42 NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2008
The Riga extraordinary gentlemen
IN OCTOBER 1917
there took place a major
amphibious operation, the
taking by the Germans of
the islands at the head of
the Gulf of Riga.
This was a huge affair with some
25,000 men covered by some 300
ships of various shapes and sizes,
including major units of the High
Sea Fleet, writes Prof Eric Grove of
the University of Salford.
Previously it has only been
covered as part of general works
on the war, chapters in books on
amphibious warfare or the odd
journal article.
Now, at last, it is the subject of
a book in its own right: Operation
Albion: The German Conquest
Of The Baltic Islands by Michael
Barrett, published by Indiana
University Press in its ‘20th
Century Battles Series’ (£15.99,
ISBN 978-0-253-3469-9).
The book points out how the
The Grove
Germans saw this operation as
a real attempt to knock Russia
Review
out of the war, unhinging their
defences in the Gulf of Finland
and opening the way to Petrograd his discussion of the naval forces
(St Petersburg). being used. Although he publishes
The Germans planned a battle some wonderful photographs of
of annihilation to shake Russian the clash between the Russian
morale and achieve a rapid victory battleship Slava in her battle with
with strategic effect. the German dreadnoughts which
The means were novel, notably disabled her and forced her to
the use of bicycle troops landed be blown up, he does not provide
from the sea to achieve a rapid an extended description of this
Blitzkrieg-type operation to cut off or other naval actions, which is a
the enemy retreat. pity.
● German Stosstruppen – stormtroops – cross the River Düna at Riga during the ‘Baltic blitzkrieg’ in the autumn of 1917
The book makes clear how He is also too dismissive of the
effectively the Germans could argument that the operation was by its publisher to be ‘defi nitive’, two revolutions in 1917. In many A disappointment to British this overly-neglected campaign.
improvise forces to achieve set up, at least in part, as a way there are other large gaps to be ways it is surprising they fought as readers is the author’s glossing He has consulted a wide range
decisive action, both in terms of of keeping the High Seas Fleet fi lled on both naval sides. well as they did both on land and over a Royal Navy contribution to of sources both German and
the rapid creation of amphibious occupied after the disturbances of Particularly disappointing was at sea. opposing Albion. Russian and unearthed new and
capabilities and the mobile use of the months before. the lack of much detail on the role The author is fair in his doubts The Germans were very interesting material. It is the more
whatever forces were available to The author makes a cogent case and composition of the ‘Rosenberg about “whether Albion shook conscious of the threat from the to be regretted therefore that
accomplish mission success. that there were major strategic Flotilla’ of shallow-draft vessels Russia hard enough to bring about British submarines in the Baltic the balance of the account is so
This supports the work objectives at stake but it seems that provided vital support for the its collapse or posed a threat to and three of them, little C-class uneven.
of recent historians that the likely that the need to keep the cyclists at the time of their greatest Petrograd in the long run.” boats, were deployed in the Gulf of There is still room for a
successes of 1939-41 were more fl eet occupied was a factor of some peril as they struggled to cut off Yet it is still tempting to see Riga against this operation. They comprehensive account of the
the application of a more general signifi cance. the Russian retreat. The author this magnifi cent joint maritime had a diffi cult time but had some naval aspects of a landing operation
German way of war than the There is disappointingly little does add some useful detail to success as yet another example success; one was lost. These small that put the Dardanelles to shame.
creation of a fundamentally new on the composition of the landing existing accounts but leaves out of the decisive ‘leverage of sea boats deserved more attention like That said, this book is remarkable
Blitzkrieg concept. fl otillas, notably nothing on the other signifi cant material from power’. No wonder the Bolsheviks much else that happened at sea. value and should be widely read,
Barrett is a historian of land use of the interesting ramped them as well. moved their capital to Moscow, far Despite these problems the especially by those whose World
warfare and he is much less at ‘horse boats’ that were in many Barrett is strong on the state from the sea. Maritime windows author has produced a fascinating War 1 horizons do not stretch
home at sea. ways proto-landing craft. of the Russian forces as they on the outside world can be easily and, as far as it goes, informative much beyond the North Sea and
He makes serious mistakes in For a work which is claimed effectively fell apart between the broken. account which sheds much light on the Western Front.
Pioneers and engineers
THERE is just one living link with
arguably the father of naval aviation and as such. When the Hun approached, the light duties, most retururrned to the front.ned to the front.
the pioneering days of naval and
certainly its leading light in the opening men were told to head to the beach and All were changed by the experhe experience.
military aviation.
weeks of the war. lie on the sand, extending their arms and One anonymous flfl ier returned
The RNAS had been charged with legs “so that we wouldn’t all get blown up home on a cross-Channel steamer anel steamer at
Henry Allingham, veteran of Jutland,
defending Britain’s skies at the outbreak of together”. the end of January 1919.19. The The sight sight
the Royal Naval Air Service and the RAF,
war – and above all countering the Zeppelin The mechanics were almost to a man of the white cliffs of DoDovever should r should
is rightly honoured by today’s generations
threat. drawn from Britain’s working classes – few have stirred the soul, bbut didn’ut didn’tt..
who strive to leave the earth beneath them.
