On the 3rd of March 1918 Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk, ending Russian involvement in World War One. Huge stocks of Entente supplied war-materials lay in Murmansk and Vladivostok; it was imperative these did not fall into Bolshevik/German hands. This is why the 25th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment was sent to Siberia and found themselves fighting, under the Japanese flag.
25th Battalion Middlesex Regiment “The Navvies”.
John Ward was born in 1866, the son of a plasterer who died when he was three. At seven he was doing odd jobs as a teenager and he worked as a navvy (a labourer on road, railway and canal constructions). Increasingly interested in politics, he set up the “Navvies, Bricklayers’ Labourers and General Labourers’ Union” in 1889; and by 1906 he was a Member of Parliament. In 1914, The War Office asked him to recruit men for construction battalions. He raised four battalions all becoming part of The Middlesex Regiment (a.k.a. The Die-hards), and John Ward was offered the Colonelship of the 25th Battalion.
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| Col Ward (left) and Czech General Detriks – Vladivostok 1918 |
The men of the 25th Battalion were classified as B1 (B-oners), fit for overseas deployment but not prime men; most were older and John Ward was 46. The 25th were designated a Garrison Battalion and sent to Singapore and Hong Kong, where they expecting to sit out the war uneventfully.
To Siberia
With the Bolshevik Russian Government making peace with Germany, it was essential to safeguard Vladivostok’s stocks of war materials. The 25th Middlesex were the nearest British force available, so in July 1918 they became the first Interventionist force to arrive in Vladivostok.
By August the situation in Eastern Siberia was deteriorating rapidly, following successes by Bolshevik/Magyar forces, against the smaller White army consisting of Czechs and Cossacks.
The Bolsheviks threatened the junction of the TransSib (in green) with the Trans Manchurian railway (in orange); if lost the rest of Russia would be cut off from Vladivostok. As the only allied troops available, John Ward had no option but to entrain his B-oners and move north. Contact was made with the Bolshevik army at the last halt before reaching Khabarovsk and within shelling range of a Bolshevik armed train; the navvies played to their strength and dug-in.
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| Russia showing Trans Sib railway et al. |
The 25th's position was untenable but further interventionist troops were now arriving in Siberia, mostly from Japan. Soon the Japanese had a divisional strength force just south of the 25th’s position.
John Ward and his men fell under the command of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 12th Division, Lieutenant-General Oie; I think this is the only time British troops were commanded by and under The Imperial Japanese Army.
At dawn on the 24th of August 1918 the 12th Division attacked. The 25th were the first British troops to witness the ruthless advance of Japanese infantry driving all before them. By 8.30am the B-oners were exhausted but the only organised Bolshevik force east of the Ural Mountains, had been dispersed.
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| British Troops Parade in Omsk, Winter 1918 |
If the Navvies thought that was the end of their adventures in Siberia, they were very mistaken. Omsk was the capital and the centre of anti-Bolshevik resistance in Siberia; as the only British unit in theatre the 25th were sent via the Trans Manchurian and Trans Sib railways there. While the majority of the 25th remained in Omsk, Colonel Ward as the most senior British officer in Omsk, went on an inspection tour of the front accompanied by a smaller party of his troops.
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| Colonel Ward and staff, well wrapped-up, somewhere in Siberia. |
His tour took him across the Urals into European Russia, via Yekaterinburg and Perm ending near Koltis, about 300 miles south of Arkangel, now occupied by another Entente intervention force. By now it was the middle of the Russian winter and while precarious contact was made with Arkangel, no further progress was possible, so he and his men returned to Omsk. With more entente interventionist forces arriving in Omsk, the navvies began the long homeward journey.
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| Map showing location of Kotlas, the extreme limit of Col John Wards progress into Russia. The North-Dvina River, discharges into The White Sea at Archangel. |
The Rules
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| Triumph of the Will | TOOFATLardies |
We used the Too Fat Lardies rules “Triumph of the Will – Wargames rules for revolutionary warfare 1914 to 1936”, by Richard Clarke; these rules, focus strongly on morale and motivation. To represent this, the size (number of figures) of each unit is a reflection of the unit’s motivation, not its actual numerical size. For example, the highly motivated Japanese units are ten figures each, but the less motivated Bolshevik units are six each.
Infantry movement is one inch per figure, up to a maximum of eight inches and the units gets one shooting attempt per five figures. To continue the example, the Japanese would move eight inches and fire twice and the Bolsheviks six inches and fire once per activation; as a unit loses figures movement is reduced by one inch per figure lost. As a unit loses more figures, it is increasingly ineffective as it can only move one or two inches and fire at a very reduced level. There are no morale tests, as morale is rolled up into fire and movement.
Unit activation is by cards; when the two jokers are drawn, the turn-cycle ends, though units not yet activated can still shoot. Units are initially deployed using blinds and only placed on the table when spotted. These rules are available in pdf format from the Too Fat Lardies web shop and include supplementary rules for specific wars (e.g. Spanish Civil War, Russian Revolution) in this period.
