to the battlegrounds not far from Moscow. As part of a White Russian Flotilla they steamed down the huge Kama River and fought a series of successful battles against superior Bolshevik gunboats. Later they were forced to retreat and, becoming cut off behind enemy lines, had to fight their way out knowing that, if captured, they faced summary execution. Eventually after a long and hazardous journey they made it back to their parent ship. Jameson and his Marines faced a multitude of hazards in this cruel civil war including disease which he described as 'the biggest challenge of all." In some other British units there were reports of mutiny due to terrible conditions. Yet, as this fascinating book describes, remarkably he succeeded not only to keep his men alive but inflict significant damage on a ruthless enemy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Book Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Dramatis Personae
• Introduction Battles on the Kama River, 1919
• Prologue
• Part I 1894–1917
• Part II 1917–1919
• Part III 1919
• Appendix I Messages of Congratulation
• Appendix II Comparison of Marines 1919/2019
• Appendix III Gunnery
• Appendix IV Army Forms and Codes
• Appendix V Aftermath
• Appendix VI Letter from Alfred Taylor toTom Jameson in 1931
• Appendix VIII My Journey in 2011
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index
• Back cover