The following abbreviations are used throughout:
BE – Baltic Episode by Captain Augustus Agar;
FITS – Footprints in the Sea by Captain Augustus Agar;
RDATM – Red Dusk and the Morrow by Sir Paul Dukes;
ST-25 – The Story of ST-25 by Sir Paul Dukes;
TUQ – The Unending Quest by Sir Paul Dukes.
Please see the bibliography for full publishing details of all works cited.
Page 1, ‘… the de facto chief of all British intelligence operations in northern Russia.’ Cromie had served in the Royal Navy since he had joined as a cadet aged sixteen and was considered one of the outstanding officers of his generation. In 1903 he had taken the unusual step of joining the submarine service, but had served with distinction and in November 1915 he had sunk the German cruiser Undine whilst on a mission in the Baltic, a feat for which he had received the Distinguished Service Order, the award for valour second only to the Victoria Cross. For their part the Russians had given him their highest award for gallantry, the Order of St. George. After his tour of duty in the Baltic, Cromie had been appointed as Naval Attaché at the British embassy in Petrograd in December 1917. Working directly to Admiral Reginald ‘Blinker’ Hall of the NID he had soon become, largely through force of personality, the most active and effective of the various intelligence officers based at the Embassy.
Page 1, ‘… two of the leading British agents in the city whose names were Steckelmann and Sabir.’ This pair had first contacted Cromie at the beginning of August 1918. They had a letter of introduction which they claimed was from Lockhart, the British Agent in Moscow (a diplomatic position, not secret agent – although Lockhart did like to dabble in espionage with his friend Sidney Reilly). Sabir claimed to have been a Russian naval lieutenant before the Revolution who was now serving in the White Guards in Finland as commander of a mining division. Steckelmann also claimed to be a senior White Guards officer with 60,000 White Guards plus 25,000 Lettish troops at his disposal. He also claimed that his contacts in the civil administration could paralyse all railway, telegraph and telephone communication between Finland and Petrograd. Honoured By Strangers – The Life of Captain Francis Cromie CB DSO RN by Roy Bainton, p. 245
Page 1, ‘… and return Russia to Tsarist rule.’ The coup was actually planned for 6 September. Ace of Spies by Andrew Cook, p. 167
Page 1, ‘But Cromie knew that the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police, were closing in on him.’ The Cheka had been created under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky in December 1917. Cheka stood for ‘All Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage’. It later became the OGPU and then the KGB. In the 1990s, the KGB divided into two new organisations: the FSB (domestic security) and the SVR (foreign intelligence gathering).
Page 1, ‘… by escaping over the roof in his pyjamas as they came charging up the stairs.’ Bainton, p. 245
Page 2, ‘… and Cromie was sure that the Cheka had kidnapped him.’ Cromie was correct in his suspicions. Le Page and Consul Woodhouse had been attacked and bundled into a car by the Cheka shortly after midnight just yards from the Embassy as they returned from Woodhouse’s flat. Bainton, p. 251
Page 2, ‘… by a Russian military cadet named Leonid Kanegisser …’ Leonid Akimovich Kanegisser (spellings vary), 22, was a student and former artillery academy cadet. He attacked Uritsky in revenge for the execution by the Cheka of his friend Vladimir Borisovich Pereltsveig just a few days before. Pereltsveig was an artillery officer who had been convicted of participating in a conspiracy against the Bolsheviks. Ironically, Uritsky was the only member of the Petrograd Cheka Collegium to vote against the death sentence – not because he was merciful, but because he believed that executions for political crimes were counter-productive. Kanegisser shot and mortally wounded Uritsky at 11.15 a.m. on 30 August as he stood waiting for the elevator in the hall of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs in Dvortsovyi Square. Kanegisser, wearing a leather jacket and cap, had arrived earlier and was sitting in an easy chair in the foyer waiting for him. Kanegisser fired once, ran outside and then attempted to flee on a bicycle, but was pursued and cornered in the derelict English Club at 17 Millionnia Street. He ran upstairs, changed his coat and almost escaped in the confusion, but was spotted by Bolshevik troops. In the ensuing gunfight he wounded one soldier, but was eventually overpowered. During his imprisonment he was tortured repeatedly by the Cheka at their headquarters in Gorohovaya Street in an attempt to get him to implicate others, including British and French intelligence officers, but Kanegisser acted alone. He was finally executed on or about 22 October 1918. See The Cheka by George Leggett, pp. 105–7
Page 2, ‘Gravely wounded, Lenin was thought unlikely to live.’ Fania Kaplan, 28, (usually referred to either as ‘Fanny’ or ‘Dora’ which was a name she often used) was a political activist who had a record for political violence which stretched back to 1906 when she was sentenced to perpetual penal servitude for participation in a terrorist act by the Anarchists. She appears to have taken the revolver and launched the attack on Lenin entirely on her own initiative. She broadly supported the aims of the Social Revolutionary Party, but she attacked Lenin because she believed that he had betrayed the Revolution. She was immediately sentenced to death by the Cheka Collegium and was shot in the courtyard of the Kremlin by the commandant, Pavel Malkov, at 4 p.m. on 3 September 1918. Leggett, p. 107
Page 2, ‘… to clear out the “nests of conspirators” in foreign embassies.’ ‘When I was questioned by one of the [Cheka], I enquired the reason for our arrest and received the reply that it was because we had made the Embassy a nest of conspirators.’ George Dobson, The Times, 31 October 1918.
Page 3, ‘… Cromie pulled a revolver from his pocket.’ Bainton, p. 254. This was Le Page’s revolver. Hall had seen Cromie take it from Le Page’s desk about an hour earlier. Cromie’s own gun was found in his flat two days later.
Page 3, ‘He had already destroyed any sensitive papers which were held in the Embassy so he was not worried about that …’ Bainton, p. 245
Page 3, ‘“Remain here and keep the door after me.”’ These were his exact words. Hall’s account from his report ADM 223/637, National Archives.
Page 3, ‘He wondered if Sabir had actually left to give the Cheka the all-clear for the raid to go ahead?’ See Hall’s account. Neither Steckelmann nor Sabir’s names appeared on the list of those arrested at the embassy. Hall’s story is frustratingly vague. He says that after the first shot both Steckelmann and Sabir drew pistols and that there was then more shooting, but he does not say who did this or where he was. He later saw Sabir in the Peter and Paul fortress, clearly not a prisoner and Sabir had written him some letters in prison which were probably designed to trap him into damaging admissions. Sabir claimed that Steckelmann had been shot after the attack, but there is no way of verifying this. They both appear to have been agents provocateurs, the Cheka repeating the tactics which had ensnared Robert Bruce Lockhart in Moscow a few weeks earlier. This involved two different agent provocateurs who claimed to have been recommended to Lockhart by Cromie. It took some cheek by the Cheka to pull off the same trick against the same two men twice. The main aim of the plot seems to have been to capture the White leader General Yudenich who was in Petrograd at this time. Hall tried to invite him to the meeting, but he could not be contacted – luckily for him. See also Bainton, p. 250
Page 4, ‘Outside the room a ferocious barrage of shooting began.’ The description of events in the room is taken from Hall’s account. As for events in the corridor and on the staircase, there are several partial descriptions of what occurred, but they are contradictory and sometimes do not even agree on simple facts such as the time of the raid. The following description best fits the majority of reports, but the truth is that exactly what befell Cromie when he passed through that door will never be known for certain.
Page 4, ‘… the Embassy doors were wide open and the main hall was full of ten or more Chekist officers.’ Pravda later tried to claim that the raid was carried out with just ten Chekists, but, whilst this may have been strictly true, it is misleading. George Bucknall senior, a British businessman who had gone to the embassy to withdraw some money and arrived just moments after the attack began, said that he saw ‘a large number of armed men’ pouring in through the embassy doors. (Bainton, p. 254). Dobson, the Times correspondent who was inside the embassy, wrote: ‘Besides the ten or a dozen men comprising the Commissioners [Cheka] and their assistants, there was a strong company of Red Army soldiers for our escort, the crew and marines of the two torpedo-boat destroyers with their machine guns and any number of reckless Bolshevist troops in two large barracks not a stone’s throw from the Embassy.’ The Times, 31 October 1918.
Page 4, ‘… a well-known local firebrand called Geller …’ His name is sometimes given as Heller or Hillier.
Page 5, ‘… some Chekists had charged straight up the staircase and were busy looting offices further down the corridor.’ The caretaker of the building interviewed by Roy Bainton in 2001 believed that these were marines who had entered the rear of the embassy building as the Chekists came in at the front, but there is no other record of this. Geller said that he did call for naval troops to seal the embassy, but only after the gunfight with Cromie, so they were at least on standby in the area. A third possibility is that the two men were Sabir and Steckelmann.
Page 5, ‘… the bullet lodging in the centre of his forehead.’ Letter from Frances Wagner to the Rev. B. S. Lombard. FO371/4023 National Archives. She was not a witness to the attack, but helped to prepare the body for burial a day later.
Page 6, ‘… and, as the echoes of the shooting died away, for a moment there was silence.’ It is hard to be certain now many were killed in the exchange of shots. Sidney Reilly claimed to have seen a row of dead bodies laid outside the embassy shortly after the attack, but this is one of his usual fictions. Robin Bruce Lockhart, son of Robert Bruce Lockhart the British representative in Moscow, claimed that Cromie had descended the staircase firing two Browning automatic pistols (not a revolver) and that he had killed the Commissar. But this account is based on Reilly’s stories and is plainly wrong because Geller was not killed in the attack. In London, The Times claimed that three Chekists were killed, whereas Pravda listed one dead and one wounded. Krasnaya Gazeta said that one had been killed and two wounded and named them: Yanson (dead), Bortnovsky (wounded), Shenkman (wounded). Bainton, pp. 262–3. In a Russian work on the Petrograd Cheka, Vnutri I vne Bol’shogo Doma by Vasili Berezkhov (1995), it is noted that Geller admitted shooting one of his own men ‘by mistake’.
Page 6, ‘… but they left a small baby’s glove which he had been carrying.’ Account of Frances Wagner. It is possible that this was a keepsake from the birth of his only child, Dolores, who was born in 1907 and was living in England with her mother at this time.
Page 6, ‘… but he was clubbed with rifle butts and thrown back into the line.’ There are only three surviving British accounts of what took place in the Embassy that afternoon: Hall’s official report written when he returned to London, a statement given by Nathalie Bucknall to the British Consul shortly after the incident and the account of George Bucknall, a former naval officer attached to Cromie’s division, now serving in a civilian capacity. George’s account was written sixteen years after the event. Each of these witnesses saw only a fraction of what happened and their accounts are in some ways contradictory. There are also several accounts in Russian newspapers but these are necessarily brief and must be regarded cautiously. Only one thing is absolutely certain: Cromie sold his life dearly defending his agents.
Page 6, ‘… but there were to be no medals for him.’ In the absence of the award that many thought he deserved, Cromie was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) in September 1918. His widow Gwladys received the award.
Page 6, ‘… not just for his single handed defence of the Embassy, but also for his many brave actions in Russia over the preceding ten months.’ For a full account of Cromie’s life see Honoured By Strangers by Roy Bainton.
Page 6, ‘… executed by a Cheka firing squad on suspicion of conspiring against the Revolution.’ Bainton, p. 263
Page 7, ‘As one historian has since remarked: it was an open licence for the Cheka to kill.’ Leggett, p. 110
Page 7, ‘Other agents made their own way back.’ Such as George Hill and Sidney Reilly.
Page 7, ‘There was now no British secret agent left in Bolshevik Russia.’ MI6 did have officers in areas of Russia under White control. For instance, Hill and Reilly went to Odessa and there was an MI6 station in Vladivostock. But Bolshevik Russia remained terra incognita to all Western intelligence services. MI6 did try to persuade other individuals, such as the British businessman George Armistead, to travel to Bolshevik areas, but all the indications are that none of these missions ever took place.
Page 8, ‘The old man had not even acknowledged his presence yet …’ Cumming seems to have made a habit of ignoring visitors for the first few minutes of a first meeting in order to unsettle them. Sir Paul Dukes (ST-25, p. 34), Augustus Agar (BE, p. 30) and Compton Mackenzie (Greek Memories, p. 309) all record this behaviour.
Page 8, ‘… on that morning in May 1919.’ In the very first line of Chapter One of Baltic Episode (p. 27) Agar claims this meeting was in February 1919, yet from a host of references in other works, including Cumming’s own diary and Agar’s personal diary, it is clear that this meeting was in early May. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that Agar could make such a glaring mistake in the first line of his book. It raises the question of whether there was an earlier meeting than historians have supposed. Certainly ST-25 needed rescue by February 1919 and if Cumming really did leave things until May 1919 he was leaving it late.
Page 8, ‘… rather like the Mr Punch character in a seaside puppet show.’ Compton Mackenzie, Greek Memories, p. 309 ‘I saw on the other side of the table a pale clean-shaven man, the most striking features of whose face were a Punch-like chin, a small and beautifully fine bow of a mouth, and a pair of very bright eyes’. This impression was similar to that of the Naval Attaché at Athens, Commander W. F. Sells who first met Cumming in March 1916 at a Naval Conference in Malta: ‘He’s an extraordinary old bird,’ Sells told me. ‘Obstinate as a mule, with a chin like the cut-water of a battleship.’ Greek Memories, p. 73
Page 8, ‘He remembered being briefly introduced to an elderly naval captain just a few weeks ago by his commanding officer at their base on Osea Island in Essex.’ Although it is often unreliable, a TV proposal written by Agar and contained in his papers at the Imperial War Museum (p. 10) records this visit to Osea as having taken place towards the end of April. This would be consistent with an entry in Cumming’s diary in which he applies for permission to use the CMBs on 1 May. See also Mansfield Cumming: The Search for ‘C’ by Alan Judd, p. 434
Page 8, ‘… a meeting with a Commander Goff of the Naval Intelligence Department about “Special Service.”’ BE, p. 29. Possibly Commander R. S. Goff RN DSO.
Page 9, ‘… removed his spectacles and slipped a gold rimmed monocle into his right eye.’ For Cumming’s use of spectacles and monocle see Judd, p. 400
Page 9, ‘“Sit down, my boy, I think you will do!”’ FITS, p. 88
Page 9, ‘… sent away to boarding school in England …’ Framlingham College near Woodbridge in Suffolk.
Page 9, ‘… transformed into reality by the boat builder Sir John Isaac Thornycroft.’ John Isaac Thornycroft was the founder of Thornycroft Shipbuilders. He had been working on skimmer designs for some years before the Royal Navy approached him. He finalised the design of the CMB (adapted from the Thornycroft Crusader) together with his three children: Tom (who designed the engine specially for the CMBs), John (who worked on the design and took over the project once the final design was agreed) and Blanche (who conducted all the trials on propeller design. She eventually became the first ever female member of the Institute of Marine Engineers). The design tests were all carried out in their purpose-built tank at their home on the Isle of Wight.
Page 10, ‘They could achieve speeds of up to forty-five knots …’ Janes Fighting Ships 1919 only says ‘in excess of thirty knots’. Every boat was different (see Chapter Three) but in general the speed of both 40 ft and 55 ft CMBs was 35 knots fully laden and up to 45 knots once the torpedo(es) had been launched. See FITS, pp. 78, 105, 113; ST-25, p. 252. In RDATM (p. 286) Dukes claimed the top speed was over fifty knots, but this is highly unlikely. Forty five knots is equivalent to approximately 52 mph (83 kph), but this seems a great deal faster in a low lying boat on water. By comparison, modern F1 powerboats reach speeds of up to 150 mph in races, but then they don’t have to launch torpedoes at the same time …
Page 10, ‘… and generally making things unpleasant for the Germans.’ ‘… the German naval authorities were in utter dread of them, and never knew when to expect them.’ Sir John I. Thornycroft A Short History of the Revival of the Small Torpedo Boat, p. 11. This is perhaps a slightly over-optimistic assessment of their performance. The qualities of motor torpedo boats were never properly exploited until World War II. During World War I, although they achieved some notable successes, CMBs were vulnerable to air attack by day and at night their engine noise tended to negate the vital element of surprise. See The Dover Patrol by Roy Humphries.
Page 10, ‘… the operation to sink blockships in the approaches to Zeebrugge harbour …’ Operation ZO. The CMBs laid smokescreens to shield larger vessels and two of them entered the harbour and launched torpedoes against a German warship.
Page 10, ‘Some CMBs had been sent abroad on other duties …’ The other operations on which CMBs were deployed at this time were: 1) Eight 55 ft CMBs under Lt Dickinson to Archangel to patrol the River Dvina and assist forces under General Ironside; 2) Eight 55 ft CMBs under Commander Eric Robinson VC to the Caspian Sea to prevent the Baku oil fields falling into Soviet hands; 3) A mixed force of CMBs under Commander the Honourable Patrick Acheson to the Rhine as part of the occupying forces.
Page 11, ‘… the organisation which we know today as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) or, more commonly, as MI6.’ Cumming’s organisation was originally known as the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau. By the outbreak of the First World War it was more simply known as the ‘Foreign Service’ or the ‘Secret Service’. In 1916, the War Office tried to lay claim to the Service by designating it MI1C (MI stood for Military Intelligence), but Cumming refused to accept this. In 1919, the various secret services were restructured and Cumming’s department officially became the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) which is still its proper name today. Since the name was in a state of flux during the period of this story and because most people know SIS as ‘MI6’ (a cover name used during the Second World War) that is the title which will be used throughout this book.
Page 11, Agar quote: BE, p. 29
Page 11, ‘… built high amongst the rooftops around Whitehall.’ Actually above 2 Whitehall Court. It was a building well known to Cumming for it contained the Royal Automobile Club of which he was a founder member. Today it is the Horse Guards Hotel.
