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Germany
good many double chins and paunches still, that is among the men. The women look really emaciated. They have suffered from the food shortage a great deal more than the men. The saddest thing, however; is the suffering among children. They show it markedly. Infant mortality has been very high and still is, though not as bad as in the winter of 1916–17. Meat sells at from 29 to 30 marks a pound, including the bone. To illustrate the scarcity, during an attack of Spartacans in Wilhelmshaven, a horse in a passing cart was shot. Within 20
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
minutes after it fell, every shred of flesh had been stripped from its bones. This indicates that meat shortage even more plainly than the empty butcher shops do. Grocery shops appear fairly well stocked, but the prices are enormous. Practically everything is rationed, including clothing. Great quantities of potatoes and cabbages are on hand, and, counting the difference in exchange, they can be bought cheaper here than in England. Practically no vegetables of any other kind are on hand. No tinned vegetables are obtainable in any of the shops. Fats do not exist. There is an almost
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
total absence of soap. They have a substitute which is said to be very poor. The bread is bad. It is made of wurzel meal, as potatoes cannot be spared for meal. There is very little milk in the country." Germany's solution to its economic woes would be a massive emigration to the United States that would both create a new market for Germany to revitalize its industrial capacity and facilitate remittances back to Germany as the new immigrants prospered, Koehler believed. Receiving Koehler's report, Admiral Sims replied, "My opinion of the value and the interest of this
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
letter is such that... I have had it mimeographed for circulation among our forces here... I am also sending copies to the O.N.I. (Office of Naval Intelligence) and to certain officers....I should be glad if, as opportunity provides, you would continue similar observations and send them in to headquarters." Koehler's assessment of conditions in Germany were reprinted in American newspapers. Koehler made a follow-up inspection and report from Wilhelmshaven and Kiel on June 16, reporting that "The whole harbor of Kiel was filled with decaying men-of-war. It is almost impossible to conceive how complete is the ruin that comes to
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
men-of-war in just a few months of neglect, for these splendid ships of only six months ago are even now almost beyond recall..." Less than a week after Koehler wrote his report, the German navy in defiance of the terms of the Peace "diktat", scuttled most of its ships interned at Scapa Flow. Reporting from Scapa Flow a week later, Koehler wrote, "All Germany and particularly naval officers are jubilant about the sinking of the German ships at Scapa Flow... Everywhere in Germany I heard the cry against the clause in the peace terms that provides for the trial of
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
the Kaiser and others responsible for the war..." Koehler saw that over-reaching by the other allies, particularly France, would be problematic for the next generation. "In those questions on which the United States has taken a different stand than the Allies, Germans attribute it to a latent friendship for Germany- a friendship somewhat disturbed these last years but that still exists. It is difficult to point out that the attitude of the U.S. is not that of favoring Germany but simply the earnest desire to do the right thing and bring about a peace that does not contain in the
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany
very peace terms the germs of another war. That the U.S. took none of the surrendered U-boats is well known in Germany and considered a good omen that the U.S. has no desire to take anything from Germany. Extreme bitterness toward the English seems to be lost in their greater hatred of France. They say France has only one idea of peace- to ruin Germany utterly- and the only thing that can keep France from doing this is the British sense of fair play and this latent friendship from America....A restaurant manager asked the same question that greeted
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Hugo W. Koehler
Germany & First American Officer in Berlin
us on all sides: He was surprised when I mentioned it seemed likely the places to which Americans would flock after peace had been declared were the battlefields at Ypres, the Somme, and Château-Thierry, and not the spas of Germany...." First American Officer in Berlin While newspapers reported that Hugo Koehler was the first American naval officer to enter Germany following the Armistice, Koehler did not enter Germany until February 1919. He does have the distinction of being the first American officer to enter Berlin following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, officially
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Hugo W. Koehler
First American Officer in Berlin
ending the war. The Allied Naval Armistice Commission was at Hamburg embarked on the British cruiser, HMS Coventry. The city was under martial law and none of the British officers were interested in going ashore, unlike Koehler and Chief Yeoman Walter Dring, USN (1894–1984). Despite warnings of the danger, and armed with a notebook and pencils, Koehler and Dring sauntered down the gangplank and strode to the Hamburg-American Line pier. Pushing through a crowd that was jostling for sugar and cigarettes, the pair were headed towards the main street, when two German military police on a sidecar motorcycle stopped
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Hugo W. Koehler
First American Officer in Berlin
and picked them up for questioning. Brought to German naval headquarters, they were interrogated by Admirals Scheer, Von Hipper and Von Reuter. Koehler explained that Coventry was the first inspection ship to arrive at Hamburg following the treaty and that the British officers preferred to remain on board. The Germans were greatly amused that the British were reluctant to come ashore and gave the American naval spy and his scribe permission to travel to Berlin by night train, provided they remained confined to their compartment. At 7 a.m. the following morning, Koehler and Dring arrived as the
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Hugo W. Koehler
First American Officer in Berlin
first American military to enter Berlin. They flipped a coin to see who would be first off the train, but "both landed on the platform at the same time in a heap". Koehler hailed a cab, an emaciated horse drawing a cart with bare, iron wheels, and directed the driver to the Adlon Hotel, where he reminisced with the owner, Lorenz Adlon (1849–1921) about meeting him in Berlin 25 years earlier with his grandfather, and gave the man two chocolate bars, soap and cigarettes. After breakfast, the duo's sightseeing was interrupted by three policemen who escorted them back
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Hugo W. Koehler
First American Officer in Berlin
to the hotel. With no papers other than their orders from London, they were directed to take the 6 o'clock train out of Berlin. But Koehler had other plans, and instead of going back to Hamburg and HMS Coventry, he took Dring to the best hotel in Düsseldorf. From there they boarded a train to Hanover, then on to Cologne, where Koehler sought out British officers of the Army of Occupation who promptly locked them up as spies. "Hugo looked like the Kaiser with that damn little mustache," complained Dring. When they were released, they took
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Hugo W. Koehler
First American Officer in Berlin & Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
a train to Brussels and then on to Paris, where Koehler told Dring that he was "going to duck for three or four hours before reporting to the embassy." Left to face the Red Cross alone and standing in line for breakfast with other servicemen, Dring was questioned and declared that he had just come from Germany. Red Cross officials disbelieved his story and the MP's believed he was a spy, so Dring was again arrested and continued to go hungry. Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations When Dring finally got to the American embassy in
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
