Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The outstanding Kronstadt raid D.S.C. group of four awarded to Acting Lieutenant-Commander R. N. O. Marshall, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, late Royal Naval Reserve: an early recruit to Agar V.C’s clandestine C.M.B. operations in the Baltic, he participated in several hair-raising operations and was credited as being the best Lewis-gunner in the Flotilla

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Mid. R. N. O. Marshall, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Mid. R. N. O. Marshall, R.N.R.), mounted as worn, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, the whole contained in an old Garrard & Co. leather case, very fine and better (8) £6000-8000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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D.S.C. London Gazette 11 November 1919:

‘For distinguished services in H.M. Coastal Motor Boat No. 7 in the attack on Kronstadt Harbour on 18 August 1919. This boat piloted two other boats into the harbour through the forts, under a very heavy fire, and then patrolled the mouth of the harbour to cover their withdrawal.’

The original recommendation states:

‘A volunteer in C.M.B. No. 7 in the attack on Kronstadt Harbour on the morning of 18 August 1919, which passed through the forts under heavy fire, piloting two boats to the entrance to Kronstadt harbour, and afterwards fired a tropedo at the vessels in the Military harbour.’

Richard Nigel Onslow Marshall was born at Newent, Gloucestershire, in August 1899, and was appointed a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve in August 1915. Joining the armed merchant cruiser Almanzora in the following month, he remained similarly employed until removing to the battleship Queen Elizabeth in December 1916, in which latter capacity he served until transferring to Coastal Motor Boats (C.M.Bs) in May 1918.

Recruitment for secret operations

Subsequently ordered to the C.M.B. base on Osea Island in the estuary of the River Blackwater in Essex, Marshall was recruited by Lieutenant Augustus Agar, R.N., for clandestine operations in the Baltic, a daring initiative best summarised by Captain Kenneth Langmead, D.S.C., in The Blind Eye:

‘It had been suggested that a small naval team headed by Lieutenant Agar should travel clandestinely to the Baltic, take with them two C.M.Bs and, making use of the boats' advantage of amazing speed, attempt to ferry newly recruited couriers to and from Petrograd using a neutral base, preferably in the Gulf of Finland.

In the event of a grave emergency they were to go in and try to rescue ST 25 himself. This assignment required that the Lieutenant with his men should be transferred to the Secret Service (Agar was to be allocated the code number ST 35) and officially the Government would know nothing about them. The team was to work under the guise of agents for a boat building concern: the boats, ostensibly pleasure-craft, were to be passed off as samples. There was a lot more to the scheme than has been outlined here, but the foregoing was the gist of it. Agar's emotions were at once a nice balance between pride at being considered suitable for the job and excitement at the prospects for the future: he accepted the appointment unconditionally and, having been given two days in which to prepare, he returned to Osea Island to collect his men and the boats.

So far as the personnel were concerned, he invited Sub. Lieutenant Sindall, Midshipmen Hampsheir and Marshall, and two mechanics, Beeley and Piper, to join him, all of whom proved to be keen volunteers for unspecified special service abroad - as for the boats, Agar selected Nos. 4 and 7. Forty-eight hours later Agar paid a return visit to 'C' and explained his preliminary plans. By this time he had been given the code numbers of two British secret agents operating in Finland (ST 30 and ST 31) and Agar now stated that he intended to despatch the C.M.Bs - suitably disguised - by steamer to Abo in Finland: their transit would be handled by Sindall and the two mechanics. He himself had decided to proceed separately from Hull to Abo, taking Hampsheir and Marshall with him. On arrival in Finland he would arrange to contact the two British agents and make future plans when he had ensured their assistance and obtained their advice. 'C' was well satisfied with the scheme and, having given strict instructions that Agar was on no account to make his presence or purpose known to anyone serving in the British Baltic Squadron - except the Admiral - the Lieutenant was dismissed to complete his final plans and, inevitably, to make history.

Agar's initial arrangements worked admirably. The Lieutenant travelled north with the Midshipmen, wearing plain clothes - it was the first time Agar had been out of uniform for five years - and at Hull they all boarded a Swedish steamer which took them to Abo where they were met by ST 30 and ST 31. Meanwhile the two C.M.Bs, painted white and looking incredibly innocent, had been delivered secretly at the West India Docks. Sindall and the two mechanics accepted delivery and accompanied them to Abo, arriving some days after Agar and his companions had landed to start their opening round of talks. The leader of the naval party was now faced by three major problems. First, the choice of a suitable base from which to conduct operations; second, the provision of the necessary couriers; and, third, the conveyance of the boats to the chosen base. A number of protracted conferences with ST 30 and ST 31 decided Agar to use Terrioki in Finland as his headquarters. It lay on the north coast of the Gulf, fifteen miles from the Russian frontier, and in theory was ideally placed. The British agents were able to produce a number of intrepid couriers, and Rear-Admiral Walter Cowan, to whom Agar now appealed, ordered a destroyer to tow the two C.M.Bs from Abo to Biorko Sound near Terrioki - a distance of about 300 miles. The Lieutenant was also granted a second concession, namely the supply of two torpedoes which were to be issued to him by a British oiler he would meet at Biorko while on passage to his newly chosen base.’

