Canadians in Archangel

On 1 October 1918 the 16th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, made up of the 67th and 68th Batteries under Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Sharman, arrived at Archangel. It was to join the Allied expeditionary force in northern Russia. The brigade had sailed from Dundee in Scotland on 20 September. The date of arrival is given by the Canadian official history, according to which the gunners went ashore two days later, on 3 October. The British chronology of the war records the landing of the Canadian contingent at Archangel as early as 30 September, while some histories of the Canadian batteries give a later date of arrival. General Edmund Ironside, who was to replace General Frederick Poole as commander of the Allied forces at Archangel, came with the same convoy.

Canada was not eager to send troops to northern Russia. In May it provided five officers and eleven NCOs for the British training mission “Elope”, which sailed for Murmansk in June. In July the British asked for a whole infantry battalion, since they needed men used to a harsh climate. The government in Ottawa refused, as reinforcements were short on the Western Front. It did, however, agree to send 92 volunteers, officers and NCOs, as instructors for the units being formed in the Murmansk area. They sailed there on 17 September. On 3 August the War Office had also asked for two field artillery batteries for Archangel, and the Canadians again agreed.

The brigade was formed from volunteers from the Canadian reserve artillery in England. It numbered 18 officers and 469 other ranks. Almost all of them had already served on the Western Front. In all, Canada sent fewer than 600 men to northern Russia, and Sharman’s gunners made up the majority of this contingent. The Allied forces in the north were a very motley collection. Alongside the British served Americans, French, Italians, Serbs, Poles, White Russian units and volunteers from Karelia. According to British estimates of December 1918, there were about 16,000 Allied and local troops in the Archangel area and about 14,500 in the Murmansk area.

The Canadians were split up at once. Three officers and 26 men manned an armoured train on the railway to Vologda. The rest of the brigade went by barge up the Dvina to the mouth of the Vaga. The 67th Battery stayed on the Dvina, while the under-strength 68th Battery, which had left some of its guns in Dundee, went to Shenkursk, the southernmost town held by the Allies. Sharman became commander of the artillery of the Dvina force. The Canadian gunners, with six 18-pounder field guns and a naval gun on a barge, faced a Red flotilla with guns of much greater range. Ironside took command on 14 October. The brigade fought on the Dvina and the Vaga throughout the winter and returned home only in June 1919.