Paris, officials asked where Koehler was. The roving commander showed up a few days later and wrote his follow-up report on conditions inside Germany. On July 7, the adventure was over and Dring was ordered back to London. Before he left, he introduced Koehler to Rear Admiral McCully, who had recently arrived from Allied operations in North Russia. In Paris, Koehler was assigned as aide to McCully, the senior Navy member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. As a lieutenant commander in 1904, McCully had been a military observer embedded with the Imperial Russian Army during
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
the Russo-Japanese War, arriving at the front lines in Manchuria via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Returning to the United States in 1906, McCully had submitted a lengthy report on his findings. In 1914, McCully was assigned as naval attaché at St. Petersburg. By 1916, fluent in Russian and knowledgeable of the fluid political, military and social conditions there, he warned the State Department that food shortages, official corruption and a demoralized populus might soon force Russia out of World War One. In 1917 he witnessed the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. Shortly after this, he was ordered back to sea duty
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
in the Atlantic and promoted to rear admiral in September 1918. Less than a month before the Armistice, McCully was designated as Commander, U.S. Naval Forces in Northern Russia, and read his orders aboard the USS Olympia on October 24, 1918. With Olympia's departure for Scotland on November 8, McCully and a small contingent of officers and bluejackets were the American naval presence for the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, the struggle between the Bolsheviks and those who opposed them (often known as the "Reds" and "Whites", respectively). The 8,000 American troops of the American Expeditionary Force
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
Siberia sent by President Woodrow Wilson to Vladivostok to guard the billion-dollar investment of American guns and equipment along the Trans-Siberian railroad and protect the Czech legion tried to remain in a defensive posture. A larger force of British "Tommies", freezing alongside the Czechs, fought among themselves as much as against the Bolsheviki. The separate 5,000 troop Polar Bear Expedition was sent to Archangel to guard the Murman and Archangel-Vologda railways and Allied supply stockpiles in the vicinity. American military action was deemed admissible only to assist the Czechs in defending themselves against armed Austrian and German prisoners that
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
were attacking them and to steady efforts at self- government by the Russians. American policy was stated on August 3, 1918, the day after the Allied occupation of Archangel, "Whether from Vladivostok or from Murmansk and Archangel, the only present object for which American troops will be employed will be to guard military stores which may subsequently be needed by Russian forces and to render such aid as may be acceptable to the Russians in the organization of their self-defense." No interference with Russian political sovereignty or intervention in her internal affairs was planned. Despite this directive, during their 19
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
months in Siberia, 189 soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia died from all causes, including combat. The smaller American North Russia Expeditionary Force experienced 235 deaths from all causes during their 9 months imbedded during fighting near Archangel. Through March 1919, McCully's men primarily operated ashore from Murmansk and engaged in intelligence gathering and reporting to Admiral Sims in London on the political, financial, military, naval, and economic conditions. McCully reported that the Whites and Allied forces controlled about two-thirds of Archangel province, south to Murmansk and west to the border between Finland and Karelia. Concerning
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
naval conditions there was little to report, for there had been no naval operations, the Bolsheviks not having a deep-water naval presence in North Russia. With his familiarity of Russia and its language, unquestionably, McCully was the Navy's top "Russia man". In a report to Admiral Sims in late February, McCully reported that the military situation in the Archangel region was precarious and that Allied forces along both the Archangel-Vologda railway and the Murman railway were insufficient. He urged stationing vessels at both Archangel and Murmansk and providing another to cruise along the 1,600 mile coast and visit other ports.
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations
During May through June, the patrol gunboat USS Sacramento (PG-19), protected cruiser USS Des Moines (CL-17) and three Eagle-class patrol boats were detached to McCully, to supplement the Spanish American War-era, steam-schooner USS Yankton that he had taken as his flagship in February. By order of the Secretary of the Navy dated June 30, two days after the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles, McCully was detached from his command in Northern Russia and directed to proceed to London. Following the withdrawal of U.S. ground forces from Archangel and vicinity in July, with a backdrop of deteriorating morale and American public opinion, the
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Hugo W. Koehler
Rear Admiral Newton McCully and North Russian Operations & With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
last remaining U.S. naval vessel, Des Moines stood out from Archangel on September 14, 1919, and steamed down the Northern Dvina River for Harwich, England, marking the conclusion of American naval operations in North Russia. With McCully's "Mission to South Russia" On August 6, Koehler was sent on another fact-finding survey in Germany, where he inspected floating dry docks. Before returning to Paris, he was ordered to London to brief Winston Churchill at the War Ministry on conditions inside Germany. With the exception of Churchill, the allies had been reluctant to enter the Russian morass. Foreign intervention in
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
the Russian Civil War would not have proceeded without Churchill's persistence. As he warned the House of Commons in March 1919, "Bolsheviks destroy wherever they exist but by rolling forward into fertile areas, like the vampire which sucks the blood from its victim, they gain means of prolonging their own baleful existence." In the spring of 1919, the army of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, organizer of the "White" resistance in Siberia had advanced to the Volga River. The forces of Russian general Yevgeny Miller were fighting the "Reds" as far as Petrograd. From the west, a small army under General Nikolai
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
Yudenich had also advanced on Petrograd, while in South Russia, the forces of General Anton Denikin had begun to advance on Moscow. But by the summer, the advances of all the various White factions, and their fortunes, reversed almost simultaneously, except for those in South Russia that continued to advance into autumn. Seizing the opportunity to fill the void of the departed German army, newly independent Poland occupied parts of Lithuania, eastern Galicia and Ruthenia, before advancing into western Ukraine, where Nestor Makhno, an anarchist with a band of militarist peasants was attacking both Red and White troops. With
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
the governments of Britain and America yielding to public pressure at home and withdrawing their troops from Archangel, Murmansk and Olonets, Miller's troops were left to face the Reds alone, and swift defeat. Yudenitch overreached his advance and the Reds repulsed his forces back to the Baltic states, where they disbanded. To the east, Kolchak's over-extended troops were trounced before they could reach the Volga and began a torturous retreat to Siberia, without supplies and forced to strip corpses for clothes and shoes. Denikin reached within 200 miles of Moscow, and filled with hubris, debated which horse he
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
would triumphantly ride into the city, but over-extended and with broken supply lines, in October, the Reds pummelled his forces at Oryol and forced him to retreat with his disintegrating army. Driven southward, his troops surrendered Kharkov to the Bolsheviks on December 13, 1919. By the end of that year, the struggle between the Bolsheviks and the Whites had driven thousands of retreating White Army troops and civilian refugees to the northern shore of the Black Sea and into the Crimean Peninsula, where they could expect no mercy from the Bolsheviks. The Peace Commission concluded on December 10, and
