The day after the Kronstadt Raid, Gus and the crew of CMB7 returned to Terrioki. Gefter was waiting for them. He had managed to find a route overland through the fighting in Estonia. Gefter explained how he and Paul Dukes had been within sight of CMB7 on the night of 14 August and how close they had come to being drowned. But he was sure that Peter Sokolov would be able to find Dukes and to bring him out to the fall-back rendezvous that Gus had agreed for 25 August.
But now it was not so simple. Gefter was confident that Sokolov and Paul Dukes would evade the shore patrols, but then Gefter was always confident – too much so for Gus’s liking. Meanwhile the Kronstadt Raid had changed everything. The element of surprise had been lost. The Soviets now knew exactly what they were dealing with and they would have redoubled the defences to ensure that there was no repetition of the attack on the Baltic Fleet. The days of slipping through the line of sea forts unchallenged were over.
The reality of this observation was emphasised on the morning of 20 August. Two Soviet aircraft flew over Terrioki and dropped seven bombs. Fortunately the Russians had as much trouble with aerial bombing as the RAF had. The bombs fell harmlessly in the woods. Some even failed to explode because they still had their safety pins attached. Richard Marshall immediately asked for permission to remove the Lewis guns from the crippled CMB4 and spent the rest of the morning fixing them on improvised mountings to the roof of the yacht club. But, to Gus, that was not the point. The bombs had not been intended to kill them. They were a message: ‘We know where you are.’
Another warning was delivered the following night. Two hand grenades were thrown into the garden of the dacha. No damage was done, but the crew stood watch for the rest of that night and every night thereafter in case the attacks were repeated. They never knew whether it was a Bolshevik agent or disgruntled Finnish troops who were upset with the British for making Terrioki a target, but someone clearly wanted them out of the area and would probably try again. From Hall, Gus learned that the Russians had now put a price on his head, equivalent to 5,000 English pounds – dead or alive. Someone was clearly giving the Cheka very good information indeed. Since Gefter and Peter were accounted for, Gus wondered if the courier Kroslov had been intercepted and had talked under torture. There was no way of knowing.
Climbing to the church tower to watch the sea forts during the day, Gus and his second in command Ed Sindall could see boats moving to and fro between the fortifications. They seemed to be carrying out some sort of work along the line of the breakwater. The question was: were they repairing it, creating a new boom or perhaps laying some more mines that were designed to float at a more shallow level and take out the CMBs? Every night the searchlights swept the waters in front of the forts, occasionally swinging into the air if there was even a suspicion of an approaching aircraft. As 25 August drew closer the stakes were being raised very high indeed.
As Gus stood in the church tower, one question turned over and over in his mind: was there now any point in going in to rescue ST-25? The prospects of success were almost zero – even if they made it through the forts the first time, they would almost certainly never make it back. There would be no friendly aircraft to cover their retreat. Gus and his crew had won the highest honours and had proved their bravery time and time again. He himself had won the two highest awards for valour, the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order which he had been awarded for the Kronstadt Raid. There were no more prizes left to win. Why risk the lives of his crew needlessly?
For three days the question tormented Gus. If he refused to go then was he being a coward or just a sensible commander? A vision of Paul Dukes and Peter Sokolov waiting on the beach kept coming back into his mind. Those two men might risk their lives to reach a team of rescuers who were never coming. After all, despite all his achievements, this was what he had been sent to Finland for – wasn’t it?
Those who knew Gus Agar remember that one characteristic about him stood out: like Horatio Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar, he believed that the most important calling in life was to do his duty. In the end it was this point that decided the issue. As far as Gus was concerned he had given his word to Paul Dukes that he would be at the rendezvous and, no matter how many Russians might be waiting for him, he would lay down his life to carry out that promise.
But there was no sense risking the lives of others if he could possibly avoid it. He would have to take Hugh Beeley because anything might happen to the CMB’s engines and it would be pointless to be left stranded in the middle of the Gulf waiting for dawn and the Russian guns. Even so, Gus laid out the facts carefully and gave Beeley the choice of refusing. ‘Faithful’ Hugh Beeley did not hesitate. Of course he would go. Gus also had to take Veroline, the Finnish smuggler. In the darkness of the cockpit on the Gulf at night there could be no charts. There was no telling which gap between the sea forts he might have to use and for that reason he needed Veroline’s first-hand knowledge. Unlike his briefing of Hugh Beeley, Gus did not lay out all the dangers this time: Veroline might have refused to go. Instead, he would have a bonus – if they survived.
Gus called a meeting at the dacha on the afternoon of 25 August and announced that he and Beeley would be going in for ST-25 that evening. He joked that there were several points in their favour: for a start, this would be the thirteenth trip through the forts. As the thirteenth child of his family, he had always believed that thirteen was his lucky number. The crew laughed dutifully. Then Gus pointed out that they would be sailing in CMB7, the lucky boat. If the Germans could not sink her he was damned sure the Russians could not. Finally, having laid out his contingency plans for all the different possible outcomes, Gus left instructions with Sindall that, if he failed to return, the remaining team members should close down the base at Terrioki and report to Admiral Cowan at Biorko as soon as possible.
There was nothing more to say.
But as he left the dacha to walk down to the harbour, Gus heard footsteps as Richard Marshall came running after him. Marshall was on the point of tears and begged Gus to take him along. He protested that he had come out to Finland to get the job done and now, just when the success of the entire mission was in the balance, Gus planned to leave him behind. He had been on so many of the other missions – had he not earned a right to come on this trip? Once again, Gus stressed just how dangerous this mission was. He had not wanted to say anything at the meeting but he and Hugh Beeley were almost certainly not coming back. Marshall asked him to imagine how it would feel to be the one left behind – how he would feel for the rest of his life. It was pointless. Gus did not have the heart to refuse him. He shook Marshall by the hand and told him to go and help Beeley prepare CMB7 for sea.
