Freeing the Baltic, 1918–1920

Geoffrey Bennett

May 2017 · Casemate Publishers

About this ebook

In 1919, the new governments of the besieged Baltic states appealed desperately to the Allies for assistance. A small British flotilla of light cruisers and destroyers were sent to help, under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Walter Cowan. They were given no clear instructions as to what their objective was to be and so Cowan decided that he had to make his own policy. Despite facing a much greater force, Cowan improvised one of the most daring raids ever staged by the British Navy. He succeeded with devastating effect; outmaneuvering his enemies, sinking two Russian Battleships and eventually freeing the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

About the author

Captain Geoffrey Bennett (1908–1983) was a career naval officer who, while serving, published a number of naval adventure yarns and radio plays under the pen-name 'Sea Lion'. He became familiar with the Baltic events of 1919 while naval attaché in Moscow, shortly after the death of Stalin in 1953. On retirement he published several naval histories, including one on Nelson, and studies of both World Wars under his own name, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Also available: Coronel and the Falklands, The Battle of Jutland, Naval Battles of the First World War, Nelson the Commander, The Battle of the River Plate and The Battle of Trafalgar and Naval Battles of World War Two