Page 11, ‘… gazed across the plane trees of Victoria Embankment to the grey waters of the River Thames.’ Greek Memories, p. 309
Page 11, ‘(one of Cumming’s personal favourites was an invisible ink made from his own semen).’ ‘I shall never forget ‘C’s delight when the Chief Censor, Worthington, came one day with the announcement that one of his staff had found that semen would not respond to iodine vapour [commonly used for developing secret writing], and told the Old Man that he had to remove the discoverer from the office immediately, as his colleagues were making life intolerable by accusations of masturbation. The Old Man at once asked Colney Hatch [research] to send the female equivalent for testing – and the slogan went round ‘Every man his own stylo’. We thought we had solved a great problem. Then our man in Copenhagen, Major Holme, evidently stored it in a bottle, for his letters stank to high heaven, and we had to tell him that a fresh operation was necessary for each letter.’ Frank Stagg, MI6 officer 1915–17 quoted in Judd, p. 319
Page 11, ‘… but we know that one connected him directly to the Director of Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty.’ Churchill and the Secret Service by David Stafford, p. 65
Page 12, ‘He was always eager to obtain an example of any invention which might be useful for espionage.’ Too many references to mention, but I think that the historian Janet Morgan has summed him up beautifully: ‘… like Toad in The Wind in the Willows, he adored inventions and acceleration. Room could always be found in C’s diary for a meeting to set up a new society for the enjoyment of a faster means of locomotion or for an appointment to examine a new technology: electrical gas detection apparatus; metal said to be invisible in sunlight.’ Secrets of the Rue St Roch, pp. 177/8
Page 12, ‘… having been driven across London by Cumming on a terrifying journey.’ FITS, p. 91
Page 12, ‘But following a bad fall in which he broke both his arms …’ Judd, p. 28
Page 12, Cumming quote: Judd, p. 41
Page 12, ‘… at the grand old age of fifty-four.’ Judd, p. 47
Page 12, ‘He would then extol the virtues of “the female form divine”.’ Around the Room by Edward Knoblock.
Page 12, ‘… just so that he could “have a look at the girls”.’ Judd, p. 291
Page 12, ‘He selected these young women for their looks …’ Judd, p. 329
Page 12, ‘… those who knew him well described him as “a notorious womaniser.”’ ‘C’ A Biography of Sir Maurice Oldfield by Richard Deacon, p. 7
Page 13, ‘A large portrait of Alastair in military uniform dominated one wall of the office.’ Greek Memories, p. 310
Page 13, ‘… there is some evidence that Cumming’s wife never forgave him for the loss of her beloved son.’ Various minor points including the fact that Cumming is buried at Burlesdon in Hampshire. His wife May chose to be buried in Scotland.
Page 13, ‘… on a child’s scooter which had been specially imported for him from America.’ Sent by Norman Thwaites from New York station in September 1918. Judd, p. 415
Page 13, ‘On one occasion he even used it as a club to attack Vernon Kell, the head of MI5, during an interdepartmental argument.’ The Red Web by Tom Bower, p. 13
Page 13, ‘At one point it had even seemed possible that the new government might be formed by an MI6 officer …’ For details of the coup and Reilly’s career see Ace of Spies by Andrew Cook.
Page 14, ‘… until a few months before, had been the capital of Russia.’ The Bolsheviks moved the capital to Moscow on 5 March 1918 because of the threat from the White army under General Yudenich.
Page 15, ‘… the Cheka, the dreaded Bolshevik secret police, hunted for deserters and infiltrators.’ Interestingly, it was an MI6 officer who claimed to have created the Cheka. George Hill, later the MI6 liaison officer in Moscow during the Second World War, claimed in his memoir Go Spy the Land that he had established the ‘Bolshevik counter-espionage section’ to spy on the Germans in 1918. This is, at the very least, an exaggeration. The Bolsheviks had long suffered under the Tsarist Ohkrana. When they came to power they simply supplanted that organisation, inheriting its premises and many of its personnel as well. See Secret Service by Christopher Andrew, p. 215
Page 15, ‘… the massive island fortress of Kronstadt.’ In fact the proper name of the island is Kotlin Island. Kronstadt was the name of the fortress and town overlooking the main harbour. It was by far the largest and most powerful of a number of fortresses around the circumference of the island and because of this Kotlin Island was often referred to simply as ‘Kronstadt’.
Page 16, Cumming quote: BE, p. 31
Page 16, ‘… any crew member he selected must also be unmarried and without ties of any kind.’ This is what Agar claimed in Baltic Episode and we may take him at his word. However, elsewhere he records that it was his commanding officer who suggested that he take only young officers and men because (in view of Agar’s youth and lack of experience) they would be easier to command. When he presented the list of team members to Cumming later, Cumming apparently scanned the list and approved of the fact that they were all young and unmarried. This version is possibly more plausible.
Page 17, ‘He was in the middle of setting up a flat with “Dor”, the woman he planned to marry.’ Agar’s diary, although ‘Dor’s’ full name has since been lost.
Page 17, Henslowe quote: BE, p. 32
Page 19, ‘… he had taken twelve years out of the Navy to be an estate manager in Ireland.’ Cumming retired from the Navy in December 1885 on half-pay, largely because of chronic seasickness (the reason given on his service record). He worked for the Earl of Meath as his private secretary and for an undefined period as his land agent before returning to the Navy in April 1898. Judd, p. 29
Page 19, ‘… and he has left us a detailed account of his methods.’ My Adventures as a Spy by Sir Robert Baden Powell. First published in 1915, it is now available freely over the Internet on several sites.
Page 20, ‘… just next to the Army and Navy stores.’ This was a very poorly chosen site as Cumming was frequently bumping into officers he knew who were calling into the shop next door and having to explain to them what he was doing there miles away from his post in Southampton.
Page 20, Cumming quote: Judd, p. 100
Page 20, Cumming quote: Judd, p. 113
Page 21, ‘… and then only if it was a cheap one.’ Judd, p. 125
Page 21, ‘Another meeting had to be hastily arranged.’ M by Andrew Cook, p. 194; Judd, p. 121
Page 21, ‘… a Royal Marines officer, Major Cyrus Regnart …’ Regnart is most commonly referred to by historians as ‘Roy’ but in fact his full name was Cyrus Hunter Regnart. See Royal Marine Spies by Lt Col D. F. Bittner and Captain J. M. Coleby, Royal Marines Historical Society, 1993, p. 50
Page 21, ‘She threw them out into the street and they had to leave hurriedly before the police arrived.’ Judd, p. 250
Page 22, The TG incident: Judd, pp. 221–222
Page 22, Cumming quote: Judd p.214
Page 22, ‘… it is better to preserve the myth of British intelligence rather than to allow the public (and the organisation’s opponents) to know just how bad things are.’ Obviously too large a subject to discuss thoroughly here, but anyone who doubts this simply has to look at MI6’s public record: outperformed by every other service in the First World War; racked by so many financial and intelligence scandals between the wars that Churchill wanted to abolish it completely in 1939; lost its entire order of battle and that of the ‘Z’ organisation to German intelligence at the outbreak of World War Two; outperformed during the war by SOE and only able to justify its existence because Ultra material was disguised as MI6 material; thoroughly penetrated by the KGB after the Second World War (Philby and Blake); the Franks Committee described its intelligence on the Falklands as little better than reading the local newspapers; it armed and trained Muslim extremists in Afghanistan who are now our deadliest enemies; it predicted that Saddam would never invade Kuwait in the First Gulf War (he did) and that Weapons of Mass Destruction would be found in Iraq after the Second Gulf War (they weren’t).
Page 23, ‘… the former agent Sidney Reilly whose “experiences” are almost complete fiction.’ e.g. Reilly, Ace of Spies by Robin Bruce Lockhart. Page 23, ‘… and later rose to be Foreign Secretary.’ Andrew, p. 206
Page 23, Hoare quote: The Fourth Seal by Sir Samuel Hoare, Ch 2. See also Andrew, p. 205
Page 23, ‘The majority of historians who have studied the period have concluded that Cumming was pretty ineffective …’ See for instance The Failure of British Espionage against Germany, 1907–1914 by Nicholas Hiley, Historical Journal, vol. XXVI (1983).
Page 23, ‘… Churchill had to admit that the answer was “not much”.’ Stafford, p. 55
Page 23, ‘… a figure which included four clerks, two typists and two doormen …’ Judd, p. 288
Page 23, ‘… a furniture shop in Brussels.’ At 7 Rue de Garchard. MI6 by Nigel West, p. 37. Regnart was head of station and his father had been an upholsterer.
Page 23, ‘… the newly promoted Captain Cumming …’ He made the crucial step on 12 January 1915.
Page 23, ‘He had also established liaisons with the intelligence departments of every Allied country.’ Judd, p. 350. Headquarters staff was probably just over 40. There were about 30 stations.
Page 23, Cumming quote: This offer was made by General Williamson in March 1913 when the imminence of war was already freeing up funds. The information which had so impressed Williamson and led him to make this generous offer, had actually come from the French Intelligence Service and had simply been ‘repackaged’ by Cumming. Judd, p. 255
Page 24, ‘… Cumming had not had a good war.’ Another broad subject and it can be hard to quantify performance, but as one guide it is estimated that during the war 235 allied agents had been convicted by the Germans, of which only 55 were believed to have worked for MI6. This might mean that Cumming’s organisation was better, but the reality is that the other services were more active. West p.42
Page 24, ‘The War Office had run over 6,000 agents …’ Morgan, p. 338
Page 24, ‘… an extremely accurate picture of the movement of German forces behind the Front.’ Train-watching networks consisted of groups of civilians in occupied countries, often no more than little old ladies who sat and watched as trains went past the bottom of their gardens. They would record each type of wagon by shelling peas into different bowls or inserting different stitches into a row of knitting. Signalmen and other railway workers noted insignia on troops’ uniforms as they boarded trains. This information was used to build up a detailed picture of the position of all German units and their movements. Several major offensives were foiled in this way as the Allies knew exactly when and where to expect the attacks. The War Office Secret Service ran networks under such code names as ‘Sacre Coeur’ and ‘Frankignoul’.
Page 25, MI8: Interception and interpretation of communications.
Page 25, MI9: Assistance in the escape and evasion by Allied POWs.
Page 25, ‘Winston Churchill was among a number of influential figures who supported the idea of an amalgamated intelligence service.’ Stafford, p. 108
Page 26, ‘… which connected the 600-acre island with the mainland twice a day at low tide.’ FITS, p. 83
Page 26, ‘… but it was still a working farm …’ Bunting Brothers Farm, FITS, p. 82. Today it is a private estate, but the concrete traverser pit and the slipway are still there.
Page 29, ‘He and Gus were firm friends.’ ‘I went over the list of young Subs in my mind and decided to tackle one Hampsheir whom I knew and liked. He was a quiet sort of youngster, but knew his job and did it efficiently.’ Agar TV proposal.
Page 29, ‘… and then pounded repeatedly by forces of several tons as the CMBs bounced across the waves.’ ‘The conditions under which the motors have to work in these boats are undoubtedly more severe than in any type of aeroplane …’ Thornycroft, p. 11
Page 29, ‘… they were allowed only the light of one tiny electric bulb per boat.’ A curtain across the far end of the engine compartment stopped this light being seen through the forward observation hatch.
Page 29, ‘CMB motor mechanics were considered the very best in the Royal Navy.’ ‘It is quite certain that there is no other motor mechanic’s job which is comparable in risk and severity of the work which they have to perform.’ Thornycroft, p. 11
Page 29, ‘Trained at the elite Rolls-Royce engineering works …’ Agar TV proposal, p. 16
Page 29, ‘… and his ability to get the best out of any machine.’ ‘I knew him well. In temperament he was rather like Hampsheir in that he was reserved, spoke little, looked rather doleful with a perpetual worry, but actually in character a wonderful man and dedicated to his job.’ Agar TV proposal, p. 16
Page 30, French quote: Agar TV proposal, p. 15
Page 30, ‘His nickname in the CMB Flotilla was “Sinbad” because of his buccaneering attitude.’ Letter Sindall to Agar 11–3–20. Agar papers, IWM.
Page 30, Agar quote: Agar TV proposal, p. 17
Page 30, ‘… Captain French agreed and they selected 20-year-old Richard Pegler.’ Pegler’s participation is a bit of a mystery. His name does not appear in either of Agar’s books, his service record shows no record of travel to the Baltic and he did not receive a medal as the other team members did. His name first turned up in the papers of John Hampsheir as someone who accompanied them from Osea to London. However, Agar’s personal diary and other papers make it clear that Pegler was a full member of the team and travelled with them to Helsinki where he remained for the duration of their stay. Sadly the reason why Agar chose to exclude him from the public record must now remain a mystery. It may simply be that Agar thought there were already enough names for his readers to handle but, if so, it seems a little harsh. A signal recorded in the Koivisto airfield log as sent to Agar’s base at Terrioki concerns someone who had gone AWOL. Was this Pegler? There is no other evidence, so the idea must remain pure speculation.
Page 30, Agar quote: BE, p. 39
Page 32, ‘Motor torpedo boats had been in existence for many years …’ Thornycroft had built his first one for the Royal Navy in 1877.
Page 34, ‘… and sent it racing forwards much faster than the CMB could travel.’ Torpedoes varied, but their speed was usually in the region of fifty knots.
Page 34, ‘The boats were built at the Thornycroft yard at Platt’s Eyot (pronounced “eight”) on the River Thames …’ Those who value the past may be interested to know that the shed in which the CMBs were constructed was until very recently (and may still be) standing, although in a dilapidated condition, at Platt’s Eyot. There is a photograph on the Internet at: http://www.marketingreinforcements.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index_plattseyot.html
Page 35, ‘… great jets of smoke and flame from its exhaust …’ This fault in the design was later turned to advantage by fitting a device to the CMB exhausts which allowed them to lay smokescreens to shield the movement of other vessels.
Page 36, ‘In total, the Admiralty was to order more than one hundred CMBs.’ In total 117 were built: 40 ft: 39, 55 ft: 73, 70 ft: 5.
Page 37, Agar quote: BE, p. 184
Page 37, ‘On 8 April 1917 …’ Humphreys, p. 109. Humphreys records the date as 4 May, but from other sources 8 April appears to be the correct date.
Page 37, ‘… a hunting pack comprising CMBs 5,6 and 9.’ The CMBs often used to hunt in packs of four to increase their effectiveness.
Page 37, ‘The CMBs raced away into the safety of the darkness using their ability to skim over the Germans’ own minefield to prevent a pursuit.’ One of the two skippers whose torpedo found its mark was Lieutenant ‘Mossy’ Dayrell-Reed in CMB9, two years before he was to figure so prominently in the Kronstadt Raid (see Chapter 12). He was awarded the DSO for his bravery in this action, but Beckett only received the DSC.
Page 39, CMB7 account: Dangerous Waters by Leonard Piper, pp.181–2
Page 40, ‘… a cheque for 1,000 guineas made out to “bearer”.’ In both Baltic Episode and Footprints in the Sea, Agar stated that the sum was a thousand pounds, but the receipt which he signed and is now preserved amongst his papers at the Imperial War Museum is clearly for £1,100 i.e. 1,000 guineas. It is possible that an extra £100 was advanced later in the mission, but there is no suggestion of this in any of the surviving papers. The bank appears to be Partridge and Cooper Ltd, 191–192 Fleet Street, London.
Page 40, Cumming quote: BE, p. 36
Page 42, ‘… and cables were attached to CMBs 4 and 7 which were as ready as Beeley and his team could make them.’ John Hampsheir’s log, Imperial War Museum.
Page 42, ‘… and were a little put out that MI6 had only booked them third-class tickets!’ Agar TV proposal, p. 20
Page 43, ‘He conducted them to the nearby Railway Hotel where the SNTO had booked rooms for them.’ Hampsheir’s log.
Page 43, ‘… the Fennia was not rated to carry passengers.’ BE, p. 40
Page 43, ‘… and Finland had introduced prohibition at the same time she became independent.’ Prohibition was continued in Finland until 1932.
Page 47, Accounts of Cheka torture: Leggett, p. 198
Page 47, ‘He was the third of five children – four boys and a girl.’ Ashley b. 1885, Irene Catherine b. 1887, Paul Henry b. 1889, Cuthbert Esquire b. 1890, Marcus Braden b. 1893. Considering the obscurity into which they were born, they were an amazing family: Ashley became a highly successful playwright and one of the founders of the National Theatre. He married the ballerina Marie Rambert and helped her to establish her world-famous dance company. Cuthbert became one of the country’s leading oncologists. He was awarded the OBE and the Dukes system for classifying cancerous tumours of the bowel is still in use today. Of the other two, Marcus died in his forties while working as a government officer in Malaysia and Irene, an academically gifted woman like her mother, died after a life dogged by serious illness.
Page 47, ‘… the minister of the local Congregationalist church.’ The Congregational Chapel in Bridgwater stood at 19 Fore Street although the family lived in North Field. The chapel had been founded in 1864. It was demolished in 1964 and in 1966 what remained of the congregation merged with that of nearby Westfield.
Page 47, Cuthbert Dukes quote: Memoirs of Cuthbert Dukes in the Dukes Papers, Hoover Institution Archives.
Page 48, ‘taking first place among all the women graduates in England.’ Memoirs of Cuthbert Dukes.
Page 48, ‘… he always proudly referred to her as “Edith Pope BA.”’. See for instance his various entries in Who’s Who.
Page 48, ‘… whom he described as “infinitely kind” …’ TUQ, p. 9
Page 48, Moses Turner account: TUQ, p. 9
Page 49, ‘It was Paul’s great misfortune to be sent to the Congregationalist Boys’ School at Caterham in Surrey.’ TUQ, p. 13
Page 49, ‘… making sure that the two of them spent plenty of time alone together.’ TUQ, p. 13
Page 50, ‘an awkward man to get on with’ Cuthbert’s words.