Later that afternoon Gefter too came looking for Gus. Like Marshall, he wanted to be taken on the trip. From the notes in his diary it is clear that Gus did not much like Gefter. But he thought that he had the right to be there as much as anyone else and it was possible that they might make it through the forts but be too badly damaged to attempt the return journey, forcing them ashore in Russia. If that happened Gefter would be invaluable. Gus told him to join the party.
That evening, as soon as it was dark, CMB7 set out with her five passengers. They were not carrying a torpedo. On this trip, Gus knew that speed would be everything. Gefter and Veroline sat in the empty trough so that there would be as much space as possible in the cockpit. Gus headed south-east at a steady 20 knots. It would take about 30 minutes to reach the line of sea forts. Grimly, he noted the important difference between this mission and his other runs through the line: ahead he could see the beams of the searchlights sweeping the water. Now and again a fort would be plunged into darkness for a few minutes as a searchlight was switched off and then it would it would suddenly light up again as if the men in the fort had set a trap and hoped to catch a boat trying to sneak through the gap.
After about 20 minutes Veroline clambered forward into the cockpit. The Finnish smugglers were well aware that the Soviets had been repairing the breakwater, but from their contacts with fishermen on the Petrograd side of the Gulf they knew that the contractors were cheating their bosses and that some of the repair work was incomplete: there were still gaps in the defences. Then again, it was only the gossip of fishermen and smugglers …
Veroline counted the forts carefully and then indicated the gap which he had been told was still safe. With a nod of his head to let Marshall know they were going in, Gus opened out the throttle and put the wheel hard to port.
From his position manning the Lewis guns, Richard Marshall probably had the best view of what happened next. He could see that Gus was aiming for a patch of sea where the searchlight activity seemed less intense. Once or twice a searchlight beam passed over them, but like many sailors Marshall knew that it was very difficult to pick out an object at sea at night and that unless the beam was focused exactly on the target, then it was likely to remain unseen. Even so, these were unnerving moments and Marshall crouched low behind the shoulder stocks of the Lewis guns.
They were about eight hundred metres from the gap when a searchlight passed over them and then returned to hold them in its beam. Gus jinked CMB7 left and right to try and lose it, but the beam stayed doggedly on them. Then a second light joined in and at the same time the guns of the fortresses opened up and the sea erupted around them. At once, Gus knew that these were not the sea forts of old – this firing was far more rapid and accurate.
Gus clung determinedly to his course. Speed now was everything. In a few seconds they would be through the gap and the closer they drew to the forts, the harder it would be for the guns to depress their muzzles and to track them. Marshall was blasting away with the Lewis guns and managed to knock out one of the lights. For a moment there was hope. But then a third searchlight and then another latched onto their position. The intense glare completely blinded Gus. Afraid that they would run directly into one of the forts, he spun the wheel hard to starboard to head them towards the open sea.
Once more the sea around them erupted as shells fell so close that CMB7 was momentarily lifted out of the water. She landed between a gap in the waves so heavily that for a moment Gus feared she had broken her back. But the boat roared onwards and as Gus glanced down into the engine compartment he could see Beeley hunched low over the engines, making sure that they didn’t fail.
But something was wrong. CMB7 was no longer properly answering her helm. Gus fought with the wheel, but she was gradually turning in an arc that would bring her back towards the forts. Gus knew that the rudder was connected to the wheel by two long ropes which ran along the side of the boat and turned a wheel at the top of the rudder post. He felt sure that one of the steering ropes must have been shot through, but there was no time to check on that now. All his skill and strength were needed to keep the wheel as straight as possible, to keep CMB7 heading out to sea.
Again and again shells whistled over the boat as the Soviet gunners tried to find their range. Gus had lost count of the number of searchlights trained on them because he was still blinded by the intense light. Above the roar of the engine he felt rather than heard the clattering of Marshall’s Lewis guns, which told him that despite his efforts they must still be within close range of the forts. He knew that if he could not correct their course it would be only a matter of time until they were hit.
Gus shouted for Beeley to check the rudder, but down in the engine room Beeley could not hear him. Neither Gefter nor Veroline would know what he was talking about. There was nothing that Gus could do.
And then it was suddenly all over. The Russians found their range. There was one final tremendous explosion, a splintering crash of shattering timber and metal and then nothing. The searchlights continued to sweep the waters, but the wreckage of CMB7 had disappeared.
Back at Terrioki, Sindall and Piper had gone to the church tower to watch for any signs of how Gus and the others had fared. Although there was no hope of seeing the tiny boat in the darkness, they could clearly see the sea forts lighting up the entire width of the Gulf. About 30 minutes after CMB7’s departure there was the distant roar of naval gunfire and for about three minutes the horizon was lit up by orange and white flashes far to the south. Then the gunfire stopped and gradually the glow on the horizon dimmed as the searchlights were switched off one by one. There was little doubt that CMB7 had been seen – but what had become of her?
Sindall and Piper were worried, but there was still hope. If at all possible Gus would have turned round and made a second attempt by a different route. Or he would be returning to Terrioki so that he could try again on another day. The two men made their way down to the harbour wall and sat watching out to sea, signalling with an electric torch to give the returning boat a guide back to the harbour mouth.
They sat there signalling for the rest of the night, waiting for the familiar roar of the Thornycroft engine as Gus returned home. But the engine of CMB7 was never to be heard again. Slowly their hopes faded. Gradually the eastern sky grew lighter as dawn rose and within an hour it was full daylight. The short Baltic night was over. Both men knew that there was no chance of Gus evading the Soviet guns in daylight. CMB7 was not coming home and Lieutenant Gus Agar’s mission to rescue ST-25 was finally over.