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
while the other American staff members returned to the United States, McCully was ordered to London as a representative on the Commission on Naval Terms. At the suggestion of Admiral Mark L. Bristol, Commander, Naval Forces, Turkish Peninsula, McCully was proposed to lead a special mission for the U.S. State Department with the purpose of keeping the government informed of developments in that region and to protect American lives and interests. On December 23, 1919, Secretary of State Robert Lansing cabled McCully designating him Special Agent for the Department of State and instructing him to proceed with a detachment
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
including Koehler, who was then also fluent in Russian as his second-in-command, and nine other naval officers and enlisted men, "to the south of Russia with a view, first, to make observations and report to this Department upon political and economic conditions in the region visited, and second, to establish informal connection with General Denikin and his associates." ("South of Russia" meaning the area roughly encompassed by Ukraine and Crimea.) Taking a train from Paris to Italy, on New Year's Day 1920, Koehler and McCully sailed aboard the steamer Karlsbad bound for Salonika, Greece. Six days later they arrived
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia"
at Constantinople. En route through Greece, Koehler characteristically took the opportunity to engage the locals and analyze the economic and social conditions. In a letter to his mother, he showed remarkable astuteness in commenting on the economic imbalance of the Greek economy that led to its debt crisis nearly a century later. "I talked to .... a professor at the University of Athens, [who] spoke at great length about Greek claims to Smyrna. I asked what these claims were and what they were based on. They were all based on historical reasons, he answered but was vague
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Hugo W. Koehler
With McCully's "Mission to South Russia" & Odessa, February 1920
as to the exact historical reasons.... I commented that... what Greece needed was raisins rather than historical reasons-- raisins and olive oil to pay for her tremendous imports being paid for only by loans and paper... But apparently the Greeks believe that there is no need for such mundane things as raisins and olives while loans are plentiful and they can get flour and automobiles for paper money...." Odessa, February 1920 Vice Admiral Bristol detached one of the various destroyers in his command, to operate along the northern Black Sea coast to assist the Mission, enabling McCully to continuously maintain
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
mail and radio communication. Bristol dispatched Lt. Hamilton V. Bryan to serve as McCully's agent at Odessa in the Ukraine, and he also kept Bristol informed of happenings. On the morning of February 10, 1920, Koehler came ashore at Odessa lighthouse from the destroyer USS Talbot (DD-114) on a mission to evacuate the few American citizens believed still in the city, which had been overrun by the Bolshevik Red Army in the Odessa Operation after General Nikolai Shilling, Denikin's appointed commander of White forces in the Odessa area, had failed to mount any defense and been among the first to evacuate.
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
Russian and British mission officers, along with 5,000 refugees were being evacuated by sea under the protection of the British cruiser HMS Ceres. Negotiating his way up from the lighthouse keeper, who was loath to go into the city, to the captain of the Red Guard, Koehler quickly arranged to be taken to meet with General Ieronim Uborevich of the Red Army, the victor of Odessa that had vanquished Denikin's Whites from the town. Repeatedly questioned by a commisar what Entente men-of-war were doing in the harbor and why they had fired on Bolshevik troops, Koehler steadfastly and calmly parried
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
the charges, insisting that no firing had occurred since Talbot anchored in the harbor, that the Americans were there for the sole purpose of evacuating refugees, and that he understood the reason for prior naval gun fire was because Odessa had been occupied by "marauders and thieves" before the Red Army entered. When Uborevich questioned Koehler about American opinion of Bolshevism and its recent victories, Koehler responded that he "had not been in America since the war, so he "did not know American opinion in detail, but that in general, I thought that American opinion was not impressed with
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
the chance of success of any government based on the will of so minute a minority as that of the present Bolshevist regime." Koehler was initially told by Uborevich and a commisar that they would need "word from Moscow" on his request to make contact with the Americans, that might take two or three days. Koehler was able to expertly manipulate around the delay and avoid becoming an extended "guest" of the Reds. When Uborevich asked Koehler what he thought of the recent Red victories, Koehler told him that his impression was that the Red advance was more
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
an example of the weakness of Denikin's forces than the strength of the Red Army. "No one made any comment on this reply and I became very definitely of the opinion that at heart they agreed with me." Accompanied by a general, orderly and a guard, Koehler first went to the address of Mrs. Annette Keyser (1893–1971), a Russian-born composer, singer and widow of an American citizen. As the grateful woman wrote a few years later to Secretary of the Navy, Edward Denby, "I happened to be sick in bed with pneumonia and tonsillitis, and I wrote
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Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
a letter to the American mission, imploring them to save me... I could not believe my eyes when I beheld a tall man entering my room dressed in a black cloak, conveyed by two armed Bolshevists. Is it possible? An AMERICAN OFFICER, I exclaimed.... Lt. Cmdr. Hugo W. Koehler-- came close, he said, 'Yes, it is possible; here I am to help you, as I know you are sick." I broke down, crying like a child, and begged the kind officer to take me to America, to my Mother, as I had no one in Odessa
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3,616
46
4,189
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
but my beloved husband's grave... During the sad scene one of the armed Bolshevists took stations at the door, and the other, evidently knowing the English language, came closer to hear the conversation. Lieutenant Commander Koehler tried to quiet me, explaining that he had orders to take the refugees to Constantinople only. The neighbors hearing this, advised me to remain, as I was too ill to travel. Lieutenant Commander Koehler, also finding this best, advised me to stay.... Thinking that I was in need, he offered me money... and he assured me that I was not in
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2,461
Q28737277
46
4,189
46
4,705
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
danger, and if he found out that I was, he would come and take me with him. After he left, my friend explained to me that his (Koehler's) life was in danger, as there was no government to be responsible if anything should happen to him.... [I] prayed to be in a position to come to the United States some day in order to find Lieutenant Commander Koehler and to thank him personally and to tell the world that there are still some noble and kind people who will endanger their lives to help a little, weak woman, a
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 46, "sc": 4705, "ep": 46, "ec": 5292}
2,461
Q28737277
46
4,705
46
5,292
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
mere stranger." The Secretary of the Navy wrote to Koehler that his "chivalrous efforts" were "the kind of service that makes life worthwhile." From her studio in Los Angeles, California, Annette Keyser recalled a dozen years later, "I was ill with pneumonia at Odessa.... My condition was too serious to permit my removal and Commander Koehler came ashore and with the aid of Capt. [James] Irvine got a promise from the revolutionists that upon my recovery I would be permitted to leave. This I did and was put on board a Turkish steamer and reached Constantinople safely."