Page 50, ‘… he also seemed to associate his father’s marriage to a woman twenty years his junior with some failure to control his sexual urges.’ ‘Even Victorian and Edwardian divines were in the last analysis human, and my father, being made willy-nilly in God’s image like the rest of us, had promptings at about sixty which caused his once again to covet a wife.’ TUQ, p. 14
Page 51, ‘… giving lessons in the town of Enschede, on the border with Germany.’ TUQ, p. 15
Page 51, ‘He bought a rail ticket to St Petersburg.’ TUQ, p. 35
Page 51, ‘… Anna Essipova, the school’s principal professor of piano who also trained Sergei Prokofiev and Alexander Borovsky.’ TUQ, p. 38
Page 51, ‘Instead he continued to play at occasional concerts …’ TUQ, p. 47
Page 51, ‘… a friendship which was to last for the rest of their lives.’ Coates remained at the Mariinsky after the Russian Revolution and he may even have been one of Dukes’s contacts during his mission. He refused to be cowed by the Bolsheviks. There is a rather touching story that Zinoviev, leader of the Petrograd Soviet, stormed into a rehearsal at the Mariinsky which Coates was leading and demanded that only music of ‘political significance’ should be played during the upcoming first anniversary of the Revolution. Coates calmly informed the firebrand that he could demand ‘political music’ whenever he, in return, decided to provide musical politics – but not before.
Page 52, ‘They were known locally as “Big Boy Albert” and “Dukelet”.’ ST-25 p. 15. This might raise questions in some quarters about their sexuality, especially in light of Dukes’s living arrangements with Gibbes. But Coates was (apparently) happily married, Dukes conducted a long and tempestuous affair with an (unhappily) married Russian noblewoman throughout this period (given the pseudonym ‘Vera’ in his books) and there is no suggestion that Gibbes was ever homosexual. So, whilst all things are possible, the evidence is strongly against it.
Page 52, ‘In 1916 he resigned from the Mariinsky to work for the Commission full-time.’ ST-25, p. 15
Page 52, ‘There was some crossover between the work of the Bureau and the work of the various military intelligence agencies working out of the British embassy …’ For an analysis of the Bureau’s work and its connections with the world of intelligence see Joy Rides? British Intelligence and Propaganda in Russia 1914–17, Historical Journal, vol. XXIV (1981).
Page 52, ‘During this period, Paul became close friends with the novelist Arthur Ransome who was then the Russian correspondent for the Daily Chronicle.’ ST-25, p. 22
Page 52, ‘… and on some occasions Paul even wrote Ransome’s column for the newspaper.’ ST-25, p. 22
Page 52, ‘When the first Russian Revolution broke out in March 1917 …’ February by the Russian calendar.
Page 53, ‘He witnessed the street fighting at close hand and saw the rampaging mobs throw police agents from the roofs of buildings where they had been hiding.’ ST-25, p. 20
Page 53, ‘Paul was at the Finland Station to witness Lenin’s arrival from Switzerland.’ ST-25, p. 22. This was 16 April.
Page 53, ‘In July, he was sent back to London as special liaison officer between the Anglo-Russian Bureau and the Foreign Office.’ ST-25, p. 22
Page 54, ‘He was sent to the Front in Flanders where he produced intelligence reports about the state of the armed forces.’ Some believe that Dukes was already working for MI6 at this time. This is unlikely and Dukes denied it saying of his recruitment almost a year later: ‘… the Secret Service was to me an utterly unknown quantity …’ (ST-25, p. 27.) There is no obvious reason for him to lie about this.
Page 54, Dukes quote: ST-25 p.25
Page 54, ‘Paul agonised over the issue for several days and finally went to Buchan personally and begged for his help.’ ST-25, p. 25: ‘I must go back … I said so to my superiors – and saw a gleam in the eye of the author of Greenmantle.’
Page 54, ‘He suffered from a digestive problem which had completely undermined his health …’ He spent the first three months of the war bedridden with this ailment. Memory Hold the Door by John Buchan, p. 164
Page 55, ‘… and even the Boy Scout movement.’ He knew a lot about the latter from his youngest brother Marcus who was awarded the Silver Wolf for his services to the organisation. As for the YMCA, this may sound odd to modern ears but, in the days before the United Nations or even the League of Nations, the YMCA was very active in providing humanitarian relief in disaster areas.
Page 55, ‘Paul boarded the sleeper to London arrived at Kings Cross station early the following morning and found a chauffeur-driven car waiting for him.’ This was almost certainly Ernest Bailey. He had been Cumming’s personal driver since at least 1914. Cumming left Bailey £100 in his will and he served for several years under Cumming’s successor Admiral Sinclair. Judd, pp. 288, 344, 345, 472. West, p. 74
Page 56, ‘This man was Lieutenant Colonel “Freddie” Browning, second in command of MI6.’ Frederick Henry Browning 1870–1929.
Page 56, Hoare quote: Andrew, pp. 204/5
Page 56, ‘We have no use for the “usual channels” – except in the early morning!’ MI6 officer Frank Stagg quoted in Judd, p. 326
Page 56, ‘Browning told Paul to go away and return at 4.30 p.m. the following day for a further briefing.’ ST-25, pp. 28–29; RDATM, p. 6
Page 57, Dukes quote: ST-25, p. 31
Page 57, ‘… but upon the outbreak of war he had joined the Indian Political Intelligence department, tracking Indian nationalists who were working with the Germans.’ The reason that so many Indian intelligence officers played such an important role in the early development of the British Secret Services was that, prior to the twentieth century, India and Ireland were the only places in the British Empire where it was thought that organised counter-espionage was necessary – because of the strength of nationalist feeling. Elsewhere in the Empire a combination of occasional sources reporting through the Foreign Office and the military were thought sufficient.
Page 57, ‘He had then joined MI6 and served on the New York station before taking up this new post.’ Robert Nathan was knighted in 1920 and died in 1921. In RDATM, Dukes did not mention Nathan at all and ascribed all his work to Browning. However, in ST-25 Dukes quoted a few lines from Nathan’s obituary in The Times, knowing that he had been dead almost twenty years and that it would be almost impossible to trace it. Today a computer search of the electronic record is quite straightforward. Nathan’s role as head of the Political Section was revealed in Cumming’s diary and this also ties in with incidental comments in ST-25.
Page 57, Nathan quote: ST-25, p. 31
Page 57, ‘As to the means whereby you gain access to the country, under what cover you will live there, and how you will send out reports, we shall leave it to you, being best informed as to conditions, to make suggestions.’ RDATM, p. 7
Page 57, ‘… his memoirs are stuffed full of the frustrations of dealing with “fools in London” …’ For instance Extremes Meet, p. 21, where Mackenzie laments the fact that he cannot get a commission for his extremely capable assistant Tucker: ‘He was better entitled to a commission than many of those fellows in Queen Anne’s Mansions [Whitehall Court], who would never hear any report more alarming than some of those he had written home. They could swagger across St James Park in uniform, looking more like park keepers than [Intelligence Officers]; but they would have thought twice about landing on the Anatolian shore at night to take off a messenger.’
Page 57, ‘… the character Colonel Nutting represents all the pompous inadequacies of the typical MI6 staff officer.’ See, for instance, Greek Memories.
Page 58, ‘… he was sent abroad the very next day without any training whatsoever.’ All’s Fair, pp. 41–43
Page 58, ‘Paul consistently told a rather odd story about this moment.’ ST-25, p. 33
Page 58, ‘He either marked the notecase or observed her secretly because when he returned he knew that she had not touched it.’ Judd, pp. 208–9
Page 58, ‘… he did not learn Cumming’s real name for another eighteen months.’ ST-25, p. 35
Page 59, Cumming quote: RDATM, p. 11
Page 59, ‘… Cumming did not have a collection of guns in his office and Reilly did not meet Paul until after Paul’s return from Russia.’ For the claim that Reilly was present see Ace of Spies by Lockhart, p. 131
Page 60, ‘Two weeks later Paul was told that it was time for him to set out again.’ ST-25, p. 37
Page 60, ‘His cover was as a diplomatic courier under the alias “Captain McNeil”.’ Gentlemen Spies by John Fisher, p. 20
Page 60, Details of Thornhill’s career: Andrew, pp. 204/5
Page 60, ‘Paul was told that he could also call on Commander Andrew Maclaren of the NID who had served on the naval staff of the embassy in Petrograd and much later was to be MI6 station chief in Warsaw.’ ST-25, p. 39
Page 60, ‘The question remained of what his cover would be and by what route he would travel. It was 600 miles to Petrograd …’ RDATM, p. 11
Page 60, Thornhill quote: ST-25, p. 39
Page 61, ‘Major John Scale’ Scale had formerly been on the MI6 station in Petrograd.
Page 61, ‘In 1918, the MI6 station in Stockholm consisted principally of two officers …’ A third man at the embassy, Wyatt, may also have been a member of the MI6 station. It was he who first approached Ransome to spy against Bolshevik Russia, but he may have been straight Foreign Office. Support staff and secretaries have not been included in this total. At this stage in MI6’s development it is possible there were none. Most officers did their own clerical and secretarial work for reasons of secrecy.
Page 61, ‘Clifford Sharp’ It may seem strange that the editor of a leading left-wing magazine had become an intelligence officer on the borders of Bolshevik Russia, but Sharp had been appointed editor by Beatrice and Sidney Webb for his editorial skills rather than his politics. It is fascinating to speculate about the connections which led Sharp from London’s literary circles to the British Secret Service in Sweden, but if the clues exist somewhere in official documents those papers have yet to be released. His war service ended a few weeks after Dukes passed through Stockholm and he returned to the helm of the New Statesman, a post he was to occupy until 1931.
Page 61, ‘… the novelist Arthur Ransome had arrived in Stockholm on 5 August …’ The Life of Arthur Ransome by Hugh Brogan, p. 205
Page 61, ‘She had been one of Trotsky’s secretaries in Petrograd …’ Brogan, p. 153
Page 61, ‘… and was now personal assistant to V.V. Vorovsky, the Bolshevik ambassador to Sweden.’ Brogan, p. 204
Page 61, ‘Intelligence reports stated that Ransome was a Bolshevik agent and he was widely regarded as a traitor.’ Brogan, p. 204
Page 61, Knox quote: Brogan, p. 162
Page 61, ‘… the Foreign Office was considering whether to prosecute Ransome under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act, possibly even for high treason.’ Brogan, p. 207
Page 61, ‘Arthur and Evgenia had set themselves up in a cabin at Igelboda …’ Brogan, p. 215
Page 61, ‘Those who did visit him included members of the MI6 station …’ For instance, he lunched with Sharp. Ransome had written for the New Statesman before the War. Brogan, p. 220
Page 61, ‘… turned out years afterwards to have been less friendly than they pretended.’ Arthur Ransome, Autobiography, p. 262
Page 62, ‘Paul planned to visit Russia in secret …’ Arthur Ransome, Autobiography, p. 262
Page 62, Dukes quote: ST-25, p. 40
Page 62, ‘… six months later he was arrested as a Bolshevik spy …’ On 30 January 1919 Ransome was expelled from Sweden, along with Evgenia and other Bolshevik personnel and sent back to Moscow. From there he returned to England and was arrested upon his arrival at Kings Cross on 25 March 1919. He was interrogated by Sir Basil Thomson, head of the intelligence unit at Scotland Yard – (Signalling from Mars – the letters of Arthur Ransome, edited by Hugh Brogan, p. 85. Also Brogan, p. 234)
Page 62, ‘So at the beginning of November Paul boarded a steamer for Helsinki.’ ST-25, p. 40
Page 63, ‘He was now Sergei Ilitch, a Serbian commercial traveller.’ ST-25, p. 40
Page 63, Dukes quote: ST-25, p. 41
Page 63, ‘After several weeks, one of Paul’s contacts in Helsinki came up with a name, Melnikov.’ A pseudonym, but in both ST-25 (p. 141) and RDATM (p. 151) Dukes cites Melnikov’s real name as Nicholas Nicholaievitch Melnitsky. This is barely different from ‘Melnikov’ and yet there was no need to continue to protect his identity as the Cheka knew all about him.
Page 63, ‘One account is that the name was given to him by White Russians in Helsinki.’ ST-25, p. 41
Page 63, ‘Another is that he was introduced to an American secret service agent who had just escaped from Russia who provided him with a letter of introduction to Melnikov.’ RDATM, p. 12
Page 63, ‘But Melnikov had been one of Cromie’s agents …’ RDATM, p. 12
Page 63, Dukes quote: RDATM, p. 13
Page 64, ‘I had some papers referring to the insurrection at Yaroslavl …’ Yaroslavl is a city on the Volga river about 250 kms north-east of Moscow. From 6–21 July 1918, counter-revolutionaries of Savinkov’s organisation rose up against the Bolsheviks as part of a planned national uprising. Red army forces surrounded the city and subjected it to a prolonged artillery bombardment, which included poison gas. Hundreds were killed in the shelling or drowned in the Volga trying to escape. In the weeks after the revolt was put down, the Cheka executed more than 350 opponents.
Page 64, Melnikov’s account: RDATM, p. 13
Page 64, ‘… good-quality alcohol was better than hard cash and Paul had brought a considerable amount of it with him.’ Several months later Agar encountered some emaciated refugees from Petrograd hiding out in an old fishing boat. Having listened at length to how they and everyone else in the city was starving, Agar was astonished when he offered to supply them with anything they wanted – the one thing they wanted was whisky!
Page 64, ‘… not realising that Paul had managed to preserve one last store of the valuable liquid which he kept hidden in a medicine bottle.’ ST-25, p. 42
Page 64, ‘Since one of Paul’s main tasks was to resurrect Cromie’s organisation this contact could prove vital – if Melnikov could find him.’ Merritt’s first connection with intelligence appears to have been in 1918 when he prepared a survey of the state of Russian industry. This may have been when he came in contact with Cromie and/or Boyce. BECOS later sought reimbursement for seven months of his salary because of his work for the British government. As with others who became involved in intelligence matters (see later references to George Gibson) they had a devil of a time getting the money.
Page 65, Melnikov’s departure: ST-25, p. 43
Page 65, ‘On Sunday, 24 November …’ This is the date given in ST-25, p. 43. Dukes’ diary records the crossing as Friday 15 November, but because the difference in old and new Russian calendars this is almost certainly wrong.
Page 66, Border guard’s quote: ST-25, p. 46
Page 69, ‘… pulling on the medicine bottle of whisky in order to keep warm.’ The brand was Johnnie Walker Red label! ST-25, p. 114
Page 73, ‘… pausing only to show their Finnish visas at the Immigration Office …’ Hampsheir’s passport was date stamped by the Finnish immigration authorities.
Page 75, ‘… spent the rest of the day having breakfast and lunch (“at ruinous prices”) and playing cards.’ Agar’s diary
Page 75, Raleigh Le May: He sometimes appears as ‘Riley’ Le May, but Raleigh is the spelling in the Foreign Office lists.
Page 75, ‘Major John Scale, the head of the MI6 station at Stockholm and also in overall charge of all MI6 operations in northern Russia, had also travelled to Helsinki for the meeting.’ Although in Baltic Episode Le May is described as ‘ST-30’, notes on the back of photographs taken at the time record him as ‘ST-23’. Scale has been referred to by other authors as ST-0 because he was in charge of the area, but in his notes Gus refers to him as ‘ST-29’. This is possible if, as appears to be the case, ST numbers were awarded chronologically. There is a photograph of Broadbent annotated ‘ST-32’. Sidney Reilly was ST-1.
Page 76, ‘Equally, it was essential that Admiral Walter Cowan commanding British naval forces in the Baltic, should be briefed on the mission.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 76, ‘… Reval, the capital of Estonia …’ Now Tallinn.
Page 76, ‘… he was sending a destroyer and Gus would be taken to meet him on the following day.’ In almost every other account Agar claims that it was his idea, inspired by seeing a British destroyer, to see Cowan. But his diary is clear that he was told when he arrived that there would have to be a meeting. Given the delicate political situation throughout the Baltic, this is surely right.
Page 76, Peter Sokolov: ST-25, p. 231: ‘… he was a former NCO and a student of law. He was tall and muscular, round shouldered, with thick fair hair and a good-humoured but somewhat shy impression’.
Page 76, ‘… and he had won four caps, playing for Russia at the 1912 Olympics.’ Peter Sokolov played five times for Russia:
22/8/1911(no cap) |
v England Amateurs (Friendly) Lost 11–0. |
30/6/1912 |
v Finland (Olympics, Sweden) Lost 2–1 (England beat Denmark 4–2 in the final). |
1/7/1912 |
v Germany (Olympic ‘Consolation tournament’) Lost 16–0! Gottfried Fuchs, German centre forward scored ten goals, a record for an international match which stood until 2001. |
5/7/1912 |
v Norway Lost 2–1. |
14/7/1912 |
Captained Russia against Hungary in a friendly in Moscow. Lost 12-0. |
Page 77, ‘… played as a central defender.’ The Russian team appears to have played a 2–3–5 formation – which probably explains why they always lost!
Page 77, ‘Although Peter spoke very little English, Gus could speak some Russian and soon warmed to him.’ ‘He had a superb physique and in addition was full of guts and courage, I took a liking to him immediately, and although I knew little Russian and he no English at all, we managed to understand each other and never had any differences. We became close friends …’ BE, p. 45
Page 77, ‘Peter suggested the tiny harbour of Terrioki.’ Spellings vary. It is now the Russian town of Zelenogorsk, but the little harbour is still there.
