Battle of Tulgas

Battle of Tulgas
Part of the Russian Civil War
Date November 11–14, 1918 Location Tulgas, by the Northern Dvina River, Russian SFSR Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  United States  Canada White Russia	Bolshevik Russia
Commanders and leaders
Robert Boyd	Melochofski †
Strength
One US Rifle Company (300 men) One British Rifle Company Canadian Artillery Battery (57 men) Around 600 men total	~2500 infantry Several river gunboats
Casualties and losses
30 killed 100 wounded	Unknown; Estimated at 500 killed ~30 captured
At least three civilians killed

One US Rifle Company (300 men)
One British Rifle Company
Canadian Artillery Battery (57 men)

~2500 infantry

Unknown; Estimated at 500 killed

The Battle of Tulgas was part of the North Russia Intervention into the Russian Civil War and was fought between Allied and Bolshevik troops on the Northern Dvina River 200 miles south of Archangel. It took place on the day the armistice ending World War I was signed, November 11, 1918, and is sometimes referred to as "The Battle of Armistice Day." Shortly before the battle, the freezing of the local waterways resulted in the cutting off of the Tulgas Garrison from outside assistance, and the freezing of the ground let the Bolsheviks move troops to surround Tulgas. The Bolsheviks used this opportunity and their superior numbers to try to attack and conquer the isolated outpost, but were driven back with severe losses.

The Allied forces were deployed at the village of Tulgas on the west bank of the Dvina River. The southernmost Allied position was a single squad under Lieutenant Harry M. Dennis in a cluster of buildings called Upper Tulgas. To the north was a small but deep tributary of the Dvina, with a single wooden bridge across it. On the north bank of the river was an American log blockhouse, as well as the village church and the house of the priest. A couple hundred yards north of Upper Tulgas across the bridge was the main village of Tulgas, where most of the Allied troops were stationed under Captain Robert Boyd. Farther north was the Canadian field artillery battery, with two three-inch guns, as well as an American squad with a Lewis machine gun. Farthest north was another small village, Lower Tulgas; here the Allied field hospital was set up in a log hut, almost unguarded.

On the morning of November 11, Bolshevik infantry attacked the American position in Upper Tulgas. Lieutenant Dennis realized that the attackers were too numerous and retreated across the stream to Tulgas itself. At about the same time another Bolshevik force of around 600 men attacked Lower Tulgas to the north, to the surprise of the Allies who thought that the swampy pine forest to the west had not frozen enough to be passed through. This force quickly captured the Allied field hospital and threatened the lightly-guarded Canadian artillery to the south. The Bolsheviks, led by "a giant of a man" named Melochofski, spent several minutes ransacking Lower Tulgas, including the hospital. Melochofski ordered his soldiers to kill the wounded British and Americans in the hospital, but was stopped by two things: the British medical NCO, realizing that Melochofski and his men were probably tired, offered them rations and rum; and Melochofski's mistress, who had followed him to the battlefield, entered and said she would shoot the first soldier who tried to carry out the order. Melochofski countermanded the order; he would be mortally wounded hours later and die in his mistress's arms.

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Wikipedia