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2,461
Q28737277
46
5,292
46
5,889
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
After Koehler had made arrangements with the Reds to secure Keyser's safety and eventual evacuation to Constantinople, with his Red escort he next visited the addresses of three American men, and determined that two had already made it safely out of Odessa; however, the third was believed to be in the city and "strongly suspected of pro-Bolshevik leanings". Koehler was then taken back to Red headquarters, where he was able to delay his voluntary departure for a day, and make further observations as he walked ten miles through the besieged city. "I entered two food shops and although there
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 46, "sc": 5889, "ep": 46, "ec": 6481}
2,461
Q28737277
46
5,889
46
6,481
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
was not a great abundance of supplies, both shops had customers buying food. All money is current: Soviet, Romanov, Kerensky, even Denikin army money, in accordance with the decree to the effect that shopkeepers are required to accept every kind of Russian money tendered to them.... Streets of the town were in deplorable condition. Numerous dead horses and dogs were lying about, but I saw no human bodies,... the Americans I was endeavoring to locate lived in widely separated quarters of the town, so I was able to go practically everywhere I wished... I was particularly on the lookout
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2,461
Q28737277
46
6,481
46
7,111
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920
for signs of German influence, German officers or munitions, any trace of German activity, but failed to discover anything...." About a week after Koehler's departure from Odessa, the Bolshevik government sent a long wireless dispatch to President Wilson and the League of Nations, complaining that after "Captain Keller" had left the city and "given [his] word" that he would not fire on the town, "a murderous fire was opened up from [his] entire squadron and hundreds of innocent women and children were killed thereby." As Koehler wrote to his mother about the deceitful fabrication, "And incidentally, although this message
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2,461
Q28737277
46
7,111
50
384
Hugo W. Koehler
Odessa, February 1920 & Novorossiysk, March 1920
described me as a very terrible and very wicked man, I've always been grateful to the Bolsheviks for it, for in light of these tactics I was able to understand many things not clear to me before." Novorossiysk, March 1920 After the fall of Odessa to the Reds, Koehler and McCully returned to Sebastopol and a short visit to the battle front. Returning to Novorossiysk on February 20 aboard the cruiser USS Galveston (CL-19), they found the city flooded with refugees from Kharkov and Rostov. Denikin blamed his subordinates for his military failures, particularly General Pyotr Wrangel, who had advocated
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2,461
Q28737277
50
384
50
967
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
a concentration of White forces in the Crimea to make a last stand there in December, a plan that Denikin had rejected. Now in March, it was a disastrous, headlong retreat into the port of Novorossiysk that Denikin had made no provisions for. Instead, while many in the White army and navy had called on Denikin to replace the incompetent Shilling with Wrangel, Denikin had banished Wrangel, a respected and highly competent soldier, to Constantinople. The end of Denikin's army came amidst a brutal winter, and a Typhoid fever epidemic. On March 16, Ekaterinodar, capital of the
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 50, "sc": 967, "ep": 50, "ec": 1622}
2,461
Q28737277
50
967
50
1,622
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
Kuban province about 80 miles northeast of Novorossiysk was captured by the Reds. On March 26, Red forces reached the vicinity of Novorossiysk, advancing along the railway as the British battleship HMS Emperor of India, the cruiser HMS Calypso and the French cruiser Waldeck-Rousseau fired their naval guns into the hills to support the withdrawal of Denikin's forces. Around noon, fires broke out by the railway yards and waterfront, which soon became uncontrolled infernos, consuming buildings, warehouses, ammunition, oil and rolling stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tons of weapons, tanks, armored cars and munitions were pushed off the
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 50, "sc": 1622, "ep": 50, "ec": 2181}
2,461
Q28737277
50
1,622
50
2,181
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
docks into the harbor. As Koehler described it, "Ships lying alongside the docks crowded on human cargo almost to the last inch of space and then, fearing the fire, moved away from the piers into the stream, although they made almost no impression on the multitude seeking to board. Packed on the docks and beach, surrounded by raging fire, were thousands who had hoped and expected to be taken away, but who had been left behind for lack of ships to embark them. These were mostly soldiers just arrived from the vanished front, but many women and children
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2,461
Q28737277
50
2,181
50
2,789
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
were seen among them." Rear Admiral McCully, a humanitarian and a naval officer, recommended to the State Department, that the Russian refugees from the Caucus and Kuban be granted asylum, but was turned down. Although Admiral Bristol was also a humanitarian, and ultimately played a major role in the resettlement of displaced persons from the region, he did not then want to be saddled with thousands of refugees and ordered McCully to bring no more than 250 down the Bosporus Strait in his ships. About 200 women and children were transported on Galveston and the destroyer, USS Smith Thompson (DD-212)
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2,461
Q28737277
50
2,789
50
3,394
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
to Proti Island in the Sea of Marmara, with another thousand transported on American ships to the Crimea. On the morning of March 27, Galveston stood out from Novorossiysk, with 3-inch shells from Red shore batteries falling perilously close, as the beleaguered city fell to the Reds. Koehler wrote, "Several small boat trips were made from the Galveston in a last effort to rescue a few more women and children, but it was impossible to get any considerable number of them through the throng." Besides troops and refugees pouring into the Crimea, another 50,000 refugees were transported to the Bosporus
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 50, "sc": 3394, "ep": 50, "ec": 4005}
2,461
Q28737277
50
3,394
50
4,005
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
on Russian ships. Koehler described the plight of those who could not flee, but instead sought to negotiate with the Bolsheviks for surrender, "The Reds promised immunity to all except malefactors, on the condition the troops would march against the Poles; but immediately on the surrender being accomplished, the Reds began the usual slaughter of officers and stripped the soldiers of their clothes. The Cossacks again took to arms, about 10,000 taking to the hills and about 2,000 escaping across the Georgian border. Unable to take them along, about 700 children were drowned at the beach by their mothers,
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2,461
Q28737277
50
4,005
50
4,628
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
who then took to the hills with the men." The debacle at Novorossiysk completely discredited Denikin, who fled the Crimea on March 21 and sailed to England. One of his last acts was to begrudgingly appoint General (Baron) Pyotr Wrangel as commander in chief of the White resistance. On April 4, Denikin issued a proclamation to the Don, Terek and Kuban cossack representatives dissolving the democratic government that had been formed on February 4, but making no provision for representative institutions. Wrangel, known as the "Black Baron" by the Reds, immediately locked down the Crimea as the last enclave of
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2,461
Q28737277
50
4,628
50
5,211
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
the White movement, ruthlessly restoring discipline by executing all looters, agitators, speculators and commissars, in one instance parading 370 men in front of him and then having them all shot. The remaining men were offered the alternative of joining the White Army. On April 10, Wrangel sailed with an expedition to Perekop in the Sea of Azov and after six days of heavy fighting had made a slight advance to secure a path for egress of the Crimean forces to the north, a tactical and symbolic advance that revived morale among the White troops and the confidence of the people
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2,461
Q28737277
50
5,211
50
5,808
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