Page 77, ‘… Cowan’s flagship, the cruiser HMS Cleopatra …’ HMS Cleopatra was Cowan’s flagship until 28 June when he transferred his flag to HMS Delhi.
Page 78, ‘Rivett-Carnac didn’t fall for this story for a second and continued to watch Gus curiously as he hung around the ship waiting for the return of the Admiral.’ BE, p. 46 – In an earlier version on this story in FITS, p. 95, Gus had tried the even more preposterous story that he was a previously unmentioned twin brother!
Page 78, ‘It was 7.30 p.m. before the Admiral finally returned.’ Agar’s diary
Page 78, Agar quote: BE, p. 47
Page 78, ‘Cowan was known to arrange his numerous campaign medals in an order which showed off their colours most pleasingly rather than in the official order.’ Freeing the Baltic by Geofffrey Bennett, p. 65
Page 78, ‘… he was known throughout the Royal Navy as “The Little Man” or simply “Titch”.’ BE, p. 47
Page 78, ‘… Little would simply say “Aye, Sir” and then do nothing, knowing that by the following day Cowan would have forgotten or thought better of it.’ Bennett, pp. 66–69
Page 78, ‘… the British government had simply said that British forces were on “a summer cruise.”’ Bennett, p. 111
Page 79, ‘… but if they ever ventured forth and were well-handled, they could blow his force out of the water.’ This was a very real threat: on 17 January 1919 Trotsky had announced that to create a fighting fleet, Tsarist officers must be re-instated and ships’ Soviets must be abolished. The reforms which were soon to produce victory for the Red army on the battlefield threatened to have the same effect at sea. (Bennett, p. 82) By 29 May, Cowan was impressed by the Petropavlovsk’s ‘heavy and well-disciplined fire’ although she was not yet confident enough to advance beyond the protection of the minefields. (Bennett, p.117)
Page 79, ‘… naval personnel in uniform, not young officers masquerading as civilians.’ BE, p. 49
Page 79, ‘… said that in his opinion the plan was outlandish if not impossible.’ FITS, p. 90
Page 79, ‘Mines represented the greatest daily threat to Cowan’s squadron throughout the mission and were to account for the loss of several British ships.’ The light cruiser Cassandra (sunk, 5 Dec 1918). NB. Rear Admiral Alexander-Sinclair was in command of the Squadron at this time; Cowan’s then flagship the light cruiser Curacao (damaged 13 May 1919 and forced to return to England); the oiler War Export damaged c.23 May; mine sweepers Gentian and Myrtle sunk 16 July; destroyer Verulam sunk 4 September (she actually struck a British mine).
Page 79, ‘It does not appear to have occurred to him before this meeting to use CMBs to counter that threat.’ The Admiralty did not receive a request for CMBs until later in June. See Bennett, p. 121
Page 79, ‘… he had once captured an enemy submarine during a naval exercise by having his men lasso its periscope from the deck of his destroyer – and was reprimanded for the damage he caused! …’ It was considered ‘unsporting’. Bennett, p. 58
Page 80, ‘Gus wondered if Cowan would issue them with torpedoes?’ In early accounts, Gus claimed that this was Cowan’s idea, but all his later accounts are consistent in recording this as his request and this is certainly more logical.
Page 80, ‘Still not entirely convinced, Cowan said that he would give the matter further thought.’ Agar audio tape, Imperial War Museum.
Page 81, ‘Meanwhile Consul Bell and Vice-Consul Le May were negotiating with the Finns for permission to use the boats in Finnish waters.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 81, ‘Gus ordered the mechanics to repaint the boats in their light grey camouflage colour immediately.’ Agar’s diary. He is quite specific about this and it shows how much the plan had changed since his departure from London. Elsewhere he claims that this was not done until the boats arrived at Biorko.
Page 81, General Hubert Gough: General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough, 1870–1963.
Page 82, ‘Commander C. G. Stuart, captain of the Voyager’ BE, p. 53
Page 83, ‘They stripped the engines as far as possible and tried to repair the damage that the sea water had caused.’ Once again Baltic Episode is completely at odds with Gus’s personal diary. Whilst the diary records all the problems detailed here, in Baltic Episode Gus simply says: ‘Our CMBs in tow of the Voyager stood the long journey from Abo very well’. It also conflicts with Hampsheir’s diary which reads: ‘Very rough trip. Tow parted twice on No7 and once on No 4’. One possible explanation is that Gus did not want to seem to be blaming Commander Stuart for the delay in the rescue mission which now occurred.
Page 83, ‘… and two great wings of spray, the trade mark of a fast-moving CMB at full power, flew high to either side in her wake.’ The following account by the secret agent Gefter is one of the few surviving records of what it was like to travel in a CMB: ‘As it gathered speed its prow rose higher and higher above the surface of the water. The boat did not float, but skimmed over the surface of the water, sometimes almost rising above it. In rough weather it seemed that the boat would be destroyed by its own speed … The motor was running at half speed which was a good thirty-five kilometres an hour. Behind the stern, the wash of the boat formed a deep pit in the water, whilst at the sides two bow waves formed like high glass walls. The whole boat trembled with a shiver as if making a monstrous effort.’ Reminiscences of a Courier by A. Gefter.
Page 86, ‘… his first thought had been to find the apartment belonging to John Merritt.’ In RDATM Dukes referred to Merritt as ‘Mr Marsh’ and in ST-25 as ‘John Johnovich’ (p. 68). The spelling of his name varies between documents. George Gibson who knew him well spelt it ‘Merritt’, but he appears in other documents as ‘Merrett’.
Page 86, ‘… a twenty rouble note …’ About ten shillings then (ST-25, p. 73) approximately £50 today.
Page 86, ‘Thank you,’ he mumbled, ‘but what is the good of money? Where shall I get bread?’ RDATM, p. 30. In ST-25 he places this meeting later in the day.
Page 86, ‘… Paul then shoved all of the bread into the man’s outstretched hands.’ ST-25, p. 58
Page 88, ‘They decided to bring him in, hoping that he would betray the rest of his network.’ Vnutri I vne Bol’shogo Doma by Vasilli Berezkhov.
Page 88, ‘… he walked four miles across the city to the hospital in a street called Kamenostrovsky Prospekt.’ RDATM p.32
Page 88, ‘Then he hired one of the very few remaining horse-drawn cabs and headed back to the Finland station where he had arrived that morning.’ RDATM, p. 34
Page 88, ‘… and the faded red bunting which still hung across the streets from the celebration of the anniversary of the Revolution a few weeks earlier only emphasised the desolation.’ RDATM, p. 30
Page 88, ‘It was run by a mother and daughter in a top floor apartment …’ ST-25, p. 62
Page 89, ‘Paul was particularly struck by his slightly crooked mouth, perhaps the legacy of some injury.’ RDATM, p. 37
Page 90, ‘There were forty flats in Ivan Sergeivitch’s apartment building near the Kazanskaya.’ RDATM, p. 43
Page 90, ‘Her name was Stepanova and she was staying there with two other people, her nephew Dmitri and Varia, the family nanny.’ These were all pseudonyms used by Dukes to protect their identities
Page 91, ‘The snow was now falling steadily and there was a biting wind.’ ST-25, p. 64
Page 91, ‘… the woman in charge told him that he could eat there every day as long as he had money and as long as they didn’t get raided.’ RDATM, p. 45; ST-25, p. 66
Page 91, ‘At first he had been panicked, living as he said later: “from minute to minute and hour to hour.”’ RDATM, p. 46
Page 92, ‘The doorbell in the flat rang loudly and Paul awoke with a start.’ ST-25, p. 67
Page 92, ‘… and she had even found him an old pair of Ivan’s pyjamas.’ RDATM, p. 47
Page 92, ‘… stood a giant of a man with ginger hair …’ ST-25, p. 85
Page 93, ‘Merritt explained that he had managed to evade capture by shaving off his beard; few people seemed to recognise him without it …’ RDATM, p. 49
Page 93, ‘… Merritt had knocked him out with one punch …’ Not surprising since Merritt was a powerful man, well over six feet tall. One of the pseudonyms Dukes used for him was ‘Ilya Murometz’ after the giant legendary Russian hero.
Page 93, ‘… one or two of them still occupied positions at the Russian Admiralty and Ministry of War.’ ST-25, p. 69
Page 94, ‘… said that Paul could use it as a safe house describing it as “… one of the safest places in town”.’ RDATM, p. 53
Page 94, ‘The Policeman smiled quietly and said that it could possibly be done – for thirty thousand roubles.’ Comparisons are very difficult because of the passage of time and the effect of the conditions in Petrograd, but this amount would be in the region of £70,000 today.
Page 94, ‘Apparently he had already given the informant ten thousand roubles and Merritt promised the final ten on the day his wife was released.’ ST-25, p. 75; RDATM, p. 58
Page 95, ‘… encircled by the militia and Soviet sailors who often provided the muscle for Cheka raids.’ As they had done during the attack on the British embassy and the killing of Captain Cromie.
Page 95, ‘Still, not sure of whether to trust Zorinsky, but reluctant to turn down any possible lead, Paul agreed.’ ST-25, p. 78; RDATM, p. 66
Page 97, ‘He did not arrive there until 11 a.m …’ RDATM, p. 73
Page 98, ‘Paul spent much of the rest of the day writing his first CX report for MI6 …’ To this day all MI6 intelligence reports are called CX reports. The exact reason has been lost over time, but it is believed that it originally meant ‘From C exclusively’.
Page 98, ‘He was carrying the identity papers of his former coachman. He hoped that these would be good enough for him to travel north from the city by rail from the Okhta station.’ ST-25, p. 86
Page 98, ‘… burrowing deeply into the heaving mass of desperate passengers inside in the hope of avoiding discovery.’ This turned out to be a smart move: at a small station halfway through the journey the train was subject to a surprise search by Red Guards, but as they fought through the press of people to board the train from the platform, Merritt and one of his contacts who was also on the train were able to slip away on the other side of the train and escape into the forest. ST-25, p. 87
Page 99, ‘… a wave of depression swept over Paul.’ ‘… as I slowly retraced my steps into town an aching sense of emptiness pervaded everything, and the future seemed nothing but impenetrable night.’ RDATM, p. 78
Page 99, ‘… but some of them listened and slowly he began to reconstruct the intelligence networks.’ ST-25, p. 90
Page 99, ‘… she hid all his reports in the flat while he was waiting for someone who could take them out of the country.’ ST-25, p. 97; RDATM, p. 95
Page 99, ‘… he also had the opportunity to see Bolshevik leaders such as Trotsky, Zinoviev and Lunarcharsky at close quarters.’ RDATM, p. 79
Page 99, ‘… if Paul would only hand over 100,000 roubles “for expenses”.’ RDATM, p. 88
Page 100, ‘Meanwhile, Zorinsky wanted 60,000 roubles to bribe the investigator handling Melnikov’s case …’ Bearing in mind the problems of accurately translating these figures into modern currency, 60,000 roubles would be somewhere in the region of £150,000 today.
Page 100, ‘Zorinsky recommended paying 30,000 roubles up front and the rest when Melnikov was released.’ ST-25, p. 98
Page 101, ‘A few days later he told Zorinsky that he had abandoned his plans to travel to Finland, but would be going to Moscow for a few weeks instead to make contact with agents there.’ RDATM, p. 99; ST-25, p. 100
Page 101, ‘If she had been English there would have been some hope, but she had been born in Russia …’ ST-25, p. 101
Page 103, ‘It was now a quarter to five …’ RDATM, p. 104
Page 104, ‘He hailed another sleigh and they made their way as quickly as possible to Maria’s flat.’ RDATM ps 103–5. For some reason all the details of the escape are omitted from the later work ST-25 including ‘Mrs Marsh’s’ forename ‘Lydia’.
Page 106, ‘Far from the mile which the guide had predicted it soon became clear that the distance to the border was more like ten or twelve.’ RDATM, p. 113
Page 107, ‘She certainly handled the journey with greater fortitude than any of the other women.’ At one point Paul had to use his own body to make a bridge across a snow-filled ditch so that the party could cross. The princesses might have been happy to walk across his back, but they didn’t pay very much attention to him otherwise. In their own account of the journey they remembered him as Swedish.
Page 108, ‘To remove the engine of a CMB meant taking out most of the deck first and then disconnecting and lifting out a solid block of metal weighing over half a ton.’ BE, p. 59
Page 109, ‘… although John Hampsheir would stand by and give whatever assistance he could.’ In FITS (p. 99) Agar says that the mechanics from the Francol assisted and at the end of the work he offered them a reward out of Cumming’s money which they refused. This story isn’t repeated in Baltic Episode and Agar’s diary makes it clear that Beeley and Hampsheir were the only two who worked on the engine.
Page 109, ‘He told Admiral Cowan of his plight and Cowan immediately dispatched the destroyer HMS Versatile to Helsinki to collect the spare engine and Pegler.’ In BE (p. 59) Agar claims that CMB4 was fixed in just twenty-four hours, using the spare parts they had brought to Biorko in the boats. This absolutely conflicts with the account in his diary written at the time and also with Hampsheir’s diary which confirms that a new engine had to be sent for from Helsinki and that it took ‘the next few days’ to fit it. His diary is then blank until Sunday 15 June when it reads ‘Boat ready’. This tallies with Agar’s diary in that the full refit took a week.
Page 109, ‘… where there was a submarine depot ship, HMS Maidstone, which had the facilities to completely strip and repair it.’ FITS, p. 99
Page 109, ‘Gus dispatched Peter to Terrioki on horseback through the dense Finnish pine forests to try and make contact with the local smugglers and finalise the deal for a pilot.’ FITS p.100. This agrees with Agar’s diary (although it says simply ‘by road’ rather than horseback). On the other hand BE (pp. 59–60) Agar says that Peter travelled with him by CMB on Tuesday 10 but mentions no earlier trip overland.
Page 111, ‘Gus offered the captain and mechanics of the Francol some of Cumming’s thousand guineas in recognition of their assistance, but they refused.’ FITS, p. 99. In this version, the assistance rendered by the Francol’s mechanics throughout the refit is considerable. This is entirely possible, but seeing as in this version they are working on the seized engine, not a new one – which conflicts with Agar’s detailed diary entries – I have chosen to follow the latter narrative.
Page 113, ‘Gus pulled him off the repair duties and insisted that he rest for a few days. Richard Marshall and Bert Piper took over.’ Agar’s diary entry 11/6/1919
Page 114, ‘… and then, having gathered Sindall, Marshall, Peter Sokolov and Hall, he set off immediately in CMB7.’ In BE (p. 59) Agar says that he made this journey on Tuesday 10 in CMB4 with Beeley and Peter in complete secrecy. He omits all reference to Hall or to any emergency. This conflicts with all the entries in his diary for this period. FITS, p. 103 implies that the journey was made on Saturday 7 June which is far too early if details given elsewhere are correct. Hampsheir’s diary confirms that CMB4 would not have been able to make this trip as it was still under repair. As elsewhere, I have followed Agar’s diary which was written at the time. In his books, his tendency is to change details to protect the reputation of others.
Page 114, ‘But Gus did not want to risk CMB7’s engine figuring that it was better to arrive at a steady pace than not at all.’ Agar’s diary states that they set out at 2100. BE (p. 60) claims they arrived at 2 a.m. Over a distance of just fifty miles these accounts are impossible to reconcile.
Page 114, ‘He calculated that this added another twenty miles to the journey.’ FITS, p. 100
Page 114, ‘… and asking him to go down to the water’s edge and signal with a torch every five minutes between midnight and 3 a.m.’ BE, p. 59. FITS, p. 100 claimed that it was Peter who was asked to make a signal with a torch between 0100 and 0130.
Page 114, ‘They arrived off the mouth of tiny Terrioki harbour not long after 2 a.m.’ FITS, p. 100 says 0100.
Page 115, ‘… and relations between Gus and Hall, already tense, became a little bit worse.’ Agar diary entry 12/6/1919
Page 115, ‘The harbour was barely fifty metres wide, just about enough room to moor a dozen yachts.’ FITS, p. 93; BE, p. 60
Page 115, ‘He had Finnish sentries with him and told the crew where they should moor the small rowing boat they had brought with them.’ This was called a ‘pram’. It was a little like an open canoe. Agar had purchased this in Finland as a way of landing the couriers from the CMBs.
Page 116, ‘… Broadbent understood that this meant Peter and called that it was best to leave him on the boat as the sentries tended to treat any Russian who arrived as a possible Bolshevik spy.’ According to FITS, pp.100/1 Peter and a smuggler were waiting on the jetty. There is no mention of Broadbent or the guards at all. This is very unlikely to be correct.
Page 118, ‘… which Cumming had dreamed up and which he later described as “a cock and bull yarn”.’ BE, p. 61
Page 119, ‘Could, he wondered, Gus and his boat undertake a small reconnaissance expedition to see if these vessels had sailed from Kronstadt harbour?’ BE, p. 64; FITS, p. 103
Page 120, ‘… provided a local fisherman and smuggler called Veroline …’ Probable spelling. Agar’s handwriting is hard to read at this point and judging by the accuracy of the other names he gives this was almost certainly a phonetic spelling.
Page 121, ‘As Peter had predicted Gus also had to hand over two bottles from his dwindling supplies of Royal Navy rum.’ FITS, p.104 and Agar’s diary. In Baltic Episode Agar rather disingenuously says that he does not remember how much he paid Veroline but that it was ‘at least £10’! He may have been slightly embarrassed at the astronomical sum he had to pay. (According to FITS, p.104 the price also included two bottles of rum.) In this version of the story, Agar also attributes the recruitment of Veroline to Commandant Sarin. This is possible, but a) in Agar’s diary it is clear that Sokolov was always the one who expected to provide the smuggler pilot and even in Baltic Episode Agar admits that the two men had worked together before; b) if the smuggler was Sarin’s man he would have been quite likely to tell Sarin what Agar was up to and Agar could not allow this; c) Sarin only asked Agar to sail out to Tolboukin lighthouse, not to go through the line of forts – so why would Sarin need to provide a smuggler pilot anyway?