How the game played.
The forces of both sides were a mixed-bag. The Bolshevik forces consisted of conscripted Red Guard motivated by their commissars, ex-POW Magyars and some Cossacks for cavalry; their best troops were a unit of naval infantry (sailors & marines) and the armed train. The Interventionist forces were composed of well-motivated Japanese infantry and artillery, the 25th, ex-POW Czech infantry, some so-so Japanese cavalry (cavalry was never a Japanese strength) and a significant number of Cossacks. Off table The Interventionists had an armed train, represented by a spotter team.
The Bolsheviks and the Interventionists had decided to deploy some units directly onto the table, without blinds. The Bolsheviks deployed their two best units, the armed train and the naval infantry unit into the railway-station and The Interventionists deployed their off-table artillery spotter without a blind too.
As most units were represented by blinds, initial game turns moved quickly, until sufficient blinds were replaced by their spotted units.
The Interventionist artillery spotters quickly called counter battery artillery fire aimed at the train. With more unit cards in the draw-pack the sequence of play became less predictable. The Bolsheviks had spotted the 25th and Japanese troops advancing towards the railway station; Red Guards, marines and the train opened fire on them. The 25th, not enjoying the attention of the Red Guards, decided that some shovel and spade work was in order and charged the Red Guards, defending the coal bunkers. However, the youthful Red Guards, despite their poor morale, held off the navvies who were forced to retreat.
By now the advancing Japanese were closing in and, despite taking fire from the Bolshevik train, moved to charge the coal bunkers. Interventionist artillery was raining down on the Bolshevik’s train causing considerable damage, as the focus of the action remained the railways station.
In front of the 25th, more advancing Bolshevik forces were spotted in the morning light, but the mist was thicker in front of the Czechs and Magyars, as the presence of blinds persisted on this flank; perhaps as well since the Czechs and the Magyars had a particular dislike of each other.
With a ruthless attack the Japanese cleared the coal bunkers of the youthful Red Guards, but the naval infantry, remembering Port Arthur, were made of stronger stuff. Another unit of the 25th attacked the Russian sailors but with no avail and were driven off. Luckily the artillery spotter was experienced and at the next opportunity walked the barrage to the sailors’ position causing considerable casualties, including the loss of their officer. With the numbers now more even and with Colonel Ward leading his men, the 25th attacked again and pushed the sailors back and securing a firm lodgement in the railway complex.
By now all the mist must have cleared, as all blinds had been replaced by their respective units and the Japanese saw the left flank of the Bolshevik army spread out before them. The Japanese cavalry thought it a good idea to advance towards a unit of maxim gun armed Magyars they had mistaken for Red Guards; the result was predictably bad for the Japanese. However, the Japanese artillery had got the range of the Bolshevik lines too and a combination of accurate and luck fire destroyed several Bolshevik units.
The 25th weren’t put of the woods yet, as a force of Red Cossacks charged them; the 25th buckled but did not break at the ferocious charge. The Cossack officers lost control of their men, who thinking the retiring opponents had been broken, wildly followed them. But the men of the 25th didn’t lose their cohesion and after a desperate struggle held off the Cossacks, but at considerable cost to themselves.
It now only remained for General Oie to deliver the coup de grace, on behalf of his Emperor. With Japanese infantry sweeping forward and soon to be in melee, the activation card for the allied Cossack cavalry came up; General Oie didn’t miss his opportunity. Lead by their Altman in best Cossack tradition, the Magyars holding the extreme end of the Bolshevik line were routed; the Altman didn’t try to stop his men pursuing the Magyars, who were soon slaughtered.
Their flank turned by Cossacks, Russian good sense overtook political ideology, as it was self-evidently safer on the other side of the Amur River, which is two and a half kilometres wide at Khabarovsk. The game ended with a clear Interventionist victory, as happened in history when the Bolsheviks confronted the Japanese 12th Division.
This shouldn’t really be surprising as Russia was militarily exhausted and in political turmoil; conversely the Imperial Japanese Army had taken no significant part in The First World War.
Acknowledgements etc: figures from Copplestone Casting, Empress Miniatures, Wargames Atlantic and Redoubt Miniatures. Train, rollingstock, station etc by Sarissa Pression.
Thanks to Mark, Mark, Mathew, Tom and Ian for all playing in the spirit of the era.
Source: the main source for the scenario and historical account is, With the “Die-Hards” in Siberia, by Col John Ward. The book is available in hard copy reprint or a free e-book from gutenburg.org. I highly recommend the book if you want to know about this forgotten era of twentieth century history.
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| Colonel Ward, C.B., C.M.G., M.P. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10972/pg10972-images.html |
Other information is from internet resources.
Stephen Huntsman
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