Forces News reflects back on history to tell you what happened on this day, 100 years ago.
In time of Remembrance, Forces News travels back in time over the past 100 years, to piece together history’s complex puzzle of War, Independence and Revolutions.
1919 saw many historical conflicts. June 28th bought the Great War, which saw Germany and allied nations sign the Treaty of Versailles, consequently ending the First World War.
July 1919 saw the Advance of Moscow – a military campaign launched during the Russian Civil War, resulting in the White Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) launch against RSFSR, with the aim of initiating the capture of Moscow, subsequently altering the result of the Civil War.
In light of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1919 bought along the Berlin March Battle, a segment of the German Revolution.
Estonian and Latvian War of Independence saw the Battle of Cesis in June 1919. Declaring independence in 1918, Latvia failed to stop the Red Army. German soldiers remained fighting in Latvia and Lithuania until December 1919.
The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 caused a nationwide rebellion – with the British rejecting Egyptian politician Saad Zaghlul’s demands for independence, ended with Zaghlul and his fellow politicians being arrested. Sparking the beginning of the Revolution.
1919 also holds the memory of the Irish War of Independence. The three-year war between the IRA and British armed forces on January 1919 saw Irish politicians declare independence, resulting in a government forming in the city of Dublin, ensuing the commencement of the Irish War of Independence.
On the same day, two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary – a British backed police force – were murdered by a group of armed nationalists, who later became known as the IRA.
Which brings us to now, what happened on this day 100 years ago?
The Great Siberian Ice March.
On this day, 100 years ago, General Vladimir Kappel led the Siberian armed forces across a 2000-kilometre stretch of arctic conditions, with snowy and icy terrain as their foreground of travel, departing from Omsk to Chita, during the Russian Civil War.
Eventually finding available trains that transported the wounded, the troops made their way across the Trans-Siberian railway.
Leading his men towards a river – in an attempt to cross – saw the severely iced stream cave in under the weight and pressure of Vladimir Kappel, which ultimately led to his death of double pneumonia in 1920 after struggling to save his frost-bitten feet from being amputated.
On his deathbed, the General’s last words were: "Let my soldiers know that I've always been committed to them, loved them and proved it by my death."
Thousands of people died during the Great Siberian Ice March due to the attacks of the Russian Civil War and the severe arctic conditions.
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