Arrest and early operations

The arrival of Agar and his team at Terrioki in mid-June 1919 was not without incident, the local Commandant, a former Russian army officer, proving a hard nut to crack in terms of friendly Anglo-Finnish relations - so much so that the unfortunate Marshall was arrested the day of the team’s arrival. Harry Ferguson’s definitive history, Operation Kronstadt, takes up the story:

‘The next morning, Friday 13 June, Gus [Agar] and Broadbent were due to see the Finnish Commandant. But before that meeting had even happened there was trouble. Marshall and Beeley had been sent down to the harbour to check on the boat and they had only been gone about twenty minutes when Beeley came running back to the villa. Whilst Beeley was on C.M.B. 7, Marshall had been on shore checking out the yacht club to see if they could store any of their gear there. As he was scouting around, he was challenged by some of the Finnish sentries. The guard had obviously changed since the previous night and the new shift was in no mood for argument. Marshall clearly wasn’t Russian, but he was in civilian dress and didn’t speak any Finnish either so, despite his loud protestations that he was a British naval officer, he was immediately placed under arrest and marched at bayonet point along the main street of the village to the fort. Beeley hid out on the boat until the sentries and their prisoner were gone and had then run for help.

That was enough for Gus. Together with Sindall and Beeley he marched straight down to the boat and collected their uniforms and side arms. He also told Sindall to raise the White Ensign at the rear of C.M.B. 7. The ‘uniforms’ they had brought with them didn’t amount to much - sea jackets and a uniform cap - but they would have to do. Cumming might have insisted that they must only be used in an emergency, but as far as Gus was concerned that emergency was now.’

Luckily, as it transpired, Agar was able to persuade the local Commandant of the true nature of his team’s mission, thereby quickly dispelling any further suspicion and gaining Marshall’s release. And as a founder-member of the unit, his young Midshipman was subsequently present in more than his fair share of operations, smuggling agents and the like across the water and, according to Ferguson’s Operation Kronstadt, was the ‘best shot with a Lewis gun on the Flotilla’: small wonder then that Agar sometimes took him as a crew member, though when the former won his V.C. for the sinking of the Russian cruiser Oleg on the night of 16-17 June 1919, Marshall had to be content with observing the night action from atop the Russian Orthodox Church at Terrioki, along with his good friend, Sub. Lieutenant Edgar “Sinbad” Sindall, R.N.R.

A few weeks later, at the end of July, “Sinbad” and Marshall were despatched in C.M.B. No. 7 to provide cover to any downed aircraft from a bombing raid on Kronstadt led by Major David Donald, R.A.F. In the event the gallant airmen required no assistance, but C.M.B. No. 7 got into a close-run engagement with a Soviet patrol vessel. Operation Kronstadt takes up the story once more:

‘C.M.B. 7 immediately swung into the attack, making a line straight for the distant Soviet vessel. Although Sindall was still two miles away the sea forts had clearly been warned by the lookouts in the lighthouse because two of them opened fire with their massive naval guns. The shots were well wide but, even so, Sindall began steering a zigzag course to throw off their aim, all the while closing on his target. Either the Soviet patrol boat could not see C.M.B. 7 or she was trying to lure C.M.B. 7 in because she did not turn and run. She held steady to her course in front of the line of the forts. Sindall closed to nine hundred yards, ignoring the shellfire directed at him, and then Gus [Agar] saw the tell-tale swerve which showed that C.M.B. 7 had released its torpedo. Almost immediately Ed Sindall realised that the torpedo was going to miss. The Soviet patrol boat accelerated and changed course towards him. But rather than run “Sinbad” headed straight for them. The patrol boat opened fire with a small-bore deck gun and a shot landed just yards away from C.M.B. 7's port bow. Sindall came on, giving the wheel just a slight nudge to throw off the Soviet gunner's aim. The two boats were now so close that the sea forts ceased fire for fear of hitting their own men. At 400 yards' range Sindall put the wheel hard over and as C.M.B. 7 disappeared behind a wall of spray Richard Marshall let fly with both Lewis guns. Osea's marksman had the satisfaction of seeing his tracer stream into the Soviet boat, killing or wounding the gun crew. Sindall brought C.M.B. 7 around in a full circle to give Marshall another shot, but the Bolshevik captain had seen enough. He turned and ran for the line of the forts. Sindall chased him for half a mile, but although Marshall kept firing he failed to hit anything vital and the speed of the Soviet boat did not decrease. Finally, the sea forts opened fire again and, mindful of Gus's orders, Ed Sindall broke of the attack. Together with C.M.B. 4 they turned from home.’