Page 121, ‘At 10.30 p.m. just as the twilight was darkening …’ This is the time entered in the diary which is usually an hour different from times recorded elsewhere. BE and FITS says 10 p.m. Darkness at this date was approximately 10.30 p.m. to 1.30 a.m.
Page 121, ‘Sindall and Marshall were left behind on the jetty with Hall.’ BE, p. 68
Page 121, ‘But Gus ordered him only to drop an agent on the Estonian coast – not to try and penetrate the line of forts again.’ FITS, p. 105
Page 122, Agar quote: BE, p. 68
Page 123, ‘He was close enough to see barges tied up at the northern mouth of the Neva river on which Petrograd was situated.’ The river ends in a delta and has several outlets to the sea.
Page 126, ‘If any of them had seen CMB7’s approach and turned to attack now, the British boat would be defenceless.’ Agar’s diary entry 13/6/1919. He never acknowledged making this failed attack in the body of any of his books possibly because he was annoyed that he let temptation get the better of him. If he had failed to return, Sindall would have been left in a very difficult position, not knowing if the passage through the forts was safe or not. However, he did include this attack in his official report to the Admiralty which is reprinted in the Appendix to Baltic Episode.
Page 127, ‘Sarin introduced Gus to the old priest who tended the church and said that he should be allowed to use the tower for observations whenever he wished.’ FITS, p. 106
Page 127, ‘He had a friend, Mr Fountovsky …’ Possible spelling. Agar wrote in pencil and the writing has become rather blurred at this point. MI6 did have a Finnish agent – Mr Lapäas – living nearby. Agar acknowledges that he assisted during the mission, but his name never appears in the diary. Lapäas later became the local mayor, but was executed by the Russians during the Russo-Finnish war in 1940.
Page 128, ‘… paused briefly for dinner at the Fountovsky’s villa at Oasikivoka …’ Again a possible spelling. I haven’t been able to find it on any maps, but many names in the area have changed since 1919.
Page 128, ‘Captain F.A. “Figgy” Marten took some convincing.’ BE, p. 90. For narrative reasons Agar moved this incident to another date. See Chapter 9.
Page 129, ‘It was the first time he had slept in a bed for at least four nights.’ In BE, Agar is forced to place this journey after the sinking of the Oleg because he had not mentioned that CMB4 was under repair. He does not mention the car nor his subsequent collapse, merely describing the journey as ‘tiring’!
Page 129, ‘Their names were Turner and Young …’ Possibly from the cruiser HMS Dragon where Agar had lunch that day, but this is not certain.
Page 130, ‘Once the city would have been a blaze of light at night, but now there was only electric power for a few hours each evening.’ ST-25, p. 71
Page 131, ‘Even so Gus whispered to Hampsheir that if there was the sound of shots or any sign that Peter and ST-25 were in trouble he was going to take CMB4 in close to give them covering fire.’ FITS, p. 108
Page 131, ‘A light rain squall passed over.’ ST-25, p.263 confirms this.
Page 134, ‘Why, you and Mrs Merritt of course.’ ST-25, p. 118
Page 134, ‘In Stockholm he had spent Christmas week staying with the head of the MI6 station, Major John Scale, and his wife.’ In RDATM (p.114) published in 1922, Dukes claimed that he spent the time in hiding at a flat in Helsinki and saw no one, but in ST-25 published in 1938 (p.113), Dukes corrects this to Stockholm and ‘Major S.’ who is of course Scale.
Page 135, Cumming quote: ST-25, p. 113
Page 135, ‘He also hoped that Melnikov would become his senior agent in the new network that he was establishing.’ ST-25, p. 125. Dukes seems to have forgotten Melnikov’s loose tongue at this point.
Page 136, ‘Zorinsky said he did not think so and to Paul his answer seemed honest.’ RDATM p.119. The forenames of the Policeman are given as Alexei Fomitch. This incident is completely missing from ST-25, which makes it all the more interesting as most of Duke’s omissions from this later version of the story were made for operational security reasons.
Page 137, ‘Despite the risk of working in front of Zorinsky he set about copying it there and then. He could check whether it was genuine later.’ ST-25, p. 120; RDATM, p. 121
Page 137, ‘Once again Zorinsky appeared to have pulled off a miracle.’ ‘I began to think Zorinsky a genius – an evil genius, but still a genius!’ ST-25, p. 121; RDATM, p. 122
Page 138, ‘Paul later confessed that he suddenly felt “an intense and overpowering repugnance” for this man who was controlling him so easily.’ ST-25, p. 122; RDATM, p. 123
Page 138, ‘He noted the reason for the medical exemption with bitter amusement: “incurable heart trouble” – exactly the diagnosis that had prevented him from serving in the British army in 1914.’ ST-25, p. 125
Page 138, ‘But that requirement was a very recent regulation and Paul’s passport did not have it. Disappointed, Zorinsky handed it back.’ This is another incident which has been removed from the 1938 version of the tale. The reason why is unclear.
Page 139, ‘… Paul knew that he dared not start asking questions about another of Cromie’s former contacts.’ RDATM, p. 127
Page 139, ‘If he really was trying to squeeze Paul dry then he could easily have asked for ten times what he was actually getting for the intelligence he was providing.’ RDATM, p. 136
Page 140, ‘Three weeks later, at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, 25 January 1919 …’ At RDATM pp.131 & 136, Dukes says that the meeting occurred on ‘a cold Sunday in January’ and that they had just heard that Rosa Luxemburg had been murdered. Since she was killed on 15 January, Sunday 18 January is possible, but since Dukes sees the uncle three weeks after his meeting with Zorinsky in ‘early January’ and it is early February ‘some days later’ when he collects his new passport, 25 January is more likely. This description has been removed completely from ST-25.
Page 141, ‘He decided that he would have to use the Policeman to find out what was really happening to Melnikov.’ RDATM, p. 151
Page 141, ‘It was in the name of Alexander Vasilievitch Markov, who was a 33-year-old clerical assistant at the main Post and Telegraph Office in Petrograd.’ RDATM, p. 144
Page 143, ‘He never saw Varia or Stepanova again.’ RDATM, p. 160; ST-25, p. 140
Page 143, ‘She was a pretty, young English governess, Laura Ann Cade.’ Also known as Laura Anne Cade, Laura Anna Cade or just Anna Cade.
Page 143, ‘The Guild organised parties and staged plays and reviews.’ He also knew her from sharing rooms with Sydney Gibbes, a fellow Englishman who had become tutor to the Tsarevitch. Gibbes had also known Laura Cade for several years – at least as early as 1911 when she apparently wrote and performed a little skit entitiled ‘Only Me’ for the St Petersburg Guild of English Teachers of which Gibbes was Vice-President. In 1916 they purchased and ran ‘Pritchard’s English School for Modern Languages’ together. The partnership had been forcibly dissolved in August 1917 when Gibbes left for internal exile with the Tsar’s family in Tobolsk, Siberia. Gibbes only narrowly escaped being murdered along with the Tsar’s family at Ekaterinburg and later returned to England. See The Romanovs and Mr Gibbes by Frances Welch.
Page 143, ‘… together with a rather fat female servant known to one and all as “the Elephant”.’ ST-25, p. 136
Page 144, ‘… whoever had enciphered the message in Helsinki had made a mistake and the message from MI6 was undecipherable.’ RDATM, p. 169
Page 144, ‘So Paul asked Peter to return again that very night.’ RDATM, p. 170
Page 145, ‘But then, on 10 February came the greatest blow of all.’ Approximate date. Dukes records it as almost three weeks from the date of Melnikov’s execution. ST-25, p. 141
Page 146, ‘The smuggler, who was actually Finnish, had just smuggled a load of butter into the city.’ RDATM, p. 163
Page 147, ‘Ten thousand marks if we escape!’ bellowed Paul into his ear …’ Finnish Marks rather than roubles of course as this was a Finnish smuggler.
Page 150, ‘He was marched at bayonet point to the nearest coastguard station where he was stripped of all his belongings and thrown into a cell.’ RDATM, p. 167
Page 150, ‘As soon as Henry Bell heard that Paul was held at Terrioki, he arranged for him to be transferred to the British Consulate immediately.’ Land of the Lakes by H. M. Bell, p. 91. This was not the only time that Bell had to deal with strange visitors arriving mysteriously from Russia. In December 1918 an Englishman named ‘Marx’ appeared in Helsinki, claiming that he had escaped from Petrograd over the land border into Finland. He wanted to be given a visa to get to England. But Marx had no documents other than a warrant issued by the Swiss Legation in Petrograd. Bell was highly suspicious and felt sure that Marx must be some kind of Russian agent. But the Foreign Office gave him the ‘all clear’ and Bell sent him on his way. He encountered this man in London some time later and he spun Bell a cock and bull story about being chased out of Finland purely because his name was ‘Marx’ and the Finnish authorities thought that he must therefore be a Bolshevik. Infuriatingly, Bell does not say more (which, sadly, is all too typical of his memoirs). There is no trace of ‘Marx’ or anyone who might be him in published intelligence sources.
Page 151, ‘Even today, intelligence-service analysts acknowledge that these reports were better than any intelligence MI6 had ever produced before.’ ‘In subject matter, details, authority and highest-level sourcing these were a spymaster’s dream and quite probably superior to anything that had landed on C’s desk throughout the four years of war against Germany.’ – Ironmaze by Gordon Brook-Shepherd, p. 133. Brook Shepherd was given access to MI6’s secret archives through his government connections so he knew what he was talking about.
Page 153, ‘… so cold and exhausted that the crew had let him rest during the journey back from Petrograd.’ BE, p. 77
Page 153, ‘… from where he could take another look at the battlecruisers shelling Krasnaya Gorka …’ BE, p. 77 The name Krasnaya Gorka means ‘Little Red Hill’.
Page 155, ‘He followed Paul to a secluded and enclosed part of the gardens where he found Paul slumped on a stone bench.’ Dukes claimed that this meeting took place on 12 June (ST-25, p. 254), but that would have been impossible given the timing of Gus’s journey to Finland. From both Gus’s and Hampsheir’s papers it is clear that this meeting took place on Saturday 14 June. Dukes omits this meeting completely from RDATM.
Page 155, ‘Peter described it as being like “a monstrous bird.”’ ST-25, p. 252
Page 156, ‘… which listed three dates in late July when the mystery machine would be able to pick him up.’ ST-25, p. 254
Page 157, ‘As a base of secret operations, the Villa Sakharov was quite lively.’ The Agar papers have numerous photographs of life at the Villa Sakharov including Dinah, numerous tennis matches, sunbathing parties and various Russian families – many of whom seem to have had very eligible daughters.
Page 157, ‘To top it all, on that very first day, the French military attaché from Helsinki called to see the operation.’ Agar’s diary. The attaché reappeared for a formal dinner at the team’s dacha on 30 June. The pilot Reichel and Commandant Sarin were amongst the guests. Apparently the attaché (Le Gondalache?) became very drunk and made a speech lasting an hour.
Page 157, ‘Sarin apologised profusely and promised that he would sort it out.’ Agar diary entry 16/6/1919.
Page 157, ‘… Gus using his favourite telescope, Sarin a pair of binoculars.’ One of Agar’s telescopes is on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Page 158, ‘After a lull, the bombardment had recommenced at eleven o’clock that morning.’ BE, p. 82
Page 158, ‘Sarin explained that the garrison of the fort were not Russians, but Ingrians.’ Often referred to as ‘Ingermanlanders’.
Page 158, ‘These people were not just fighting the Bolsheviks, they were fighting for their independence.’ It was later discovered that the Krasnaya Gorka had risen before the general revolt was ready because the commandant of the fortress had come under suspicion and a Commissar had arrived to arrest him. ST-25, p. 268
Page 158, ‘The leaders of the White armies, aristocrats and Tsarist snobs to a man, wanted the old Russia back and for them this meant the Russian empire complete with all its subject peoples.’ ‘There is no Estonia. It is a piece of Russian soil, a Russian province.’ – General Yudenich. See Bennett, p. 105
Page 159, ‘“TAKE NO OFFENSIVE WITHOUT DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS FROM SNO BALTIC STOP” This is telegram MC 470 from C. Agar papers. IWM. In BE (p. 82) Gus amalgamates MC 470 and MC 479 into one telegram. In FITS (p. 110) Gus has the fateful telegram received in Admiral Cowan’s cabin with the Admiral looking on. From all the other evidence this must surely be a fiction created by Gus to sum up his dilemma in the limited space available to him in that book.
Page 160, ‘Broadbent did not express an opinion …’ At least, not one which has been recorded anywhere.
Page 160, ‘ADMIRALTY DOES NOT APPROVE …’ This is telegram MC 479 from London. Agar papers. IWM. Based on the version in Baltic Episode, some authors have tried to suggest that Cumming skilfully left Agar an opening by specifying ‘… without direct instruction for SNO Baltic’. This telegram makes it clear that there was absolutely no doubt at all about Cumming’s position.
Page 160, ‘As soon as Gus said those words the pressure lifted.’ ‘Once the decision was made I felt tremendously relieved in my mind.’ BE p.82
Page 160, ‘Shortly before 11 p.m …’ Again there is a slight but significant difference between Gus’s diary (2230) and his books. In Baltic Episode (p.83) he says departure was ‘just before midnight’. The distance he had to travel and the timing of the attack make a departure between 1030 and 1100 most likely.
Page 161, ‘… but Gus decided he could maximise that chance if they concentrated both torpedoes on the Petropavlovsk, she was the more heavily armed of the two.’ BE, p. 83
Page 162, ‘… and was armed with 12 six-inch guns …’ For comparison, this is the same calibre of armament as that of HMS Belfast moored on the Thames.
Page 162, ‘Other than the two battlecruisers she was largest warship in the Russian fleet.’ Her captain was N. Milashevich (Bennett, p. 125).
Page 163, ‘She had shelled Krasnaya Gorka for about four hours and had then ceased fire some time before 7 p.m.’ Agar audio tape IWM. Shelling ceased at some point between 1800 and 1900 hours.
Page 163, ‘Soon all three men were soaked to the skin.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 163, ‘The destroyers drew closer until they were only two hundred metres away on either side.’ BE, p. 86.
Page 164, ‘It had almost taken his hand off and now there was no way of launching the torpedo.’ In BE (p. 86) Gus says that Hampsheir had injured his hand. Hampsheir does not mention this in his diary and in a photograph taken just hours after the attack his hands are quite visible – there is no sign of an injury, but Hampsheir was greatly distressed by the explosion.
Page 164, ‘If he had any sense they would make a run for it now while they still had a chance.’ Baltic Episode places this incident at shortly before 1 a.m. Hampsheir’s diary places it one hour earlier and this is consistent with Gus’s diary.
Page 164, ‘“You hold her steady sir. I’ll help Mr Hampsheir,” said Beeley clambering into the cockpit.’ FITS, p. 112 makes it clear that it was Beeley alone who carried out the repair.
Page 165, ‘Using the pliers Beeley tightened the nut. The rest of the mechanism felt as if it was OK.’ The mechanical detail is from John Hampsheir’s log.
Page 165, ‘… but for Gus, standing in the cockpit with nothing to do but watch the silhouettes of Russian warships all around him, this brief delay seemed to last an eternity.’ In Agar’s official VC citation in the London Gazette it says that he was in the vicinity of the enemy for 20 minutes while the torpedo was being repaired. This has been interpreted by some authors as meaning that it took twenty minutes to repair the torpedo-launching system. In fact, Hampsheir’s diary and Agar’s audio tape at the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive make it clear that the total time they were among the Russian fleet was twenty minutes. The actual repair took about five. It then took another ten minutes to get CMB4 into the correct firing position. Hampsheir’s times are very precise.
Page 165, ‘For another ten minutes they continued to creep forward until Gus decided this was about as close as they could expect to get.’ In Baltic Episode Gus begins the attack run as soon as the charge is replaced, but this does not tally with the careful timings of Hampsheir in his diary.
Page 166, ‘At this point they were about nine hundred metres from the Oleg …’ BE, p. 87, although in his version Gus said that he launched at 500 yards. In his audio tape at the IWM Gus says it was ‘between 500 and 1,000 yards’. In his diary Hampsheir estimated that they were between 900 and 1,000 yards from the Oleg when they fired.
Page 166, ‘… it seemed to Gus that every vessel in the Soviet Baltic fleet was firing at them as they raced for a gap between two of the destroyers.’ Agar’s audio tape, IWM.
Page 167, ‘Although he could not hear anything, both Beeley and Hampsheir were standing alongside him in the cockpit, laughing and cheering as they were thrown about.’ ‘Everybody opened fire on us … We leave going full speed 1125 rpm and shot falling all around us. Two big shells missed my stern by 5–10 yards … Spray and sea drenching us to the skin, but we were merry and bright and gave three cheers although we couldn’t hear each other because of the engine.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 168, ‘Minutes later he was asleep.’ Such was the secrecy surrounding the mission that until the 1960s and the publication of Baltic Episode there was a great deal of confusion about what actually happened. Gus’s VC citation stated that CMB4 was damaged by enemy fire and had to be repaired before the attack whilst moored amongst the enemy ships. Paul Dukes, who knew Gus personally and had discussed the attack with him, thought that CMB4 had been damaged by a mine the day before (this was clearly CMB7) and that the boat had to be repaired before making the successful attack the next night.
Page 169, ‘He demanded to know what was going on.’ Elsewhere the secret of the CMBs remained intact for a little while longer: for instance, on 21 June, based on Soviet information, the New York Times reported that the Oleg had been sunk by a British submarine.