But rather than wait for the German from the ‘lower echelons’ of society were “All is over,” he recorded in his orded in his
Soon, all our tangible links with the
airships to bomb Blighty, Samson took the permitted to pilot naval aircraft. diary. “I am untouched by scrad by scratctch h
Great War will be gone. But their deeds will
fi ght to the enemy and headed to France. No, the working man was “fi ltered out”
or bruise, the mind unable to unable to
at least live on in their own words.
long before he reached the RNAS board grasp all this, and around me,und me, not
No confl ict in history was as chronicled
Samson was not content with grappling
which, as selector Donald Bremner readily
these, but the many, so mano many whoy who
as the 1914-1918 confl agration: documents,
with airships; a true innovator (and a bit of
urn.
newspapers, photographs, fi lms and, in its
a renegade) he created a unit of armoured admitted, looked for horseriders and rowers.
were never able to return.”
aftermath, a clutch of memoirs.
cars (the armour courtesy of boilerof boilers from “Social class counted because wSocial clas e were
By the time the RNAS merged AS merged
There is, however, another Great
a shipyard) and began rovving around ing around choosichoosing offing n cer pilots.” Offi cers
with the Royal Flying Corg Corpps s
War, one recorded in letters, in diaries,
the French countryside. fi rs rst,t,t warriors second…
to form the RAF it wwaas s
in typescripts and handwritten scrawl,
His aircraft scouted for the Hun the Hun DDespite this “bit of
67,000 personnel strong… ngg…
recordings on long-since defunct cassette
and ‘Sammy’, as his men knew n knew ssnobbishness”, take
and almost all weere re
players, kept in attics or garages.
him, “chased them with his car is car nnothing away from
reluctant to join the new w
Many of these unpublished accounts
and gun” – a sort of Blitzkrkrriieg eg ththe fi rst generation of
force and relinquish h
eventually found their way to museums,
25 years before the real thing.ng. naval aviators. They were
their cherished naval l
and in the past decade or so historians
Samson and his men n bbrave men who sat in open
traditions.
have begun to tap this vast archive of fi rst-
collected a fi ne collection ccockpits in fragockpo ile machines
“They were trying
hand accounts which are as rich as they are
of helmets and lances from aand gnd gd rrappled with an equally
to join two disparate
varied.
German Uhlan cavalry, bbraravevee – – and determined – foe.
services,” fumed
The latest author to weave a story from
liberated Lille briefl y, and TheThe cold ae co t altitude was as
Thomas Thomson.
the ‘bottom up’ rather than relying on
held off the Hun at Douai ai much a much a threathr t as the Hun. William
“It was absolutely
gods and generals is Joshua Levine who
allowing 2,500 French soldierddiers s Wardrop of Noardrop of N .7 Sqn RNAS removed
terrible – the
grapples with the knights of the sky, the
to escape. his glovees to drop bombs on a Gers to dro man
biggest pot mess I
Great War aviators, in On A Wing And
The actions of Samson’’s squadron d target – then foutarget – then found he couldn’h t put them
ever came across.”
A Prayer (Harper Collins, £18.99 ISBN
and his armoured cars are, hohoweveer,r little little backback on once the paon once the yload had fallen. The
Like the Royal
978-0-007-269457).
more than a footnote in the Great War in result was frostbite from his elbow to his
Navy before it, the
The ‘aces’ of World War 1 would be
the air. wrist.
Royal Air Force
celebrated, the ordinary aviator would be
Rightly, the bulk of Levine’s book is “Frostbite feels as though you had put
would in time
mourned as a lamb to the slaughter. Truth,
devoted to the skies of France and Belgium, your hand in a furnace,” he recalled. “You
become a national
as ever, lies somewhere in between.
but rather than simply focus on the aces, just blistered up.”
institution and the
Typically, though not exclusively,
or even merely the fi ghters, the author also Medical offi cers knew what they could
role of the Royal
Naval Air Service e
accounts of Britain’s Great War in the air
devotes time to bombers and ground crews – or could not – do with frostbite victims;
would be eclipsed.
focus on the Royal Flying Corps and RAF; – the latter have often been sorely neglected
men with broken minds proved more
It and the men who hho
the naval contribution to military aviation in WW1 literature.
challenging.
served it deserve to be bbe
is often overlooked. If not in as much danger as their fl ying One 22-year-old junior offi cer was sent
remembered.
Not so Levine. The emphasis, to be comrades, engineers and mechanics were to Craiglockhart in Edinburgh – where
sure, is on the RFC and RAF, but the nevertheless in the front line – airfi elds Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were
men, machines and ethos of the RNAS – were frequent targets. treated – after lasting just a month at the
forerunner of the Fleet Air Arm – also come The RNAS station at Felixstowe front. Doctors noted that “any sudden bang ● A Royal Naval Air
alive in this excellent popular history. regularly received the attention of German makes him jump and he feels sick after it”. Service aviator in fl ying kit
Men such as Charles Rumney Samson, bombers. There were no air raid shelters Some were discharged, some returned to Picture: Fleet Air Arm Museum
0042_NN_Aug.indd 142_NN_Aug.indd 1 111/7/08 10:47:361/7/08 10:47:36
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