RMLI is this service in Russia and any information

[wulsten]

Looking at this RMLI service record and states special service Kandalashka? Any information appreciated 

[FROGSMILE]

On 16/09/2024 at 20:14, wulsten said:

Looking at this RMLI service record and states special service Kandalashka? Any information appreciated 

That location seems to have been a landing place as it features in operations during both 1918 before Brest/Litovsk and 1919 during the North Russia campaign around Murmansk, when fierce fighting took place between the allied force combined with unreliable White Russians, versus Bolsheviks with hot passions for regime change.

You can read about RMLI activity here: https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/post/6th-bn-royal-marines-light-infantry-in-north-russia

Also, on 22 September 1919, with the final Allied withdrawal already ongoing, a detachment from the 2/10th Royal Scots was sent by river to Kandalaksha on four fishing boats to stop sabotage operations carried out by Finnish Bolsheviks** against the railway there. The British party was ambushed even before landing and suffered heavy casualties, with 13 men killed and 4 wounded. I don’t know if any RMLI were involved on the boats but there’s no mention of them so it seems unlikely.

** there were also Finnish White Guards on the opposing side.  It was a febrile atmosphere, with deeply reluctant and mutinous allied troops feeling it wasn’t worth fighting and dieing in a place that they did not want to be, for the sake of big power geopolitics from a Western Europe and America petrified about the possibility of Bolshevism spreading, and affecting their own populations.

 

Edited 17 hours ago by FROGSMILE

[wulsten]

Many thanks reply appreciated 

[Chris_Baker]

Kandalaksha can be seen on the first map on my page at https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/6th-yorkshires-in-clash-at-bolshie-ozerki/ . You will see that it lay on the railway heading south from Murmansk.

[wrightdw]

Kandalaksha, south of Murmansk on the White Sea.

Your man is probably HMS Glory IV (Royal Marines Field Force North Russia).

For more on Royal Marines operations in North Russia 1918-19, I would recommend a copy of my book on the campaign: https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/churchills-secret-war-with-lenin-british-and-commonwealth-military-intervention-in-the-russian-civil-war-1918-20.php?sid=5f682657c2dea5ccc69638075f392fec

 

[FROGSMILE]

I find it a fascinating campaign and quite extraordinary that in 1918, before Brest/Litovsk, the British troops (including RMLI) were fighting on the side of the Red Russian and Finnish forces against the Whites aligned with Germany, only to find themselves the following year fighting fiercely against their erstwhile comrades whilst aligned with those who had been less than a year before their enemies!  It’s no wonder that the allied troops became so rebellious.

Edited 11 hours ago by FROGSMILE

[wulsten]

Thank you for the replies and advice, very much appreciated and will certainly have a read up