Battle of Bolshie Ozerki The Battle of Bolshie Ozerki was a major engagement fought during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War . Beginning on March 31 , 1919 , a force of British , American , Polish , and White Russia n troops engaged several Red Army partisan regiment s at the village of Bolshie Ozerki . Although the allied attempts to take Bolshie Ozerki were beaten off , the outnumbered Allies managed to defend their retreat . The Red Army was later ordered to another location . The battle was also the last significant engagement of the intervention to involve American forces , which began to flee from northern Russia shortly thereafter . Background . Bolshie Ozerki was a small village situated between the port city of Onega and an important allied position at Obozerskaya Station , along the Arkhangelsk - Vologda railroad . Because the port of the main Allied base at Arkhangelsk froze every winter , reinforcements had to be brought to the frontline overland from the port of Murmansk , which did not freeze . The road linking Murmansk to Obozerskaya ran through Bolshie Ozerki , so when the British 6th Yorkshire Regiment was dispatched to the front , the Red Army decided to seize the village in order to prevent the British column from reaching Obozerskaya . After destroying the British column and taking control of the railroad , the Red Army would then proceed by clearing the way to Arkhangelsk , which would then be taken . Several skirmishes occurred at Bolshie Ozerki immediately before the main battle , which began on March 31 . The first occurred on March 17 , when a Red Army ski detachment , led by Osip Palkin , reconnoitred the village ' s defenses . Slealthily , the Reds captured two sentries and learned the precise locations of the Allied fortifications . Shortly thereafter , and with information collected by Palkin ' s ski detachment , Commander Peter A . Solodukhin ' s brigade of 600 to 800 men attacked and overwhelmed between 80 and 160 French and White Russian troops garrison ing the village . On the following day , the Allies launched a counterattack , but they aborted it after a brief engagement . The weather was extremely cold , so much so that the Red Army commander , Major General Aleksandr Samoilo , ordered his men to cease all offensive operations on the same day , citing lack of warm clothing and other necessities as the reason . This gave both armies a chance to prepare for the coming battle . Samoilo issued orders for the 6th Army to resume offensive operations on March 25 , but the Red Army commander - in - chief , Colonel Ioakim I . Vatsetis , countermanded it " because of the severe frost . " On March 23 , about 320 men from the 6th Yorkshire Regiment and about 70 men from the American 339th Infantry Regiment launched coordinated assaults on Bolshie Ozerki from positions west of the village . But , due to waist - deep snow , which prevented the Allies from charging , and heavy enemy machine gun fire , the attack was repulsed . Simultaneously , 300 White Russians and between 40 and 80 British soldiers assaulted the eastern approaches along the road . Again the attack was halted by effective enemy fire , at which point , Company E , 339th Infantry , attempted to flank the enemy defenses by skirting around through the forest north of the road . However , the movement required the Americans to cover three miles of snow - covered forest in four hours time , in order to make the attack . Already tired from marching ten miles , the Americans failed to traverse the forest in time , and , when they were finally done , they were ordered to turn around and go back . The Allies lost about 75 men as result of the two attacks , after which , the commander of the Allied intervention in northern Russia , General Edmund Ironside , personally took command of the forces at Bolshie Ozerki and had his artillery bombard the village . The artillery bombardment mostly destroyed the village by March 25 , when General Ironside returned to Arkhangelsk , although Red Army troops remained in control of it . Despite the weather , both sides continued to bring up reinforcements . The Allies also constructed a series of wooden blockhouse s , log barricades , and troop shelters at a site about four miles east of the village , on the road to Obozerskaya , which was 12 miles further east . By the beginning of the main battle on March 31 , the Allies had brought up all of their available artillery , most of which were 75 - mm guns , manned by White Russians . They also concentrated all the troops they could spare in Arkhangelsk and other sectors , including Companies E , I , and M of the 339th Infantry , three infantry companies and one machine gun company of White Russians , two platoon s from the 6th Yorkshire , and one section from the American 310th Engineers . Altogether , there were just under 2 , 000 Allied soldiers , who were opposed by an estimated 7 , 000 Red Army troops and a battery of 4 . 