that supported the resistance. With the reorganization of the White forces, on June 1, 1920, the "Black Baron" had an operational army of 40,000, consisting of First Corps under General Alexander Kutepov at Perekop with 7,000 Volunteer Army infantry, 46 guns, 12 tanks, 21 aeroplanes and 500 cavalry; Second Corps under General Yakov Slashchov, organized for a combined naval and military expedition to a port on the Sea of Azov, with 10,000 men in all, 58 guns, 3 aeroplanes, 5 armored motorcars and 400 cavalry; Third Corps under General A. Pisarev at the Sivash Isthmus with 11,000 men total,
{"datasets_id": 2461, "wiki_id": "Q28737277", "sp": 50, "sc": 5808, "ep": 50, "ec": 6426}
2,461
Q28737277
50
5,808
50
6,426
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
19 guns, 9 aeroplanes, 3 armored trains, and 1,960 cavalry; and Fourth Corps, composed of dismounted Kuban cossacks, 14 guns, and about 16,000 men in reserve near Sivash. Wrangel also improved the naval assets of the White forces, with a Black Sea and separate Azov Sea flotilla. Receiving coal shipments from Constantinople in April and May to enable the ships to steam, the Black Sea ships numbered a battleship, three cruisers, ten destroyers and eight gunboats, and in the Azov Sea the Whites had fifteen shallow-draft boats. Morale was also greatly improved, and while for the first time since
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2,461
Q28737277
50
6,426
50
6,970
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920
the spring of 1918, the Cossacks did not figure as the prominent element of the White army, with a corresponding decrease in cavalry superiority, the army was now made up of men who were determined to fight the enemy. As Koehler wrote in his report, "The Cossacks are fighting to get back to their stanitzi in the Don and the Kuban- nor do they see much beyond that. They do not loot now, but resent being deprived of (as they look at it) a well-earned privilege... Russia means nothing to them... They... fight any... power or regime or idea
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2,461
Q28737277
50
6,970
54
549
Hugo W. Koehler
Novorossiysk, March 1920 & Melitopol, June 1920
that interferes with their old priveleges." Melitopol, June 1920 On April 3, Koehler and McCully reached the Crimean port of Yalta, where Koehler met Baron Wrangel hours after the general had returned from Constantinople to take charge of the remaining men of the White Army, and then headed to Sebastopol. While her husband commanded the White forces in South Russia, Baroness Wrangel remained in Constantinople with her three children, where she helped the American Red Cross care for the thousands of Russian refugees who were driven from their homes by the collapse of the Denikin forces. Baroness Wrangel was
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2,461
Q28737277
54
549
54
1,087
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
a daily worker at the island of Proti where the Red Cross cared for a colony of more than a thousand of these homeless and destitute people. In early June, McCully and Koehler stood out on the destroyer Smith Thompson from Sebastopol for the Sea of Azov based on information that the White army was making a landing there. Entering the Kerch Strait on June 6, the ship hugged the port shoreline to avoid the Red shore batteries on the starboard side. They were taken under fire, and the first shot came close as the destroyer sped up to
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2,461
Q28737277
54
1,087
54
1,691
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
25 knots and hugged the west side of the straight, making it through to reach the Sivash front and General Slashchov's troop landing at the small village of Kirilovkar. McCully and Koehler went ashore, with McCully returning to the ship later that day with ten wounded Russian soldiers that were transported that night by the destroyer through the Kerch Strait to Sebastopol. Koehler stayed ashore, and the next day he caught up with Slashchov at Radionovka, interviewing Bolshevik prisoners and villagers on the way. "Villagers were bitter enough in denunciations of Bolsheviks, but I noted no great
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2,461
Q28737277
54
1,691
54
2,283
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
enthusiasm for Wrangel's forces- the attitude was one of indifference- of a people who had known the worst and cared little one way or another..." On daybreak of the third day, Koehler joined a small cavalry detachment headed toward the fighting in Melitopol. "Upon arrival at the outskirts of Melitopol we found Reds still held Melitopol station and were bombarding the town from armored trains at a distance, but the south Russian forces had occupied the main part of town. I continued on into the town and went at once to headquarters where I found General Tsichetski installed
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2,461
Q28737277
54
2,283
54
2,882
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
in the building hurriedly vacated a few hours previously by the Bolshevik Central Committee." At his request, Koehler was given three cossacks to accompany him to the address he had earlier obtained from a prisoner for the headquarters of the Bolshevik Tchresvichaika. Breaking the locks, the group began collecting up the papers that seemed of value, until seeing a group of White cavalry galloping by, they learned they were caught in the middle of Red troops that had counter-attacked and reentered the city. Rather than try to flee, Koehler and his party commandeered a cart and hid with their
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2,461
Q28737277
54
2,882
54
3,463
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
load of papers by a flour mill for a few hours, until the Red troops themselves retreated with White cavalry on their flank. Koehler and his group rode on to Radionovka "with their loot". Within a few days, Slashchov had conquered the entire province and doubled Wrangel's White-held territory, secured enough grain to feed the Crimea and his cavalry's horses, and improved the standing of the White cause in Europe. When Pisarev attacked at Chongar and Kutepov's Volunteer Army troops engaged the main Red forces at Perekop, the Reds were caught off guard and had to retreat to
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2,461
Q28737277
54
3,463
54
4,021
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
avoid being surrounded. The day Koehler headed back to Crimea, Leon Trotsky arrived in Alexandrovsk and announced that the Tauride with its great stores of grain, had to be retaken, since a winter of starvation for the Reds had to be avoided at all costs. Koehler observed the White army equally needed the Tauride and its grain, "For the south too, will go hungry without this grain, and the army would be the first to starve... An army that has known cold and hunger as has this army, will fight hard before it leaves plenty to go back to cold and
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2,461
Q28737277
54
4,021
54
4,629
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
hungry." For Koehler's exploit in Melitopol, Rear Admiral McCully recommended him for award of the Distinguished Service Medal in July 1923 with the following citation, "During the capture of Melitopol by the Wrangel forces on June 10, 1920, he was in the advance guard [that] entered the town, immediately proceeding to the Bolshevik headquarters and began collection of their papers. While engaged in this work the town was recaptured by the Bolshevik troops and Lt. Cmdr. Koehler for several hours was cut off from the troops which he accompanied. He managed to conceal himself and in addition saved the
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2,461
Q28737277
54
4,629
54
5,231
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
papers which he had secured and which were of much value." The Bureau of Navigation declined to make the award, presumably not prepared to officially recognize an American naval officer in Bolshevik Russia, much less, in combat. Each of Wrangel's corps had a chief of civil administration to organize the newly occupied territory. In his report, Koehler recounted his interviews with the administrator in Melitopol, "He said his guiding idea was that this is a civil war, a struggle between Russians-- Russians of widely different ideas, to be sure-- but Russians; in short, the occupied area is not
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2,461
Q28737277
54
5,231
54
5,806
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
to be treated as conquered territory but must be administered so people will understand that the new regime is working for them and with them, not against them... [he] stated the first plan had been to give the land to the peasants without payment of any kind, but peasants would not believe that land received for nothing was actually theirs; ...[unless] they could pay actual money for the land, receive a receipt for such payment, and take home a paper with a large red seal that said the land was theirs..." In a letter to Dolly Gladstone, Koehler gently chided
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2,461
Q28737277