Page 169, ‘Since CMB7 needed to be towed to Biorko for repairs anyway, Gus was quite happy to agree.’ At this point in Baltic Episode Gus inserts the journey by land to Biorko and the interview with the Captain of HMS Dragon which actually occurred on 13 June. He also says that he travelled in a truck provided by Sarin rather than the car of one of the local MI6 agents. This also means that subsequent events are placed in a slightly different order in that book – which in turn is different from the order in Footprints in the Sea (!)
Page 170, ‘Gus didn’t know whether his gamble had paid off or not.’ FITS, p. 115
Page 170, ‘In all his time in the Royal Navy he had never seen such a reception.’ Agar’s diary entry.
Page 170, ‘That evening Gus was invited to dine with Admiral Cowan on the flagship HMS Cleopatra.’ Agar’s diary entry.
Page 170, ‘… he, Cowan, would tell them that the attack had had his full support right from the outset (even if he hadn’t known about it, he added with a twinkle in his eye).’ BE, p. 93
Page 170, ‘… claiming that they had been attacked by the entire British fleet which had been forced to retreat before the Bolshevik navy’s heroic defence and the sacrifice of the valiant Oleg.’ ST-25, p. 269
Page 171, ‘He remained deeply grateful to Cowan for the rest of his life.’ Baltic Episode was dedicated to him.
Page 171, ‘The next day, Friday 20 June, CMB4 returned to Terrioki with Hampsheir and Beeley, under the command of Ed Sindall.’ John Hampsheir’s diary.
Page 171, ‘Gus spent the rest of the day making arrangements with the Finnish naval liaison officer, Lieutenant Foch …’ FITS, p. 119
Page 172, ‘Arrangements had been made for him to take a flight to inspect the site of the attack on the Oleg and confirm her fate.’ In Baltic Episode Gus says that Sarin arranged this, which is possible, but it would have been more logical for the Finnish liaison officer to have organised it and this may be a device to assist with his re-arrangement of events in this book.
Page 172, ‘Gus’s pilot was actually a Swede, Arthur Reichel.’ BE, p. 91; FITS, p. 116
Page 172, ‘Gus climbed into the front seat of the aircraft …’ It is not clear which type of aircraft this was. Gus called it both ‘a Junkers’ (FITS, p.115) and ‘an Aviatik’ (TV proposal). The Junkers CL1 did see service in Finland at this time, yet Gus is also clear in his diary that it was a seaplane. There was a Junkers CLS1 seaplane variant with twin floats, but only three were ever built. An Aviatik is highly unlikely.
Page 172, ‘… and, together with another seaplane flying as escort, they set off south for the Oleg’s last known position.’ In Baltic Episode Gus describes taking this flight in one aircraft from an airfield inland at Fort Ino. In his diary it is a seaplane and there are two of them.
Page 172, Agar quote: BE, p. 92; FITS, p. 116
Page 172, ‘… his first reaction was not one of triumph, but of revulsion that he had caused the death of so many men.’ In fact, although the Oleg had sunk in only twelve minutes, only five men were lost. (Bennett, p. 126)
Page 172, ‘Gus was later told how the survivors, including the women and children, were lined up in pits and machine gunned. Many of them were not killed by the Bolshevik bullets but were buried alive.’ Worse still, the Estonians responded to the disaster by disarming the remainder of the Ingrian forces on the grounds that they were secretly planning to set up their own republic. The Estonians were under such pressure that they had to re-arm them about a month later. (Bennett, pp. 128 & 135)
Page 172, ‘It was every bit as horrific as he had imagined.’ Although this is what Gus believed at the time some doubt has been cast on this version of events since. Another version was that the Ingrians murdered their prisoners, over 1,000 people escaped and only the commandant Nikolai Neklyudov (whom Gus consistently misnames as ‘Nedlukov’) was executed. It was Stalin who gave the orders to bombard the fortress from the sea and who formed the Coastal Army Group at Oranienbaum for the assault. Stalin never forgot the resistance of the Ingrians. During his time as ruler of the Soviet Union 97% of Ingrians were either executed or deported to Siberia. There are only 20,000 of them living in the region today. There was one other effect of the Krasnaya Gorka revolt. On 14 June the patrol vessel Kitoboi hoisted a white flag and sailed over to Finland. Her captain joined the Estonians and was captured by the Bolsheviks in September. They crucified him – literally. (Bennett, p. 129)
Page 173, ‘Reichel stayed with his aircraft and waited for a boat to come and tow him to shore where they would make repairs.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 174, ‘1 BOAT OUT OF ACTION STOP 3 WEEKS TO REPAIR …’ Copy in Agar papers IWM.
Page 174, ‘He also met Raleigh Le May’s new and enthusiastic young assistant whose surname, he thought, was “Card”.’ Agar’s diary. This must surely be MI6 officer Harry Lambton Carr. He had just been recruited by Raleigh Le May in London for ‘passport control duties’ and later, in the 1930s, became the MI6 head of station in Helsinki. The Red Web by Tom Bower, p. 13
Page 174, ‘… and for the first time encountered the professional jealousy which Victoria Cross winners sometimes have to endure.’ The classic example would be Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead who both won the Victoria Cross for conducting the defence of the mission station at Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu Wars. Jealousy within the Army dogged their subsequent careers.
Page 176, The Bruton argument: Agar’s diary entry. The astonishing thing about this interview is that Gus recorded it in such detail, almost word for word across several pages. He never allowed any of this criticism into any of his later accounts, following the unwritten rule of the Royal Navy at that time that officers should never speak ill of each other in public. It may seem like poor form to make such things public now, when those involved can’t speak in their own defence, but Agar carefully preserved this record and it is important to show that even heroes don’t necessarily have an easy ride – they are subject to the same petty problems and back-biting as the rest of us.
Page 176, ‘… and Gus now began to worry about what was happening at Terrioki during his absence.’ Agar was also frustrated by the delay in returning to Terrioki. It seems that Captain Bruton had an unfortunate tendency to upset people: he told the captain of HMS Vanity, Commander Rawlings, that he must remain in Reval as he (Bruton) had promised General Gough that HMS Vanity would remain at his disposal for the immediate future. Rawlings had to wait in port whilst he sent an urgent message to Admiral Cowan who told him to ignore any such instruction. The delay meant that it was one o’clock the following morning before HMS Vanity finally left port.
Page 176, ‘Apparently Raleigh Le May had arrived at Terrioki on Saturday 21 June.’ Date confirmed by flimsy of telegram sent by Agar on 28 June (Agar papers IWM).
Page 178, ‘… but after twelve minutes the gunfire finally ceased. CMB4 had disappeared into the night-time murk.’ Details are from John Hampsheir’s diary.
Page 180, ‘… their incompetence had almost reduced Paul Dukes to tears.’ ST-25, p. 280
Page 181, ‘… but in fact Paul had lied. He had other ideas.’ RDATM, p. 172
Page 181, ‘… Paul asked for his help in finding a guide.’ ST-25, p. 152
Page 182, ‘He was also carrying large bundles of cash.’ Sometimes MI6 sent agents with diamonds instead of money as they were easier to carry and easy to convert, but there is no record that Paul was given any. For instance see Judd p.429: Sidney Reilly was sent to Russia with £500 in notes and £750 in diamonds. The diamonds might have had more to do with Reilly conning the gullible Cumming than with operational efficiency.
Page 184, ‘Finally, after thrashing around for ten minutes …’ RDATM, p. 179
Page 185, ‘A few minutes later, an old man in his mid-fifties entered.’ RDATM, p. 182
Page 187, ‘They arrived at nine o’clock and immediately there was a great scrum to leave the train.’ RDATM, p. 189
Page 188, ‘… but the Cheka officers had given an exact description of Paul including the fact that he had a front tooth missing.’ ST-25, p. 167
Page 189, ‘That was the warning signal: “Stay away!”’ ST-25, p. 170
Page 189, ‘He heard the Russian word for “lock pick” and a sound as though keys had been passed from one person to another.’ RDATM, p. 198
Page 190, ‘This time it was that a large box would be placed in a certain window where it was visible from the street.’ RDATM, p. 200. This is one of the many small details missing from ST-25. The reason is not clear.
Page 191, ‘Paul’s plan was to adopt a new identity and make the Cheka think that another British agent had arrived in Petrograd.’ ST-25, p. 227
Page 191, ‘With his radically different appearance, almost all his former agents believed that he was a different man when they first saw him.’ ST-25, p. 228
Page 192, ‘There was also a pair of wire framed spectacles which made Paul look like “a pale intellectual”.’ And quite a bit like John Lennon! RDATM, p. 224 (photo).
Page 192, ‘Zorinsky had arrived in Terrioki only a day or so after Paul had left.’ RDATM, p. 206; ST-25, p. 174
Page 193, ‘The genuine intelligence Zorinsky had provided must have been bait to lure Paul into providing as much information about British intelligence operations in the city as possible …’ ST-25, p. 173
Page 194, ‘He had first met her in February 1919 through one of his other contacts who had suggested that her flat could be used for a meeting.’ In order to preserve the anonymity of his agents Paul never revealed which contact.
Page 194, Aunt Natalia’s description: ST-25, p. 218
Page 194, ‘It says something about Paul that he found this an endearing trait rather than a sign of advancing senility …’ ST-25, p. 222
Page 195, ‘By the middle of March disturbances in Petrograd factories had become so severe that Lenin himself planned to visit the city.’ The Cheka later claimed that Paul was behind these disturbances. ST-25, p. 179
Page 195, ‘As Paul and his new friend approached the People’s Palace …’ A former sports centre paid for by the Tsar.
Page 196, ‘Paul noted wryly that Zinoviev, the leader of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd, who only two years before had been a stick-thin agitator now weighed almost twenty stone.’ Stalin had him executed in 1936.
Page 196, ‘While the people of Petrograd lived in famine conditions, he was housed in luxury at the former Astoria Hotel.’ ST-25, p. 242
Page 197, ‘… the mysterious “Shura” who had provided Paul with his Markovitch passport and some of his best intelligence leads.’ Although not stated in the text this is confirmed in the index of ST-25.
Page 199, ‘Two thousand roubles which he had stuffed into his pocket during the raid were enough to pay for everything for the next few months.’ ST-25, p. 213
Page 199, ‘Serge, his own brother, had betrayed the gang to the Cheka.’ ST-25, p. 210. At least that was what Paul Dukes believed. No other explanation was ever found.
Page 199, Sonia’s description: ST-25, p. 199
Page 201, ‘Strunseva’s description: ST-25, p. 211
Page 201, ‘This close shave was yet another reminder to Paul that he must never lower his guard even for an instant and increased the strain on his nerves even more.’ Paul claimed that this was the only serious error he ever made as a secret agent (ST-25, p. 221). The reader may feel that this is not quite true …
Page 202, ‘He had even managed to recruit a source right inside Trotsky’s “Revolutionary Council of the North” and was able to copy the minutes of their meetings.’ Brook Shepherd, p. 325
Page 202, ‘All that the conspirators were waiting for was a sign from the British that they would come to their aid.’ ST-25, p. 237
Page 202, ‘With these officers in place and discipline restored, the Bolsheviks might really be able to beat the Whites.’ ST-25, p. 238
Page 202, ‘On 31 May Pravda printed a now infamous statement from Lenin and Felix Dzerzhinsky headed “Death to Spies!”’ ‘Smersh Spionam!’ Smersh is the Russian word for death. It became the colloquial name for Soviet Military Counter-Intelligence in the Second World War and this gave the former naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming the idea for the name of the villainous organisation in his James Bond novels.
Page 202, ‘Where was MI6?’ ST-25, p. 231: ‘I was completely isolated from the outside world during these months, for although I found couriers to carry my despatches out, none returned to me and I was ignorant as to whether my messages were being delivered’.
Page 203, ‘… but the longer Cumming’s silence continued the more he became convinced that it would have to be done.’ ST-25, p. 240
Page 203, ‘The tanks had been sabotaged by officers of the White army.’ ST-25, p. 242
Page 203, ‘When the revolution failed, he was brutally tortured and then imprisoned for eighteen months.’ He once showed British diplomat Robert Bruce Lockhart the mangled ends of his fingers where his nails had been torn out. Lockhart did not believe he was the monster he was purported to be. Memoirs of a British Agent by Robert Bruce Lockhart, p. 328
Page 204, ‘To the British Press he was known as “the Red Terrorist”.’ e.g. Daily Express 16 August 1919. There is some doubt about whether all that was said about him was true. He certainly denied that anything like the number of deaths alleged had occurred. In the chaos of Revolutionary Russia under the Terror it is almost impossible now to determine the truth, but his reputation at the time is certain.
Page 204, Xenophon Kalamatiano: He had been caught on the evening of 18 September 1918 trying to climb over a wall to the safety of the American consulate in Moscow. The Americans had abandoned the Consulate a few days earlier and the perimeter was heavily guarded by Soviet troops, but the Consulate was still under the protection of the Norwegian delegation and he would have been safe if only he could have got in. He was actually climbing the wall when he was hauled down by the gatekeeper who had spotted him and cried for help. He would probably have made it if only he had not tried to protect the walking stick containing all his operational papers. Kalamatiano’s remains one of the great unsung tales in the history of espionage and hopefully one day his story will be given the attention it deserves. See Brook Shepherd, p. 232
Page 205, ‘In one of his CX reports, Dukes was soon describing the terror measures introduced by Peters as “exceeding everything previously known.”’ Brook Shepherd, p. 141
Page 205, ‘A conspiracy was uncovered in the Red VIIth Army and anyone connected with it was ruthlessly dealt with.’ Bennett, p. 119
Page 205, ‘But they were due to expire in a little over a week and Paul noticed that the Chekist who examined them made a careful note of the expiry date in his notebook.’ ST-25, p. 241
Page 208, ‘… there was nowhere else to go and only a few minutes left before curfew, but the officer slammed the door.’ Less than a year later, this officer was executed when the Yudenich network was rounded up by the Cheka.
Page 210, ‘He could hear the deep boom of naval gunfire somewhere out in the Gulf.’ ST-25, p. 264
Page 210, ‘… he decided that he would continue to operate in Petrograd, but would travel more frequently to Moscow.’ Paul already had agents in Moscow on a regular salary by 12 June (ST-25, p. 282)
Page 211, ‘It was here that he had the most contacts and here that his chances of survival were greatest.’ ST-25, p. 228
Page 211, ‘Peter Sokolov had said that Paul could stay at his student flat.’ Peter Sokolov said that he knew the flat had not been searched by the Cheka because of the thick layer of dust over everything. ST-25, p. 265
Page 211, ‘The search became an excuse for general looting, rape and murder.’ See Leggett, p. 284
Page 211, ‘He became Alexander Bankau, a draughtsman working at one of the factories in Petrograd.’ It is possible that these papers were provided by MI6, but highly unlikely. The only contact had been through Peter Sokolov and although he could have brought them in MI6 would not have known which seals and signatures to use.
Page 212, ‘There were dozens of families clustered outside waiting for their turn.’ ST-25, p. 224
Page 213, ‘He stuck to his decision not to use the flat any more.’ ST-25, p. 266
Page 213, ‘… his senior officer arranged for Paul to be sent around the country to find petrol, tyres or motor spares which gave him a perfect cover story for travelling to Moscow and elsewhere.’ ST-25, p. 288
Page 214, ‘It was shortly after joining the Red Army …’ Paul’s Red Army papers were backdated to 25 May 1919, but he joined in June.
Page 214, ‘He was running a large network and every single agent required money – for food, for bribes and simply to survive.’ ‘There was not a person who did either regular work for me or performed incidental services of one sort or another but who had to have assistance, in some cases a fixed salary, in others with occasional financial help supplemented with food. This last was the highest and most desired form of recompense.’ ST-25, p. 282
Page 214, ‘This was known as the “Committee for the Relief of the British Colony in Petrograd.”’ The Times 3 December 1919.
Page 214, ‘… Mr Gerngross, had been arrested just a few days before …’ On 2 June.
Page 214, ‘… on suspicion of espionage.’ Statement given by George Gibson to the Foreign Office in December 1920. National Archives.
Page 214, ‘Yet, despite the risk, Paul now turned to the secretary of the Committee, George E. Gibson, a British businessman who worked for the United Shipping Company in Petrograd.’ In ST-25, Dukes gives Gibson the pseudonym ‘Mr George’. The reason is unclear. The Cheka knew all about him by then and seeing that George was his first name anyway it was hardly much protection. But this weak pseudonym is consistent with describing John Merritt as ‘John Johnovitch’.
Page 214, ‘John Merritt had introduced Paul to Gibson just before he escaped from Russia.’ Statement given by Gibson to the Foreign Office in December 1920. National Archives.
Page 215, ‘Paul asked for approximately 100,000 roubles.’ This estimate is based on the fact that Paul made three visits to Gibson during July and August (ST-25, p. 286) and borrowed a total of 375,000 roubles. (Correspondence between Gibson and the Foreign Office held at the National Archives.) It would be about £250,000 today, which shows both how large Paul’s network was and just how expensive espionage can be.
Page 215, ‘… and gave Gibson a receipt signed “Captain McNeill”, his MI6 cover name.’ Gibson quickly destroyed this receipt which was just as well considering that the Cheka arrested him again just a few months later. (ST-25, p. 286) He seems to have borrowed much of this money from a Jewish moneylender named Ernest Lapin.
Page 215, ‘In reality, Gibson had a terrible time trying to get MI6 to refund the money.’ Statement from Gibson to the Foreign Office. Dukes described this as ‘a convenient way for Gibson to get money out of the country’! (ST-25, p. 285) Considering the difficulty Gibson had in getting MI6 to cough up this was a bit of a cheek.