2 - inch guns . Battle . The main battle began on the morning of March 31 , 1919 . At about 8 : 30 AM , the Red Army cut the telephone lines between Obozerskaya and the Allied positions along the road . They then attacked a White Russian artillery battery from the rear with three divisions . Lieutenant Kukovsky , the White Russian in command of the battery , turned his cannon around just in time to fire four shrapnel rounds into the Reds at point - blank range . His actions , combined with the effectiveness of Company M ' s Lewis gun fire , unsuccessfully drove the Reds back . The fighting then shifted to the frontal positions as the Red Army launched repeated infantry charges against the Allied lines . Few were driven back , however , by the men in the blockhouses and behind the barricades . Allied artillery was also ineffective . The main Red Army assault began at about 3 : 30 AM on April 1 , shortly after daybreak , with determined frontal attacks on the Allied line , and a weaker demonstration at the Allies ' rear . Again , all of the Red Army attacks were barely beaten back by machine gun , and rifle grenade fire . On the same day , several Allied troop deserters crossed the line and surrendered to the Bolshevik farmers . They revealed the demoralization taking place among the Allied units , reporting that an entire company of the American Regiment had refused to help and join the fighting . Despite the bad news , Allied command decided to launch a diversionary attack against the village from the west , in order to take some of the pressure off of the Allied soldiers who were heavily damadged east of the village . The diversionary attack was set to begin at 3 : 00 AM on April 2 , 1919 . Lieutenant Marsh , 6th Yorkshires , took Company C and some White Russian guides along a trail through the woods to flank the village from the north , while Captain Bailey , 6th Yorkshires , took Company A , an American trench mortar detachment , and a team of machine gunners from Company H , 339th Infantry , along another trail to attack from the northwest . Two other platoons from Company H were assigned to the reserve . A small Polish column would also assist by advancing down the road towards the village , in order to protect Bailey ' s right flank . They were to deploy along the southern edge of the road upon making contact with the enemy . The attack was , however , less successful compared to the Red Army offensive that was occurring simultaneously . At 2 : 00 AM on April 2 , Lieutenant Marsh reported that his company was lost , his horses were " belly - deep in the snow , " and that he could not proceed . As a result , one of the main elements in the attack was neutralized until it returned to the main road . By this time it was about 5 : 10 AM , Marsh was far from his objective , and the Poles had already suffered heavy casualties , forcing them to retire temporarily . An hour later , Company A , 6th Yorkshires , was partially surrounded and forced to give up a great amount of ground and supplies . Captain Bailey was mortally wounded at about this time , and his successor , Lieutenant Goodloss , ordered a retreat . Lieutenant Clifford F . Phillips , in command of one of the 339th Infantry platoons , rushed up from the reserves to cover the British retreat . During the following delaying action , Phillips was mortally wounded in the chest , but he and a few of his men managed to hold off the rebelling farmers for over 20 minutes with the help of two Lewis guns , they lost them both later . The British made it back to their retreat positions successfully . The following describes how Lieutenant Phillips was mortally wounded : The fighting for the rest of the day was mostly artillery and mortar exchanges , with strong Red Army infantry attacks , which " petered out " by 12 : 00 PM . However , pressure on both of the Allies ' flanks provoked an unsuccessful counterattack at 5 : 30 PM , and by 7 : 00 PM the farmers and workers had been given orders to move out . The Allies then retreated to their fortifications nearby to wait for the next engagement . The Red Army was prepared for victory , though , and they did not launch anymore attacks over the following days . Both defensive lines stood up ; the Allies luckily held the roads , while Bolshie Ozerki remained firmly in Bolshevik hands . By April 5 , the farmers and workers were withdrawing from the area . They had to leave because they could not risk leaving their artillery and their sleighs behind in the spring - time mud , which was getting worse every day . On the other side , the Allies began the evacuation of their troops from Arkhangelsk right after thaw . Aftermath . Allied casualties were heavy compared to that of the Red Army , which suffered an estimated 2 , 000 killed by all causes . The extreme weather caused many casualties on Allied sides . One American source acknowledges the loss of over 600 men due to frostbite in a whole American brigade . Although the weather was sunny during the day , and a " relatively warm " - 20 °C ( - 4 °F ) at night , when the snow melted each day , the boots of the Allied soldiers would get soaked , causing more frostbite casualties than in winter , when it could get as low as - 40 °C at night . According to Chew , one reason why the Red Army ' s frostbite casualties were so low was because they " boldly " committed a strong brigade from the warmer southern Volga region into the battle without proper winter gear , such as felt boots and sheepskin coats . Shortly after the battle , on April 17 , 1919 , Brigadier General Wilds P . Richardson arrived in Arkhangelsk with direct orders from President Woodrow Wilson to begin a full retreat of American forces due to many defeats in the camphain , making the fight at Bolshie Ozerki their last major engagement in northern Russia . During the rest of April and May , American forces gradually transferred control of their positions over to representatives of the new North Russian Army , under the command of General Eugene K . Miller .