54
5,806
54
6,422
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
her for Britain's investment in Denikin, having lately turned its sympathy from the cause of the White Russians under Denikin's successor, Wrangel, to the Bolshevists, "I'm afraid your experiment in backing Denikin has been much more costly for you and for Russia and for the world than the simple L400,000,000 (in stores, etc.,) you ventured on the project... Poor old Denikin- simple, honest, and a patriot, but undoubtedly one of the stupidest men who ever came into power in any country. Surrounded by incompetents and dishonesty, badly advised by his allies, he distinguished himself by not one single sound or
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2,461
Q28737277
54
6,422
54
7,012
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
wise measure. If he had thrown dice for every decision he would have improved just fifty percent. General Wrangel is of a different caliber: fine soldier, good general, honest, capable, full of courage and initiative, no great statesman, but he knows it and surrounds himself with men who can take care of that end of the game... His miracles continue. But he cannot beat bolshevism by force of arms- nor can any army. Bolshevism fattens on military opposition. It will collapse without it... I like the Russians, immensely so, in fact, and we've become great friends.... General Kutepov
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2,461
Q28737277
54
7,012
54
7,548
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
(the commander of the First Corps) and I have become sworn brothers. He is about the finest type of soldierman I've ever seen- and I'm very fond of him. Many other of my friends are not as estimable, I am afraid, for about all the brigands, thieves, murderers, and similar pleasant scoundrels that disturb the peace hereabouts count themselves among my intimate friends... It is difficult to keep things in a land such as this, when the need is so great; one has almost a guilty feeling if one owns a sheet or an extra shirt. So long
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2,461
Q28737277
54
7,548
54
8,055
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920
ago I gave away all I had, and now if I had a sheet or an extra shirt I wouldn't know what to do with it except to give it to some poor woman to make a child's dress... I'm afraid I've given you a rather chaotic picture of it all- but you might take the chaotic effect simply as a bit of realism, for life is indeed chaos here; it resembles reasonable conditions just about as much as that famous cubist picture Nude Descending a Stair resembles anything real. In the first months I was here I accumulated
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2,461
Q28737277
54
8,055
58
20
Hugo W. Koehler
Melitopol, June 1920 & White advances, Summer 1920
great stacks of loot, from pictures and furs to old earrings and relics. But I've decided to take none of it from Russia. I've given it all away again." Koehler's appeal on behalf of the suffering masses in Russia did not fall on deaf ears. Rear Admiral McCully's July 15, 1920 report to the Secretary of State noted, "Recently representatives of a British Fund established by Lady Muriel Paget have established a hospital in Sebastopol, and a British Red Cross and Children's Relief Organization are also at work." White advances, Summer 1920 The decisive turn in
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2,461
Q28737277
58
20
58
619
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
the fortunes of Wrangel's army, was not the reorganization of his forces, as much as the Polish–Soviet War. The Bolsheviks, recognizing their vulnerability in a two-front war, did not seek to engage the Poles. However, Marshal Piłsudski, the Polish head of state had plans to annex the Ukrainian and White Russian provinces. Negotiations broke down and on April 25 the Poles began their attack, achieving a major victory on May 6 with the fall of Kiev. Vladimir Lenin complained, "In the Crimea Wrangel gathered more and more strength. His troops consisted almost entirely of officers in the hope
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2,461
Q28737277
58
619
58
1,215
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
that in the first possible moment the army would be expanded by entrance of peasants. Wrangel's army was equipped with tanks, cannons, and airplanes better than all the other armies which had fought in Russia. While we fought the Poles, Wrangel gathered his forces." While Wrangel's army tried to solidify its holdings in the northern Tauride, Koehler spent much of July and August sorting and translating the trove of documents he had snatched from Bolshevik headquarters in Melitopol, with a brief visit to the front on July 20. The tide again turned against Wrangel's forces in the middle of
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2,461
Q28737277
58
1,215
58
1,800
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
August, when the Polish forces defeated the Soviets on the outskirts of Warsaw. After the Battle of Vistula, with nearly 70,000 Red soldiers taken prisoner, the ensuing peace with Poland signalled the eventual end of Wrangel's regime, with the full force of the Red army now freed to focus on the Crimea. But the end was still a couple months away, and on August 27, Koehler left by train from Sebastopol to Melitopol, where he called on General Kutepov at his First Army headquarters. "Even General Kutepov himself with all his indomitable energy plainly showed from overwork... He
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2,461
Q28737277
58
1,800
58
2,430
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
explained that although strictly military considerations might demand a withdrawal from the present extensive front on account of the heavy cost in casualties in holding so long a line against superior numbers, he felt that political conditions and loyalty to the inhabitants of the occupied territory who had aided Russian forces (and many of those younger men were now in the army), demanded that the Tauride be held at almost any cost." Perhaps Koehler did not see, or chose to overlook another side of Kutepov, his "sworn brother", who along with Pisarev, commonly executed people without trial and for minimal cause.
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Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
Earlier that year, as military governor of Sebastopol, his number of executions and cruelty sparked complaints among the peasants and civic leaders. One particularly egregious instance, was the hanging of a young Tartar poet, accused of nothing but vague, Bolshevist sympathies. Complaints were sent to Wrangel, and rather than investigate the claims, Wrangel summoned the mayor of Sebastopol before him. Recalling in his memoirs years later what he told the politician, Wrangel wrote, "I know all about your disagreement with General Kutepov, who is merely carrying out my orders. I am not going to discuss with you who is
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2,461
Q28737277
58
3,055
58
3,546
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
right, or which of us two has given orders. I am responsible to the Army and to the people, and I follow the dictates of my science. I am quite sure that were you in my place you would act differently; but as it happens destiny has given me and not you direction of the Russian Cause, and I will stop at nothing in the accomplishment of my duty, and I will not hesitate to cut down anyone who tries to stop me. You protest because General Kutepov has hanged a score or so of men who were a
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2,461
Q28737277
58
3,546
58
4,133
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
danger to the Army and to the Cause. I warn you should the necessity arise I would not hesitate to increase the number by one, and that one would be you." During the Russian Civil War, many White generals and a number of the Bolshevist leaders developed a great propensity for cruelty and summary executions. They came to believe in violence for the sake of violence, to send a strong message to the enemy. It likely was counterproductive, as it only alienated and frightened the silent majority of citizens, while firming the enemy's resolve. Leaving Melitopol, Koehler went
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2,461
Q28737277
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58
4,758
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
to Feodorovka and visited the headquarters of General Pisarev, Commander of Third Corps. As Koehler sardonically described the meeting, "He reviewed the military situation and seemed confident of success of his encircling movement, begun some two days before with the object of breaking through in rear of the advancing Red column and then surrounding it. Present tactics, both Bolshevik and Russian, represent nothing so much as a giant game of cross-tag: each side attempts to cut in behind the other, then to outflank the other's flanking column, then again to outflank this outflanking, flanking column-- and so on..."