Kronstadt and beyond

Events at Kronstadt on the night of 18-19 August 1919 need little explantion here, well-recorded as they are in Agar’s Baltic Episode and, more recently, in Harry Ferguson’s Operation Kronstadt, but for the records sake Marshall accompanied Agar in C.M.B. No. 7, together with “Sinbad” Sindall and motor mechanic Beeley, and a smuggler-pilot. Having piloted two C.M.Bs to the main entrance to the harbour, Agar released a torpedo into the smaller military harbour, as a result of which there was a tremendous explosion, Marshall meanwhile spraying the “Bolos” with his twin-Lewis for good measure. This part of her task completed, C.M.B. No. 7 withdrew to the main entrance to Kronstadt harbour to act as a type of ‘gatekeeper’.

The morning following the raid, the Soviets bombed Terrioki, but it was a token raid that caused no damage to the C.M.Bs, Nonetheless, Marshall asked for permission to set up the two Lewis guns from the much damaged C.M.B. No. 4 on the roof of the Terrioki Yacht Club.

Two V.Cs were won in the raid, namely those awarded to Commander C. C. Dobson, R.N., and Lieutenant G. C. Steele, R.N., while the remaining honours comprised six D.S.Os, eight D.S.Cs and 15 D.S.Ms, one of the D.S.Cs, of course, going to Marshall.

Far less known, however, are the dozen or so trips made by Agar and the likes of Marshall on agent courier trips to Kronstadt, both before and after the famous raid, the last of which nearly ended in disaster. Agar takes up the story in his autobiography, Footsteps in the Sea:

‘It was to be our last trip and curiously enough our thirteenth (my lucky number!). Gefter begged to come with me as he said he knew the exact spot where to look for the boat. Marshall and Beeley volunteered without hesitation. We had also a contrabandist. Quite a party! The weather favoured us; it was calm, with some cloud. Several searchlights were sweeping the sky and a powerful one from the large fort on the northern end of Kronstadt was trained on to water level, parallel to the chain of forts, sweeping ominously to and fro. We had to cross its beam, but I thought we could slip through by cracking on full speed when the time arrived. As usual, we started off from the Yacht Club shortly after one o'clock. A nasty swell from the south west caused the boat to bump unpleasantly as we skimmed the water. Little did we know it at the time but this swell later proved a " life-saver" for us. We made for the gap between Nos. 8 and I. Searchlights are most deceiving when seen from the water. I knew this well from my experience in the destroyer Ruby and torpedo boat No. 23. From the boat end it looks often as if one is in the beam, which is seldom the case. Only when the light is focused on the object can it be seen, and then only momentarily, if the light is sweeping. To the remainder of the crew, however, it was most alarming and for the contrabandist simply terrifying. Cool and tough, as always, Gefter alone seemed unmoved. As we approached the forts the effect became worse. I put up a piece of smoked glass which I kept handy to shade my eyes. This helped a little. Soon two more lights were trained on us from dead ahead. By now the boat was going very fast indeed, as I increased almost to full speed to dodge the first beam and steered by my compass for what I thought to be the line of forts, but was actually the Island of Kronstadt. I decided then to turn back towards Terrioki as we were being fired upon quite heavily and the chances of getting through seemed to me very small. Anything to shake off those beams of light. I twisted the boat, zig-zagging, but somehow they held us and, if one light went off, another would come on. We did not seem to be getting any farther away from them. I realised then that I had lost my direction and could no longer rely on the compass, nor could I see any stars overhead which would give me an idea where we were going. It was a dreadful predicament and I knew it. To reduce speed would make certain of getting hit by shells from one of the forts, so we had to keep on like a hare fixed in the headlights of a motor car. A thought flashed through my mind (they do on occasions like this), how amusing it must be for the Control Officer in the forts! I had a suspicion that one of the rudder ropes must have parted, for the wheel failed to make much impression on the rudder. We seemed to be turning in circles, which became larger as we went on at speed in what appeared to be full daylight, as the searchlights lit up the water. This later proved to be correct, for in that short time our boat, travelling at sixty miles an hour, must have described first a complete circle and afterwards a large semi-circle arc of three miles towards the northern end of Kronstadt Island. Suddenly there was a terrific bump followed by a bang, and we were flung down to the bottom of the boat. It was as if we had suddenly run into a brick wall at the speed we were travelling, only I suppose in our case the water took part of the shock. Most of us were temporarily knocked out or stunned as if we had been in a railway train and come suddenly to a full stop when travelling at sixty miles an hour. Obviously we had fetched up against something-but what?