Page 215, ‘In Petrograd alone, Party membership was reduced from more than one million people to little more than four thousand.’ ST-25, p. 271
Page 216, ‘… Paul later referred to July and early August as the quietest period of his mission.’ ST-25, p. 292
Page 217, ‘He was always tired and woke shaking in fright at the slightest sound in the night.’ ST-25, p. 293
Page 217, ‘Strong swimmer though he was, he doubted that he would make it.’ ST-25, p. 301
Page 217, ‘He turned out to be a former Russian midshipman named Gefter.’ It was claimed that this was a pseudonym, but Paul Dukes’s diaries record meetings in the 1920s with A. Gefter who is presumably the same person and a photograph in the Agar papers is annotated with the same name. According to Agar’s diary, Sindall had landed Gefter on the evening of Friday, 8 August.
Page 217, ‘In his time he claimed to have been a prizefighter, an artist and an actor.’ BE, p. 109
Page 217, Gefter description: ST-25, p. 303
Page 217, ‘Paul should make arrangements to be ready.’ In fact it was Paul who had to help Gefter. He was already attracting attention from the famine stricken citizens of Petrograd. Several people had pointed him out in the street and said that he must have come from over the border because he was obviously well-fed. Furthermore, the identification documents MI6 had provided Gefter with were very poor and Paul had to provide him with a complete new set. Gefter relates how impressed he was with the quality of these new forgeries and that he finally felt safe. Reminiscences of a Courier by A. Gefter.
Page 218, ‘By August 1919 Sonia had been in prison for four months …’ ST-25, p. 212
Page 218, ‘Both men were armed with revolvers.’ ST-25, p. 214
Page 218, ‘Paul claims that neither he nor Shura had any idea how the escape was to be effected …’ST-25, p. 214
Page 219, ‘… met the Red Cross nurse in the courtyard and had walked through the main gates with the other visitors.’ The fact that this escape attempt involved the assistance of a Red Cross nurse was a very serious breach of the integrity of that organisation. Although she appears in RDATM, she is missing from ST-25 in 1938. Paul might have been advised by the censor that the British Government could not be seen to have condoned such a breach.
Page 220, ‘… but it later turned out to have been a fire in the dockyards.’ ST-25, p. 306
Page 221, ‘He peered out at the horizon and tried to get his bearings from the Elagin lightship which marked the Eastern end of Kotlin Island.’ Unlike the Tolboukin lighthouse, the lightship was withdrawn every winter when the Gulf iced over.
Page 221, ‘Eventually, Gefter shouted that they would have to turn for shore.’ Gefter’s English was not very good. According to his own account he shouted: ‘I am compelled to renounce the plan of conducting you to your destination.’ One presumes that Paul’s reply was a little more direct …
Page 222, ‘He used one of the oars to help him float …’ Typically, in his account of the escape attempt, Gefter claimed that he had no trouble swimming, but had to give Dukes one of the oars because he was in trouble.
It is hard to ascertain the exact details of what happened that night. Many of the eyewitness accounts do not agree on the sequence of events. Even the simplest facts have become confused – for instance, Bill Bremner was certain that no British aircraft attacked during the raid, despite all the evidence of every other eyewitness, including the pilots themselves. Paul Dukes, (who had a personal briefing from Gus Agar), thought that there had been eleven CMBs on the raid not eight (ST-25, p. 319)
Page 224, ‘He had seen General Yudenich and his bunch of cronies at first hand, resting in luxury in their Helsinki hotels, and he was not impressed by them.’ Yudenich and his staff were based at the Societenhusen, the best hotel in Helsinki. Agar spent several days there in July and enjoyed considerable attention as the man who sank the Oleg (Agar’s diary).
Page 224, ‘Unfortunately Scale tried to get clearance for this scheme from the difficult Captain Bruton so the plan came to nought.’ Agar’s diary 3/7/1919: He tried to see General Gough, but Bruton said he had to be there and that Agar had to tell him what it is about first. ‘I swallowed this nasty piece of medicine and told him as much as I thought he could digest.’ They then went to see Gough together. Gough admitted that he had not yet even sent an officer to reconnoitre. Bruton then told Gough that if he wanted boats in support then that would be entirely a matter for the military mission, not for Agar, and anyway he had already ordered 12 boats from England (!) Agar was dumbstruck at this complete nonsense. He finally decided to leave Bruton to ‘stew in his own grease’.
Page 225, ‘Her propeller shaft and engine mountings were badly damaged.’ Agar wrote: ‘This practically puts the boat out of commission and is too much to bear. Am very glad he [the pilot] couldn’t understand what I said about him.’ In Baltic Episode Agar omits this episode and claims (p. 151) that the damage was caused by a collision with the breakwater at Terrioki after the failure to collect Dukes on 14 August.
Page 225, ‘The newly repaired CMB7 would have to be the mainstay of the courier service from now on.’ This trip is also recorded in Hampsheir’s log – more evidence that he was not sent home as Agar always claimed, although it does not mean that he actually went on this mission.
Page 225, ‘On the same day as the attack he received a telegram from Admiral Cowan informing him that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross for his sinking of the Oleg.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 225, ‘… Gus was referred to in the press as “the mystery VC”.’ BE, p. 153
Page 226, ‘… the Finns had sent six couriers in two weeks and not one had returned.’ Telegram flimsy, Agar papers IWM.
Page 226, ‘Instead he remained at Terrioki as an interpreter and camp helper.’ Agar’s diary: ‘Constantinoff (sic) returned with a bullet in him – failed to get through – am afraid he is not the right type. Too much like a girl and lacks guts … Guide led him straight into the midst of Bolshevik soldiers and he was lucky to get away.’ BE p.118 paints a rather less condemnatory picture of him, probably because he was still alive at the time of writing.
Page 226, ‘… and MI6 assumed that he had been either killed or captured.’ Agar’s diary entry 1/8/1919
Page 226, ‘He thought that Peter had run away to join the White forces in Estonia preferring to fight openly instead of having to deal with “… all the messing about he got from the people at Helsingfors …”.(i.e. Hall and Le May)’ Agar’s diary entry 3/8/1919
Page 226, ‘These were Victor Jones (ST-35) and John Busby (ST-36).’ BE, p. 123. Agar says that ‘Vic Jones’ and ‘John Bush’ were assumed names, but a letter from Jones to Agar in 1960 confirms that this was his real name. As for ‘John Bush’, photographs of ‘the two wireless men’ annotated by Agar give his name as Busby and correctly name Jones.
Page 226, ‘… Jones was a former RNVR Chief Petty Officer who had been demobbed and was working for the Post Office Wireless Department.’ Letter Jones to Agar dated 28 April 1960. There is also a photograph of the two men with the note ‘These were the two wireless people trying to communicate with Petrograd’.
Page 227, ‘Gus was stunned by Hall’s ignorance. Very slowly and carefully he replied: ‘“All of them.”’ Agar’s diary entry 5/8/1919
Page 227, ‘Hall breezily replied: “Oh that doesn’t matter.” Gus looked at him coldly and then left the dacha without saying another word.’ Agar was careful to record Hall’s exact words.
Page 227, ‘This may be the end of our whole show …’Agar’s diary entry 5/8/1919
Page 228, It was Muir who first referred to Gus as “the mystery VC”. Daily Express 31/7/1919
Page 228, ‘Even The Times correspondent was only granted one very brief interview with Admiral Cowan.’ BE, p. 155
Page 229, ‘… on 4 July when the British Cabinet had finally decided that, whilst they would not formally declare war on Soviet Russia, it should now be considered that “a state of war” existed between the two nations.’ Leggett, p. 286
Page 229, ‘Furthermore, the harbour gun crews might still be in their shelters when the CMBs arrived.’ Although torpedo-carrying aircraft were available at this date, air-launched torpedoes could not be used in Kronstadt harbour as it was too shallow.
Page 229, ‘HMS Vindictive arrived in Biorko Sound on 20 July.’ Eric Brewerton’s log, Imperial War Museum. The Vindictive had sailed from the Firth of Forth on 2 July.
Page 230, ‘… thanks to a freak high tide, three tugs and the efforts of hundreds of sailors jumping up and down on her deck to shake her clear.’ Brewerton’s logbook and other notes.
Page 230, ‘It was a job which Gus and other officers quite frankly thought could not be done …’ Agar said as much in Baltic Episode.
Page 230, ‘… only eight of these were to eventually assist in the attack due to maintenance and other problems.’ Vindictive carried 12 aircraft (two Camels, three Strutters, three Griffins and four Short seaplanes), but several of these were unavailable for the mission. One Griffin crash-landed in the sea on 13 August – it was salvaged but unusable. One Strutter’s engine failed on takeoff. Cowan’s flagship supposedly carried one Sopwith Camel, but this is never mentioned in the reports. The Bolsheviks also had twelve aircraft operating in the area, but the two sides never met in combat. The greatest danger was in taking off and landing. The only aerial victory recorded by the British was the downing of Krasnaya Gorka’s observation balloon. (Bennett, p. 135).
Page 230, ‘… and carried either four small fragmentation bombs or a single 50lb (23kg) high explosive bomb.’ The armament of Camels could vary – these figures are from Brewerton’s notes on the Camel that was assigned to Vindictive.
Page 231, RNAS Mess song: Liddle, Men of Gallipoli, p. 242
Page 231, ‘Major David Grahame Donald.’ Although the RNAS had officially merged with the RFC to form the RAF the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918 and although Agar refers to him as Squadron Leader, Donald had not yet been awarded this rank. Brewerton papers IWM. See also Bennett, p.130.
Page 231, ‘A former Scottish rugby international …’ Two caps as a prop for Scotland: v Wales 7/2/1914 and v Ireland 28/2/1914.
Page 231, ‘The seaplanes were moored on the shore at Sidinsari within sight of Cowan’s squadron.’ Bennett, p. 131
Page 231, ‘… the dour Scotsman neatly summed up the feelings of all his young pilots: “Jesus Christ!”’ ‘The aerodrome from which the land machines had to rise in the dark was a month before a wilderness of trees and rocks and in size was quite inadequate.’ – Walter Cowan’s official report of the raid. However, the drop to the sea did have some advantages: Brewerton, who was then a young pilot in one of the Strutters, later remembered how on his first flight from the airstrip he took off only to find out that his plane’s trim had been incorrectly set and he immediately plummeted towards the sea. Thanks to the drop he was able to grab the trim wheel and pull out of the dive in time. Brewerton papers IWM.
Page 232, See Thornycroft, p. 33. ‘Eight mechanics bravely answered the call.’ Once the boats were prepared, it is not clear how many of these men actually travelled to Finland and took part in the raid. At least two and possibly as many as six did.
Page 232, ‘On Friday, 25 July, the first CMB arrived.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 232, ‘In the early morning of 30 July, Major Donald took nine aircraft on the first bombing raid over Kronstadt harbour.’ Operation ‘DB’ named after Admiral David Beatty. Three more aircraft later made a second attack.
Page 232, ‘Since the airfield was not ready, they took off from the deck of the Vindictive.’ The signal log for Koivisto airfield opens on 5 August 1919. See also article in Flight magazine 15 April 1920.
Page 232, ‘… Donald’s planes first encountered anti-aircraft fire when they were still four miles from their target.’ From Fort Alexander on the northern shore. (Bennett, p. 134)
Page 232, ‘Donald described the anti-aircraft as “very effective throughout” and they were lucky to escape without any losses.’ Bennett, p. 134
Page 233, Ed Sindall’s attack on the Russian motor boat: Agar’s diary. Altogether Marshall expended 700 rounds during the attack – Hampsheir’s log.
Page 234, ‘On 9 August the remaining CMBs arrived.’ Dobson’s report. Agar’s diary says 10 August but he is sometimes a day out.
Page 234, ‘On 12 August, Bremner and Dobson were taken on a reconnaissance flight over Kronstadt and had a look at the defences.’ Brewerton’s log. He flew Dobson in the Strutter (the ballast was removed for this of course). Bremner’s memory was that he took a flight several days before Dobson’s arrival and did not accompany Dobson on this flight, but his memory has been shown to be fallible in other important aspects of the mission, so it is impossible to be certain.
Page 235, ‘Her captain, V. Sevastyanov, was a former Tsarist officer and he had already taken his ship into several encounters with Cowan’s squadron.’ For instance, on 4 June the Gavriil had sunk the British submarine L55 with the loss of all hands. Bennett, p. 119
Page 235, ‘That afternoon, Cowan called the CMB officers together for a briefing.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 235, ‘… the most important were the two giant battlecruisers the Andrei Pervozvanni and the Petropavlovsk.’ The Andrei Pervozvanni was commanded by L. M. Galler who later rose to become Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy in the Second World War. Bennett, p. 125.
Page 235, ‘The next target was the submarine depot ship Pamiat Azova.’ She was an old pre-war (1890) cruiser which had been converted to submarine support duties and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Dvina’.
Page 235, ‘Reconnaissance photographs showed that this depot ship currently had two submarines berthed alongside, preparing to go to sea.’ BE, p. 160
Page 236, ‘The fifth target was the caisson of the dry dock …’ The gates which sealed the dry dock from the harbour.
Page 237, ‘He clearly liked this man a lot more than Gefter whom he described as “bombastic” and someone who “might give the whole game away to save his skin.”’ Agar’s diary. This view seems to have been shared by Le May and Hall. Agar notes that they refused to let Gefter have Paul Dukes’s contact address until the very last moment in case he disappeared.
Page 237, ‘Everything depended on Hugh Beeley and his tending of the engine, but once again he triumphed.’ BE, p. 151. Agar claims to have dropped Peter Sokolov during this trip, but his diary does not record this. Furthermore, he attributes the damage caused to CMB4’s propeller on 26 July to this trip, so it may have been a matter of narrative convenience.
Page 237, ‘… John Hampsheir’s nerves were finally gone. He was never to make another trip in a CMB.’ Agar’s diary: ‘Finally struggled into Terrioki 0145 … This is the worst trip I have done. I really did not expect to get back in our little boat through those seas. I took Hampsheir and Beeley with me this time and poor old Hampsheir just about caved in. His nerves I’m afraid are practically gone.’
Page 238, ‘The other was a Finn named “Huva” …’ Dobson’s report.
Page 238, ‘… could speak fairly good English so Gus suggested that he travel in Dobson’s boat in case the flotilla ran into enemy fire and became separated.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 238, ‘However, the promise of double pay and two quarts of British navy rum each finally convinced them.’ BE, p. 164, although in this version Agar says it was Veroline who travelled with Dobson.
Page 238, ‘That afternoon, Friday, 15 August, the crews held their one and only rehearsal for the Kronstadt attack.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 239, ‘The storm then continued for another day and a half and at one stage was so bad that the CMBs were forced away from the Vindictive to seek shelter in a small inlet off the main bay.’ Letter of Sub Lt Francis Howard, 2 September 1919.
Page 239, ‘Zero hour, the moment when the CMBs would pass through the forts to begin their attack run, was set for 0045 on Monday, 18 August 1919.’ Copy of the operational plan contained in the Brewerton papers. This was issued by Donald and headed ‘Opn V 11’.
Page 240, ‘The starboard engine of CMB86 was giving particular cause for concern. It was only firing on six cylinders despite frantic last-minute work to repair it.’ Letter of Sub Lt Francis Howard, 2 September 1919.
Page 240, ‘Another officer who had not expected to be part of the attack was Lieutenant Commander Frank Brade …’ Referred to by Agar in Baltic Episode as ‘John Brade’.
Page 240, ‘It must have occurred to the crews for the Kronstadt attack that this plan was disturbingly similar – except in this case they were going right into the harbour, the very heart of the enemy defences.’ Ace’s Twilight by Robert Jackson, p. 123.
Page 241, ‘Dobson chose to follow the smuggler’s advice and veered away. The rest of the flotilla followed him.’ There was no way that the formation could be restored since none of the 55-foot CMBs were carrying their wireless sets and signalling had been forbidden in case it gave away their position. Dobson later claimed that Agar’s boat separated from the main group ‘according to plan’ – this was news to Agar! (See Dobson’s account in The Times 19 October 1919).
Page 242, ‘Yates told Howard that he would see what could be done and disappeared back into the engine compartment with the other mechanic.’ Letter of Sub Lt Francis Howard, 2 September 1919. Knowing of CMB86’s problem engine, Dobson had told Howard that if he could not reach the harbour, CMB86 should patrol the line of forts and engage any patrol craft which tried to intercept the CMBs on the return journey. Howard did his best to comply with this order.
Page 242, ‘Even so, the air attack by Donald and his men had not yet started.’ This is according to Dobson’s report and certainly seems consistent with Major Donald’s report. However, Agar believed that the bombing raid had already started when the CMBs arrived. Bremner remained convinced that the bombing attack was over before the CMBs arrived and always quoted a Russian seaman who said: ‘Why did you send your planes to wake us up so that we were ready to fire at your boats?’ But Bremner was definitely wrong.
Page 242, ‘They had experienced considerable difficulty getting airborne and they were very late.’ An absence of surface wind meant that the seaplanes struggled to get into the air with their bomb load. One seaplane managed to carry two bombs, one carried one, but the other two had to unload and go without any bombs at all. The engine of one of the Strutters failed on take-off and it had to be scrubbed from the mission. (Donald’s report included in the Giddy papers, National Maritime Museum.)
Page 244, ‘He headed straight on for the alternative “waiting berth” at the hospital ship.’ Debrief of Bremner, 8 February 1920.
Page 244, ‘Giddy later estimated that there were at least ten different shore batteries firing at CMB24 at this time.’ BE, p. 174 quoting Giddy’s own account ‘Our Russian Interlude’ from Blackwood’s Magazine 1930.
Page 244, ‘Afraid of hitting her, he broke off the attack and put CMB24 into a wide turn to buy some time.’ Napier’s debrief. This CMB was never identified because of the confusion during the attack. It might have been Steele, but Napier thought it was Bodley, which would place his attack on the Gavriil much later.