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2,461
Q28737277
58
4,758
58
5,292
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
Koehler described the front line he visited in August 1920, "Whenever I arrived on the fighting line, I found the division commander and his chief of staff in the front line or ahead of it, instead of in their classic post two miles in the rear. I noted a general of artillery with a rifle wound in his leg and a saber cut in the head, certainly a most unorthodox proceeding, but here the artillery is immediately behind the infantry if not on the line with it.... Under cover of machine gun fire, the entire Russian line now took up
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2,461
Q28737277
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58
5,901
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
the advance, moving in echelon at good speed... We now gained a slight eminence from which we had an excellent view of the entire movement, including the retreat of the Reds. [The Whites] were outnumbered about 3 to 1, but in actual battle the Red superiority in numbers really had comparatively little consequence on this front; they had encountered some single regiments that were worth more than other entire divisions. However, in maneuvering and the possibility of exerting a general pressure all along the line, numbers were of course, very valuable. The general said that regiments composed entirely
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2,461
Q28737277
58
5,901
58
6,496
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
of Communists invariably fought well, as also did the Latvians and certain international regiments made up mostly of Magyars...." On August 27, Koehler was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, fourth class, with swords and bow by Kutepov. A telegram from General Vladimir Vitkovsky that was found in Koehler's papers years later reads, "With the feeling of sincere pleasure I learn that you have been awarded, sir, with the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th Class, with swords and bow and congratulate you with this high award, which commemorates the day of your visit to the fighting line of my corps."
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Q28737277
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58
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Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
This, and two other Russian Imperial decorations, were among the last awarded to a foreigner or a Russian for that matter. As Koehler's published historiographer wrote, "The strict neutrality of the American Mission, so scrupulously adhered to by Admiral McCully, was evidently less than a pressing concern for the Commander." Koehler's conversations with peasants and townspeople in the Tauride yielded insight into the comparative failure of both the Reds and the Whites to improve the economic fortunes of the common man. Asking a farmer the price of wheat, as he complimented the man on the quality of his grain, Koehler was
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2,461
Q28737277
58
7,133
58
7,711
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
told, "Who could tell?" he answered. "He went on to explain that Bolsheviks took it for nothing, Wrangels forces offered sheaves of paper money for it- if that was standard, he added critically, it evidently must be worth something. Yet Bolsheviks came a long way for it, and Whites were extraordinarily anxious to get it, so it must have value for everyone except the man who had grown it." Koehler concluded that the conditions in "Red Russia" had been harder on the townspeople than the peasants. "The more I learned directly of conditions in Red Russia... the more evident
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2,461
Q28737277
58
7,711
58
8,334
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
it becomes that it is townspeople who suffered most from the Bolsheviks and conditions brought about by the Red regime. They gladly welcomed the Russian troops and quickly aligned themselves with the new Wrangel regime. Peasants, although they suffered a certain loss from seizure of grain and horses, and although bitter against mobilization, nevertheless in general never suffered any hunger or the many requisitions of clothing, linen, household effects, and about everything else of value townspeople had to endure; nor have they seen at close hand the conduct and methods of the commissars... In these years the man
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2,461
Q28737277
58
8,334
58
8,931
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
who produces from the soil is king- even in Red Russia... But the spirit of the townspeople is broken- their brains and wills are as weak and starved from lack of food as are their bodies- sufferings have left them exhausted. Once these townspeople get sufficient food inside them to restore stamina, and when the interior weakness of bolshevism gives them an opportunity, they must restore commerce and industry, yet the latter would also restore the towns- and strengthened, people would no longer submit to the tyranny they have suffered for years. So even in its success, bolshevism contains
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2,461
Q28737277
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Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920
the elements of its downfall. The millworker in Alimovka expressed the idea of thousands when he said that formerly the Russians had a czar, a fool, to rule them, [and] taxes were very bad, but bread was five kopeks a pound and plentiful, and a man could get all the shirts, and shoes, and sugar and tea and tobacco he wanted. Now Russia was ruled by very clever men, [and] there were no taxes at all, but bread was 500 rubles a pound and scarce, and neither shirts nor shoes nor sugar nor tea nor tobacco were to be
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2,461
Q28737277
58
9,449
62
597
Hugo W. Koehler
White advances, Summer 1920 & Crimea, September–October 1920
had." Crimea, September–October 1920 Koehler was back at the front two weeks later, taking the train to Melitopol and meeting with General Kutepov, who told of the White's capture of Alexandrovsk and seizing military assets of armored trains, 14 steamboats, 2,000 horses, 1,000 railroad cars and 33 "hot" (operational) locomotives, along with scores of Red prisoners. Wrangel had reorganized his White army into Kutepov's First Army, consisting of the Volunteer Army, old Don Cossacks and the Second Army under General A.P. Dratsenko, consisting of the old Second and Third Corps and a Terek Cossacks brigade. Wrangel also formed two
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Q28737277
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597
62
1,213
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
independent cavalry units, led by General Ivan Barbovich and the Kuban Cossack General Nikolai Babiev. At that time, Wrangel's forces totaled 43,900. Kutepov was confident that there were no significant Bolshevik forces between Alexandrovsk, Ekaterinoslav or Kharkov, and felt he could take either town without great effort. He expected to hold Mariupol that he had captured only long enough to destroy the Red naval base, capturing or killing all but 500 of the troops operating in the town. Retreating from there, Kutepov drew Red forces north of Mariupol after him, and captured 4,000 Red troops on October 12,
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2,461
Q28737277
62
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62
1,830
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
after outflanking them. After meeting with Second Army General Dratsenko, Koehler was optimistic about the prospects of the White army as late as early October. "To draw away the large reserves of Red troops now at Kahovka, First Army has planned an advance from Alexandrovsk into the rear of Nikopol, and as soon as the Reds have withdrawn from Nikopol, all Second Army except Vitkovsky's corps will cross (the Dnieper River) at Nikopol and advance towards Berislav, while Vitkovsky's 34th Division will attempt a crossing at the French monastery 25 versts below Kahovka, and 13th Division ... will storm Kahovka...
