Russian Civil War

1917 - 1921

Barrage - Early 20th Century Warfare

Drawing of some of the White Shock battalions. Used with kind permissions from Craig Martelle. This drawing and the article on RCW uniforms can be found on the www.magweb.com site.

BARRAGE covers the entire Russian Civil War, except for the Far East. The Northern Theatre where the Interventionists struggle just as much against the weather as the Reds. The Finnish Threatre with Mannerheim's White Finns routing the Red Finns. Northwestern Theatre as the Whites and Estonians drive towards Petrogrand. The Eastern Theatre where Admiral Kolchak, Supreme Ruler of all the Russians, fight his way towards Moscow. The Southern Theatres were Kornilov, Denikin, Budenny, and Wrangel wrote their names into history. Cavalry, machine guns, deadly artillery, bold and charismatic leaders, colorful uniforms, battle flags, armored trains and much more await your command. With a vast array of armies, terrain, and weapons you can recreate one of the more fascinating periods in history! 

Southern Theatre (Denikin's White Army & Grand Army of the Don) April 1918 - March 1920

Battle of Novocherkassk -  May 6, 1918  - Reds attacked Don Cossack(w) capital. Denisov led the Don Cossacks with Drozdovsky's White infantry Regiment (900 men) assisting. Defeated Red Cossacks and Red Guards.
Battle of Torgovaya - June 25, 1918 -  Small White "column"(w) attacked a large Red Guard Army
Battle of Shablievskaya -  June 26, 1918 - White "column"(w) vs. Red Guards. White General Markov was killed while leading his troops.
Battle of Belaya Glina(stanitsa) -  Late June, 1918 - Whites (w) vs. Reds. Denikin split into a three 3,000 man columns and attacked. Reds, 10,000 strong, had a small "Iron Division" contingent bolstering the troops. Denikin took 5,000 prisoners, most of them defecting to the White army.

Russian Civil War Lettish Rifles from the collection of Eric Burgess

Passage from The Unmaking of a Russian by Nicholas Wreden:

Suddenly my eyes caught a movement among the trees. The machine gun in my hands began to jump and sputter. At regular intervals came a heavy thud: the men at the six-pounder also had found a target.

The tank entered a narrow road leading through the woods, and slowed down. White infantry caught up with us, and left us behind. Maneuvering to avoid the larger trees the captain brought us on high ground over-looking Yamburg and the Luga River. The tanks crawled up and down the open space firing at the thin funnels of steam which arose from the boiling, water cooled machine guns on the opposite bank. Then the White infantry rushed the pontoon bridge, we ceased firing. Yamburg was in White hands.

On the first day of the attack the Red lines were cut to shreds all along the front. White troops were rushing toward Petrograd like a tidal wave, but almost a week elapsed before the tank battalion could resume its place in the advancing columns. The pontoon bridge across the Luga River was not strong enough for the tanks, the railroad bridge had not been repaired, and it took days to find a shallow ford. When finally we reached the other shore the fighting had rolled eighty miles further east."

Close-up on one of the Czar's finest! From Brent Oman's collection

Brent Oman's 20mm Russians

Machine gun section of the Samursky Regiment - White Army
Figures (15mm) by Irregular Miniatures, painted by Eric Burgess

The major White campaign took place in the Kuban region. Also known as the First Kuban Campaign. As the campaign progressed some 1,500 Kuban Volunteers (mainly cossacks) joined Kornilov’s Volunteer Army. This campaign lasted 50 days and the Volunteer Army fought engagements on forty of those days. This was a very fluid and mobile campaign. The final battle of the campaign at Ekaterinodar saw the death of General Kornilov. White operations were halted for nearly a month while General Denikin organized his White Volunteer army into a more formidable fighting force.

The Northern Corp (Whites) & the Estonian Armies attempted to free the Baltic states from Soviet rule and capture St. Petersburg.

"The tools of war at the disposal of the White soldier were not much better than the conditions under which he lived. As long as the North-West Army was fighting the Bolsheviks in Esthonia, the Whites could draw on the supplies accumulated within the Esthonian borders. But as soon as the war was carried into Russian territory new sources of military supplies had to be found. Artillery, ammunition, machine guns, rifles - everything was lacking. Our train [ed. the "armored" train Admiral Kolchak] was a fair sample of the fighting equipment. Though it was known officially as an armored train actually it did not carry a single plate of armor. The engine and the observation booth were protected by the simple device of covering them with pieces of scrap iron. The rest of the train consisted of regulation freight cars with walls reinforced with bags of cement and sand, and with openings cut in them for machine guns. Artillery cars offered the most difficult problem. In order to provide sufficient space to turn the guns, sections of the roof and walls had to be demolished, and, as a result, the gun crews were exposed to the enemy's fire whenever the train was in action."