The sudden change from the roar of the engine to complete silence seemed uncanny. One by one we picked ourselves up from the bottom of the boat. Marshall was, I think, the first to come to life. Beeley was lying spread-eagled over the engines. I thought he was dead until I heard him say, "I'll get her going again, sir." The searchlights for some reason or other were switched off. The one that remained was operated from a large fortress so close to the right of us, that the beam swept over our heads as it described its mechanical sweep of the water backwards and forwards. Marshall handed round a tot of rum which revived us, after which we were able to take stock of our surroundings. We had in fact run on to a rock breakwater between Fort No. 5 and the northern end of Kronstadt Island. The large island battery which we knew as Fort No. 4 lay between us and Terrioki village, some fifteen miles away. Tolboukin Lighthouse could be seen to the south west from which a strong swell was running. How the thin shell of the boat survived the impact passes my comprehension. She was, however, making water and badly holed. Everyone in the boat, except the contrabandist, was wonderfully calm and collected. Fifteen miles of water separated us from the safety of the Finnish shore, but there were two forts between us and that shore. Our situation was desperate, and I felt keenly that the blame rested solely on myself. Only a miracle could save us, and I prayed hard for it. It was midnight and in three hours would come first light and dawn. I spoke first to Gefter and apologised to him for my mistake in direction. Here, however, we were close by Kronstadt Island itself. He had papers, money, and could swim. It was not far. "Take your chance now," I advised, "and get away while you can." “What do you yourself do?" he replied. "Stay here and get the boat to Finland," I said, knowing the chances were a million to one against. Without hesitation he put his hand in mine and said, "Then I stay here with you." Instinctively, we started to get active.

The relief of action seemed to deaden all thoughts of the horrible fate awaiting us at daylight when the nearby Fort would discover our presence. The searchlight overhead was still sweeping the water but we were below its beam. Marshall plugged the large hole in the side of the boat with leather clothing and made a good job of it. We got our boat hooks END out and managed, by pushing and poling together, to clear the boat from the sunken breakwater. Eventually, she floated off, though leaking badly. We made the contrabandist bale for his life with empty petrol tins from which Beeley cut away the tops. When Marshall began using his sea boots for baling we could not help laughing. Stripping off what canvas we could cut away, we made a make-shift sail hoisted to a couple of the long boat hooks lashed together. For a rudder we tied two or three empty petrol tins together at the end of a rope which Gefter cleverly used as a sea anchor. By this method we were able to steer sufficiently to give the boat the right direction by keeping her stern on to wind and sea. The south-westerly morning breeze, coupled with the swell and our very light draught, gave the boat quite a surprising turn of steerage way. Slowly we progressed, without any means of propulsion except nature, close across the walls of the fort towards the Finnish coast.

By this time the searchlight overhead had also been switched off. It was incredible, and we could not believe our luck. Steadily we drifted and sailed to the north east, aided by some miracle of a current which set us towards the direction of Terrioki. Our speed must have been no more than a bare two knots or less made up by a knot of swell, half a knot of current and half a knot from the makeshift sail, but sufficient to get us out of the danger area by dawn. The breeze from the south meanwhile increased. We worked like beavers, baling the water out, Gefter attending to the steerage rope, which was his idea. All eyes turned on the forts which, as we made progress through the water, slowly receded. By dawn we must have been over six miles away, and out of range of their batteries, but we were still only half-way to the Finnish coast and exhausted. Two small fishing boats now appeared. They came from the direction of the forts and we were ready for them. Persuaded by our machine guns, they gave us their sails and a mast which we stepped in the cockpit of our boat. Progress now became faster and always towards Terrioki. By noon we reached the Yacht Club breakwater and had, unaided by any " Power" except from one above, brought our 40 foot C.M.B., with five souls in her, sixteen miles across the Gulf of Finland with two large holes in her bottom in just under twelve hours. Our lives were spared.’

Marshall was demobilised in January 1920.

1939-45

Recalled on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, Marshall was appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and served in the Edinburgh Castle from April 1940. Later still, he was posted to St. Angelo, Malta, where he was advanced to the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Commander in February 1943.