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2,461
Q28737277
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1,830
62
2,445
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
If this plan succeeds, the Russians will probably shift the whole First Army to the southeastern flank and attempt an advance into the Donetz.... which if successful would mean the military power of bolshevism had come to an end." During a cavalry inspection, Koehler described witnessing the Cossack lava movement, "I had seen the lava, the famous Cossack attack, before, but never with the dash and spirit of [Second Brigade commander and Don Cossack], General P. M. Agaev. Forming his bodyguard and transport train into the "enemy", he sent them in one direction and his own force disappeared in a cloud
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Q28737277
62
2,445
62
3,007
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
of dust in the opposite direction. Thirty minutes later we noted, from our position on the top of an old Tartar burial mound, a mass of cavalry approaching in a solid formation. This mass soon spread into a long, thin line, which came on at a gallop. In the meantime, the enemy came and in a brilliant charge pierced the advancing line, which then split into two parts that retreated to the flanks, apparently in considerable disorder. At this point, the reserve hidden behind the advancing line suddenly came into sight, but on seeing the advancing enemy, it
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2,461
Q28737277
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Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
too wheeled and beat a hasty retreat with the enemy in hot pursuit. As the enemy pressed forward, the second reserve suddenly swept down and engaged the enemy in front, while the retreating first reserve, which had made a rather wide turn, now attacked on the enemy's flank while the two parts of the first line, which had retreated in apparent disorder, now came plunging in from the opposite flank and the rear, thus attacking the enemy from all sides at once. The result was a melee of men and horses, sabres and lances, banners and streamers, a whirlwind
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2,461
Q28737277
62
3,567
62
4,182
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
of dust. If battle is half as dangerous as this maneuver appears, one wonders how there can be any enemies of Cossacks left." During the inspection of the Cavalry Corps, Koehler witnessed General Wigran's entire brigade, cavalry, artillery and machine gun detachments charge up the reviewing hillock, and led by the general, give a rousing cheer, "America, America". Koehler learned it was the result of his giving a transcript to General Kutepov of a lengthy address by the Secretary of State that acknowledged the U.S. "strongly recoils [from] recognition of the Bolshevist regime," going on to say, the "United
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Q28737277
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62
4,837
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
States feels that friendship and honor require that Russia's interests must be generously protected and... [we] have so instructed [our] representative in Southern Russia, Rear Admiral Newton A. McCully." During that time, Koehler heard a "great amount of favorable comment concerning this note and the work of the American Red Cross..." On October 6, Dratsenko's army crossed the Dnieper at Khortitsa, to the surprise of the Reds who did not expect a crossing there, and giving a momentary advantage as Dratsenko's forces captured Red troops and threatened communication lines. A couple days later, Koehler witnessed the crossing of the Dnieper
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2,461
Q28737277
62
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62
5,439
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
by Kutepov with a shock force of three infantry and three cavalry divisions, writing in his report, "The crossing of the Dnieper on October eighth and the advance into the Ukraine was one of the most interesting operations I saw, as it perfectly illustrated General Kutepov's methods. On the previous day I had seen the capture on Chertisa Island... former stronghold from which the old Zaporogian Cossacks directed raids against rich towns from Constantinople to Poland...At daybreak, as soon as the opposite shore could be made out, artillery began a brisk fire followed by all the noise the single
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2,461
Q28737277
62
5,439
62
6,041
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
machine gun company could produce. Twenty minutes later, at three of the most difficult places to get across- on account of the width and depth of the river-- the army began its crossing, Red artillery meanwhile pouring in an overwhelming fire on the ford being so carefully avoided. Result was one division across at a cost of eleven men wounded and en entire cavalry corps and another division crossed with no casualties whatsoever. Within forty minutes some nine hundred Bolshevik prisoners were busy hauling White Russian artillery across the river... I kept on with General Babiev's cavalry and
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2,461
Q28737277
62
6,041
62
6,700
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
by nightfall... counted over 3,000 prisoners..." Although peace negotiations between the Poles and Soviets only began on September 21, Wrangel knew he had to make his push across the Dnieper, realizing that Marshal Semyon Budyonny's First Cavalry would arrive from the Polish front to join with Red commander Mikhail Frunze's Sixth and Thirteenth Armies and Second Cavalry, headquartered at Kharkov, dramatically increasing the numerical advantage of the Reds. As observed by Koehler, the White army's operation came "within an ace of success" but it was not to be. After the capture of 3,000 Reds on October 11, Babiev's cavalry outflanked
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Q28737277
62
6,700
62
7,339
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
the thorn of Kahovka while Wrangel's First Army under Kutepov north of Melitopol cut elements of the Soviet Sixth and Thirteenth armies to ribbons. Then key events conspired to doom the operation. On October 13, Wrangel ordered a frontal assault by General Vitkovsky on Kahovka. Inaccurate aerial reconnaissance reported sparse defenses; however, the city was heavily defended and Vitovsky's tanks were destroyed. As Babiev's Cossacks were about to surround the city, he was killed by an artillery shell, thoroughly confounding and demoralizing his Cossacks, who began to retreat. This, in turn, caused the inept Second Army commander,
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2,461
Q28737277
62
7,339
62
7,931
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
Dratsenko, to order a general retreat back to the left bank of the Dnieper. When the Whites regrouped on the left bank, they found that the Markov and Kornilov divisions, General Babiev and his cavalry, Barbovich's corps, and the Sixth and Seventh Infantry divisions had been crushed and abandoned on the right bank. On top of these failures, news reached Wrangel that the Poles and Soviets had signed a peace treaty the previous day, October 12. Wrangel's forces began a steady retreat and any designs on spreading into the Ukraine were finished. Koehler returned to Sebastopol on October
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2,461
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7,931
62
8,517
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
17, as once again, thousands of beaten and despondent Whites retreated toward the narrow Perekop Isthmus and Sivash straights that separated Crimea from the northern Tauride. On the day of the Red's first offensive, October 28, they had 99,500 infantry and 33,700 cavalry to the White's 23,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry- nearly a 4 to 1 advantage. They also outnumbered the Whites 2 to 1 in guns and machine guns. In a matter of days, the Reds reached the Tauride. Wrangel ordered all available men to defend Perekop and ordered Kutepov to return and attack from the West. Kutepov's
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8,517
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9,095
Hugo W. Koehler
Crimea, September–October 1920
forces did as ordered, but when a Red force broke through on the Ushun sector, Kutepov withdrew into Crimea rather than risk encirclement. A week later, Koehler was in Yalta with McCully who wrote in his diary, "Summer is definitely over, although Koehler still goes in swimming." Wrangel had hoped that the tidal marshes at the neck of the Crimea would hold back the Bolsheviks, but a series of very low tides drained many and a cold spell froze over the rest, so that the Reds poured over, sending his remaining forces into full retreat to Sebastopol and a desperate