From the 15mm RCW collection of Eric Burgess, figures by Peter Pig, painted by Eric Burgess, flags by Craig Martelle.

"During the last months of the war the clothing problem became less acute. Shipments began to arrive from the outside world, and, though the units stationed behind the lines seemed to be given preference, small lots of the uniforms and shoes trickled through to the front. Usually they reached a company just in time to clothe a dozen or so men who were virtually naked, but occasionally there were exceptions. During one attack I saw four White
regiments going into action, each dressed in a different uniform: the first had the brown-gray coats of the Russian army, the second - the brown-gray and the long visored caps of the British, the third - the light blue coats and the soft berets of the French chasseurs, and the fourth - the blue-gray of the Germans. The effect must have been as startling to the enemy as it was to me."

The Northern Theatre was established initially to counter a possible German threat to the Northern armories in Murmansk and Archangel. There were many international forces located in the Northern Theatre and that is where they fought the Reds directly. This theatre was marked by a large contingent of foreign interventionist forces. Along with the White Russians in this theatre the Reds fought United States, French, British, Polish, Serbian, and Italian forces! This theatre is well suited for smaller battles. Most European soldiers sent to this theatre were unfit for any other WWI theatre of battle. They were of poor quality, but were still better than their White allies or Red adversaries in this theatre. The major bases of the Allies were Archangel and Murmansk. By November 1918 the following forces were located in the Northern Theatre.

Interventionalists and Whites in Archangel
6,200 British, 1,700 French, 5,100 United States, 5,300 White Russians

Interventionists and Whites around Murmansk
15,000 men

Red Army around Archangel
22,700 men, 66 field guns, 9 heavy guns, 150 MGs

Red Army around Murmansk
15,000 men

Siberian Army OB for May 1919

RCW Red Sailors. Painted by Eric Burgess. Peter Pig 15mm figures.

Passage from The Unmaking of a Russian by Nicholas Wreden:

Here is the description of the last major battle the North-West army fought at the gates of Petrograd.

"Hastily the tanks were loaded on the flat cars and sent after the rapidly advancing front line. Our next unloading point was Gatchino, one of the larger suburbs of Petrograd ... A jubilant, confident White army stood at the gates of Petrograd, and nothing could stop it.

Early next morning the tanks were on the march along the highway leading toward Tsarkoye Selo. Again we went through all the stages of preparation, again the heavy, armored door was closed, and again we were leading the infantry in an attack. But this time the Reds contested every inch of ground.

One of our objectives was the village held by Red cadets. They were determined to repulse the attack, but they were helpless against the advancing tanks. We came so close to them that I could distinguish the expressions on their faces, their frenzied eyes, and their moving lips. Singly and in groups they stood their ground, firing point-blank at us, and at the infantry behind us, until each one of them was torn to pieces by machine gun bullets.

Immediately after the first attack the tanks were shifted further south, and sent into action a second time that day. As soon as the enemy's resistance was broken at that point we were moved to the third sector. Toward dark every member of the crew was half-poisoned by the odors exuding from the motor, and by the fumes of gunpowder that have accumulated in the tank. The heat inside was terrific, and the steel near the motor scorched one's fingers. When the door was opened I stumbled outside, fell, and presed my head against the cool, damp earth. I lay vomiting until the captain revived me by unceremoniously prodding my ribs with the toe of his boot."

"Under cover of darkness the tanks crawled back to be greased and refilled with gasoline and oil. I felt and I could discern in others a vague uneasiness. In the course of the day the line had been pushed forward a few miles, but our infantry had suffered heavy loses. Unless reenforcements arrived it was apparent that the White army would be unable to stand the pace.

The following morning the attack was resumed, but as the fighting progressed it became more and more evident that the Red ranks were swelling as rapidly as the White regiments were melting away. That night a cold premonition filled our hearts, and next morning the last ounce of hope was shattered. We were confronted with dismal reality: the White plans had miscarried, there were no reserves, only one third of the soldiers and officers remained, and those who were still alive were worn threadbare by the continuous fighting. Overnight every man in the North-West Army understood that we had reached the end."

This theatre was marked by a fluid battle front. Mannerheim kept the Reds on their heels the entire war, never letting them cross over to the offensive. In four months Mannerheim had destroyed the Red Guard armies on Finnish soil.