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On 29 August 1919, Sergeant Samuel Pearse, an Australian veteran of Gallipoli and the Western Front, was killed in action fighting against Red Army forces in northwest Russia. He fell during a British Army attack on a series of Bolshevik blockhouses near the remote railway village of Yemtsa, about 150 kilometres south of Archangelsk.
His unit, pinned down by machine-gun fire, was unable to push forward until Pearse cut his way through barbed-wire entanglements, lobbed grenades into the Bolshevik strongpoint and killed the inhabitants. Moments later he was cut down by a burst of enemy fire, and he later died of his wounds. He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions. He was 22 years old.
Pearse was killed fighting as part of the anti-Bolshevik foreign intervention in the war. Over 200,000 foreign troops served in the conflict across the length and breadth of Russia, from Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to Vladivostok on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Australians served on naval reconnaissance missions on the Black Sea, and in command and training roles across the Caucasus and Siberia. By far the largest Australian involvement was in north Russia, near the key ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
The first group of Australians to take part in the war were nine experienced soldiers drawn from Australian Imperial Force Headquarters in London in 1918 as part of the top-secret mission code-named Elope Force. This intervention force, along with its accompanying mission, Syren Force, was charged with protecting tonnes of war materiel and coal sent to Russia to support the tsarist fight in the First World War. With the instability that accompanied the 1917 Russian Revolution, British authorities feared the supplies would fall into German hands. Once Germany signed the Armistice in November 1918, that fear shifted to the threat posed by the Bolsheviks.
When the call went out for volunteers, hundreds of Australians showed interest, and around 140 took part in the expedition. There’s little evidence that any signed up for political or ideological reasons; rather, it appears they had arrived in Europe too late to take part in the fighting on the Western Front, or were bored waiting for repatriation from England, and wanted to keep their wartime adventure going.
The major actions for Australians in North Russia occurred in August 1919. Early that month British and Dominion troops made a concerted attack along the Dvina River to destabilise the enemy and give White forces a morale boost before their withdrawal. On 10 August, a company consisting mainly of Australians had seized targets and was fighting a rearguard action when an officer and three other ranks fell into the Sheika River while crossing over a narrow plank. Corporal Arthur Sullivan jumped into the water and saved the men.
Sullivan was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions, described in his citation as a ‘splendid example of heroism as all ranks were on the point of exhaustion and the enemy less than 100 yards distant’. Nineteen days later the fighting had shifted to a strategically important railway line further west. It was during this phase of the action that Sergeant Pearse was killed. Sullivan and Pearse received the only Victoria Crosses awarded to troops for actions during the campaign.
In the weeks after the offensives of August 1919, foreign troops withdrew to Arkhangelsk, and were completely withdrawn by 29 September. The last relief force troops were withdrawn from Murmansk by 12 October.
www.aspistrategist.org.au
His unit, pinned down by machine-gun fire, was unable to push forward until Pearse cut his way through barbed-wire entanglements, lobbed grenades into the Bolshevik strongpoint and killed the inhabitants. Moments later he was cut down by a burst of enemy fire, and he later died of his wounds. He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions. He was 22 years old.
Pearse was killed fighting as part of the anti-Bolshevik foreign intervention in the war. Over 200,000 foreign troops served in the conflict across the length and breadth of Russia, from Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to Vladivostok on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Australians served on naval reconnaissance missions on the Black Sea, and in command and training roles across the Caucasus and Siberia. By far the largest Australian involvement was in north Russia, near the key ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
The first group of Australians to take part in the war were nine experienced soldiers drawn from Australian Imperial Force Headquarters in London in 1918 as part of the top-secret mission code-named Elope Force. This intervention force, along with its accompanying mission, Syren Force, was charged with protecting tonnes of war materiel and coal sent to Russia to support the tsarist fight in the First World War. With the instability that accompanied the 1917 Russian Revolution, British authorities feared the supplies would fall into German hands. Once Germany signed the Armistice in November 1918, that fear shifted to the threat posed by the Bolsheviks.
When the call went out for volunteers, hundreds of Australians showed interest, and around 140 took part in the expedition. There’s little evidence that any signed up for political or ideological reasons; rather, it appears they had arrived in Europe too late to take part in the fighting on the Western Front, or were bored waiting for repatriation from England, and wanted to keep their wartime adventure going.
The major actions for Australians in North Russia occurred in August 1919. Early that month British and Dominion troops made a concerted attack along the Dvina River to destabilise the enemy and give White forces a morale boost before their withdrawal. On 10 August, a company consisting mainly of Australians had seized targets and was fighting a rearguard action when an officer and three other ranks fell into the Sheika River while crossing over a narrow plank. Corporal Arthur Sullivan jumped into the water and saved the men.
Sullivan was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions, described in his citation as a ‘splendid example of heroism as all ranks were on the point of exhaustion and the enemy less than 100 yards distant’. Nineteen days later the fighting had shifted to a strategically important railway line further west. It was during this phase of the action that Sergeant Pearse was killed. Sullivan and Pearse received the only Victoria Crosses awarded to troops for actions during the campaign.
In the weeks after the offensives of August 1919, foreign troops withdrew to Arkhangelsk, and were completely withdrawn by 29 September. The last relief force troops were withdrawn from Murmansk by 12 October.
A century on: remembering the Australians who fought in the Russian Civil War | The Strategist
On 29 August 1919, Sergeant Samuel Pearse, an Australian veteran of Gallipoli and the Western Front, was killed in action fighting against Red Army forces in northwest Russia. He fell during a British Army attack ...
www.aspistrategist.org.au
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