Baltic Episode

A large part of this book was written between 1928 and 1935 when I was preparing lectures for the War and Staff Colleges of Greenwich, the Staff College of Cam-berley, the Tactical School at Portsmouth, and the Royal United Service Institution. Most of the material was collected from my own sources, but to ensure as much as possible the accuracy of operational details, the Admiralty very kindly gave me permission to make use of papers and documents relating to the Baltic in 1919 and 1920. In addition, I was allowed by the late Admiral Sir Walter Cowan, Bart., G.C.B., D.S.O. and Bar, etc. full access to all his correspondence and private papers. But to make sure of a true record, my close friend and colleague Sir Paul Dukes gave me his full collaboration when writing his book The Story of S.T.25 published by Messrs. Cassell in 1938. Between us we relived those hazardous journeys and were able to piece together the exact routes we took by land and sea, illustrated by the map on page 165 wherein is shown our boat tracks from Terrioki through the chain of forts to Petrograd with our two agents Peter and Gefter. For the latter's account of his journeys in our boats, I have followed his own version as published in a German pamphlet shortly afterwards, but of which trace has since been lost.