Il raid su Kronstadt, l'operazione RK o Scooter RAID, fu un attacco da parte delle imbarcazioni a motore costiere della Royal Navy (CMBS) e degli aerei della Royal Air Force
2793 x 4197 px | 23,6 x 35,5 cm | 9,3 x 14 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
22 luglio 2024
Ubicazione:
Studio Mikko Mattila
Altre informazioni:
The raid on Kronstadt, the Operation RK or the Scooter Raid, was an attack by Royal Navy coastal motor boats (CMBs) and Royal Air Force aircraft from Koivisto, Finland, a naval and airi base, on the Bolshevik Baltic Fleet at its home base on 18 August 1919. After the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Allied naval units operated in the Baltic Sea to support the independence of Estonia and Latvia, which were threatened by Bolshevik movements. The raid followed a similar one carried out by a single motor torpedo boat outside the harbour on 17 June 1919, in which Lieutenant Augustus Agar's CMB-4 sank the Bolshevik cruiser Oleg. The raid on 18 August 1919 was carried out by a newly arrived force of seven larger CMBs under Commander Claude Congreve Dobson, guided by Agar in CMB-4. One CMB had engine broke down, but the remaining six penetrated the defences and scored hits on the submarine depot ship Pamiat Azova, which sank, and the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny, which was damaged. A simultaneous air raid by the RAF damaged a a destroyer. Three of the British CMBs were sunk by Bolshevik fire or collision with each other and up to ten British personnel were killed and nine captured. The raid was regarded as a British success, with the Baltic Fleet afterwards largely confined to the harbour for the rest of the campaign. A private collection.