Page 244, ‘Either Sevastyanov’s men were incredibly accurate or they were unbelievably lucky.’ In his official report Dobson said that he believed CMB24 had been blown up by her own torpedo striking the bottom. This would be consistent with Giddy’s account that they had fired as soon as they came out of the turn – surely their speed was not high enough to avoid ‘a death dive’ which usually required a long straight run? But it is hard to believe that Napier made such a beginner’s mistake, Giddy claimed there were three shells which sank the boat and in the official Soviet communiqué they repeated the story that the Gavriil had hit with her first shot. (see Bennett, p. 155)
Page 244, ‘He felt a searing pain in the small of the back and knew that he had been hit by shell splinters.’ Giddy was taken to Kronstadt hospital after the attack where these were removed by the surgeon. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Page 245, ‘“Well, that’s sugared it”.’ These are the words quoted in Giddy’s published account for a discerning public, but one suspects that his actual words might have been a good deal earthier.
Page 245, ‘He was about to go below and see what could be done to get the engines going again when first one and then another shell landed on either side of the boat, knocking him off his feet again …’Osman Giddy in interview given to the Surrey Comet 19 May 1920.
Page 245, ‘… Harvey fell back with his right arm shattered at the elbow.’ Official debrief of Napier 16 April 1920.
Page 245, ‘Either way, the remaining boats were now at the mercy of the Soviet destroyer which would have a clear shot at any CMBs entering or leaving the harbour.’ It was some weeks before the fate of Napier’s boat was known. Confused reports after the raid said that he had been sunk by sea forts south of Kronstadt as he tried to fight his way out through the main navigation channel. E.g. Dobson’s official report.
Page 245, ‘For the moment the Gavriil was occupied with machine-gunning the survivors of CMB24 as they floated in the water …’ BE, p. 175
Page 246, ‘As they roared towards the rapidly listing Pamiat Azova, Mossy Reed brought one engine to a stop …’ CMB engines had no reverse gear.
Page 247, ‘Above him the sky was lit up by the beams of searchlights and the twinkling streams of tracer fire from the British aircraft.’ Normally British aircraft would use one tracer bullet to every three rounds of .303 ammunition, but for the night attack the mixture was one tracer to two normal rounds so that the pilots had a better chance of hitting the Russian gun emplacements.
Page 249, ‘He was amazed at how the little boats had been able to survive the storm of fire that had been directed at them, noting that even the anti-aircraft pom-pom guns were now depressed to their minimum elevation so that they could join in the defence.’ Brewerton’s logbook.
Page 249, ‘One bullet or shell splinter had pierced the carburettor, reducing her speed, and then another struck the launching gear, jamming it completely.’ See Thornycroft, p. 35. In a letter to Agar, Bodley confirmed this. He was having trouble with both his engine and steering gear even as he approached the harbour entrance. He believed that a shell splinter had damaged or cut a steering rope as he was passing through the forts. Even so, he tried to continue with the attack. The final damage was to the pipe from the explosion bottle which meant that the ram could not be fired. With no way to launch his torpedo there was nothing more he could do. Bodley confirmed that he broke off his attack before entering the harbour which is contrary to the belief of some writers e.g. Thornycroft. Dobson claimed that Bodley’s torpedo jammed as he was attacking a second destroyer which was coming to the aid of the Gavriil, but this is wrong. [Dobson’s official report quoted in The Times 11 October 1919].
Page 249, ‘He veered away to starboard and headed for home.’ The map of the attack included in Baltic Episode shows Bodley well inside the harbour and attacking the dry dock when his firing gear was hit. However the original in the Agar papers at the IWM is annotated asking for this to be corrected to show that Bodley did not reach the harbour. For some reason this was not done and the map is incorrect.
Page 249, ‘Enemy fire had put one of Bremner’s two engines out of action and he had fallen far behind Dobson and Steele.’ Bremner’s debrief.
Page 250, ‘The explosion was so fierce that Gus later reported that it must have been the Gavriil which had been hit and successfully sunk.’ FITS, p. 136
Page 250, ‘… moments later Brade fell dead at the wheel as bullets pierced the canopy of the little cockpit.’ Papers in the Agar collection at the IWM confirm that Brade was killed after leaving the harbour but before he could attack the Gavriil. According to Bremner he was hit in the face.
Page 251, ‘The Gavriil was only two hundred yards away …’ Bremner said that he fired the torpedoes at 250 and 200 yards range, although in one much later account, Bremner said that it was Brade who fired the torpedoes.
Page 251, ‘The forts opened fire at considerable range, but were very accurate.’ ‘… heavily fired at with machine and rifle fire and guns of various calibres’ – Dobson’s official report.
Page 252, ‘A lesser man might have run straight for home, but Randall was an experienced pilot and as he blipped the engine, he felt sure that it would keep running this time.’ The events of Randall’s flight are confirmed by several sources including Brewerton and Dobson.
Page 252, ‘… Dobson using the smoke apparatus fitted to the exhausts of his boat to create cover for Steele.’ Some CMBs carried adaptations to their exhaust systems so that they could lay smokescreens for larger vessels. Fortunately CMB31 was one of them.
Page 253, ‘… where he landed on the beach about fifteen minutes later.’ At 0406 according to the Koivisto airfield signal log, but most other aircraft had landed long before this (for instance, Brewerton was down at 0245, Lieutenant Fairbrother at 0300), so this may be the time that his fate became known rather than the time he landed. He was spotted by aircraft sent to assess the damage caused by the attack. His Camel could not be repaired on site. It had to be dismantled on the beach and returned to Koivisto in a lighter.
Page 253, ‘Yates had managed to get one bank of the starboard engines restarted and they were limping back towards the line of forts at a speed of about seven knots.’ Brewerton papers IWM.
Page 253, Fairbrother quote: Fairbrother Papers, RAF Museum Hendon, AC 1998/46/1–3. (In several respects Fairbrother’s account of the raid is wrong – just as several of the sailors’ accounts differ – which shows how even eyewitnesses to a historic event can be mistaken.)
Page 253, Howard quote: Letter of Sub Lt Francis Howard, 2 September 1919.
Page 254, ‘Bodley reattached the tow and the two boats headed for Biorko Sound.’ Some books have described Bodley towing Howard through the forts under fire, but it is clear from the original sources that the attempt failed. HMS Wessex was waiting at the edge of the Russian minefield, took over the tow of CMB86 from Bodley and they finally arrived back at Biorko at 0745.
Page 254, ‘Gus wrote later that he was in no doubt that Fletcher had saved their lives.’ FITS, p. 137. Agar later wrote of the airmen in a personal letter to French: ‘Without them I don’t think any of us would have got back’. (Letter dated 18 August 1919, Agar papers, IWM).
Page 255, ‘They had not sunk the Gavriil as Gus Agar had believed, but the Petropavlovsk, Andrei Pervosvanni and Pamiat Azova were all either sunk or badly damaged.’ There is some confusion about the immediate effects of the raid. According to Russian reports, the Andrei Pervozvanni was hit once and the Petropavlovsk twice, which is odd since the Petropavlovsk was the harder target. (Agar believed that one of the hits on the Petropavlovsk was actually on the thick steel cable securing it to the harbour wall rather than on the ship itself. It is not clear if this was correct.) There is also the question of whose torpedo missed. It would be natural to assume that this was Steele because he was under such pressure, but he was so close he could hardly miss and was sure that his torpedoes had struck home. Bremner was certain that he saw one of Dobson’s torpedoes explode prematurely and was amazed that it didn’t take Dobson’s boat with it. But Dobson never mentioned this and Bremner was wrong about other significant details of the raid. All of the Russian vessels were later repaired because the water in the harbour was too shallow for them to sink. The Andrei Pervozvanni was kept afloat and was in the dry dock undergoing repairs by the following morning. But the raid had achieved its purpose – the repairs took a very long time, the Russian Baltic Fleet was crippled and nothing larger than a destroyer emerged from Kronstadt harbour for the remainder of the conflict.
Page 255, ‘Although eight men had lost their lives on the mission …’ Lt A. Dayrell-Reed (CMB88), Lt Commander F. Brade (CMB62), Sub Lieutenant H. F. Maclean (CMB62), Leading Seaman S. D. Holmes (CMB62), Chief Motor Mechanic F. L. H. Thatcher (CMB62), Sub Lt T. R. G. Usborne (CMB79), Able Seaman W. Smith (CMB79), Chief Motor Mechanic Francis E. Stephens (CMB79).
Page 255, ‘… nine of those missing had survived and were being held prisoner.’ Lt W. H. Bremner (CMB79, wounded), Lt O. Giddy (CMB24, wounded), Chief Motor Mechanic H. J. Dunkley (CMB79, wounded), Chief Motor Mechanic B.Reynish (CMB unknown), Chief Motor Mechanic W. E. Whyte (CMB24), Stoker Petty Officer S. McVeigh (CMB62), Leading Seaman H. J. Bowles (CMB24), Able Seaman J. A. Harvey (CMB24), Lieutenant L. E. S. Napier (CMB24).
Page 255, ‘As soon as they heard those words everyone knew that it could only be one man: Bill Bremner.’ Letter V. H. Jones to Agar 28 April 1960.
Page 255, ‘Along with the other eight prisoners he would survive to be repatriated in March 1920.’ The British prisoners were in the water for about an hour. They were treated well by the crew of the Gavriil who gave them tea and cigarettes. After being transferred from Kronstadt to the mainland, they were taken to Gorohovaya by the Cheka for questioning. Although not tortured, the officers were held in solitary confinement and were treated quite roughly. For a while it seemed as though they were going to be shot as spies. But after several weeks all the men were transferred to Schpalernaya Prison and eventually to the former Andronievsky Monastery in Moscow. Conditions were severe and food was scarce. White Russians offered to smuggle food in to the prison twice a week to prevent starvation and were paid 4,800 roubles a month by MI6. But as Giddy remarked upon his return to England: ‘Balls! We never got it.’
Page 255, ‘… although when all the facts became known most agreed that he deserved the higher award.’ e.g. Agar who wrote when summarising the events of that night: ‘I think Bill’s was the most outstanding feat of all.’ FITS, p. 138
Page 256, ‘He was buried on 19 August …’ Date is from Brewerton’s logbook.
Page 256, Cowan quote: Cowan to Brewerton giving a summary of his report to the Admiralty. Brewerton papers IWM.
Page 257, ‘He had managed to find a route overland through the fighting in Estonia.’ At least that was what he said. But in his 1924 account of the journey, the details appear to be copied almost word for word from Dukes’s account published just two years earlier. Paul Dukes annotated a copy of this account for Gus Agar and he too seemed to find this story odd. We will probably never know exactly how Gefter got back to Finland.
Page 257, ‘The reality of this observation was emphaised on the morning of 20 August. Two Soviet aircraft flew over Terrioki and dropped seven bombs.’ That same day, Bolshevik agents tried to sabotage the aircraft on the landing strip at Koivisto. At 11.15 that morning, sentries chased and fired at a man who was seen trying to get into one of the hangars. (Koivisto Signals Log). There was another attempt and more shots were fired on 2 September (Brewerton’s logbook).
Page 258, ‘… but someone clearly wanted them out of the area and would probably try again.’ BE, p. 139
Page 258, ‘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.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 259, ‘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.’ Many references, but his nephew’s wife who knew him fairly well towards the end of his life, summed up his character when she said in an interview with the author: ‘He was the last of the Edwardian gentlemen. If he said that a thing would be done, then it would be done.’
Page 260, ‘He shook Marshall by the hand and told him to go and help Beeley prepare CMB7 for sea.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 260, ‘They were not carrying a torpedo.’ When not carried in the CMBs, the torpedoes were simply pushed out of the troughs and floated in the water next to the fishing boat in Terrioki harbour. They were so low in the water that they were invisible to the Finnish troops on shore. Agar TV proposal IWM.
Page 264, ‘… but the waters at the edge of the Gulf were very shallow for some distance and now that there were more patrols he was sure he would be seen.’ ST-25, p. 322
Page 264, ‘But a few days later Peter Sokolov reappeared.’ ST-25, p. 323
Page 264, ‘Besides that, his army unit was moving up to the Latvian Front and that would end the most effective part of his cover story.’ ST-25, p. 323
Page 265, ‘Within a few days, the Cheka had also picked up V. N. Rozanov, a leader of the Union for the Regeneration of Russia …’ Soyuz Vorozhdeniia Rossii
Page 265, ‘In his hiding place Peters found detailed lists of all National Centre members and intelligence contacts.’ Leggett, p. 286
Page 266, ‘So his contacts in the Army provided him with the papers of a soldier recently killed at the Front. Paul became “Private Vladimir Piotrovsky.”’ ST-25, p. 326
Page 266, ‘Paul’s commander also provided the newly resurrected Private Piotrovsky with an order to report to an artillery regiment on the Latvian front near Dvinsk.’ RDATM, p. 287
Page 266, ‘Kostya had worked for Paul as a runner carrying messages around the city and doing small jobs for the network.’ RDATM, p. 287
Page 266, ‘Since Kostya was happy to desert from the army, Paul decided to take him along.’ ST-25, p. 325
Page 267, ‘It all served to emphasise to him that it was time to leave.’ RDATM, p. 207
Page 268, ‘… Paul, Peter Sokolov and young Kostya set out for the last time on the evening of Saturday, 30 August 1919.’ RDATM p.287. Dukes says that they left on ‘a Sunday evening’. ST-25, p. 324 says that it was ‘one day in early September’. The only day which fits both of these descriptions is Sunday, 7 September. However Dukes’s diary makes it clear that he left Petrograd at 6 p.m. on Saturday, 30 August.
Page 268, ‘… despite the protests of the occupants – which tended to die down as they realised just how big Peter was.’ RDATM, p. 288
Page 268, ‘They travelled for eleven hours …’ RDATM, p. 288
Page 268, ‘He was clearly a member of the grandly named “Committee for Combating Desertion.”’ RDATM, p. 288
Page 269, ‘… Peter said that one of the search teams was already in the next compartment and they were searching everything, even the seat cushions.’ RDATM, p. 289
Page 269, ‘In desperation, he pulled out the packets and thrust them under his seat.’ RDATM, p. 289
Page 270, ‘He put a reassuring hand on his arm and murmured to him to keep his chin up.’ ST-25, p. 330
Page 271, ‘There was a sandbagged machine-gun emplacement at the windmill, positioned so that the gun could sweep both the lake and the shoreline.’ ST-25, p. 334
Page 271, ‘In the dark, they could not see this clearly and it tore at their clothes and skin until the three of them were ragged and bloody.’ ST-25, p. 334
Page 272, ‘By eight o’clock in the morning …’ ST-25, p. 335
Page 274, ‘He did not necessarily believe Paul’s story, but he had decided that it would be better if they were someone else’s problem.’ According to Dukes’s diary, they were taken to Madon the following day (3 September). At 8 p.m. on Thursday, 4 September, they were taken to the British Consulate at Riga where they stayed for twenty-four hours. They arrived at Reval on Sunday, 7 September. Dukes then travelled back to London via Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo (Christiana) and Bergen, arriving in Newcastle at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, 17 September.
Page 278, ‘“Then I stay also.”’ BE, p. 187
Page 278, ‘As he had done before he started to panic – noisily.’ FITS, p. 142
Page 279, ‘… the petrol cans provided just enough resistance to give a little steerage to the boat.’ FITS, p. 143
Page 281, ‘They had been saved by God.’ And Gus was forced to agree: ‘Was it a “miracle” like Dunkirk, or perhaps an answer to a prayer? I am sure it was both. Thy will be done.’ FITS, p. 143
Page 282, ‘Once more Gus Agar, now Lieutenant Commander Augustus Agar VC, DSO.’ He had been promoted at the end of July.
Page 282, ‘In the distance, Big Ben struck eleven o’clock.’ The date of this meeting is not recorded in the diaries of Agar, Dukes or Cumming. It must have been between 24 September when Agar arrived back in the country and 4 October when Dukes left London to go on leave. Cumming’s diary entries for this period are a good illustration of how that book must be treated with caution. He records Dukes’s return on the 17 September, Dukes’s meeting with Churchill on the 18 September and with Lord Curzon on the 20 September – although the dates are correct, he places them all in November. (Judd, p. 435).
Page 282, ‘He had left Biorko on 17 September, arriving in England on Wednesday, 24 September, just seven days after Paul Dukes.’ Agar’s diary.
Page 282, ‘He had travelled from Helsinki to Stockholm where he had dined with Major John Scale and his wife.’ Saturday, 20 September (Agar’s diary).
Page 282, ‘In other words they had found Gus to be far too much of an independent thinker to work as an agent for MI6.’ Cumming received notification of this request from Scale on 28 August so the decision must have been taken just before Agar’s last mission. Given Cowan’s very high opinion of Agar, if Cumming forwarded the request, he no doubt treated the request with the contempt it deserved. Judd, p. 435.
Page 283, ‘After lunch with Scale, Gus found that he had several hours to spend before his train left for Oslo.’ At 2130. Oslo was then known as Christiana.
Page 283, ‘He watched Sweden play a team from the United States.’ In his diary Agar records this as ‘USA v Sweden’, but the US national team was not playing at this time. Bethlehem Steel, the US champions, were touring Sweden and they beat a ‘Select Swedish XI’ 3–2 in Stockholm. However, according to official records this was on 21 September not the 20. This just may be a matter of Agar’s occasionally inaccurate record-keeping.
Page 284, ‘So Gus recommended him to Cumming and Sindall joined MI6 soon after.’ In a letter dated 11 March 1920, Sindall specifically thanks Agar for recommending him to Cumming (Agar papers, IWM).